Poll: Your Parents on Gaming.

[sylekage]

My mum never played games, unless it was internet flash games, but my Dad was a big gamer. He introduced me to Zelda on the Super Nintendo, and it just went from there. He had owned every nintendo system up to the Game Cube. He's the reason I got into gaming

 

[Jess Green]

My step dad plays a lot of online games like Planetarion and World of Warcraft and what not, My mum tends to stick with what i call 'party games' on the Wii and Scene It for Xbox if there are a lot people over.

My mum used to be a little dismissive over it when i was younger and requested playstation games instead of make up and clothes (which i still tend to do) but has gotten over this.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

My dad was all about the point-and-click adventure games like Myst, Riven, Exile, the Journeyman Project, Tex Murphy, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island. That was his forte. He has a separate notebook for each one where he wrote down all the steps he took to beat puzzles and clues he collected. He loved it!

He was also really big into stat games and kept current with a baseball stat simulator known as Diamond Mind for over 20 years. He was never able to get into the new age of gaming, although he really tried to play by baseball games with me (like High Heat 2000 for PS1) but couldn't handle it. He was always willing to listen to me talk about games however and I will cherish those memories of "helping" him with the adventure games (sometimes getting him killed).

 

[Ymbirtt]

Hm, this is actually pretty difficult to answer. I mean, my mum has been fairly enthusiastic about a lot of games, but they were all what everyone here would roll their eyes at and dismiss as being "casual" (eGames' Old Chest, Soleau's Desk Drop, etc). Anything more involved than that she's never really gotten into, but she still takes an interest in my hobby and is willing to at least pretend to listen to my various rants about exactly where Invisible War went wrong.

My dad on the other hand has never taken much interest in my games, and is still at the whole "games are all about killing people and it's disgusting". I remember when me and my brother were playing Roller Coaster Tycoon and he came in and asked us "So when do the guns appear and when do people start killing each other? What? There's no killing? Not a very good game, then, is it?". Inb4 people tell me about roller coasters exploding. So, yeah, difficult question to answer. For my dad, no, but for my mum, yes but only casual games.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

They're essentially indifferent, I get the occassional nagging to stop spending x amount of hours on 'that stupid thing' but I think that's more of a shot at my general indolence than anything else.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Inspired by the "Stupid things said about video games" thread, not 100% original, but oh well!

Here's my question Escapologists:
Have your parents ever had an enthusiasm for gaming? (Or are they beyond hope...?)

Basically, having read the above thread, there seem to be a lot of people on this here forum that have parents who are anywhere from slightly, up to completely, ignorant of gaming.

My parents aren't perfect in this department. My mother (I've used that word so as to not create a divide in British/Non-British Escapzorz: "Mum/Mom") is almost entirely game-dyslexic. She understands very little about games and gaming as a whole, over the years - living with me as her son - she has grown to understand a little more. But she's still pretty clueless! I don't hold that against her, I completely understand, I really don't expect her to know ANYTHING about gaming. When she does show a sign of game-centric knowledge it really amazes me, it makes me feel I've made a difference...

My Dad on the other hand, used to be kind of a dab hand in the gaming field. At least when it came to older puzzle/point-and-click or RTS games. He introduced me to the wonderful world of gaming way back when, with the Monkey Island series. He knew the tricks and set me loose on 'em, I beat them (eventually, and with a little help from him) and my love for games only grew from there.
He also showed me Age of Empires, Warhammer: Dark Omen, Warcraft, Alone in the Dark and Grim Fandango. Actually, thinking back, my Dad was pretty cool back then...
To this day I can't beat my Dad in an RTS that he knows how to play.

However, my father has sadly fallen behind on the times. He's pretty knowledgeable on games from the 90s and before, but he's not brilliant on the stuff since. (Unless they were sequels)
He tries his best - which I admire, I really do - but he knows that it's no longer his forte.

SO! TL;DR (Which I imagine that probably was for a lot of people)

The question's at the top! What are YOUR parents like with games???


P.s. My dad also bought me Tombi! (That's what "Tomba!" was called over here) for the PlayStation, I've seen a lot of love for those games recently and I thought I'd chip in.

It was originally my dads idea to buy an Xbox, and when we did he was the first one to play it, games such as Splinter Cell and Halo. Eventually, I wanted to have some fun with it as well, so I took the controller from him every time he was killed.

So not only is my dad fine with gaming, but he introduced it to me. My mom is also completely fine with it.

 

[curty129]

They're very chill with it. I don't think my mum is at all concerned with gaming, in a positive or negative way: it's entertainment.
My dad used to be a typical RTS fan, namely a fan of the Command and Conquer series. And we did play Mario Kart: Double Dash (I cannot believe I remember that name! Such joy! ) through, together, which was quite fun. But these fun times were foiled by the practical issues of boring, old, regular life, being that he has a job, and has to work to keep it.

They're very open-minded people, which I do find myself appreciating quite often.

My parents are the type of people who are instantly dismissive of gaming, calling it a "pointless waste of time".

I know how it feels.

Have you told them: "It's my method of relaxing/chilling."?
If you have, what was their reaction?


Some prime examples to expose their hypocrisy: do either of your parents watch soap operas? Do either of them ever help themselves to a dessert/pastry/sweet?

Use clear reasoning. It's always a grey area, so they'll always have reasons against it, but you have to emphasise the fact that their reasons are less rational: assuming they are.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, if my mum or dad helped themselves to a 'dessert/pastry/sweet' I would definitely take my right hand off of my PS3 controller for a moment to punch the face off of their face, then it would be back to Crysis 2/Outworld/Mortal Kombat...

*Fucking Lol*

 

[Conza]

Interesting question. I'm forced to choose option 1, but really only 1 parent has been really into video gaming, atleast post when I was born, so, I guess option 1 fits best, but more options wouldn've been nice.

It is cool to know however, that some ~40% of people's parents did/do play video games in some way, I'm just not convinced its a totally accurate measure.

 

[mattranz2003]

My dad likes some games that I like, mostly shooters, whereas my mum only likes Mario World and Wario's Wood, but voth are pretty liberal when it comes to what I play on, even going so far as to buy the game for me (no ID).

 

[WorldFree55]

My mum played through a few cases in L.A. Noire with me, helping out in finding clues and interrogations. I think she likes it because she also likes murder/crime thrillers.

My mother loves those two. I thought my family and I were crazy people when we realized that our favorite dateline shows were about murder trials, cases, etc XD.

 

[l3o2828]

Not really enthusiatic but my mother being a mostly casual Puzzle /Adventure gamer, and my dad being a hardcore FPS gamer, i could say that, even tough they don't show it because of being obviously old, they like their games and do get excited about playing them.
is it enough?

 

[Weaver]

My Dad is still a sucker for fantasy games.
He's an old time D&D player, he still has his First Edition red box (which I'm sure is probably actually worth money to the right person) and all of the models he and his friends (and my mom!) used to play D&D with.

He got really into things like Betrayal at Krondor, Baulders Gate, Morrowind, Never Winter Nights - even Diablo 2.

 

[Antisigma]

Smiling, nodding, and 'that's nice, dear'. That is the basic reaction I get when I try to explain my gaming hobby to them.

So I don't try anymore, and we're happier all around for it.