What do your parents think about your gaming?

[Aqualung]

Don't really care. My dad tried playing SSBB with me once, absolutely could not grasp it at all. It's just another form of recreation to them that they don't understand. And as long as I buy the games and the systems (which I pretty much always do) they have no ownership over the games and let me do whatever I will with them.

Plus, it's a big way me and my brother bond. We play co-op often and he got me into CoD4, Rainbow Six:Vegas, and Splinter Cells, which I'm thankful for.

 

[sms_117b]

"You're 23 and still play video games? No wonder you don't have a girlfriend"

 

[Matronadena]

it was the late 70's when my family house had it's first console, an intelvision, then an atari 2600,comadore, etc and we got every main one ( and a few bombs) that came out after.

Both my parents played too...though they peaked with the NES..mom liked things like Vegas dream, and many of the pin-ball games and rad racer, tetris, and DR mario, mario 2...

my father did the vegas ones too, tetris, dr mario, though he played alot of the sports games with my brother and I, Tecmo bowl, double dribble etc...

Years after all my siblings and I moved out, they still had a genesis, and the NES hooked up, and still played quite a bit.

My father touched a 360 for the first time last year when he came to visit and my son forced him into playing NHL, and EA NCAA football...then GH3, and now he's considering getting his own 360.

so gaming and my parents have never been at odds.


NOW AS A PARENT; I watch my kids closely, because of their age, but Im not really controlling much, obviously the 3 year old is limited to games via PBS sprout, and webkins...the 8 year old though has a much broader range, and can play most of the games I do " hes working o his first run in ME now" but I do limit the amount of time he plays.

 

[Kiutu]

last few weekends I have been whooping my dad at Street Fighter 4. He also stole Dead Rising from me, and stole my brother's C&C Kane's Wrath which he is playing alot now. My mom is addicted to Zelda too. My parents are WHY I am such a gamer.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

They hate it. They think I need therapy just because I play my DS on the toilet and while eating. They also think its a waste of money.

 

[historybuff]

My mom doesn't really approve but then, she never bought me consoles or games. It was always something that I had to save up the money and buy myself--hence, I came in very late to the gaming scene and I'm really picky about what games I will buy because I have limited funds.

 

[Avatar Roku]

My parents are cool with it...sort of. I admit, I get obsessive, so that justifies their restrictions, but it doesn't help their view of games much.

Other things do, however. For example, I recently managed to get my parents to sit down and watch some of my more story driven games, and they were fascinated. I also recently found out that my mother though that all games were about "running from room to room shooting things", which led to a very fruitful discussion on the subject between myself and her, culminating in her having a greater appreciation of games.

The coolest thing, however, is that my mom is working on getting a grant for the library she works forator using games for education. To do this, she has used discussions with me, articles from this very website (such as the recent one involving the autistic child), and some of Daniel Floyd's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s] videos.

 

[blaze96]

My parents are supportive of it even though they don't play themselves. They know I know it isn't real and that I find them relaxing.

 

[hopeneverdies]

Well I got a hold of my dad's NES and Game Boy about 4. The library we started with was really small and had two of the worst games ever. Fester's Quest and Top Gun. In 2000 I got my Game Boy Color which was when I really became a gamer. They bought me an out of date ps1 then a year later a ps2 got the other portables after that. The last game they bought me was Metroid Prime 2 which they bought to go with my new Cube in 2007. We're a very poor family.
My dad is still annoyed at me gaming unless I'm playing SOCOM or Battlefield but my mom almost encourages it. Almost

 

[cheesecake123]

my mum doesnt really mind. she gets me a console at chrristmas or my birthday (not everytime im no spoilt brat). and she doesnt care about me oing on video games.

but when i asked of her opinion on them she basically said they were evil and should be purged from the earth with fire and salt (or something like that).

a very large argument then followed.
(ahh good ol disfunctional families)

 

[xXGeckoXx]

My mom hates it......Annoying as hell she thinks its the devil. My dad o the other hand tries to take interest but he really cant find the fun in it. He will get angry if i over do it but otherwise leaves me un-pestered in my gaming.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

"You're 23 and still play video games? No wonder you don't have a girlfriend"

"so then, I won't be getting anyone pregnant or catching any scary diseases then."

(Not agreeing with the stereotype, just putting an optimistic spin on it.)

seriously tho, I hate it when you counter 'you waste too much time on those games' with 'unlike you and the TV then?' and you just get 'dont you talk back to me!'.

 

[AlphaOmega]

They really hated my first game they actuall knew i played: pokemon red on gameboy pocket, id hurt my eyes and stuff etc. later on they put a password on the computer and denied me consoles so it wasnt that awsome, when i turned 16 i started to rebel to that all thought.

Now after a depression and fleeing into gaming im on a healthy basis again so they are cool with it

 

[Flap Jack452]

My dad is a gamer and I often talk to him about upcoming releases... so no, they don't mind.

 

[Incompl te]

Parents hate it but they still let me devote my life to them. Say its a waste of money even though they bought many consoles/games for me in the past. Now I have to buy them myself *sniff*

 

[WillSimplyBe]

My mother got hooked on Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, and loved LoZ since. Also the soul calibur games... freaking Mitsurugi... lol

 

[sms_117b]

"You're 23 and still play video games? No wonder you don't have a girlfriend"

"so then, I won't be getting anyone pregnant or catching any scary diseases then."

(Not agreeing with the stereotype, just putting an optimistic spin on it.)

seriously tho, I hate it when you counter 'you waste too much time on those games' with 'unlike you and the TV then?' and you just get 'dont you talk back to me!'.

Haha, yeah I know, because I spend so much time on my computer, not always playing games anymore, my general response is "Wait, who just fixed the computer? Oh wait me, the same person that built it!" Since I built my mums computer the harassment about my level of gaming is down considerably

 

[Hyperactiveman]

My parents think it's great that I'm a gamer. I mean before they were a little concerned about me playing games like Hitman: Contracts because of one particular level and I wasn't getting out much because I was on online constantly. But once we moved to Australia I met friends (also gamers) that go to local and competition LANs regulary and I got out of the house more often.

 

[SimuLord]

When I was younger video games became the flashpoint for whether my mother was going to be able to control me. I kept such insane hours (asleep as soon as I got home from school, woke up at 11 or midnight) largely because it was a way for me to run my SimCities and Aerobiz airlines in peace. My school grades suffered and my mom tried to blame the games (actually, it was the massive drug problem, but I wasn't telling her that), and her efforts to regulate my teenage behavior (sometimes by abusive means) only pushed me further away from her to the point where now that I'm an adult my mom and I aren't even on speaking terms.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Here's a tip, introduce your mother to Peggle, Bookworm and Bejeweled.

If you're lucky she'll like one of them, and then she'll never be able to criticise again, and in fact I get calls to come visit when her PC is in trouble.