Adult Gamers and Their Ulterior Motives for Gaming

twistedcaboose writes "The Philly Inquirer is running a nice little article about why parents game with their children. Seems that adult gamers are still on the rise." From the article: "In a national survey released in January, 35 percent of 501 parents living with children age 2 to 17 said they played computer or video games, according to the Entertainment Software Association. Of those, 80 percent also played with their children. On average, these fathers and mothers - yes, almost half were women - spent 9.1 hours a month gaming with the children."

Re:Oh, the pain.

[Lumpy]

Not.

I still regularly kick my stepson and his friends arses in Quake4, UT2004 and C&C generals zero hour. Also a good game of Mariokart is usually a good time for a smackdown where out of 10 races I tend to be the victor overall.

Every once in a while A new friend of his comes along with some skills until I learn his pattern and start the Ownage.

Yup 37 and can kick the arse of any teen in a FPS. It's all about prediction and less about twitch skills.

Yes I used to go to lanpartys all the time back when it was popular in college. No I do not recover as well the day or two after spending 24 hours gaming drinking caffeene and eating only junkfood.... that is the problem with getting old.

Better than dumping them in front of the TV

[hattig]

And the TV companies know this, hence they love to dredge up anti-game news whenever they can.

When I was a kid, I didn't have a computer or console until I was 11, and that was a second hand 8-bit CPC464. My mum played Stockmarket [cpczone.net] with me but that's about it.

And it is good to have your parents play games with you, it makes it more social, it stops them watching TV (oooh, Timeteam is on, must speed this post up) and probably sharpens their mind a little, counteracting the gradual decline due to everyday life they otherwise suffer.

It's good for bonding too, too few parents do this. And the parents can see what the games are like and if they're suitable.

I'm sure it will lead to more rounded teenagers and adults, better able to cope with problem solving and jumping from ledge to ledge, as you do.

Virtua Fighter 2, (Back in the Day).

[RossumsChild]

I distinctly recall, in late high school, a period when the Virtua Fighter games were all I played. In particular, I thought I had gotten pretty skilled at VF2. I had the run of an arcade and was accepting challengers left and right, then sending them off dejected. . . .that is until a mexican kid that can't have been more than seven years old showed up. They actually had to get the kid a footstool so he could reach the controls. And he cleaned my clock in consecutive rounds. I don't think I've ever been so thoroughly beaten in any game on any system. So, just a thought, there are abberations to the rule.

The wife and I game with our youngins, too

[MikeyTheK]

I'm...not young. I remember when Pong was brand new and way cool. First game console: Coleco. The wife isn't young either. We have...several kids. The oldest is eight. She loves to play Halo 2 on Live with Ma or Pa or both. It is yet another way for her to interact with us, and on a more engaging, exciting level. It's constant action, so it's more interesting for them than, say, throwing the ball in the yard or riding a bike. It's also lots of fun for us to play with her because it's a relatively level playing field. It's something we can all do, and nobody sucks any worse at than anybody else does.

Of course, we also found that we were suffering from "video game tummy", until we stumbled upon DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). All of a sudden there was another game, one that involved some exercise, that also keeps all of us interested, but also draws in the other kids. They all want to play. It's one of the few activities (short of watching "Finding Nemo"...again...) that everyone gets into. Everyone wants in, and everyone has a blast doing it. The game is easy enough yet challenging enough so nobody gets bored or feels like they can't do well.

I love gaming with my kids. My kids love gaming with me. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than taking them to a game, too!

Re:duh!

[miyako]

There is truth to this. I never was into FPS myself, but a friend of mine used to be hardcore into counterstrike. I remember watching him play when his clan was practicing for the CPL and I was baffled by the amount of strategy that they developed. I actually saw my friend kill several people by shooting through objects when he couldn't see anyone, simply becuase they had their strategy worked out well enough that he knew where it was very likely that people would be.

Re:Uninsightful

[syphax]

Apparently the gamers have mod points today; I got modded 'troll' for the 1st time ever, and the AC who responded to you also got trolled.

Anyway, I'll bite:

Uh-huh. Spoken like a true psycho parent who will do anything to deny it.
Yeah, and you certainly have enough information to make that judgement.
We also limit how much TV the kids (and we) watch (we don't have cable, on purpose), and plan to discourage smoking and excessive underage drinking. Call DSS.

Do you even remember why you played games as a kid?
Since you asked- my dad died when I was six, and my mom was (and is) mentally ill. That's why I've seen every single episode of the Brady Bunch N times over and spent much of the remainder of my time at a console. My best memories of childhood, however, are of playing in the woods with friends.

Let the buggers have fun while they can.
Yeah, I'm anti-fun. That's why I spent 2+ hours playing 'jaguar and penguin' with my kids yesterday. I'm not exactly sure what the rules were, but it basically involved whomever was the jaguar chasing the penguins.

You may have escaped as a child, but have since apparently bought into the lie full-on
I escaped reality as a child, but now rather enjoy real life. If by 'the lie' you mean the idea that gaming and TV aren't the be-all and end-all of human experience, than yeah, I bought in fully.

just think of all the productive activities they could engage in
See: the jaguar and pengiun game

backstabbing their way up the young Republicans club ladder!
Bzzt. Wrong again.

Kids just want to play and have fun. And I say, "let 'em".
I agree fully.

To summarize: Fun is good. Too much of TV or video games (esp. TV) is bad. I prefer 'real' fun to the packaged kind.

Gaming with my 5 year old

[Anonymous Coward]

My kid has a gamecube and a ton of games in his room, but when his little friends come over all they do is beg me to play MAME games on my projector. I have had up to five kids taking turns playing Marvel vs Capcom and the Metal Slug series to name a few. The best part is the adults in the room also get their turns and have just as much fun as the kids with the button mashing. People are cheering and throwing controllers, much better than just sitting their watching a movie.

As for my kid, he has known me as an addicted Medal of Honor player since he was born. He became fascinated at three by watching me play that and Battlefield. He loved Battlefield but would get auto-kicked off too much for either killing himself to much by driving his jeep to fast or he would just wonder around exploring. Medal of Honor Freeze-tag objective became his game. I explained the rules to him. You get a point for unfreezing and a point for freezing someone, besides that, plant the bomb. He wasn't very good at three but did figure out how to open doors and would shoot someone once in awhile.

Now at 5, even though he still can't read, on a ~30 person server with ~15/team he is placing in the top 4 or 5 for his team. He gets most of his points by simply unfreezing his teammates, but he also pulls in a good score from freezing. I think his biggest advantage is he is completely unpredictable. What amazes me is that people on the server are always trying to talk to him. He plays so good they don't even realize he is just a little kid whose little fingers have to really stretch across the keyboard to even play. What boggles me is, who are these people that have lower scores than him? I wonder how many other children are out their dominating us adults in games and we don't even realize it.

Re:Kiddie gamers becoming adult gamers...

[ZeroExistenZ]

When are we going to have a presidential candidate

The Belgian SP.A [s-p-a.be] already did. Overhere we don't work with Presidents, but or ministers sortof function like one, so it's about the same.

In essence, they state a child growing up in relative poverty thus being unable to grow up with a PC and internet is put behind in development and wont get as much chances as a child having access to a PC and information found on the internet as a PC is considered a requirement these days for education and work. So the SP.A proposed a project to sell computers for 40% under the normal price with a cheap formula for an internet connection which got approved and these PCs can be found starting this month in Belgium. With the PC comes a free 4-hour computer course as well so "noone has to miss out on the digital revolution" :)

Re:Uninsightful

[eht]

You might want to leave the Republican vs Democrat junk out of this, most of the groups who want to ban the games and music to save the kids groups are supported by people who claim they're Democrats, Hilary Clinton, Tipper Gore, and Joseph Lieberman to name a few.

Re:duh!

[ToxicBanjo]

That is the strength of BF2 over other shooters.

A friend and I play almost every night and we almost always get top of our team. Mainly because we are on TS and working with intelligence and planning. Helps we are both killer shots.

We just need Ea and Dice to "SORT OUT THE BUGS!!!!" and we'll be fine.

Re:duh!

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

This is why I never got into Counterstrike. I play games to relax, not wind myself up into gordian knots of ultra tension while juggling fifty different variables around in my head only to have someone unexpectedly pull the plug by using a rail gun or nearest cultural equivilent.

I value my arteries.

Re:my father's idea of gaming...

[MikeBabcock]

I remember typing about 90% of a basic program out of a book into my TI99/4A and running out of RAM (all 12k of it).

I was almost depressed.

It took me hours to type that much code, and I couldn't even run it.

Re:Gaming with my 5 year old

[gobbo]

Lighten up. Most kids can't read in kindergarden.

Absolutely, nor, necessarily, should they. The opinions on this matter vary, but it really is OK, so long as you read out loud to them regularly, have lots of age-appropriate books in their space, and let them see you reading, for instance, take them to the library, and get books for yourself too. They practically teach themselves under these circumstances, when they're ready.

What concerns me here is that kids are trained to shoot people shortly after they learn to walk. Yay, let's naturalize war for them early on. I mean, WTF? GIGO.

Re:Uninsightful

[rtb61]

Oddly enough true. Democrats - production (create your own content), Republicans - consumption (pay for approved content). Guess which group receives the majority of "er" funding from the pigopolists.

Not that games are bad but I can understand a parents point of view but at the same time don't beat yourself up for "wasting time" playing games that you could have supposably spent being more productive or successful, likely enough without the stress relief of gaming you could end up a lot worse off rather than being a lot better off.

Dropping the dumb jock attitude helps as well, chasing a ball on grassy field or running around in circles like the neighbourhood bow-wows (although a lot of them seem to be of a similar intellect) is some how more constructive than going for a pleasant walk and playing computer games afterwards.

The beauty of computer games is that the whole family can play together largely free from the risk of injury and as a bonus dumb jocks. Why spectate when you can play instead ;-).

The future of family game play and education, networked notebooks.

Depressing for kids

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember playing the Original Mario Bros on Atari. with my dad when I was a young boy. Players are supposed to play it cooperatively, but I started to notice he'd die a lot more often that I did. I then suggested we play competitively: trying to jump on each other and flip the turtles such that they kill the other person. Then I started to notice that I was a lot better, in general, than my dad. Normally, a child will go a pretty long time in his life before he is better than his father at anything, but video games gave me the opportunity to discover rather early on that my father is a normal person who can't do everything well. It was actually a pretty sad realization for a 7 year-old.

Re:Ten bucks says...

[Kpau]

Then you live in a very small world... sad for you. Perhaps you hang out with the wrong crowd.

I'm 48, have a BSEE, make about $100K/yr and play regularly with my teenage sons games such as WoW, CS, Total War, Battlefield, and random RPGs. My wife (a pharmacist) plays console games and online board games (fps type games make her a bit dizzy). Most of my friends are engineers, lawyers, research types... all play at least console games though many play FPS and MMO type games. My first computer game was Adventure played on a Perkin-Elmer 8/32 back in 1981 (not including the arcade games in the late 70s).

Oh I know... you must have missed the monolith meeting. Too busy throwing poo at the waterhole :)

Bonding and button mashing

[ami-in-hamburg]

I play video games with my son all the time. I think it really helps me to stay involved in his life because of the conversations we have. We tend to talk a lot during play, not just smack, and I can usually keep in touch with what is going on in school, with his friends, trends amongst the teens, etc...

The only problem that I have is that, IMHO, most 20somethings and younger are button mashers and not actually skilled gamers. They like to think that they're good at games but, again IMHO, not really. They totally lack creativity, strategy and tactics.

For example, we usually play the football titles. When a new version comes out he'll spend a day or two experimenting with the offense until he finds a handfull of pass plays that he can use every time regardless of what defense is called. He'll practice only those plays until he gets the timing down just right so that no matter what you do his receiver will catch the ball 99% of the time. For the most part, he will totally disregard the running game because, at least I think, he can't time a pattern like you can with pass plays.

Whether that's a problem with the game or not can be debated. However, it just gets boring when it's the same thing over and over. Rather than try having fun with different alignments, different receivers, running the ball, or whatever, his one and only concern is winning even though, I believe, he sacrifices his pride with timing rather than actually becoming good as something.