what do your Parents think about Video games?

[Midnight Crossroads]

My parents don't really care. They just look at it as something I enjoy which they don't personally enjoy. It's fine. I don't enjoy soap operas or knitting, yet I still love them. It's just not a topic we enjoy sharing with each other.

It's preferable than having them randomly give me shovelware games they found or pestering me about my pokemans.

 

[Akukaishi]

My mother feels she has no time for games. This isn't entirely false, as the woman is a bona fide responsibility junkie addicted to organizing events and non-profits like most of us collect video game titles or Magic the Gathering cards.

My father, however, is the one who got me INTO gaming. So. There you have it.

 

[Lenvoran]

Just got out of some games of League of Legends with my dad.

Both parents work in the games industry, so they're pretty cool with it. Whole family (Mother, Father, Sister, and I) all used to raid together when we actually played WoW.

I'd say they're pretty cool with it.

 

[Dawns Gate]

My mom doesn't care and my dad got me started after he began playing battlefield 2 with his war buddies in 2006 when he came back from Afghanistan because of his wounds.

Ironic how all (around 50 or so) soldiers I know, love video games about war, and civilians think the games are disrespectful to them.

 

[TheFinalFantasyWolf]

My parents got me into gaming at the age of 3. At first they played with me when I was younger, but after I was 6 they just stopped.

I don't know about my dad, but with my mum, I'm not even sure she understands games anymore. I think she still believes games are like Super Mario 64 (where there's barely any cutscenes and you just start playing, with little speech bubbles telling you what to do). She was watching me play MGS4 and when I mentioned "I love this cutscene." She asked, "What's a cutscene."

I explained that most games start like a movie, with an opening cinematic that introduces the plot, and main characters and that when that has been established, you then get to control the protagonist and play. (And that there are cutscenes throughout the game as well) She then asked, "how do you know when you get to play? Does it tell you?" I tried telling her its quite obvious when gameplay starts by pointing out the differences between cutscenes and gameplay. I still don't think she understands, she seems to be really behind when it comes to knowledge about games. However, since she keeps asking me about it, and I told her that I want to become apart of the gaming industry, I think she is making the effort to get to know games more. I'm going to slowly and subtly introduce her to it, and hopefully one day, she'll understand the art behind it and my passion for them

 

[Webb5432]

My mother almost never plays them. I've made her play the original LittleBigPlanet once. She only has a problem with me playing games, though, if there is a lot of graphic content in front of either herself, her friends, or younger family members/guests. Oh, and I can't play them ALL day.

My father plays racing games (Grant Turismo 5 is/was his favourite). However, he has the same rules-of-thumb as my mother.

My sister plays Call of Duty every once in a while (she actually kicks ass).

I have a collection of fighting games, RPG's, third- and first-person shooters, action titles, and a couple oddball "artsy" type games.

 

[Zhukov]

My parents both strongly disapprove. I grew up without owning video games (or TV for that matter) until age 13. However, once I was able to fund my hobby of choice they never tried to actively prevent it. I no longer live with either of them, so thankfully it's a moot point.

Anecdote: As an exercise in debate, I once attempted to convince my mother that video games had artistic merit, or at least the potential for such. Surprisingly, I was able to extract a grudging confession.

 

[Sacul]

If you know the ending, it relates to a father reaching out to his reluctant son. More happens, but it's spoiler territory and I don't know how to cover that shit up with tags.

Father/son bonding through videogames.

Spoiler: How To Tag Spoilers

To make a spoiler tag you just put [ spoiler ] and the text you want afterwards (of course you don't put spaces between spoiler and the columns), then you put [ / spoiler ] without any spaces at the end of the text. You can also change the title on the spoiler by adding a =(title here) between spoiler and the second column, the first time you put the spoiler tag down. If you want to know how to do something you see in someone's post, you can just quote them and it should show you the command they used in their post. You may want to preview your post to make sure you got it right though. Hope I helped.

My Dad is a huge gamer and my Mom even played Diablo 2 with us awhile ago. My Dad doesn't really care but I think my Mom wishes I wouldn't play quite so much but she doesn't really mind otherwise and never brings it up. I'm not sure if I would of gotten into gaming if it wasn't for my Dad actually.

 

[ImSkeletor]

My dad played games with me often and my mom was okay with my gaming and occasionally participated on the lighter stuff.

 

[ICortezI]

My parents aren't necessarily against it, and I guess they play wii occasionally, but their general stance is intense disinterest and scoffing. They think it's silly and childish, but they also don't think video games are mass producing serial killers so I'm okay with it.

 

[NinjaDuckie]

My mum and dad brought me up playing Commander Keen and Tetris. Needless to say, they're very into gaming. I only got a Steam account because I bought my dad Half-Life 2 and he never got around to installing it. In many ways, they've really got worse as they got older - not least in that they only play casual games now: Zuma & Bejeweled take up most of their time.

It's kind of sad, because I remember mum telling me about how she and dad spent hours well into the night beating Commander Keen 3, and it seems they were well-gamed before it really became a mainstream market.

 

[zombiejoe]

They arn't really "gamers", but they don't hate it or anything.

 

[Windcaler]

My parents are totally fine with it, have been since they bought me my first console the NES. My grandparents who have passed on also were fine with video games, they bought me my SNES for christmas but games werent really their thing.

Today my dad doesnt play at all, and my mom mostly plays puzzle games but theyre both supportive of the hobby. Last time we went gift shopping together they even went out of their way to educate someone who was my age who thought that games were just for kids. Really I couldnt ask for cooler parents

 

[Codeknight]

I have been conditioned through my life to be embarrassed about my hobby of gaming especially if discussed in a public setting. That about sums up my parents thoughts. I went to get my haircut once and the barber was a gamer too, and that was a long barber visit. took pretty much until the end of the haircut for me to even start talking about what kind of games I liked. Kinda sucks to always have to wear headphones or play with the volume down low because you feel like your doing something wrong by playing a game. :C

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

My fam have always seen video games as a valid entertainment medium.

Hell, when I was a young lad my Da and I would kill a few hours at an arcade once a month.

My Ma... she's never been interested in games but, probably because of my Da's influence, still accepted them as a valid entertainment medium. These days she's fascinated with games as an alternative education medium... so I rarely talk games with her unless I want to get into that sort of discussion.

My step-Da is a bit of an odd duck with games. Has no interest in them but will watch someone else play a game if it's cinematic enough.

 

[Chasing-The-Light]

My parents view of it is this: "We didn't send you to college to play video games all day! D<"
Me: "Really? >.> Well... guess I missed that memo."

 

[Physics Engine]

My parents are pretty old so they don't really understand video games that much. My Mom always said it was a waste of time and my Dad wasn't really impressed until the current generation of consoles.

Now that I'm a parent, I've tried to use games as a positive force with my son. I taught him to read with Pokemon Blue, he learned all the math and stats himself before he was 5. Now he kicks my ass at Call of Duty and I kick his at Forza/Gran Turismo.

Good times, good times...

 

[Scarim Coral]

They aren't into playing games themselves bu I guess they are fine with me playing with it. They do however always tell me not to play to must and rest my eyes etc and etc.

 

[Antagonist86]

My mom is into gaming, she likes sandbox games and sims, which is cool. When I was younger she thought I would 'outgrow' but she knows better now, and last time when I was talking to a friend about a game, she actually gave me a compliment for being able to remember the lead dev's name, engine and history of the publisher, which was a weird experience.

Also I think she is the only one that consistently watches my Let's Plays...

 

[Irriduccibilli]

I think they see games as a childs toy. It bothers me some time, but I have learned to live with it. A couple of years ago my dad borrowed my old Xbox so he could play some games, so it seems that he wants to play games, but to be honest... he sucked really badly. Anyone remember the video with the dad who failed at Portal? This was twice as bad... almost. I don't think my mother ever played a video game before, other than some Wii games. My brother plays some games, but he just buys some games and never finish them. He bought Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV and LA Noire a while back, and he havent finished any of them yet. Good for me, then I dont have to pay for them.
It's annoying that the only time I can play co-op or any other type of local multiplayer is when I have friends over. Also, I dont have anyone to play Mortal Kombat with since my brother doesnt like that game after a kicked his ass three games in a row and he only hit me once. Maybe I should have gone easier on him. Oh well, play to win right?