Yesterday I started playing Warhammer 40K: Darktide with my son because I need a player to help me in a private game so I can accomplish the final Penance I need for the Psyker class.
Never mind if you don’t know what any of that means, it’s only partially important for the point of this story.
Like everything to do with 40K, it is a violent and bleak game but my son is 11 now and has played another co-op shooter with me, Deep Rock Galactic, so I felt he’d be up for the challenge of learning a new game to help his dad. It was also additional screen time so he wasn’t going to decline.
I looked over his shoulder as he played the tutorial and underwent the game’s basic training before jumping in to actual matches. It will be a while before he can access the difficulty level I need for this Penance, so he and I will play together until we reach it. In the meantime, he’s playing his low-level character while I tag along with my maximum-level Psyker.
The second match we played had two other random players join in. While we were in the game lobby waiting for the match to begin, one of them typed in the chat log, “Oooh, we got ourselves a carry!” referring to me as the overpowered player who was going to carry the low-level players to victory. It got a chuckle out of me, but I felt compelled to briefly explain what I was doing there. “I’m playing with my 11yo son.” The response I received was a heartwarming, “That’s amazing. Welcome.”
After I did, in fact, carry the team to victory, my son responded in the post-game lobby chat, “I am said son.”
Here’s hoping every other lobby appreciates the overpowered dad helping his son through Darktide matches so he can use said son to help him achieve the final Psyker Penance he needs.