What is the minimum age of Gaming?

[GrizzlerBorno]

I've been on here long enough to know that many of you have been gaming for a long time. Like a REALLY Long time. I'm not like that. I started gaming when I was about 16, and I had been an observer of older people playing games for a long time before that, so I knew all the hoops when I started.

But see here's the thing: I have a Nephew. He's 3 and a half years old. And he saw some older kid playing some game on a computer......and know HE wants to play games. ALL the F%&*ING time! and i have to baby sit him often so he keeps screaming at me to give him a game.

Except he doesn't understand what a "game" really is, anyway. I gave him the simplest game i had on my computer at first: Portal (by simple i don't.....aah you know what i mean!) But he just kept randomly punching the keyboard and clicking the mouse buttons hoping something would happen. He can't obviously connect how pressing a certain button corresponded with a certain very specific action.

So now, I just switch on a game on my cellphone and sit him down with it. and I'm not talking about an iPhone or Android.....I'm talking about an old Sony Ericsson phone with JAVA games. So I load him onto the flashiest and loudest game I have in there and he just randomly punches the keypad, while his stuff blows up.

If you DO completely take your experience out of the equation, our methods of interfacing with games are pretty DAMN arbitrary. I mean WHY is shift to sprint and ctrl to run? There's no real reason other than: "it just IS". So It's understandable that he can't connect them......but he obviously wants to.

So my question is: What age did you start Gaming at? And do you believe that there is a Minimum Age for video gaming?

Also, what the hell do i do about my nephew? Whenever he comes into my room and sees the assortment of Video game related wallpapers I have on rotation, he thinks that they actually ARE games and starts randomly hammering my keyboard. It's pretty comical but slightly annoying.
He walked in when i was Literally typing THIS post, thought i was playing a game and consequently started punching the keyboard while i found a way to distract him again....yeah.

 

[Arehexes]

I started gaming at age 2

 

[Serenegoose]

I started gaming when I was about 3 or 4 - my first games were platformers and a paint program. Pretty simple. Portal is vastly, vastly too complex because it requires you to listen to instructions. At 3, that's like the worst thing you can ask of them. Most phone games are a little too abstract as well - like say in mario, the first one. You have a simple goal, 'get to the far right hand side of the map and save the princess' and a simple instruction. 'don't get hit' so it's easy to get. In snake, you've got 'get food, grow'. It's not complex, but it's more abstract. Since this is your nephew, you're an uncle, and that gives you special privileges to be the guy who does the fun shit with his nephew. Unless you take care of him a substantial portion of your time, don't worry about him doing some gaming with you - just give him games he can grasp, with a concrete goal but simple mechanics.

 

[Boneasse]

I got my first console, a Sega Master System II, at age 5 or 6, and I have been gaming ever since.

Mind you, it might be easier getting into a game where you go from A to B and you can only run or jump (I'm talking about Sonic here). The only worry you have is not to die.

I even got to the firstlast boss at one point, but I didn't beat him until I was age late 6, early 7, I belive.

If you have an old console with a Mario game, try and dust it off and set him in front of it. Who knows, maybe running and jumping could actually get him through a level. He'll probably have fun regardless.

 

[Devi Darkside]

I started at 5 with an N.E.S. I think the minimum is when a child can comprehend how to use a controller.

 

[nomzy]

Started when I was about 7 or 8.
Didn't play multiplayer games 'till I was about 11, when I started playing Runescape.

Minimum age depends on what type of games were talking about.

 

[Amnorpse]

It really does depend honestly. I don't know if there really is an age to start gaming so much. As you said, it really is about trying to make sure you can go, "oh this button does that and this button does this." I was actually thinking the same thing a week ago. My cousin, who I believe is about 5 or 6 now, got donkey kong country returns (I believe thats the name?) for christmas and I was playing it with him and found it rather...entertaining that he had no idea what he was doing. All he cared about was playing as Diddy Kong for the damn jet pack and peanut guns!

I myself started playing video games when I was about 3. I am now 19, so that is 16 years of growing up playing. My dad and I played NHL 94 all the time, and shining force 2 quickly became a favorite of mine. Sonic games were played quite often when I could convince my parents to let me rent a game.

Overall, it just sounds like the kid is trying to destroy your keyboards, or any electronic device you give him. You can either teach him how to play, let him learn on his own, or just try and keep him as far away from video games of possible. For the safety of your keyboards, I say the last one!

 

[lemiel14n3]

I started gaming, oh around 7 or 10 with the N64 (Nintendo really makes the perfect console to get people started on, say what you will, Yahtzee, but they've got pick up and play down to an artform.)

But what age kids should start, that's harder. around ten seems to fit, as that's around the time that their minds and education are developed enough that they can read and form the correlations between action and reaction, as in you press this button, this happens.

I think moviebob said somewhere that inorder to game you need at least three things, reading, logic and math

 

[Nouw]

I started when I was 6-7. I'm South Korean by the way, so quit thinking I'm a Starcraft addict xD! My first game I believe was Maple Story, a fantastic game which now unfortunately bores me.

 

[spartan1077]

I started gaming at the age of 1ish...my first games were on the snes and then I played counter-strike against my dad's friends when I was 6 and I started "hardcore" gaming 5 years back when I got into WoW. I don't think there should be a minimum age for entertainment(video games)...but parents should tell that 6 year olds playing leisure suit larry might not be smart

 

[tombman888]

Well, i started playing at age 5 with Super Mario 64. good times. Finished that game in less then 2 weeks too (all stars) XD

 

[TWRule]

I started when I was 4, and my first game was Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). Nice and simple controls - all you can do is move to the side and jump. I sucked at first and it took me awhile to beat the first level but eventually I figured everything out and beat the game. After that I was able to figure out most console games. I started playing simple pc games when was like 6 or 7, puzzle games not long after that, and more complex ones like Starcraft when I was about 12 or 13, I think.

I managed to tool around with Lemmings on the pc when I was around 5. I understood the goal of the game but not really the mechanics. Simple goals, simple mechanics are the best for a kid. Most PC games just aren't like that (unless you count the learning ones).

I bet the kid would be able to figure out an xbox 360, but probably not how to take care of one. Give him some sort of older console that uses cartridges and has a simple controller and I bet he'll pick that up in no time.

 

[Aur0ra145]

I stated in 1994 when I was 5 with Wolfenstein 3D. Pretty much I've always been a PC gamer. I never used a mic until after I turned 17.

All the communities I've been a part of (even when I was alot younger) were 18+ clans/communities. I've always been a lot more mature than the norm when gaming.

As for minimum age....

For consoles: none.

PC: 14 to play multiplayer games. 16 to use a mic.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

I started at 5 maybe...

Minimum age to start gaming: As soon as possible.

 

[MrEnigami]

Somewhere between 3 and 5 for me. I think my first console was either a sega of some description (megadrive maybe?), or a SNES. Either way, it was fun. The games had relatively simple goals (go right, beat this guy up etc.), and pretty simple ways of achieving them (go right, keep press A etc.).

Things like portal won't work for a 3-year-old though. Too complicated.

 

[DJ Railgun]

In all honesty, I made an account just to comment on this. That being said, let me voice my experience with the subject.

at least 90% of my earliest memories involve either playing or watching people play games. I'm talking specifically about Super Mario World and Final Fantasy 6, maybe NBA Jam. I knew the entire story behind Final Fantasy 6 before I was four. That was before I could read. In fact, it's story is the core of my being. I STILL play it from time to time. I was effectively playing 2nd player in Super Mario World before I was two.

This question reminds me of those "my baby can read" commercials: I don't believe that there is any minimum age, for the right games. The problems are probably the controls being too complex these days. Try whipping out the SNES (emulator if your system is toast) and throwing some classics at the kid.

Or, think of it this way: The earlier he starts, that much better he'll be at them than his friends in high school.

 

[thecoreyhlltt]

i was 4 when i first started, i'm 21 now. i think if the kid wants to play and he can play, then let him. and if it pisses you off so much that he doesn't know how to play them, then teach him. it's a great way to bond, and then he won't grow up to be a button masher, cause let's face it... no one likes a button masher...

i totally agree with DJ Railgun's opinion, and upon reading it i'm reminded of a Mitch Headberg joke... "Any book is a childrens book, if the kid can READ!"
R.I.P. Mitch

 

[The Wykydtron]

My earliest memory is of me playing Sonic (Sonic 2?), i must have been like 4ish