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I really enjoyed reading the posts from other people in their mid-twenties, especially R51 and Hamedo. Hearing the two of you talk about how gaming relates to your wives and children (real or planned) put a smile on my face. Personally, I think it’ll be awhile before I’m ready for similar commitments, but hearing you talk of gaming with your kids brought me great joy.

I never would have gotten into gaming if it wasn't for my dad. He bought me such an early version of the NES that it came with Robbie the Robot and Gyromite. Unfortunately, Robbie the Robot was a poorly assembled hunk ‘o junk, and we soon turned to “Zapper” games like Duck Hunt and Wild Gunmen. We played a lot of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out too. (Guns & Mike Tyson=great for my early impressionable years…thanks dad! ).

As my gaming became more obsessive my dad stopped playing with me, and both parents tried limiting my play time. It didn’t work, but, in retrospect, it might’ve been better if it had. The early NES had an overwhelming library of pointless but addicting games that probably cost me a social life, good grades, and some brain cells.

My gaming took a turn for the better when a friend leant me Final Fantasy Legend III. That’s not a “real” FF, for all the uninitiated, but it had enough of the Square flavor to get me hooked. After that, it was almost exclusively RPGs. I borrowed FFII(us) from a kid who became a lifelong friend (and is now engaged!) I met another good friend because of Chrono Trigger. My grades also improved, probably because games with plots & puzzles were a better complement to my schoolwork. Since I was socializing, and my grades were better, my parents left well enough alone.

By college I wasn't a hardcore gamer because I wanted to focus on my studies. I played the new FFs out of loyalty, some sports games, and Smash Bros. Melee…oh yes, many wasted college nights on that. But it’s harder to be a dedicated gamer as you get older. You have to support yourself and, in some cases, a family.

I’ve had some free time recently, so I tried getting into gaming again. I was playing FFVI when I found this site. I also bought a PS2 and some PS1 games I love (FFVII) or never played (Xenogears). By Fall 2006 I should be back in school, though, and I expect my gaming will slow. I want to try to keep it a part of my life, if only because it meant so much to me growing up. If I can't, hopefully I’ll have gaming with my kids to look forward to.

Like some of you fine people it was my father that got me hooked. He has always been a RPG gamer and it was him that introduced me to games like Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire.

I remember when he bought FF IV. So damn funny. We were practicalyl glued to the screen.

However the backside of this is that he is better than be at most RPG's. I remember him playing FF-X for 200 hours in order to beat the dark aeons. Where does he find the patience?

My mother on the other hand isen't very much into gaming. But she accepts it so no problem there.

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"Relm I'm your father" NOOOOOO!!!

as for me, my mom don´t like any type of game I play, she continously scream me for playing...( And I work most of the day or study and only play a few hours after midnight and every little time I have!!! ) and always keep saying:" that games are melting your brain!" hahaha. ..I´m 20 years old by the way and start with the Nes, playing things like shatterhand, megaman and my FF1 ..those times..and personally thinking all the games I played in my life make me a lot smart, so my mommy is wrong...and my father also tell that I should sleep rather than playing...but he don´t scream like my mom!

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"Its no cheating if you don't get caught"

Well, 6 years after that first post in this thread, I'm 25 and still playing video games. My parents don't want much to do with the entire subculture, but when something gets mainstream enough they ask if I've heard of it (which I always have). Examples:

"Do you want one of these new Wii [pronounced "why"] things, Michael?"
"Have you ever played The Angry Birds?"

Other than those sorts of questions, my parents mostly stay out of it. My mom still hasn't been interested in a video game storyline since Final Fantasy X, and my dad views gaming as what I do to unwind instead of drink (which is often true). Mom still plays her Game Boy Color on plane trips, though, and my dad has transformed into a Minesweeper fiend, about 20 years late to the party.

Oh, but one night several months ago I recounted the story of Red Dead Redemption to my dad, and he was so intrigued that he asked me to fire it up and play it so he could watch. After awhile, he just shook his head and left. If only it were a movie....

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Hm, my mom doesn't like them at all. She things VG are just a waste of time. She often comes into my room and asks me "Ah? Are you playing again?"

The only VG I can recall that she played is The New Tetris. But only for a limited amount of time, thought she was very obsessed sometimes. Normally, she had make launch when I got home, but then, I caught her many times playing TNT instead of making me and my brothers something to eat.
Then, she stopped playing because it was in her opinion too time consuming and somehow senseless (because she could do more useful things during that time), and she hid the game for years. I might have found it in an accident meanwhile. Maybe he even hid the whole console, cant say for sure anymore.

She also highly restricted me playing VGs, or even watching TV. I recall that I was allowed to only play one hour per day till I was about 14. For some time, she even did only allow me to play VG and watch TV for a total of one hour a day. She might hoped that I would go out more then, but I mostly still stayed at home, reading comics over and over, got bored for hours just waiting till the clock says it is 6 pm. Sucked pretty much, TBH. I sometimes really just tortured the whole day.
However, when she was at work I had time to play, granted, for some times she took the cables for the TV with her, but you know...I got a PSX sometime and there were cables there of course. I can't say where I got them, but I might have had even more cables from somewhere, which I hid and used once she drove away. It was the very same with my bros, just that my older brother got his PC a year earlier than me. She usually got out of control when we got our machines since they were at our rooms and were somehow too hard to have a constant look at it.
And sometimes she didn't know any mercy when it was 7 pm. OK, very often I was able to distract her a bit or to lengthen my play time, but sometimes she or my older bro turned off the console suddenly.*
And you know, especially RPGs suck when you have to repeat the last 10 or mroe minutes. She always said: "You now know what to do, so you are faster the next time you play anyways." She didn't understand VGs and that this were huge frustrations and that a ) isn't fun to repeat the same thing and b ) that it doesn't go soo much faster the next time you play that game. And I got way more frustrated at VGs than I do today. I sometimes felt really bed I think.

* One very bad memory: He turned off the console while I was saving at darkstone, killing my savestate ultimativly because I couldn't even load previous saves.

However, at some time she offered me some kind of deal; I did go off riding at a horse with her and I am allowed to play a bit mroe (maybe one or two hours that day I rid with her). I won't say riding wasn't funny at all, but it somehow seemed to be forced and I was too proud to say that I enjoy it that much.

My farther didn't play soo much, he once did play a bit more and was a TNT nazi as well, but I think my mom got him under her fingers, forbid him to play (ok, I have to mention he has also a mental life-long illness, making him behaving way different than he usually does). But he was more tolerant about that one, he didn't really care if we play while our mom is away or not.
I really believe that somehow that education wasn't soo good at this aspect. Sure, it is good that I didn't hung all the time in front of the TV, but it simple created alot of frustrating feelings.
I might even hadn't give out hundreds or maybe even thousands of Euros for the Yu-Gi-Oh!-Trading Card Game.
The very most other parents allowed their children to play almost as much as they want. Maybe I even forced me to play while she wasn't there or when it was time because I had the feeling to miss time I could use to play. Meaning, that I might even had done other things if gaming wasn't soo much restricted to me.

Don't get a wrong view, I think my mother is definitivly not a wrong person and even a good mum, but I am simple not sure if this aspect of the education was that good.

For nearly my entire childhood and some of my teens, say 6-16, my dad hated me playing games. He didn't just dislike it or convince me to do other things, he just got angry and would storm through to my room if I was playing for more than 20 minutes and start shouting and swearing. Playing games when I was staying at his house was basically a mission to go to a friend's without him knowing or play in the middle of the night. Now he thinks I don't play, like I've finally grown up. I still have no idea what his problem is. Some days he was completely fine, and he did buy me games and my PS1 with Metal Gear Solid on one legendary Christmas. He just had flips that were probably more to do with him than games to be honest. He played one game with me, Vice City at Christmas. It was pretty funny watching him driving like a maniac going "aaaahhhh" out loud trying to avoid pedestrians and traffic. I think he was surprised at how much of a thrill he had. Oh well.

My mum's always been fine. I used to play FF games for long periods of time, definitely too long, and when I was 7 she put an electrical timer on the plug, the same type of thing that times water heaters. It meant I could play at set times. Of course with FF games and my being so young I'd frequently end the day having not saved for about an hour or two, I used to be so upset afterwards. After a few months I didn't play as much and she took the timer thing away. She's always been fine with me playing games and likes to take an interest in what I'm playing. I have two brothers who are both around 10. After me she's quite good at helping them because a lot of what they play are my old games.

This post has been edited by sweetdude on 25th July 2011 01:57

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

My mom was totally ok with me playing video games and probably purchased most of mine for me in the beginning. My dad and step mom did not like me playing video games. They still don't like me playing video games, think it's not an adult thing to do. What they don't understand is that there are different kinds of fun and different kinds of adults. Not everyone is going to be the same. I don't think I'd have become any more of an athlete than I am now had I not had video games or books. I'm just an indoorsy kid of person and video games is one of the things you can do indoors.

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Chewbekah ^_^

Currently Playing: Final Fantasy XIV: ARR, Attack of the Firday Monsters, Animal Crossing: A New Leaf, Lego City Undercover, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix

Recently Finished: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Favorite Game: Suikoden III

Both of my parents are quite old (both of them were born before the US entered WWII), so they aren't tech savvy enough to really play anything, nor do they really "get" why I used to play so often. That said, they never really thought too much of my constant gaming. It was just something I did. So long as I did my homework and went to church, they were fine with my playing video games.

Quote (Chewbekah @ 24th July 2011 21:48)

I don't think I'd have become any more of an athlete than I am now had I not had video games or books. I'm just an indoorsy kid of person and video games is one of the things you can do indoors.

That's an interesting point. I think had I not been such an active kid by and large, my parents wouldn't have been nearly as okay with my gaming as they were (even considering the restrictions they put on it, see my post from many years ago on the first page). Until I hit high school, I was doing outside sports all three seasons - winter isn't real fun for outdoor sports in Illinois.

Having been out on my own for so much longer now, my own situation hasn't changed much. I still game quite a bit, but obviously my parents don't have much say in it. I've caught up with the times a bit, and even have a current-gen console and handheld, but I don't think my parents have ever seen me actually play either one. When they're around, the Xbox is only ever used for Netflix. My mom, however, did get my dad a Wii a couple Christmases ago; any games more complex than Wii Sports tend to get the better of him, though, just as I mentioned in my first post in this thread.

And now, of course, I do have a child on the way so I'm really thinking about gaming with her in a few years. That Kinect Sesame Street game that was at E3 is looking pretty good to me right now, for instance. Maybe eventually I'll have a post in this thread from the other direction.

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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?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 25th July 2011 14:35)

Maybe eventually I'll have a post in this thread from the other direction.

I keep in contact with one of my ex's friends and recently she's been mentioning how much her son plays games. I suppose I could pitch in a little from her point of view. He was doing some of his more important high school exams at the end of last term and played Neverwinter Nights 2 for... most nights. She was mentioning how much of a problem it is. Apparently she played the Commodore 64 back in the day so she doesn't mind games themselves but has absolutely no idea how to stop her son playing all night and not doing his work. She's now disconnected the house internet entirely because she wasn't using it much and she couldn't think of any other way to make him stop. It's quite sad actually. The obvious solution would be for her to confront him about it and take authority and all the rest of it, but she said she's tried that and can't bring herself to be uncharacteristically nasty, she's not that kind of mother. It just shows that parents are human I suppose. There doesn't seem to be a right answer.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

My mom plays World of Warcraft so I'd say she likes games.

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This one time I punched a bear in the forehead TO DEATH! I still have the scars on my chest. I am the manliest man that ever did man.

League: Z3roHawk
Steam: Zero_Hawk
Wii U: Zero_Hawk
FF14 - Goblin - Zero Hawk <Fiend>

My parents have always been wary of my videogaming. They don't really mind my doing a bit of it, but anything more than about two hours at a time will get my Mom pretty riled up. She's gotten a bit better about it, but the general attitude is still that games should be played only for short amounts of time, and that I should be doing some type of work instead. I'm not allowed to take anything to college with me (though I obviously have my laptop, so I get around that if I want to ). I don't think it's due to any special negative feelings towards gaming though, so much as it is simply that my Mom's one of those people who believes there is always some task to be done and that any form of enjoyment not done in moderation is a waste of time.

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Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

I got my Gaming genes from my mom.

She plays with her DS more than I do with my PSP.

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Oops! Had the silly thing in reverse.^_^"

"I'm afraid the mouse is SMACK...dab in the middle of enemy territory."

~Kefka -- Dissidia Final Fantasy

Hmm, I don't recall your dad saying that about Seung Mina. . .

My parents don't care for games and I'm sure sometimes they wonder if I'd be more successful at life if they'd never bought me video games as a child. They did, however, buy games and systems for me until I hit high school and started buying them myself.

Lasz might recall the time he was over and my mom came down while we played games and pretty much berated our gaming habit . . .


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Wha? Thanks to me?

My dad plays MMORPGS, occasionally the RTS. My mom hates how all her kids love Video games. She played Tetris on our Game Boy/Color back in the day, and Brain Age on my DS after I got it.

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"And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped” -Sir Bedevere the Wise

Quote (ElPanachino @ 29th July 2011 21:07)

Lasz might recall the time he was over and my mom came down while we played games and pretty much berated our gaming habit . . .

Is she still angry with me about that? I mean, I regret nothing, but I know how your mom remembers things....

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Quote (laszlow @ 30th July 2011 15:36)

Quote (ElPanachino @ 29th July 2011 21:07)

Lasz might recall the time he was over and my mom came down while we played games and pretty much berated our gaming habit . . .

Is she still angry with me about that? I mean, I regret nothing, but I know how your mom remembers things....

I don't know, but it's been long enough that she's probably forgotten about it. I mean, I forgot about it until I read this thread.

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Wha? Thanks to me?

My parents don't mind it much. They follow me when I endlessly blab about so-and-so game, and my dad likes classic games like Contra and he likes Call of Duty (for the historical part), and so do I (I just play CoD to blow up my friends).

Not my parents, but my grandmother. I remember back when I was much younger and she was watching me play Goldeneye. You would normally think that a 70-year old woman would be appalled by watching her grandson tear through levels with assault rifles... but no. She actually encouraged me to do all sorts of terrible things. In Facility, I was to murder all of the scientists. In Frigate, she told me to execute all the hostages, as, according to her, they deserved it. Despite all this, she wouldn't let me kill Natalya on the train. Her reasoning? "It might be her birthday." Best grandma.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

For some reason my parents actually LIKED when my sister and I would play video games. This was back in the days of Atari and Intellivision. My mom didn't really get video games while we were kids, but she never seemed to mind when we played. My dad was a big electronics geek and I think he loved bringing home the latest gadgets more for himself.

I think the fact that my sister and I actually preferred to be outside and playing on bikes or with our friends outdoors kind of helped, though. That and we would often be the ones to invite friends over to play games because we were the only ones on the block who had video game consoles, so it made us a lot more social in that sense, I guess. They were pretty strict about how long and late we could play. No playing after dinner unless we "earned" it by doing special chores or something.

By the time the NES came around, we were definitely more likely to just sit around and play games when we should be doing homework or chores, but the parents solved that by only allowing it to be hooked up to the TV in their room. So when it was time to go to sleep, we weren't allowed to play. Later I guess we kinda demonstrated that we could be more or less responsible (not that we didn't get caught playing too late every now and then), but taking away video games was definitely an effective punishment for us... *LOL*

Once I got old enough to buy my own TV and game console, I did. I was a total nerd and very much into computers and programming, so when I think back on it, I actually think my parents appreciated that I got into video games and didn't just play them, but wanted to make them into a career.

Now that I'm married and have successfully made video games into a career, they love games. XD They come over and have absolutely no qualms about the fact my house has a PS3, a 360, and Wii. They always want to play on the Wii, actually. XD I think my dad has especially always liked video games himself, but the fact that his daughter works in the industry is icing on the cake now.

My parents don't seem to have a fundamental problem with me playing video games--they were the ones to buy me a NES, GB, SNES, SGB, and various other games.

That said, it's been a very frequent criticism from my mom (and occasionally my dad) that I play too many or too much games, as in I devote too much time to them. This has been a pretty consistent criticism since before high school, and ever since then.

These days, simply using the word "game" conjures up negative associations in my mom's head. She's long maintained that I ought to lay off on the games gradually as I grow up. To be honest, I actually do play games less, but I think about games and other entertainment quite a lot even when not playing them. On the other hand, she uses the word "game" to refer to just about any time I'm not doing something I'm supposed to be doing--this includes reading message boards and political blogs...

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

My mom loves rpgs, my dad is a part time gamer, and my grandpa loves shooters. I'd say it was somewhat unavoidable that I came to fall in love with video games. They never cause any problems in my household either, except for maybe the occasional "Well how the firetruck were we supposed to know THAT without help!?" moment.

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-FFIII FFIV FFV FFVII FFVIII FFX FFXII FFXIII FF:Dissidia FFVII:CC FFVII:DoC
--KHI KHII KH:COM KH:BbS
---SO:FD SO:TTEOT SO:TLH
----DQIII DQVIII
-----DA:O DAII
------VP:S

Oh, there's also the fact that my parents are Chinese and thus a bit less friendly than average to things originating from Japan. Y'know, what with everything Japan did to China in WWII and the Sino-Japanese War before that.

That said, this is only a mild prejudice that occasionally comes up in conversation; as I noted, they were the ones who bought those systems for me, and they don't mind eating Japanese food (as long as it's cheap enough...damn crikey that stuff is mightily expensive and contains so little actual food content).

Occasionally, I've thought that if they really take this criticism far, I'd tell them to blame U.S. and western companies like Coleco, Atari, Commodore, and others for the North American Video Game Crash of 1983, which ended up paving the way for Nintendo to dominate the market after that, and then Sega and Sony following suit, with only Microsoft really being a top-tier western console videogame company at this point.

That said, western developers continued to dominate the realm of computer games...which coincidentally I never got much into, apart from a bunch of old DOS games and a few Sierra titles after that.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 27th August 2011 19:06

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

My dad hates me playing videogames,but then again:he hates anything that makes me,my mom or my sister happy.

He never once paid any attention to me nor once joined me in playing games.
My mom doesn't care about videogames and since the nes era hasn't touched a videogame.She used to play metroid on the nes and i think zelda but hasn't touched anything after that era and only enjoyed it for a few years.



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We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.