Gaming with Family

[StickyGreenGamer]

Correct, digging into personal history again! I want to know about your gaming experiences with family. 20+ years in a home with consoles and the PC, I've had plenty.

My mom, is not a gamer. She still swears by Super Mario Bros., makes sure I keep it available for her to play when she wishes. Beyond that, its Bejeweled and that is the finish line.

My dad is probably most responsible for my habit. Taught me about games back on a Commodore, I remember watching him sink hours into Red Baron and Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator. Introduced me to RTS. When he wasn't home for a while I remember schooling the old man on Rogue Spear online, one of our favorite games. Most memorable was high school though, when I got my hands on a PS2. My old man LOVED Medal Of Honor: Frontline, played the hell out of it. And before he got sick, I remember him waking up for work an hour or two early so he could play Grand Theft Auto undisturbed.

As far as my brother, things have evolved over the years. We have come a long way since that day I had my nose broken over a game of Scrabble (brotherly love...). When we were younger, my brother had an affinity for racing games, me, I hated them. I can remember all those times I couldn't play a game because he was in the middle of some 600 lap endurance race that couldn't be turned off, or saved in the middle. We've moved on from that though, now actually passing recommendations and tips to each other. As much as my brother hated some of the games I played though, I could always count on him to help me out if a part was to hard for my younger mind to solve. How long would it have taken me to beat Resident Evil 3 without him to solve the stupid water plant puzzle, who knows?

This is just a bit of what I've had going on for many years, I'm slightly curious as to what the rest of you have.

 

[StudioTan]

I don't have much time right now, but I distinctly remember my dad rigging up the SNES controller with rubber bands and paper clips to farm those 20 something lives in Contra 3. He never told me what he was doing he just said it was secret or something. I remember him being hooked on Super Metroid as well. Funny thing is, he never bought it; just rented the damn game from Blockbuster a hundred times. Makes me laugh to think about how many games all that rental money could have bought!

 

[UrbanMasque]

Video games was my escape from the reality that: I don't fit in with these people ( my family).
I distinctly remember playing american gladiator on the NES one summer. My dad coming down stairs, apparently from hearing me having too much fun in my own video game world, hitting reset on the NES while I'm playing ( i think the jackass meant to turn it off), and then yelling at me to go outside and play.

With who? I don't know, but just go play. (that guy was a prick)
Someone posted this a while back, and I saved it. Pretty much sums up how I felt as a kid.

Anyway, I fully intend to play videogames with my kids - much like Bret does and probably a few more of you (which I think is AWESOME btw). Its a very good generation bridge that I intend on holding onto as long as I live.

tl;dr - the family that plays videogames together, doesn't raise sociopaths.

 

[StickyGreenGamer]

Anyway, I fully intend to play videogames with my kids - much like Bret does and probably a few more of you (which I think is AWESOME btw). Its a very good generation bridge that I intend on holding onto as long as I live.

Yeah, I left my eldest nephew out of my original post and now I feel bad. Without going into to much detail, my brother has another kid in a different city, where he lives, and since my eldest nephew's mother is less than....motherly, I've drawn quite a bit of duty with the boy. Taught him to play, see him getting better and better every week, absolutely awesome to see. Glad the boy has an outlet too, poor kid needs one.

I'm sorry to hear that Urban. I guess I was fortunate in the fact that even though my dad wasn't always there, he was never an ass. At least you know though, and in the future you know how you don't want to be towards your own kids. Had quite a few family friends who had grown up with fathers that were like that, most of them wound up being some of the best kinds of fathers.

 

[cyberjim2000]

My mom used to play Tetris and Dr. Mario A LOT. In Dr. Mario, she'd be playing the game at level 20 with the speed up high and complains that the game's slow. Before my dad became and anti-videogames, he used to play Super Mario Bros. with me when I was little but I didn't get to play that much because whenever I tried to make a jump across a pit, he'd pause the game then unpause it and I would fall to my death so that he could play sooner.

 

[GRColin]

Wife and I play WoW together. Well not anymore since we stopped playing...But that's the extent of it Maybe the odd match in Soul Claibur 4 or MK or Scene It.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

I got my dad the Galaga/Ms. Pacman machine for his birthday.


He loooooves that Ms. Pacman.

 

[Guernica]

My sisters growing up loved to play Mario and Duck Hunt on NES so we were always fighting over who got to play. After that though they never kept playing. My mom though was way into DrMario and played it on all the highest settings as well.

I bought her a GBA SP back when they came out for a Dr. Mario version that was on it and she played that until she got a ds and now she plays a version on that =P

I've got my family to play casual games(mostly bowling) on Wii and Dance Central on Kinect and they enjoy those but other than that not really.

My girlfriend on the other hand has always loved watching me play long epic games like ME, HL2, and other games with good stories and she enjoys games like Zelda. It's pretty great getting to game with her.

 

[MattAY]

Meh, my family arent gamers at all. My brothers play the standard sport games. My parents dabbled in the Wii Sports gimmick for a week when we first got it - but that's about it. My Dad challenges me to a game of Tiger Woods now and again, but there's almost no point in humiliating him so many times - I've got so many cups of coffee won in this circumstance it's unREEEAL.

 

[De-Ting]

Everyone in my direct family is a gamer. My dad's not so much now, since he's srs bsns. He always watches us kids play whenever he can, though. My mom keeps the SNES hooked up. My two brothers and I were always in competition with each other, until the older one moved out. We still play online together. My younger brother and I rock the world with our prowess, and my sister enjoys select games on all platforms.

And my step-mom is a casual Wii / iPad-er.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Oh right, I should probably talk about the rest of my family.

One of my sister's loves Age of Empires and Tekken. So I play those with her on occasion.

My other sister I got into RPG's. First with Oblivion, then Fallout 3/NV and Dragon Age. I want her to play the earlier Fallouts, since I know she'd love them, but still. Also, she plays MvC2 and 3.

So, yeah.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

My parents didn't play games when I was growing up. My dad was more than happy to school you in ping pong or billiards though. Mostly they tolerated video games. They used them as a reward system most of the time. Do your homework, chores, etc. then you can play. My two brothers and I were all really active though. We played with friends, did sports, played instruments and read books. So I don't think my parents really ever worried about the time spent on games. It was just another activity. But I definitely remember times were they would shut games off (usually when we were ignoring them) and once my mom even erased my save card on purpose (I deserved it).

Now, my dad will play Hot Shots Golf and Rock Band with me, but it's not really his thing. Both he and my mother-in-law play Lego:etc. and LBP with my boys during their respective visits. It's cool to see them take that interest in my kids' activities. My dad says it's easier than trying to keep up in soccer.

My wife used to play the occasional game of Tekken or Rock Band when we were dating, but hasn't since. She let's the boys play when I'm not at home, but she more prone to have them go outside or get toys or a book.

I play games with them, but that's not to say we don't get into fights about it. They can be completely oblivious when playing. There were times where they would forego a potty break and just keep playing while peeing in their pants, but that's been corrected. We make them earn it (homework, chores, etc.) and there's no games before dinner or directly before bed time (it only ends in tears or crappy meal times), and we don't tolerate yelling or fighting when they play. The can get rough at times over things like stolen prize bubbles.

And their interest is completely different. My eldest would be content playing Lego: Star Wars all day, all week. So we really have to encourage him to do other things and find other interests. On the other hand, my youngest is less attached to the PS3 and will just as soon go play with toys.

I would say that because of my understanding of games, I have a different perspective than my parents. One, I don't buy crappy games for them. Two, I know how to find out what content is in a game and buy them age-appropriate games. This I feel is important and I foresee arguments in the future. I hate that they figured out how to sign into the PSN (the 5 year-old memorized my pass) because they've joined games with others and it's true "online content is not rated". There's nothing more annoying than some guy joining them and then telling them in LBP and then yelling at them to "hurry the fuck up" or "stop fucking dying". But like I said, my knowledge of the system has allowed me to take precautions, set appropriate content filters and buy appropriately.

 

[UrbanMasque]

There's nothing more annoying than some guy joining them and then telling them in LBP and then yelling at them to "hurry the f*** up" or "stop f****** dying". But like I said, my knowledge of the system has allowed me to take precautions, set appropriate content filters and buy appropriately.

DUde! I apologized for that.Time to move on!

 

[danielrbischoff]

I grew up playing games with my little brother. Unfortunately we haven't played games together in a while, despite the fact that he just got a 360 and we should be playing online.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

There's nothing more annoying than some guy joining them and then telling them in LBP and then yelling at them to "hurry the f*** up" or "stop f****** dying". But like I said, my knowledge of the system has allowed me to take precautions, set appropriate content filters and buy appropriately.

DUde! I apologized for that.Time to move on!

Ha! My kids know your Gamer Tag and still tell me about how we played with "the soldier guy" on "the puppet game."

 

[NickKmet]

My brother got me into gaming on the PC, but he eventually grew out of it due to school, while I became a much more hardcore gamer. There used to be a time when he was much more computer savvy than me, but now he comes to me for advice when purchasing new hardware.

Neither of my parents are gamers in the slightest. Too busy really.

 

[TheJx4]

Just like Dan (except that it's my current situation) I played tons of games with my little brother.

If it had co-op, we played it together. It's one of the reasons why I choose CoD over most shooters.

He doesn't seem to be going down the same techy/nerd/gamer road I am, and he's moving on to other things. It feels weird sometimes not having anyone to run through a few missions with, or beat up some bad guys.
Which means I'll probably start picking up games without co-op, but I'd still like for the option to be there.

Which reminds me, I really miss those sweet co-op brawlers of the 90's.
Before I was a legitimate "big brother", I used to play tons of stuff with my two older brothers and my sister. Her favorite series of all-time is probably Mario, we'd play for hours. I'll probably get her a 3DS for Christmas because 3D Land looks awesome, I might opt for a Wii because she lives with three other Mario fanatics.

Goldeneye: Rogue Agent remains one of my most cherished OG Xbox games, because all of us would play fer dayz.
Uplink is my favorite map.

I've tried getting my parents into shooters, didn't work out to well.
So I'm pretty much a loner in my house now, and when I'm gaming, everything else fades away. Shit sucks around here.

Anyways, incoming ProTip: Get Skylanders dammit.

 

[Daddio]

Brother and I used to play games quite a bit together when we were younger, be it NES, PS1 or PS2. Also played a lot of Ultima Oniline when we were in our early teens. Our biggest rivalry was in NHL games, I used to kick his ass a shit ton .. then he got a lot better.

My dad was a casual player, he had an Atari and played games like Donkey Kong, Burger Factory and Pong. When they got me a NES and Sega for my bday we didn't really play many games together, but when they got me the PS1 we played this shitty little wrestling game together. He was always so bad at it, and I would have to let him win lol. He enjoyed playing golf games too.

This topic is rather personal in a way, dad would type in the name Daddio whenever he was asked to give a name. When he passed away 6 years ago I took it over, felt fitting seeing how my wife at the time of his death was 3 months pregnant with our first child.

Wife plays a lot of games too, and she's actually really good. We played WoW for 4-5 years together, one helva healer. I'd tank, she'd heal. Like Lethean we don't play anymore though. She's awaiting SWTOR and filling her time with Gears 3 Horde lol.

My kids are 5 and 3 now, it's amazing how easily they pick up games on either the PC or console. They know how to navigate to websites in bookmarks, close pop ups without clicking on anything and understand the general basics .. its freaky. They both know how to turn on the tv, change it to HDMI 1 or 2 depending on the system and go from there rofl. Daughters favorite game is Torchlight :lol.


I would love to play an MMO with the 4 of us one day, but I refuse to have them waste there entire life behind a PC or TV. Hoping I can teach them a healthy balance.

 

[Kijan]

Daughters favorite game is Torchlight :lol:

Your daughter will end growing up into a girl that dorks usually wet dream about.

 

[Guernica]

Daughters favorite game is Torchlight :lol:

Your daughter will end growing up into a girl that dorks usually wet dream about.

Like my GF... Her favorite games growing up were playing Diablo 1&2 with her dad. Now her and I enjoy playing those games and diablo clones together.