What is a good age to start playing video games? To stop?

[D Moness]

Not that you'll forswear video games at age 32. I imagine, though, that's when you'd lose interest.

32? I think i missed that note. As for losing interest in gaming. Downloaded ME 2 DLC and finished it right after that also around 90 hours of Dragon age 2 is telling me otherwise.

 

[FalloutJack]

I think age seven is alright as a start. Keep 'em off the heavy stuff, though, and make sure to explain that games and real life are far different things. As for when you stop...uhhhh...why should you? Chances are, I won't. I gave up television first. (And not even all of it, just alot of it.)

 

[creager91]

I started on the super nintendo at the age of 2 haha I remember specifically asking my cousins to beat parts of certain games for me but I was pretty good. I could get to bowsers keep in Super Mario at that age but couldnt beat him

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

As soon as you are actually technically able to do so, and why the hell would you ever want to stop? Those are my answers and I'm sticking to them, heh.

 

[IamQ]

Oh, I didn't loose my hours as a kid on video games. I just watched Fox Kids 24/7.

Yeah, I was never a very active kid.

OT: 7-8 sounds good to me to start playin' them.

Stop playing? When you don't enjoy them anymore. There is no correct age to stop gaming.

 

[Merkavar]

i think i have been gaming since i was 4-5. pretty sure i started before i was in kindergarden. doom, wolfenstein, commander keen, monster bash, math and word rescue. Back on those massive like 7 inch floppy disks that were actually floppy.

as long as i find gaming enjoyable i dont see why i should stop. thats like saying at some point yo should stop watching tv or wearing clothes. The types of games i play keep changing. im sure that the amount of gaming i do will change over the years. depending on work, money etc

 

[TehCookie]

I've been gaming ever since I was born since my dad put a controller in my hands before I could remember. I don't see myself ever stopping, I may play less but I will still play in the ever decreasing free time I have. My dad is 50 and still plays games, though I've never seen him beat a single one...

 

[moretimethansense]

To start? Dunno.
To stop? NEVAR!

 

[CleverCover]

I started at age 3 with Sonic the Hedgehog.
I'll end when I'm dead.

Jeeze, you make it sound like getting older means you have to give up everything you liked when you were younger.

 

[Woodsey]

Start whenever, finish whenever.

We don't set such guidelines with books and films.

 

[Witney]

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

 

[Jandau]

32? Then what's my 65-year old HoMM3-playing dad supposed to be then?

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

I hate that quote. Those are the words of a person who likes to think himself an adult and belives that if he acts like it enough, he might actually grow up. Sadly, he is mistaken...

 

[Bobbity]

I've been playing since I was six, on the PS2, but didn't play any violent games until I was twelve. Even so, I seem to have turned out fine. My seven year old sister has been playing casual games since she was three, although she never touches the xbox, and neither her nor I have turned into monstrous psychopathic killers.

I don't believe there's age at which one should stop playing video games, but rather that one should continue to play them for so long as they can derive satisfaction from them.

 

[Frotality]

it depends entirely on the games. id imagine your nephew will start by playing ds games, which is fine, but god help you if you let him play CoD or similarly addictively easy to get into games. i personally believe you ready to play whenever soul-crushingly repeated defeat only drives you to win even more, because i only got into gaming after constantly dying in ultima underworld just made me want to finish more.

as for when to stop...doesnt parenting kinda take ALL your previous central interests away? id say stop the same time you think you should stop watching movies or listening to music, which is probably never, but if you dont have the time for games, its not a matter of you SHOULD stop, its matter of just not having the time to continue.

 

[jowo96]

I don't think there really is a minimum age but before a certain age kids just won't understand how to play, they won't have the cognitive skills.

As for maximum age, it doesn't really make a difference but if you have real world commitments then video gaming should take a back seat.

 

[Mantonio]

There's no time to 'stop'. People never say that there's a time you should stop watching movies or reading books or listening to music, but videogames you're expected to stop eventually?

I expect this happened with all new media.

 

[Manji187]

I'm 23, I started at 5 and I'll prolly be out at 35 because of lack of interest. I also dislike the direction Microsoft plans on taking gaming to. If that shit catches on..I'll be retiring sooner.

 

[The Gnome King]

I have a nephew who is 7, and he's just beginning to play video games. I was about that age when I started, but, even in retrospect, that seems a little early to lose one's self to hours of TV viewing. 8 I think should be the cutoff.

You may continue to play video games for the rest of your life, but it seems to me that, once you become a parent, they can no longer be of central interest to you (I'm guessing the vast bulk of people on a forum like this aren't parents). Otherwise... 32. That's the end for you.

You do realize that the vast majority of parents who don't game spend hours watching TV shows every night.

How is that better than playing games for a hobby? Yikes.

I prefer my entertainment interactive. And, the wife and I made an (excellent) decision long ago to never have kids. So maybe that's why I'm 32 and still going strong.