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I'm just about to try and pull off an important negotiation in Starfield. After arriving in the Astral Lounge in the bustling city of Neon, I put my persuasive skills to the test to get security details from a bartender, hack into a computer to rig the door to the forthcoming meeting spot, and got a secret passphrase from Walter Stroud. All that remains now is to locate the seller holding a suitcase to set things in motion. The music thrums as I make my way through the club, searching for the fellow in question. Purple-hued lights fill the room with a fluorescent glow as I pass by dancers high on Aurora. Having successfully pulled off every step of this quest without a hitch, I feel oh so suave, and I'm more than ready to see this through to the end.
Suddenly, though, two familiar figures stop me in my tracks. No way. This can't actually be happening can it? I stare in disbelief for some time before I eventually inch closer just to make sure my eyes are not, in fact, deceiving me. There, standing on the dance floor, among the drug-fueled revelers are dear old mom and dad. You've got to be kidding me. Here I am, about to pull off a major deal in a nightclub, and my parents have decided this is the perfect place to visit on vacation? Well, you know what they say: it doesn't matter how old you get, how successful you are, or how far you travel through space, your parents can always bring you right back down to earth by embarrassing you during a cloak and dagger mission.
When I chose the Kid Stuff trait in Starfield, I did so out of pure curiosity. What would it be like, I wondered, to have parents fuss over you as a space-faring adventurer? It's during moments like this one in the Astral Lounge that I've come to realize choosing this trait is by far the best decision I could have possibly made.
Familial ties
As a seasoned RPG enjoyer, Starfield has made me come to realize that parents aren't often part of the picture in virtual adventures where we can make our own character. I'm sure there are a myriad of reasons for this, like maybe it doesn't always fit the narrative, or it gets in the way of the kind of character we might want to role-play as. But I like that Bethesda offers up the choice to have parents be involved in our Constellation shenanigans if we want them to be. Not only does it give me a sense of responsibility since I have to send them credits every so often, but it also grounds my adventures through space in such a comical, relatable way.
In Starfield, I've resorted to crime in my quest to collect every novelty mug in the RPG
As the kid of divorced parents in reality, my family dynamic is very different to that of the one Starfield gives you, but I never tire of the encounters I have with my virtual relatives. Whether I pay them a visit at their home in New Atlantis, or they pop up to cramp my style out in the galaxy, the Kid Stuff trait enriches the role-play experience for me. I love the way, for example, my mom and dad told me how proud they were of me for joining the Rangers. That kind of reactive feedback just makes me feel like my actions have made an impact, and it serves to immerse me in my space-faring role all the more.
Mom and dad are also a constant source of humor, be it in the way they fuss over me, or how they bicker about the most mundane of things after I've just taken down the Crimson Fleet, or something similarly larger than life. Plus, encountering parents in the most unexpected of places has its own charm. In the Astral Lounge, for instance, my dad shared in my embarrassment and asked that I forget the whole meeting. It immediately brought to mind a rather awkward encounter in Dragon Age 2, where I found my uncle in a brothel known as The Blooming Rose. There are some places you just don't want to see your relatives knocking around in, and that is most certainly one of them.
Sure, my parents in Starfield may catch me by surprise, or even embarrass me during a mission at a nightclub, but they're still family. I will forever find it quite novel to have parents ask you if you want any groceries in a game that has you jumping from star system to star system, taking on space pirates, and trying to unravel the mysteries of the known universe. It's by far my favorite trait, and I have zero regrets about my choice to pick Kid Stuff.
