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My third straight attempt at starting a topic that lasts beyond three posts before it gets cancelled. I searched through old topics, and didn't find anything similar (to my knowledge), so here goes nothing.

I was wondering how y'alls parents regard your video gaming hobby. My parents have very different, while interesting, reactions to my gaming tendencies:

My mom is a Tetris fiend; on at least two occasions she asked for me to lend her my game boy and Tetris for plane rides, at least until I gave her my GBC and my copy of Tetris upon getting an SP. Other than that, the only game I think ever intrigued her was Final Fantasy X. When I got it last spring (I usually get games late to get em cheap) she saw me playing the beginning while ironing in the same room and stayed to watch. From then on, she asked me to call her down whenever I would hit a plot-important or especially impressive cinematic sequence, with me providing any background info that she missed. She really didn't care for combat, menu work, or dungeons, but rather treated it as a movie. She was especially impressed by the

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize what Summoners actually did." *Makeout in the lake*

scene. I have been avoiding telling her that there is a sequel (which I played parts of at my friend's house over the summer) because I really didn't like X-2 fom what I played and I know she wants to find out

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

what happens to Tidus.

No other games have really interested her as such, even though I have been sort of making an effort to find another game that will pique her interest the way X did (unusual, for even though I throroughly enjoyed FF X it has never been on my list of absolute favorite games).

My dad on the other hand, doesn't enjoy playing or watching video games as my mom does, but he "understands their appeal." He does however enjoy watching my friends and I engage in one of our fighting game/trashtalking fests, even chiming in on occasion. For example: [mock-surprised voice] "was that Stickbitch you just lost to, David?" (Stickbitch is our affectionate name for Seung Mina in Soul Calibur II).

However, both of my parents have always imposed the customary limits on playing time, but have never been too furious about my gaming tendencies (although depriving me of playing time and stealing my memory cards and handhelds has been one of their favorite punishments over the years). So how do your folks act or react towards gaming?

EDIT: grammar and syntax

This post has been edited by laszlow on 24th July 2011 19:58

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

My mom has always hated video games and would like nothing more than for me to throw them all into a lake. She also is usually too lazy to care that I play them 24/7. She realizes that If I wasn't playing games I would be irritatiing her.

My father has always been a sort of advocate. He plays and buys games, and in fact he was the one that taught me alot of how to play games. He always seemed to like Final Fantasy and he, Obviously as I was 5 at the time, bought my sister and I Final Fantasy 2 as well as a bunch of other games which not only did he watch us play, but played himself. Despite his tendencies at idiocy, I have always trusted my father's opinions on Fantasy and Video Games, as he has not pointed me in the direction of even one that I have not ended up enjoying.

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

Good topic, man.

Well, being a few weeks shy of 25, and six years removed from living with them, my parents' opinions don't really play into it as much. But, that means that I've been gaming for nearly 20 years (even though I'm not really a gamer any more), so I guess I have a little light to shed from some various perspectives.

My parents were always quite concerned that I would game too much when I was really quite young. Therefore, up until I was ten or so, I had to prove that homework was done and we had to have dinner before I could play. Later on, the blister I got from SMB3 convinced them that I needed one day out of the week that I didn't play at all, which went on for a year or two. After I got into HS, though, they kinda gave me free reign.

My mom never got into gaming at all. It was just never interesting to her, though I hear that she and my dad played a ton of Pong before I was born. My dad, on the other hand, loved gaming with me, except for the fact that he never could get a real grasp on the technology and once the NES era was over, he really didn't find many games for which he had the patience to learn the complexity. I think he had a couple golf and baseball games he would still play with me on SNES - the sports games really are what he was into - and I think he used to dig on Mario Kart.

I'm not really much of a gamer any more. I think a lot of that is because of time constraints, and my desire to not constantly be doing something that my wife doesn't like. She's not into games either, and she never has been. She tolerates it when I play, the same reason she doesn't get too irate with me for spending lots of time working on this website - she knows I enjoy it and she knows that my enjoyment of it predates her being in my life. But, since she's not a gamer and gets bored watching me play unless it's a game with inherent comic value, I minimize it because I love my wife more than I do a game, any game. That's why I don't own a PS2 and why my PS1 hasn't been turned on in about five months.

Hammy's a parent now, and there might be another who has a child here, I can't remember. I know I'll be a parent in a few years, and another few years after that, that child will probably be wanting to play a game. I know my nephew started before he turned three. That's one of the things that has to be reviewed as a parent at the time, but my early inclination is that I'll be happy to let my kids play games, within reason. I think there's a lot of good that can come from it. But I also think there are parental issues at stake that simply were not when I started gaming. My kids will not play Grand Theft Auto when they're young. They won't play Doom when they're young. And when they do start playing those games, I'll be playing them too - because I find it irresponsible to use gaming as a babysitting device just as much as using television is, and it's too easy for kids to pick things up from games these days that require a bit of parental "interpretation", as it were. Of course, I don't have to deal with that problem yet, so maybe I'll soften a bit as I go (and my exceptionally liberal spouse will probably help that along); but hey, what's the harm.

So, there you have it, I think it's what you asked for plus just a little bit more. Enjoy. Or don't.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

being 4 months shy of 15 aught to give me a lot of relevance on this subject, yet my parents didn't really care much about games. Mum really has nothing to do with it whatsoever, and only relates to them when she wants me to do my homework.

my dad on the other hand is slightly more into them. back when we had windows 3.1 (those were the days...) dad always played on a snake-like game included with our system called Rattler Rumble or something to that extent. it kinda boggled me and my bro as the snake always went too fast and I couldn't work out how to avoid crashing into the wall, whereas dad was always perfect on it.
nowadays, the only games my dad likes are freecell and hearts. interestingly enough my dad's mum also likes freecelll.

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"Fire and steel
follow me through the lands
you will burn hordes of hell
in the deadly raging flames of revenge"

Rhapsody - Flames of Revenge

With the exception of Tetris (Mom vs Dad all the way on that game o.o) video games don't intrige my mom. Dad's interested by most first-person shooters (Ie: Doom 3) or fishing/hunting games for the pc.

This, unfortunatly, means they have no concept of what I mean when i say i NEED a game. They just give me the strangest look and say "Buy it yourself" or something to that effect. I wish my parents would show SOME interest in the game I play.

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Link: "What is it?"
Mario: "It's coin, what the hell does it look like?"
Link: "Well.... What do you do with it?"
Mario: "You buy lives with them."
Link: ".... Isn't that slavery?"
~Mario/Link crossover comic~

Like Rangers, being in my 20's and outta my mom's hair kinda keeps her from caring about my gaming hobby.

Gather 'round, kids. It's story time!

When I was younger, though, my mom was interested quite a bit. She encouraged my sister and I to play games, mainly because she knew she could whip our butts at them. My first console was an Atari 2600, and my mom had owned one herself a few years earlier (she ended up takin' a shotgun to it when she had an unlucky streak at Space Invaders -- I am not freakin' kidding, either. Then again, this is the same woman who'd shoot mice inside the house ). Normally, she was a whiz at games like Space Invaders, Pong, Q*bert, Centipede, Asteroids, etc. She'd show off, too. Gettin' all the way to the last phase on SI, where the alien ships are moving a thousand miles a second and effortlessly blasting 'em all. Yeah, she was damn good. Needless to say, me and my sister were afraid to play against her. She used to tell us stories of working in an office full of guys and beating them into the ground on the Atari. Yup, she was proud of her 1337 gaming skills.

My mom didn't waste any time buying an NES, and at first she hogged the thing. She was the one who introduced us to games like Super Mario Bros. (she bought it because she was like "OMG! It's the dude from Donkey Kong!!!11!, or something like that), and Legend of Zelda (OMG! It's like Adventure!!!11!). As we, the kids, got a little older and learned how to hog it back she kinda faded into the background and just watched up play every now and then from then on out. Course, she started playing her brains out via the computer in the early '90s.

I probably have her to thank for my gaming addiction now. If I ever become a mom I'll be the same way, no doubt. Well, at least when my kids' homework is done and all. I've already sorta turned my nephew into a little video game freak; his first game was Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and ever since he's been hooked. My sister and I both agree that games like GTA and the like aren't for him until he's much older (this, coming from two girls who were addicted to Mortal Kombat back in the day). Yeah, so it's a "do as I say, not as I do" deal, but he doesn't need to know that.

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

You guys are all damn lucky. My parents call these games the spawn of satan. They litterally brand all games that I want to get the bane of god's word. This is only recent of course, because back in the days of the release of the N64 my dad was so enthusiastic that he bought me all the games I wanted. >_> Now when I want a game he'll do whatever it takes to make it so I can't get it. My mom has always hated all games with the exception of FFX, which is simaler to your case Laszlow. She was always asking what was going on and watched every significant part of the story that there was. The only game my dad has expressed interest in lately is Metal Gear Solid 3, and he just likes me to play it for the history aspect of it.

This post has been edited by FallingHeart on 25th February 2005 23:24

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"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

My parents are okay with it. My grandmother once took an interest in FFVII, as I played and talked her through what was going on, but otherwise they generally leave me to it. Occassionally, I will be told I play too many games, but I generally have quite a bit of freedom to play what I want.

I like this topic. I am a 21-year old, but I act and feel as if I'm 12, and I lve with my parents, but I'll chip in my 2 cents:
My mother is hooked on downloaded games from Yahoo and anything with Disney in the title: She should dig Kingdom Hearts.
My father is a gamer. First-person shooters, gothic-themed games, and golf are his fancy.

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"Thought I was dead, eh? Not until I fulfill my dream!"
Seifer Almasy


"The most important part of the story is the ending."
Secret Window


"Peace is but a shadow of death."
Kuja

Well, my parents? Hmm, while my dad understand I like gaming, he never got into it. Pretty much it for him. My mother understands a bit more though. Sometimes when I'm playing a game, she'll walk by the TV, and make an interesting comment depending on the game I'm playing. She says she played a lot of Pac-Man when she was young, and when I was young, she beat my ass in Street Fighter with Vega and Chun-Li, which got into into SF in the first place. Now she can't touch me.

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//www.rpgmaker.net/
We make games. Period.

Thats easy. My parents think games are a waste of time but they are more or less my life.

I mean the games of course.

This post has been edited by Zeil on 26th February 2005 10:01

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Money is no good unspent.
There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity.

My mom has always supported but never partaken in my gaming habit. I would get games for Christmas and birthdays and such. Now she won't buy me anymore because she says I have too many and I buy too many of them before I finish them, which is actually true. Other than that, she's never had any problems with me playing games. She even says, good job when I tell her how I have beaten a game.

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Elena Indurain

Currently Playing: Suikoden II

Recalling from my pre-college years, I honestly don't believe my mother could figure out how to play video games, but she's never once talked about my playing too much on the computer or Nintendo. She doesn't know how to work a computer, either, so she just stays out of it altogether.

My father, however, is the opposite. He absolutely loves video games, and got me hooked at an early age. I remember watching him playing Final Fantasy I at around five years old. He had an Atari before I was born, and we used to play Gunslinger a lot when I was around 8 or so.

After that, he showed me a lot of the early computer games like Myst, the Sim Cities and Sim Tower, Pathways into Darkness, Marathon, and other stuff.

Recently, he and I would play Diablo II together a lot, even after I left for college. When I think about it, I think I've been playing games with my father my entire life, and in many ways we are very, very similar. He's still buying games (he recently bought Doom 3 and Axis & Allies) as he always has been, though not so much in the console area.

This post has been edited by TheEvilEye on 26th February 2005 06:58

I know that my mother and father don't like my younger brother playing video games. And believe me, if you sat in the same room as him when he plays games... you would want to kill him because of how upset he gets. It is just annoying, if he ever does anything wrong in a game... it's the game messing up, and not his lack of ability. Whines and complains every few minutes... kill me now. He LITERALLY cries when he plays games, hits the computer screen/keyboard, and throws controllers around. Yes, you read that right. All over a video game. My parents freak because of him.

Anyway, I'll move more on topic.

My parents are completely fine with me playing games. They figure that if I don't play these games, I'm more likely to probably experiment with drugs or go insane with a gun in a clock tower (although, everyone in the family kids about that one). Any parent should look at games in that way in my opinion. Is it better that my child kills people in a virtual world, go ends up on death row doing the real thing? I can only assume most parents wouldn't jump for the latter...

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This is my world: (Got my second chapter up, 3rd Chapter about 80% complete)
http://www3.sympatico.ca/daniel876/homepage.html

My mom's okay with my game-playing, and even plays some games herself(I'm so ashamed!! A noob kicked my arse in Tekken!!) but she also says I play video games too much. I can agree with this wholeheartedly, because I'll often put gameplaying above homework or studying, which is bad because then when I go to school the next day, I have no homework to turn in. But she doesn't have to know that....

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"No matter what happens, I will always be with you... forever." ---- Pocahontas, Pocahontas

"Only those who are already at the top are rewarded without trying."----- Delita Hyral, Final Fantasy Tactics

http://www.ffshrine.org/fft/fft-midi/1-42-back_fire01.mid ---- My favorite FFT battle song

My parents and I never agreed about video games, but, then again, I cannot say they were a major topic in our frequent disagreements either.

Rather, my love of video games was used as a target whenever my mom was mad at me for any reason. Oftentimes I'd come home after a day of school to find a game or a power cord had gone missing from my room. My mom would never discuss the missing item herself and would simply ignore any questions I asked her about it. It would be my task to figure out why she'd decided to take it (i.e. the piano piece I was currently playing didn't sound up to par).

Eventually this routine culminated several years ago when my Playstation, SNES, and all relevant games disappeared. At that time I decided I didn't care enough about video games to fight about them anymore, and I let my console gaming habits fade, vaguely promising myself to restore the Playstation collection once I was living alone.

About that same time I built my first personal desktop and made a transition into PC gaming, most notably multiplayer games, but never quite regained the passion I'd had for solo play as on the console. Random items continued to disappear from my room up until I left, though it was mostly confined to disappearing clothing. (I still find that funny, since every pair of my conservative khaki pants and each solid-color t-shirt looks the same as the next). My mom never touched the computer I'd built, perhaps because I also tended to use it for homework, or perhaps because that box was simply too much of a beast to easily haul away.

This post has been edited by Phoenix on 26th February 2005 11:39

Hey, looks like I fall into the "too old to be bothered about my parents' views on videogames" category. But, being 25, I have a pretty good old experience on the subject too, which started with the NES of course.

Turns out that my mother wasn't really fond of buying me and my sisters a console at first. When she was later found to be abusing of the console when we were out, playing Mario and other platform games, she didn't bring up the subject anymore. She's the single "adult" (I'm one too now, but at that time I wasn't) I know who plays that much videogames, although it isn't very much in light of the time I used to play back then. She also plays PC games, mostly construction ones like Caesar III (her favourite).

My grandfather was a Gameboy guy: he played Tetris, Othello, and Mario Golf. We kept the Gameboy as a relic when he passed away, because he spent a good amount of times playing it after his usual after-lunch nap.

My father doesn't play videogames, but he understood that all three of us (one of my sister doesn't play videogames at all, except for the occasionnal Super Mario) were into it, especially me back then. It is because of a business trip he did in Canada that I own two very dear cartdriges at home: FF II and FF III...

I think altogether I had a pretty good set of parents

I've really enjoyed the posts by the "older crowd" in here. Excellent topic.

Being 26, I can both look back on my years at home with the parents, as well as shed light on married life with kids.

My first system was the Atari 2100. The games were impossible to beat, remember that? They just kept going and going and going, getting faster (which equals harder), until you reached the point where you could NOT physically continue them any longer. My parents were fine with my playing the Atari, and even played games like Pac-Man with me, as we all held household duels to see who could get the highest score.

I got a NES a year after it came out. I was the last person I know to ever beat the original Super Mario that came with the system. I owned few games, as renting was the new, big thing in those days. I must have rented hundreds of games in those days. During this time, though, I discovered Final Fantasy. I fell in love with it, and it dominated my life for nearly a year until I beat it. (with the help of Nintendo Power's strategy guide... so what?)

The genesis came next, but it didn't grip me the way the NES had. I had few games, and little interest in the system. I sold the 5 games I had and the system for 100 bucks.

The N64 came into my life after the birth of my first son. My son's mother and I enjoyed the hell out of Mario Party. I was also the scourge of my neighborhood with Wrestlemania 2000, and I challenge anyone to this very DAY to beat me if I get to use Garret, my created character.

The PS2 was next in my life, and it came in at a time that saw me married, with a son and an infant daughter. My son is too young to understand the games, but I give him a controller that isn't plugged in and he "plays" right along with me. My daughter looks on in amazement at the TV as her daddy and big brother play what probably looks like a giant cartoon to her.

My wife, very much like Josh's, has never been a gamer. I bought Monopoly Party, because she loves Monopoly. She played it once with me. I bought SimThemepark, she played it once. The only success I've had, of all the games I've gone through was with FFX and MK: Deception. FFX had a LOT of FMV scenes in it, and so it played out like a movie to her. The plot and characters engaged her, and when I beat it she actually cried just a bit at the ending. MK, despite how bizarre it sounds, is her current obsession. Not fighting mode, though. I should be so lucky. She loves the puzzle combat part of the game. She plays, and consistently kicks my ass, about three times a week. Aside from this game, she detests the system. I bought a PS One on Ebay for Tactics, and that game REALLY gets on her nerves. I appease her here recently by naming all the generics by her and the kids and myself. She will sometimes look up from her book over on the couch and say something off the wall like "Brielle is going to die if you don't heal her or give her Blade Grasp". Bizarre.

This post has been edited by Hamedo on 26th February 2005 16:37

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Nice posts guys.

I just moved out from my parents' place 3 weeks ago, which is cool because now I don't have to worry about how much time I spend on the computer. In the winter there's not much else to do for fun. Oddly enough, my parents just bought my bro's Gamecube and they want to see if they can get into modern games. Either that or they just wanted it so they could get that Intellivision game compilation package.

Yep, before I was born my parents had an Intellivision and loved playing games on that. Then their interest in video games faded but never completely vanished apparently. When I was old enough to get an NES they wouldn't let me get one due to a fear that I would get addicted to video games and would never play outside. My aunt & uncle broke the ice however by buying me a Sega Master System one Christmas. My parents weren't willing to refuse letting me have it, and after having it for a while my dad started playing a couple of games with me, Double Dragon and Great Baseball. We had a lot of fun with those.

Then I finally got an NES when my grandpa bought me one for my birthday two years after getting the SMS. My mom and me shared a playthrough of Dragon Warrior but that was it. Beyond that point video games became too complex for them. The only eception is the occasional PC game that my mom gets into like Myst.

There wasn't much of a problem with my parents regarding me playing video games. I did spend a lot of time playing outside when it wasn't winter. Sometimes they would have to enforce time restraints and sometimes my dad would get mad when I was reluctant to do chores because I was busy playing a game. Banning me from video games was a favorite form of punishment (and man did that suck), but the punishments were rarely related to the actual playing of them.

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

My father always hated 'modern technology so we never had a system until 1989. My mother, on the other hand, never really cared. She figured we'd grow up to be arses anyway, but atleast with games we'd be quiet arses.

Nowa' days the only one to complain is my sister, who used to be an even bigger gamer than me, but she's usually too distracted by the internets to watch TV anyway.

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The Arcana are the means by which ALL is revealed.

Mine are cool about it, although my dad, who plays video games (my mom doesn't) says Final Fantasy has to be the most boring game in the world....

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Dang. And here I was hoping the next big thing in hip hop would be, y'know, silence. ~Djibriel

Twilight Paladin.com We are now twilightpaladin.co.nr! It's not .com, but, oh well.

The Twilight Forums!

My step dad was never the gamer, and mom didn't play much beyond a few odd Game Boy games here or there. My dad is the only gamer and it never moved beyond his Quake II and the first Unreal. He had a racing game once, but it got dropped pretty quick.

My grandfather was never interested in games, but he knew I was and spoiled me rotten when I was young by letting buy a new game for the SNES practically every week at Toys R Us. I was mostly about the platformer and space shooters then.

My videogaming became a problem for my folks to the point where I was eventually banned from using a tv during the week. That pretty much killed my gaming till I moved out. By then, I'd moved on from console to pc where I'm all about the FPS and not much else.

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Arts

Farts

Twarts

My mom was never really into games, although she did get into Tetris and Dr. Mario. My dad, on the other hand, loves games. I used to visit my dad when he lived relatively close (my parents are divorced), and me and my brothers would always make sure to bring our good ol' SNES. I fondly remember when in one case my dad was trying to beat the game with the difficulty set the highest (he always used Chun-Li, for some reason). He wasn't having a whole lot of success, and as it was getting late, me, my two brothers, and my sister went to bed. We woke up in the morning and he was fighting M. Bison. My dad's favorite games, though, are definitely first person shooters: Doom, Wolfenstein, etc. (we also playing Halo 2 with him for hours). He just bought Doom 3 recently, but I had to laugh since he has an old graphics card and his monitor is one of the first ever mass-produced monitors for PCs (it can't even display Google's graphic correctly), not to mention the fact he refuses to upgrade from Win98. I might note that my stepdad used to be an avid gamer back when the Atari 2600 was out. He awaits the day to challenge me at Space Invaders.

Neither of my parents or stepparents really put much stock into the violent-video-games-will-make-your-kid-violent deal, although when I play games like Turok my stepdad doesn't want my little half-sister to be watching.

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

My parents don't really hate video games, but nor do they particularly like them. When my brothers and I were growing up, my parents would look in and try to get into the games, but as time went on they became increasingly dissinterested. Then whenever we weren't doing well in school, games "dissappeared for a few days", etc.

My parents really don't care for them. "Play them if you want"... but also, I don't really play video games anymore. I'm playing FFVII a little bit just because it's been three or four years since I played it, but I haven't considered myself a current gamer for well over a year.

But back when I did play them some, my parents didn't really care as long as I kept my grades up. I guess my older brother got them used to the idea for me...

Also, my grandfather, the person who introduced me to gaming with NES classics like DW, Zelda, and FFI, supported gaming and was a gamer himself. Obviously he's my grandfather and whatnot, but I've always thought he was one of the most genuine and nicest people I have ever met. A little off-topic, but I think that's why my parents were so tolerant of the idea.

This post has been edited by Brad on 28th February 2005 23:15

Well, I have four gaming consoles and no job, so clearly my parents are tolerant enough of my obession to fuel it with their sweet sweet monies.

My mom's actualy pretty good about games. She used to try playing games, but I think that was just her trying to spend more time with us. I remember her jumping around like a bullfrog trying to play Mario Bros. She also claims to be the master of "Yoshi's Cookie." Seeing as me and my brother wouldn't touch that game with a 10 foot pole, we don't challenge her on that title. Nowadays however, she's sort of given up on gaming, although she still listens to me blather on about Game Plots, and occassionaly plays a handheld tetris thing when she's bored.

Dad never really tried playing games much. He was excited when we got our SNES, but he's a bit of a techno nut, so I figured that all the thrill for him was in all the little blinking bits and whatnot. I'm pretty sure he thinks both me and my brother (15 and 22 respectively) are too old for games, but he doesn't really understand the maturity of some games, so meh.



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TURKEY! - (The only way not to get blocked for using Fowl Language)

My mom always tells me she doesn't like the games I play because they seem "too hard." She says she'd prefer the classic Mario and Sonic games, but has never played them. She doesn't like us playing video games, for the most part, because my little brother (and by extension, all of us) play them way too much. The only one she ever buys games for is the one who plays too much.
The only game I've seen her play is Pac Man on the Atari way back when we had one, and I remember her being very good at it.

My dad likes fighting games (Mortal Kombat, Tekken, etc), but rarely plays them (only with us, actually, and usually in arcades). He's Lord and Master of Pinball in all of its incarnations. He's actually flipped machines before. The only time he really plays either one is with me or one of my brothers.
He mostly sees games that require/take more time spent than the above two to be a total waste of time.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

My dad has neither understood nor cared about me playing games as long as I keep my grades up. My mom on the other hand takes some interest in some of them. Any firstperson or fastmoving game makes her dizy but we play the old mario bro's games sometimes. She is fascinated by lan/online gaming as she was only used to the old two player games. She is always amazed when I tell her I am playing with friends on the other side of the world.

Interesting parent-based event.

My dad has never been fond of videogames, as I said before, but the other night (probably to try and 'bond' with me) he sat down next to me while I played FFXI, and promptly remarked 'Phwoar. I'd give 'er one.' He was talking about my Mithra character. The Mithra are scantily-clad female cat-women, a race I play purely for the superior stats. Entranced by her lack of clothing and swinging buttocks, he asked to sit down. After a painful half an hour teaching him the basics, I let him settle down and kill 'Too weak to be worthwhile' enemies. Twice now has he killed a few things, and has completed one quest and met my Linkshell (private communication group-thing.)

Something as awkward as a half-naked cat woman's behind can easily bring my father to understand what I've been enjoying these past 8 years or so. Go figure.

Nice. On a similar note, I mentioned earlier that my father will sometimes watch me and my friends duke it out on a fighting game. We always mix it up between a lot of fighters and games, so it goes without saying that eventually some scantily clad ladies will be present on-screen (Mai Shiranui of the Garou and KoF series was probably the first original over-sexified game character). My parents never seem to notice.

This post has been edited by laszlow on 24th July 2011 19:59

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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