your parents surprising reactions to videogames

[Mana Fiend]

My mum loves to watch the cutscenes from the Uncharted series and The Last of Us. I suppose it's because they're like a movie, and she really digs the acting.

Considering how she complained about the 'gore' at the end of the Buffy season 1 finale when the Master was impaled, I'm very surprised she enjoyed them.

 

[iwinatlife]

My mom used to play civ A Lot including while pregnent with me thusly "one more turn" syndrome was spread

 

[Generic4me]

My mom is pretty much the opposite of a gamer, has hardly played anything but (F-F-FFFUCKING) Angry Birds and Words With Friends.

My dad on the other hand, used to randomly decide he liked random games I played. He absolutely adores Battlefield 1943, Gears of War 2 (Only 2, for whatever reason), Warcraft 3, and WWE' 13. Hell, that last one is practically what the family does when we get together.

I don't even know.

 

[frizzlebyte]

My mother (I still live at home while I'm in college) loves to listen to Homeworld 1 and 2 when I play them, even though she doesn't really get what the game is about. She says it sounds like NASA. :-D

I agree with her too; the radio communication sound effects are spot on for sounding like NASA mission control.

 

[mysecondlife]

I don't think my dad's particularly interested in it.

He does get impressed by modern graphics though.

"oooh batman" (batman arkham asylum)
"oooh, cool action sequence" (uncharted 2)
"oooh that's too bad" (me playing demon's souls)

and things like..
"I used to do practice hiding/moving behind covers when I was in the army"

 

[xmbts]

My parents heard a recording of some Racist kids on CoD and asked me if it was really like that. I explained that it being such a popular series attracts a lot of idiots. They then asked me about something called 'mushroom stamping'.

All I could say was "Back in my day it was called 'tea-bagging'.

 

[Da Orky Man]

My dad currently has about 21,000 hours clocked on World of Tanks, according to the ingame counter. I have a suspicion its slightly off, but he plays way more than I ever did.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

My parents went holy shit this is awesome 3d realistic graphics. Oh shit 360 degree movement... so used to side scrollers and the camera is making me sick. Dammit! I hate being old.

Honestly, I still have problems beating side scrollers lol.

 

[jackinmydaniels]

My mother watched me play the original Saints Row once in a surprising show of resilience and curiosity. Every once and a while she pops in and checks out a game or two, but not for quite as long as she did that one for some reason. I still remember some of the stuff she'd said during that particular session.

"Why are you blowing yourself up?"

"Because I can."

"Why did you shoot that guy?"

"Why not?"

"Can you please shoot that chick?"

"I-I guess?"

Good times, I also recently showed her the MGS V trailer. She thought it was a movie until we got a close up of Big Boss, she was in awe with how good it looked. To be fair, so was I.

My dad plays games a little bit, but he fazed out a bit. Doesn't mind watching me every once and a while though.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

This is an extremely simple thing that happened. On the surface, it would seem like any other moment in the day-to-day slog of life.

My father has zero interest in video games or whatever you would refer to as "geek culture". He loves old literary works, but any fantasy or sci-fi book bores him, no matter how classic. No matter what superhero movie I drag him to, his response will always be that he thought it was "cute". His only interest on the television is watching baseball or golf. Nothing else. He is a suit-and-tie-wearing conservative, and I can promise you on my life that our interests have absolutely nothing in common. Putting us in a room together always results in an awkward silence.

Now, two years ago, I was playing inFamous on my PS3. I play video games all the time when he's around, and he always just ignores it. My sister and mother had gone on a walk through the neighbor hood and wouldn't be back for a while. As I'm completing the train-hostage mission, he decides to come into the living and sit down. For a moment, I thought he had the book he had been reading and planned to read while I played my game, but no. He's watching the TV screen as I'm powering the train with my powers.

As I continue to play, he starts asking questions about what's going on in the game. Asking about the characters, how Cole got the powers he has, why I'm protecting the train, why the Reapers are doing what they're doing. I answer each of his questions, and it becomes a casual conversation as he continues to show genuine interest in what's going on and how the game plays.

An hour goes by, and my sister and mother come back from their walk. While my mom goes straight upstairs, my sister walks by the living room to see me and my dad. I've told her before about the frustration I have about the stale relationship with my dad. She watches us as we talk about the game and I show off Cole's other powers to him. Our eyes meet for a second, and she gives me a smile.

It's such a simple thing, and it never happened again.

But it meant a lot to me, and it's a moment with my father that I'll never forget.

 

[swiftax]

Well lets see...not so much surprising from my perspective (cause we're that kind of family) but...
Mom was the first in the house to get her character to 60. Then 70, and then 80.
Dad has played few games beyond Age of Empires, Populous, and Black and White, but he adores those.
I came home one day to find mom playing Dragon Age Origins, and she watches Extra Creditz every other week.

 

[VodkaKnight]

Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS nearly took over my dad's life for about a week.
Then he stopped playing, and stopped caring about it.
The only person I know NOT to get addicted for a month.

 

[Mr_Universal]

Should never have introduced my mom to Tekken and soul calibur...she ended up owning me after a while haha I´m assuming since she couldn´t beat us IRL...she wanted to beat us in games xD

 

[conmag9]

My mother's not terribly interested (although she did really like Wii Sports Resort). Not her cup of tea, but she accepts that they're very much mine. I suspect she'd probably prefer I do different things more often, but it's not a serious thing for her.

My father is cut from a different cloth. He loves video games, but lacks sufficient eye-hand coordination to play most of them well. So he plays vicariously through my younger brother and I. He literally tries to make us play video games XD.

 

[EeveeElectro]

My mum just doesn't care, like she doesn't care about most things I've done. She's never tried to stop me from playing but she'll roll her eyes when I played something violent. When I had a PS3 in the living room I had to wait until everyone was in bed to play because she's kinda addicted to constantly watching TV and her shows rather than letting anyone else watch things.

She DID give me £200 towards buying a PS3 when I was about 17 because it's the only thing I wanted for my birthday.
Apart from that, she's very apathetic towards it.

 

[Mullac]

My brother introduced my Mum to Tetris a while back. She really liked it, although she wasn't very good at it, and even suggested we all played Tetris against each other at easter . Unfortunately we never got round to it and I don't think she's really got back into it, shame.

 

[Ldude893]

Some of my favorite days as a kid was going to my Dad's house to try out his huge library of PC games. I owe that man for introducing me to Sim City 4, Rise of Nations, Civilization, Command and Conquer Generals, Star Wars Battlefront, Battlestations Pacific, American Conquest, Fallout 3 and Company of Heroes. He's the reason I was so interested in Strategy games.

Also, as a kid I've fond memories of my grandmother hogging my living room desktop playing Solitaire and Majong.

 

[EHKOS]

My mother has a personal vendetta against the first pit obstacle in Crash Bandicoot. She's never been able to get over it.
Dad used to play, in fact, he bought our first console, the PSX. But right at the start of the PS2 era he got bogged down by work and lost interest. Now he'll occasionally come over and play some, but I always have to pull my punches, and he can only play games that don't use the right analog stick. So like Tekken and Full Auto 2.

 

[Saltyk]

A couple years back, I was cooking something at my parent's and pulled out a DS to play while I waited on the food. I was inspired by my dad who often watches DVDs while he cooked. Even had a portable DVD player for that purpose. However, his reaction surprised me.

"What are you doing?"
"Playing a game while I wait on the food."
"Why do you still play with those things? They are a waste of money."

I was completely shocked. I had been gaming for nearly 20 years and never once considered them a waste of time. I basically turned it around on him.

"You watch TV and DVDs. You drink alcohol. Those are all things that are a waste of money. I choose to spend my money on games, no different than you choose to spend it on those things."

Funnily enough, my mom walked in and overheard it and agreed with me. My dad sort of let it drop.

Neither of them play games. My mom doesn't seem to see them as a waste, and the few times she has seem more recent games, she was shocked by the detail and such. Still, it reminds me how games aren't as widely accepted as TV or movies.

 

[rookie411]

Well my Dad is pretty good at Mario Kart Wii as long as you can't fall off the track, seriously he found places to die I've never even seen. I also had a fun afternoon playing Simpson's Hit and Run with both my parents, they loved it. Also the Wii was a big hit when it was first introduced to the house.