The Kids are Alright

He is, after all, chronologically closer to being a zygote than a kindergartener, but I indulge his incomparable ability at self-delusion by handing him a wireless controller that does nothing, and assuring him that my victory is his victory, to which he pats me knowingly on the back and states, ‘we did it, daddy. We did it!’

OK, I'm probably taking this too harshly, but does this strike anyone else as being fucked up? I know I was pissed off as a kid when I would find out parents were doing these kinds of condescending actions - toying with my emotions/intelligence. It was behavior like this that led me to become pretty wary, if not mistrustful, of adults.

I understand, the behavior above probably comes much more from love, but still, I don't think I would do this if I had a child. I would show her/him how to press the buttons and time them up with on-screen actions etc., not pander to a perceived ignorance.

I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here, nor cry 'bad parenting'...but this just irks me and seems kinda messed up.

I remember coming home for lunch in elementary school, almost every day, and playing Space Invaders, Video Pinball, Combat and a couple others on our 2600 with my dad. Was some of the best times of my life, apart from watching Ultraman and Johnny Sakko AFTER school, before he went to work. *Nostalgia tears*

Everyone here probably knows all about my wacky kids and their gaming. It's good to see others having fun with their kids as well. My dad never would play video games with me when I was a kid (he did however coach my baseball teams, etc) and so I missed out on that. I really enjoy getting smoked by my 7 year old in Madden like 70 to 3, with him shit-talking me like genjuro on Xbox live the whole time. Good stuff.

I love playing computer games with my nephews. I used to play the far cry demo with one of em sitting on my knee, and he loved it to bits. we never did any shooting, but instead went exploring the water and the undergrowth and vehicles and stuff. he couldn't get enough of it.

also racing games. the old 'hand them an unplugged joypad' tricks works beautifully, until they're old enough to understand what's going on. I used to play a bit of UT2004 as well, since he loved the vahicles in that. It was great when I was driving the tank, he thought he was the gunner :)

Then one day I showed him an old-skool no-frills space-invaders clone and he wouldn't believe me that it was a computer game lol.

Heres a small list that i compiled a while ago of the freeware games that my son plays/has played (i really should add more to it).


Super Tux
http://super-tux.sourceforge.net/

Screenshots - http://super-tux.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html

"SuperTux is a classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game in a style similar to the original SuperMario games." Best played with a joypad.


Tux Paint
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/

Screenshots - http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/screenshots/

"Tux Paint is a free drawing program designed for young children (kids ages 3 and up). It has a simple, easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who helps guide children as they use the program."


Childsplay
http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/

Screenshots - http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/s...hots/index.html

"Childsplay is a 'suite' of educational games for young children"


Gcompris
http://gcompris.free.fr/

Screenshots - http://gcompris.free.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=12

"GCompris is an educational software which propose different activities to kids from 2 to 10. Some activities are game oriented, but always educational."

I have a 5 year old son and i let him play mostly on emulators.
When he was 4 he finished Mickey's Castle of Illiusion, ok it was on Easy but he finished it without any help from me.
Its a great way for them to improve their hand eye coordination and also to learn. My son has been using the computer since he was 2, he'd see me on their and want to join in, so i'd start him off with using MSPaint so he could get used to using the mouse.
Now he knows how to open the different games in Gens, the other day i left him playing Toejam & Earl 2, i went to do some washing up turned my back for 2 minutes and when i turned back he was playing Streets Of Rage 2. I was so proud ;).

We have a picture of me when I was 2 (I'm 22 now) playing Ernie's Big Splash on my dad's old IBM machine. When I was 7 or 8 my dad would always get copies of random games from his buddies at work. I'd hear videogames noises and come running, and he'd be playing the latest flight sim or silly arcade game. One of the ones I remember best was called Stellar 7, we were competing to see who could finish it first. We would go to computer shows and always come home with a bunch of the shareware games they used to sell on floppies.

One day I played Super Mario Bros. at my friend's house, and had to have it. It took lots of convincing to finally get an NES, but after we did, my dad got pretty into SMB himself for a while. He went out and bought the hint book and played after my brother and I went to bed. After gaming became something I did all the time, I started getting the usual "why don't you go outside" remarks. Now he's become so absorbed with work, I don't think he has had time for games since I was little, but I still remember the good times we had.

I think in subsequent generations, more and more issues facing the game industry will disappear, simply because the generations that grew up with games are coming of age and having kids of their own.

The same way my grandparents undoubtedly discouraged my parents from listening to rock and roll, and how my parents subsequently encouraged my listening.

My brother and I let our 5 year old nephew play Quake 2. He called the game BOOM BOOM (cuz of the sound the rockets made). Before he played Quake 2 he drew lots of pictures of flowers and his parents and used lots of bright greens and yellows etc. After that, he drew Quake 2 alot which was lots of black and brown and dark green.

The angles of lines he drew were very sharp, and the drawings themselves looked very angry. That was possibly the scariest thing I have ever encountered and I never let him even watch me play a video game again until he was 12.

And yes I did feel guilty and yes I was stupid, etc. etc. but my point is that these games really do fuck with your head and young children should not be exposed to them.

I remember having my fundamentalist parents talking about the possibility of Dark Forces being demonic. And getting heavily criticized for shooting "human targets in video games." Nowadays I don't think they care, but back then it was really frustrating explaining the joys of gaming to them, or playing things like the Quake demos in secret because I knew they'd go ballistic over them...

This is BULL SHIT. Gamers are not responisible parents, according to SPIKE TV. According to them, gamers are LOW LIFE HIP-HOP LOSERS that long to be gangstas. Just watch this weekend's VGA Awards to find out.

As a white, non-gangsta and responsible father, I can attest I am a minority.

I'll be honest, my non-gamer dad wiped the floor with me in Steel Battalion. He played through the first three missions like it was a cakewalk. I've played sims most of my life, and all he did was drive tractors.

I still get a kick out of that.

My 5 and 3 year old boys love to play on this website when they get a chance: http://www.uptoten.com/kids/uptoten-home.html

They only get 2-3 hours a week at this age, and don't get to play or watch any violent games. What I really approve of is this Batman learning laptop my 5 year old got for his last birthday. It's great, it has math, spelling, music, logic, and two simple games, with a keyboard and voice for feedback when he's on his own. We sit down and I teach him math and spelling. It's like the device is a 21st century version of a pencil and paper pad.

I have the opposite problem.

My parents never understood gaming and they always thought it was bad but my father always watched tv at night. Mom hated it and thought it rotted the brain and with the time I spent in front of the games I could understand why.


Anyways, my father is now trying to get into gaming. The only problem though is he finds that games are way to complicated for him and the controllers are hard to use since there are a lot of buttons. He is a going to be a perfect candidate for revolution I just hope he wait for it but he wants a system now. My hope is that he doesn't pick up a system and waits for revolution.

My brother and I used to play "Adventure", the old text PC game (and by PC, I do mean PC--an actual original IBM PC), with my father. That was great family time. We'd map out the different choices and where they went, and it was so exciting when we found a new area to explore. We never solved it, though. I can't remember what distracted us. I wish there had been more games like that--games that we could have played together.

My son is still a bit young (23 months) to do anything but really watch (insert best photo ever of him clung to the back of my head while I played Frequency here), but he's starting to get it - when he comes in my office and I'm playing, he'll pick up a controller and push buttons and look to see what happens when it works. He loves the more cartoony games (Psychonauts, Katamaris), so soon, he'll be a gamer. Exxxcellent.

This weekend my 7 year old and I are hosting another dad and son team at our house for some Heretic DM in the Doomsday engine! This will be our first father and son LAN ever!

My pop used to sit around during summers and play atari and later nintendo with us. Then on to doom and quake 2 etc. He'd also sit around and play chess with us. He was very very supportive. He also explained violence and sex until we were all very non-violent and comfortable with our sexuality. When my little brother came out to my parents all they said was "thats great dear but when are you going to clean your room?"

They always accept us for who we are and encourage us to be honest with ourselves and others. I think they are great parents and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

If all goes well, with one girl already, and another on the way, I can bring two more gamer chicks into the world!

Plus, then I'll have someone to game with, since my wife isn't really into it.

My daughter loves racing games. I'm talking she gets more excited about me asking, "Want to play Daddy's new racing game?" then mentioned the Doodle Bops or whatever other crazy show kids are into these days. Lately she loves PGR3.

She'll sit on the couch with me (wireless controller in hand :P) and Oooh + Ahhh at the sights and sounds. When "she" passes someone she screams out "YEAH!!!". Sometimes when I'm playing and I lose a race she gets real sad and says, "Its okay Dad. Don't be sad."

She also goes crazy lately for Geometry Wars. I think all the particles and explosions and screen full of crazyness does it.

My dad gives me crap all the time about the computer games that I play all the time now, but he was a gamer before I was. We would go over to his friend's house so they could play "yar's revenge" all night. I was probably 4-5 then.

As I got older my dad and I found a gem of a game called Galcon by Rick Raditz (I'm pretty sure that's his name -- boy look at all that green out there it must be spring time in the galaxy). We played that game a lot! It was a turn based strategy game. I think that is the reason that I like RTS' as much as I do now. The mechanics of the game were simple, but it was lots of fun to play. I wish there were a simple game like that available now to play over the net for a bit.

Don't quite have any kids myself (at least not for another 8 years), but teaching my 6 year old cousin how to beat her 5 years older brother in Soul Calibur II was the best sensation, EVER.

My dad and I have been playing games from back in the NES days. Now about once or twice a month lately we try to get on xbox live together to play Halo 2. I've been bad about playing more with him but with 2 kids of my own now it's hard. My 3 year old likes to try to drive race cars but she can't quite hold the gas down on the xbox controller that i have so I have to help her somewhat. She likes burnout a lot though.

Not only did my Dad introduce me to my first computer games, he MADE them!

I look forward to introducing games my own kids one day, and showing them the classics that led up to what they have now. I hope to do the same with music as well, and then cry when they buy whatever MTV says is cool that week.

My Dad had a Commedore 64 and an Atari something-hundred when I was little. He then got into an Apple Service manager and kept me stocked with Apple IIs and reasonably powered Macs for a number of years. The Bard's Tale on Apple IIGS was probably the first time either of us saw an RPG.


Although Dad completely lost all interest in gaming when Japan became the industry's new home country, I don't know what the hell I'd be dong with my life right now if he wasn't interested in computer technology. Probably something a lot more successful than I am now. ;)

My dad pretty much got me into gaming, as he bought a Grandstand TV game system way back when. Pretty soon after I got the Intellivision for Christmas. You couldn't reall call him a gamer though.

It's different with me and my kids, I'm definitely a gamer so they're growing up around games. When my son was real small we didn't have any consoles, so other than sitting on my lap as I tooled around in Quake or whatever there wasn't much. We got a Playstation when he was about three, and the milk that still gums up our old Dual Shock is evidence that he was eager to play. Now he has a room filled with classic systems - NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Dreamcast. He's a picky gamer though, he won't just sit down and play anything as I would. Instead, he focuses on one or two things, whether it be 8 or 16-bit Mario, Metal Gear Solid, or Jet Set Radio. Right now he's upstairs probably getting pissed off at Jet Grind Radio on the DC.

My daughter on the other hand, she's been around games since birth. She's only been around 7 months, but she loves controllers. And remotes. The Revolution controller is going to blow her away, methinks.

I have a 5 year old, he pretty much started on games around 1 1/2. Nothing too major as he couldn't control a game at 1, but he thought he could and he enjoyed the hell out of it. His first game that he was glued to was the first Tony Hawk on N64.

At the age of 3, I got Tony Hawk 2X on the Xbox. Now he sings Guerrilla Radio by RATM. He totally associates the music with the game. Its the Tony Hawk song to him. If it comes on the radio he about jumps out of his seat.

Now, I have Tony Hawk American Wasteland and he digs Uber Alles by the Dead Kennedys.

Around 3 is when he could start controlling games and really start to enjoy them. He loved Mario64. He would try to play and get frustrated then hound me to play for him. He cried when I beat Mario64 because when I said the game was over he thought it meant that once you beat it, you can't play it anymore.

Its the little things that are special to him though. For example, when we played Zelda Ocarina of Time, we gave the character his name, and he loved that when I read the captions throughout the game. When he was 4 and starting to learn to read/write, he then asked me for help to put his name into Pokemon Snap.

Oh, and the thing I remember that killed me the most. The very first time I let him play Madden64 with me, I handed off the ball to him and he ran 20 yards for a touchdown. My jaw dropped. It was pure luck as he couldn't get past the line of scrimmage on the next play. I think he was 2 at the time, that fucking killed me.

Elysium is a great writer and I enjoy Games with Jobs quite a bit, good site I've been lurking for a long time now.

Just this week, I have intro'd my son to gaming....I mean he has seen me play, but we have now been able to play together...

I got the X360...and when he found out about the fact that I hunted one down he was more excited than I!

Since he is only 5, the only game I have that is OK for him to play is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game with 2 player vs the bad guys!

Its an absoulte blast and I am looking forward to years and years of gaming with my son.....

I have spoiled him though because he gets to play on a 106 screen while sitting in Berkline Theater Chairs...

Can't wait for our son to grow up (he's only 4 months old) so we can all play together (wife also plays video games). No doubt he'll kick my ass! :-)

My dad introduced me to gaming. See reply.

My dad, his buddy, and me used to always hang out and play pilotwings for the nes (snes?) when i was real young. His buddy even bought an n64 right when it came out so he could play Pilotwings 64. We spent more time making up things to do (go through the window of a barn with the cannon) than actually beating the challenges.

Gaming has always been an uphill battle with my parents. They see it as a collosal waste of time which to them I responded so is watching movies then. They had some sort of Teflon against logic I guess. :-/. My mother still complains but now she realizes it doesn't matter.

Anytime I wanted a game I had to be a fucking salesman and present my case as to why I should have it. :(

In elementary school my Dad would come into my room when I was asleep and play my nintendo. He'd hand me a controller and I could play for a half hour before going back to sleep. Good times.

When I was a kid, my father got hooked on certain games too and we would often play together. This is something a bit unusual for our generation since our parents were video gameless after all.

Specifically, the most memorable games would be:

Every single Zelda game(my dad still asks to borrow them when I visit if I've finished the latest one lol).

Secret of Mana(we played and beat that one together)

All the Turok games. I know, weird one there but its true. My dad was a Turok addict lol.

And the original Descent on the PC. We had two computers in the house and two phone lines. We'd dial into each other(to my mom's distaste since we'd clog up the phones lol) then play the game together in Co-op.

Those were some really fun memories and I can't wait to have similar experiences with my children some day.

I was born in '83, and hear tales of my parents taking me, as we still often do, to visit my grandmother. The two uncles on that side of the family lived with her, and one of them had an NES when it was first introduced; I'm told that my parents would frequently keep us there 'til one AM, reluctant to go home because of Super Mario Bros.

In a related story, some time after I got my own system at home, I woke up in the middle of the night to hear strange noises coming from the living room below me. Thinking it was a witch (for what reason, I have no idea), I snuck downstairs as quietly as possible, to see both parents sitting on the couch, so absorbed in SMB that they didn't even see me 'til I spoke up, scaring the two of them.

So yeah, games have almost always been in my life.

My dad and I used to get into heated Street Fighter 2 Turbo fights. Good times. Now he plays Battlefield a whole lot.

The Who reference FTW!!

I'm a shack dad and I have a good time with my 4 yr old playing WoW. He plays a lvl 4 gnome rogue which "muertas the wow-wows" (kills the local wolves). I'm introducing him to gaming with the plan that it'll be introduced as something else that's fun to do (in addition to soccer, reading, TV) that is done after RL obligations (picking up the toys, eventually home work, talking to loved ones, etc).

The last thing I need is another wow addict...one in the house is enough. :P