Parents and Your Hobby

[Fappy]

I've seen similar threads before but not any recently so here we go! Do your parents understand video games, or rather, your particular gaming habits? Last night my step dad sat down and watched me play some Skyrim. Despite playing D&D in high school/college and loving fantasy stories he's never cared for video games and rarely ever watches me play anything. Anyway, I stopped at home to sell some stuff to my character's wife at an earlier point and went on to do some adventuring. During a fight with a dragon I was getting smacked around and many audible female nord grunts were made. He asked me confused, "Who's making those noises? The dragon?"

I laughed, "No, I'm playing a chick." When he asked why I just kind of gave him a cop-out answer, "To mix things up."

It didn't take him all but two minutes to put the equation together and he asked, "When did you switch characters?"

"I didn't."

"You're character's a lesbian?!"

He was very confused and promptly stopped thinking about it. I continued to go about murdering half-awake orcs (Vaermina's quest) and all was good. I can't help but think that he had silently judged me in that moment and couldn't wrap his head around how I had chosen to play the game. Parents are weird like that it seems. They get you, but they don't. Nuances introduced by a generation's culture don't seem to translate well to those that came before.

So yeah, that was an awkward moment to say the least. Any of you guys have any experiences to share?

 

[Padwolf]

My parents accept my hobby but they don't quite understand my games. My mum will occasionally play Mario Kart with me and sometimes mistakes games for movies. My dad games a bit more, he likes Red Dead and Oblivion, he watches me on Skyrim sometimes and wonders why I play the good person, in Oblivion he just went around killing everyone and killing villages and stole their horses. He sometimes plays WoW with me, he has many more high levelled characters than I do.

 

[TehCookie]

My parents got me into the hobby. When I was 4 and asked why we had a Sega instead of a Nintendo my dad just laughed and told me, "Nintendo is for kids, you didn't think I got the Sega for you?" I find it funny when people are just now realizing Nintendo is for kids.

Also I'm the one making fun of my dad for playing a girl, but that's because he's extremely metrosexual.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

My parents don't understand my hobbies, but they DO make an honest effort to accept them. I've always been a little... weird (My room is filled with dragons, dragon statues, stuffed dragons, dragon action figures, posters of dragons, books about dragons, and MLP)

They can't really say anything against it because they have their own strange hobbies, my mom is a big fan of demon, vampire, ware-anything, romance novels, and she was long before Twilight. She actually enjoys watching me play games like Uncharted because she thinks Nathen Drake is hot. She also watched me play a good chunk of Xenoblade Chronicles, although I'm not sure why.

My dad is just baffled by technology.

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

My parents are both gamers so they understand that part of the equation. My mom comes home from work most days and fires up Skyrim on the 360. My dad plays SC2, and skyrim, and CoD occasionally. They don't so much understand why I play games like Tera, but it's more anime than anything that throws them off. Not even that much though to be honest.

 

[burningdragoon]

Understand is probably not the best word. They understand that's not a strange or bad hobby to have, but that's more or less it. They do sometimes take issue with the lack of many other hobbies, but that's a different issue.

Not so much now, but when I was growing up (in my 20s now), my dad would joke about how if he had access to what I do now/then when he was my age, I probably wouldn't have been born. So... there's that.

 

[Fappy]

Not so much now, but when I was growing up (in my 20s now), my dad would joke about how if he had access to what I do now/then when he was my age, I probably wouldn't have been born. So... there's that.

Well that's always one way of looking at it I suppose >.>

 

[purplecactus]

My parents were lucky enough to land themselves with two gamer kids... They pretty much left me to my own devices after I turned eighteen, and although they don't really approve of my gaming, they don't say anything. They don't have to put up with it unless I stay at theirs for any length of time, so it's not so bad. They're a lot harder on my younger brother (who practically lives for gaming and hasn't moved out).

 

[Sara Fontaine]

Unforunately for me, my parents don't really accept my video game hobby. My dad used to play them himself but he thinks by now I should have grown out of them. He's not so vocal about it, but my mum on the other hand has told me that she's ashamed to admit she has a 22 year old daughter who plays video games 'like a lad'.

 

[dimensional]

My parents tolerate it they have never stopped me playing games but they certainly dont approve of it they see it as a waste of time largely and I dont think they have ever played a game with me ever (ok exaggeration here hardly ever, as in once on the wii maybe for a few minutes)in fact I dont think they have ever held a traditional sort of pad i.e SNES onward.

Sometimes they come and watch me play but thats usually a bit annoying as they tend to walk in on an ending sequence of an RPG that took me 60+ hours to finish and then start asking me questions while im trying to watch it then when its finished they walk off again damn thats so annoying or when im getting trashed in a fighting game if I so much as sigh they say crap like dont get so het up which of course dosent help the situation.

 

[The_Lost_King]

My mom understands it. She wishes I would get out of the house more but she doesn't care that I play video games. My dad used to game a lot. I would always watch him play Diablo and Warcraft 3. We played WoW for a time, but we were on different servers and I went Horde and He went Alliance. We used to play Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2(how that game even managed to call it's self Baldur's Gate I have no idea it was more like a diablo game for the ps2). He doesn't play much anymore though. I got LotR: War in the North for us to play together. I ended up playing it with my brother more than my dad .

 

[Screamarie]

I was born in 1987, at a wonderful time when video games weren't necessarily considered the scum of the Earth, so I grew up with an original NES and a gameboy. My mother would regularly steal the gameboy to play Tetris and my step father often played Dr. Mario on the NES.

Then games got more and more complex and...yeah. My step father who is 69 is completely out of the gaming loop and my mother's gaming life revolves around facebook games and Big Fish.

My parents have largely kept themselves out of my gaming life, they don't watch me, they don't play with me, and my mother actually showed a rather lacking vigilance in making sure I didn't see anything I shouldn't in games. Not because she was somehow negectful, just that the games SHE knew had never had more violence than a fat plumber stomping on turtles so she didn't really realize how quickly games had changed. Luckily for her I wasn't into GTA or the like.

Not too long ago though I had hooked my Xbox up in the living room. My step father was just going to bed and so I startd up a game. I want to say it was Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2 but I'm really not sure anymore. Anyways as he passed by the tv to go into his bedroom he asked me if I was "watching the same movie again" because he had seen me load the same game for the past few nights.

Yes, my friends, he couldn't even tell the difference between a movie and a video game. Despite the fact that I was holding the controller, despite the face that it said on the screen "Load Game" and "New Game." Despite the fact that the characters on the screen were moving about in a very un-movie like fashion. To say he doesn't pay attention is a bit of an understatement.

 

[Fappy]

I was born in 1987, at a wonderful time when video games weren't necessarily considered the scum of the Earth, so I grew up with an original NES and a gameboy. My mother would regularly steal the gameboy to play Tetris and my step father often played Dr. Mario on the NES.

Then games got more and more complex and...yeah. My step father who is 69 is completely out of the gaming loop and my mother's gaming life revolves around facebook games and Big Fish.

My parents have largely kept themselves out of my gaming life, they don't watch me, they don't play with me, and my mother actually showed a rather lacking vigilance in making sure I didn't see anything I shouldn't in games. Not because she was somehow negectful, just that the games SHE knew had never had more violence than a fat plumber stomping on turtles so she didn't really realize how quickly games had changed. Luckily for her I wasn't into GTA or the like.

Not too long ago though I had hooked my Xbox up in the living room. My step father was just going to bed and so I startd up a game. I want to say it was Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2 but I'm really not sure anymore. Anyways as he passed by the tv to go into his bedroom he asked me if I was "watching the same movie again" because he had seen me load the same game for the past few nights.

Yes, my friends, he couldn't even tell the difference between a movie and a video game.

Well to be fair those two games are pretty cinematic. My mom saw me playing DAO once during the Ostigar battle cutscene and asked what I was watching. When I told her it was a game she was shocked. She used to play Genesis with me

 

[Razentsu]

Hah, games really have come far. My dad thought I was watching a movie when I was playing Lost Odyssey. XD

I think my mom used to have an Atari 2600 and an NES, but she isn't really into gaming. My uncle probably played on those systems more than my mother did. My dad is absolutely clueless when it comes to video games. My parents aren't too enthused with my hobby, but they don't mind leaving me alone.

I think my dad's only experience with video games was playing Wii Sports with my sister. My mom plays the occasional casual game.

 

[Deviluk]

Unforunately for me, my parents don't really accept my video game hobby. My dad used to play them himself but he thinks by now I should have grown out of them. He's not so vocal about it, but my mum on the other hand has told me that she's ashamed to admit she has a 22 year old daughter who plays video games 'like a lad'.

Thats pretty bad of her. Get with the times, lady! When you move out (or if you have already) it should be easier.

I just don't talk about gaming to my parents when they ask what I've been up to, but they know I play with my brother, which they like because it means we get to still spend time together even though in 900 miles away. Growing up though they were ok with it, just not when I was on a 8 hour WoW sesh on a sunny July day.

Actually they did stop me playing GTA when I was 13/14, because a employee of a game rental shop said it was about killing prostitutes...come on its not like it was the game objective!!

 

[AngloDoom]

Awe.

Seriously, my parents seem more impressed by my ability to operate a game controller than my ability to earn a University degree. I showed them how to use dual-analogue sticks and they looked at me as if I just pulled a pony out of my hat.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

My parents don't understand, but I think they're pretty indifferent about it. I'm not sure how to equate it, but I guess it's the same kind of reaction to me liking a certain TV show or music genre that they don't really care anything for. They show no interest and really, I'm cool with that, I prefer to be in solitude when gaming anyway. :3

 

[Inconspicuous Trenchcoat]

My father doesn't mind my habit, and sometimes stops to listen to me yammer on about something happening in the "gaming world." He plays a handful of games. Over the years he has mainly played Sim City, Roller Coaster Tycoon and the original Call of Duty. He tried to play Counter Strike: Condition Zero a couple times, but I think the concept of the buy menu and the quick round based gameplay confused him (he played bots). Recently, I gave him the free copy of Cities in Motion I got for taking the Paradox Interactive survey, and he's been enjoying that on his MAC.

I'm pretty sure my mother would be delighted if I renounced the entire hobby and burned all my videogame stuff. Usually she doesn't say anything, but she has told me I become "dark" when I play too many games, and she's called WoW evil (fair enough ).

 

[Jeff Gennick]

My parents understand and support my hobbies.

They don't really care for Video games themselves though.

 

[GundamSentinel]

My father hasn't touched a video game in 20 years. We used to play Captain Comic and Test Drive on an old 486. He was pretty good too. Now, my father tries to be interested in my hobbies, but fails miserably. Still, I like that he tries and has never judged me for playing games a lot. Same with my mother really. They accept it's my hobby and that's that.