cairocat said:
ill make some good points you can give her later, but i have to get to work right now...
How do I convince her games have merit?
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ill make some good points you can give her later, but i have to get to work right now...
Go out and get a load of gory/horror/war films and watch them every night. Things like, Rambo 4, all the Saw movies, Hostel, Human Centipede. Show her that tv can be just as bad, if not muhc, much, MUCH worse than games.
She'll be begging you to go back to games.
She'll be begging you to go back to games.
Pick apart her arguement. Explain to her how not being able to play video games is killing your social life and that it's keeping you seperate from your friends. Its a solid arguement that can easily be defended. Tell her how you could be doing so much worse things but you aren't because you have interests such as video games.
I would say that for Plan B go out, get involved in the wrong crowd, claim how your social life is "worlds better", then commit some crimes; but that'd be cutting off your nose in spite your face. So just skip Plan B unless things get really bad.
For Plan C I say just ignore her. Game in secret when she's not around. She thinks that you're off the games and you get your time gaming. I would just be very careful as if you were caught this might just validiate in her head that your an adidict, but by the sounds of it she'll believe what she wants to believe regardless of reality.
I would say that for Plan B go out, get involved in the wrong crowd, claim how your social life is "worlds better", then commit some crimes; but that'd be cutting off your nose in spite your face. So just skip Plan B unless things get really bad.
For Plan C I say just ignore her. Game in secret when she's not around. She thinks that you're off the games and you get your time gaming. I would just be very careful as if you were caught this might just validiate in her head that your an adidict, but by the sounds of it she'll believe what she wants to believe regardless of reality.
This is a suprisingly good suggestion actually. Thank bejeebus for extra credits! She won't have to interact with it and panic like if you were, say, to show her Bioshock or another artful game (shuddup it isjawg_t-j said:
). She'll accept more the opinion put to her through a non interactive medium having associated it allready with being an honest and reliable source of information.On a side note my mum came in while I was typing this and I asked her what she thought of videogames. It was absolutely bloody hilarious. She was very liberal in her views hat video games can be art but she also thought that unintelligent people shouldn't be allowed to play them. Then after much delibation that maybe they should be allowed to play post man pat.
Is she watching TV? Pull its plug and bring out a board game. Spend time with her and your studies and bring over(and preferably fuck) some people you're attracted to and party every weekend and come home really really late or not at all. Get some drug charges brought up.
If she complains about any of this, explain to her that this is her, "ordinary" that she's pushing on you and to either like it or gtfo.
If she complains about any of this, explain to her that this is her, "ordinary" that she's pushing on you and to either like it or gtfo.
This. Punch her square in the face and say "bitches don't know".Funkiest Monkey said:
My mum used to be like this, now she doesn't give a fuck for some reason. I don't know what happened, she just stopped caring.
God, I wasn't aware this kind of stuff still happened!
My Argument
OK, consider the millions of people who sit around on facebook all day doing nothing but looking at other people's lives.
Now consider the millions of people who sit around watching tv, which features high amounts of sexual images and violence.
Now consider the people who hang about on the streets, getting drunk, fighting and having underage sex (Oh how I miss these days).
I really don't think it will work, just point out how many worst things you could be doing.
I'm not the best person to say though, I pretty much had an easy ride as a kid. Did what I wanted.
My Argument
OK, consider the millions of people who sit around on facebook all day doing nothing but looking at other people's lives.
Now consider the millions of people who sit around watching tv, which features high amounts of sexual images and violence.
Now consider the people who hang about on the streets, getting drunk, fighting and having underage sex (Oh how I miss these days).
I really don't think it will work, just point out how many worst things you could be doing.
I'm not the best person to say though, I pretty much had an easy ride as a kid. Did what I wanted.
Do you see the friends you play with outside Halo, or it that just what you do together? Because one time my parents said something along the lines of 'Shouldn't you be doing something sociable', and since I happened to be playing L4D I just identified the three guys I was playing with. Since they were the same people I was usually hanging out with anyway, they got that L4D was just the thing we were doing that night.
Also, do you have friends or family outside town you play with? Parents totally dig things that encourage you to interact with family members or maintain contact with friends who've moved away. When my brother lived a long way away, we'd chat on WoW and Steam and my parents thought that was pretty okay. But oh yeah, games with a chat function work better. Well, PC games are probably better. Instead of you talking to nothing and getting clamouring TV voices in return (which is a little creepy really), she can see that you're talking. She asks who you're talking to, you tell her, it's someone she knows, she can see that conversation is taking place, that's cool. Uh, if it's actual conversation it's cool. She does have to understand the words you're using; if you exchange in-game jargon she'll just hear 'I am deeply immersed in game culture! I now speak a garbled language which has no meaning to human ears!'
But yeah, reasoning probably won't work. She has to see that games are a thing you do as part of, but not instead of, your social life, and then she can connect the dots. Since you're playing with people you know in real life it's not hard to swallow. But if it's just a case of 'some nights we hang out, but nobody felt like going out so we're doing this', it's pretty clear that you're doing something with friends where you'd otherwise just be killing time.
Also, do you have friends or family outside town you play with? Parents totally dig things that encourage you to interact with family members or maintain contact with friends who've moved away. When my brother lived a long way away, we'd chat on WoW and Steam and my parents thought that was pretty okay. But oh yeah, games with a chat function work better. Well, PC games are probably better. Instead of you talking to nothing and getting clamouring TV voices in return (which is a little creepy really), she can see that you're talking. She asks who you're talking to, you tell her, it's someone she knows, she can see that conversation is taking place, that's cool. Uh, if it's actual conversation it's cool. She does have to understand the words you're using; if you exchange in-game jargon she'll just hear 'I am deeply immersed in game culture! I now speak a garbled language which has no meaning to human ears!'
But yeah, reasoning probably won't work. She has to see that games are a thing you do as part of, but not instead of, your social life, and then she can connect the dots. Since you're playing with people you know in real life it's not hard to swallow. But if it's just a case of 'some nights we hang out, but nobody felt like going out so we're doing this', it's pretty clear that you're doing something with friends where you'd otherwise just be killing time.
People who talk about video games like this will be remembered along with the people who burned books, trashed TV, and killed musicians. (Just to quote extra credits, and no offense to your mother.) Anyway if your grades arent slipping, if your friends dont hate you, and if you still go outside a little there should be no problem. Tell her that
Ask her the Geth question from Mass Effect 2, and then tell her that it is from ME2, and that she is depriving you of the possibility for you to answer those questions by blanket-banning them altogether.
Do what she says and show that you are responsible so that she trusts you to do what you like later? Really there is no way to convince her to listen to you and the more you complain the more dead-set she'll get. I suggest going along with her and bringing it up again later when she cools a bit and sees that not gaming doesn't affect your life at all. Also, don't complain or it'll prove her point.
There's one thing you have to learn now; you can't. There is little chance of you convincing your mam. You can kick off an absolute shit storm. You can be as unbearable as physically possible and it's completely okay, you're a teenager and you have many hormones driving you crazy (hahah, what a load of horse shit that really is). You'll probably have to sacrifice a lot for it though so I suggest you don't.cairocat said:
Of course, there is the possibility that she will see this as a sign that you do have an addiction. Aside from doing the above method, you can always not play games at all just to spite her. Show her you have no addiction to games and then politely ask her for your console back. Point out that you've been capable of not playing games without causing a shit storm, also point out that you haven't been as happy as you used to and can't get in touch with your old friends that you have on your xbox.
NOTE: If you do use the method of showing her you can go without games but don't like it then you need to time your approach right. Too long and your chance is gone, too soon and she'll think you have an addiction.
Show her the articles that are floating around about how colleges are using games to demonstrate real world thinking skills and science.cairocat said:
Find out what she's interested in when it comes to story telling, then pick a game that matches that and say "Hey Mom, wouldn't it be cool if they made a story that involved this, this and this?"
"Yeah son that is a great idea, you should write that..."
"Mom that is from the video game *insert name here*"
I personally never had a problem when it came to my parents and video games, but every once in a while I will play a game and find an area that is absolutely beautiful to look at, and screenshot it.
She actually uses some of the screenshots I took from Age of Conan as her desktop at work, and the people she worked with wondered where she found such a beautiful image... Yeah...
Pretty much what your mother is getting at is the typical "I'm ignorant to what it is you're actually doing so I don't like what you're doing." Parenting. Get her involved, teach her what it is that makes games so special to you.
This situation is somewhat difficult for me to relate to, as I have gamed with my mother, father, sister, friends, and now my fiancée, throughout my life. That being said, I think I can offer you some different advice from the usual here.cairocat said:
First, you probably can't change your mother's mind. Even if you offer hard proof that gaming isn't harmful (e.g. a research study, of which there are few), she will have the inclination to stick to her guns because she doesn't want her authority undermined and she has already made up her mind on the issue. Furthermore, many people don't value sound logic and the scientific method over their preferred procurer of anecdotal evidence (e.g. Oprah and the like), and, anyway, it isn't difficult to see how your mother might question the utility in shooting aliens, better reflexes or no.
Second, think hard about the inadequacies your mother is referring to. If you need to be devoting more free time to school work at the expense of your already paltry 10-hour-a-week gaming diet, then do it. If you fuck up school, I guarantee gaming will be the only bright spot in your life one day. If she's referring to a lack of a genuine social life or being out of shape, make a plan to remedy these situations and implement. When she sees you are becoming a responsible adult, chances are you will be allotted more freedom. Don't worry about "proving her right," just think about bettering yourself.
Last, I understand that gaming is one of your favorite things in the world, and I would have been just as upset as you when I was your age. Despite this, gaming comes at a price, my friend. Sure, there is a niche group you can relate to better, but there are even larger groups that you correspondingly can't relate to and skills you will fail to develop, as there is only so much time in a life. At this point in MY life, for example, I wish I'd spent more time learning the guitar and a foreign language and less time pwning noobs.
Anyway, some food for thought. Best of luck to you, and I hope it works out!