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."

Comments

Uninsightful

[Austerity Empowers]

People who enjoyed games as kids play as adults with their kids. Shock, dismay.

People who enjoyed playing football as kids, watch football as adults and live vicariously through their kids playing football.

The only people who wouldn't expect this are people who didn't play games as kids. They also happen to be the social types with lots of misconceptions about what 'normal' is.

There's nothing to see here, move along.

Re:Uninsightful

[iocat]

To you or me, it's obvious, but let's give credit when credit is due: after all the pointless, stupid, incorrect, negative articles about games, it's excellent to see some (well deserved) good press.

Re:Uninsightful

[pla]

I view all that time playing games and watching TV as largely a waste.

Spoken like someone who makes "adult" something I never want to "grow up" and turn into - And I say this as a 30YO.



And don't assume that I am a pyshco parent who doesn't let his kids have any fun.
... we'll butt heads and maybe end up with a console. But its use will be heavily restricted.

Uh-huh. Spoken like a true psycho parent who will do anything to deny it.

Do you even remember why you played games as a kid?

We get to slave away 40+ hours a week for the majority of our lives. Let the buggers have fun while they can.



BTW, what the hell does ... mean?

Just asking means it refers to you. You may have escaped as a child, but have since apparently bought into the lie full-on.

It means people who consider childhood wasted on children - Why, just think of all the productive activities they could engage in, like memorizing dates and multiplication tables, social networking, part-time jobs, and backstabbing their way up the young Republicans club ladder!

No. Kids just want to play and have fun. And I say, "let 'em".

Re:duh!

[MyLongNickName]

Yeah, right. Kids have a lot more free time, and studies show that reflexes begin to deteriorate after 25. It tends to be very slow at first, and depending on your work/hobbies may not be noticible... but I know I've been schooled by teeny boppers on many FPS ;)

Nothing To See Here

[TooMuchEspressoGuy]

I suppose it may come as a surprise to some gamers whose parents never really supported their habit, but there are those mothers and fathers out there who can enjoy games just as much as their kids.

Heck, back when I owned an N64 my dad used to get in rounds of Goldeneye and Mario Kart with me and my brother after school. And he had never really touched a game system before, except for brief spurts on the systems that we owned before that (NES and SNES).

This might even be seen by some as an improvement over the television habit that many parents have and pass on to their kids.

Re:Nothing To See Here

[nwbvt]

I think the headline here is that parents are spending time with their kids, which is something that apparently now is so rare that it has become newsworthy.

Re:duh!

[Neoprofin]

Yeah, but kids also seem to know surpsingly little about strategy and tactics. Their nimble little fingers may rule FPSs and fighting games but RTS and TBS will always be the domain of a well sculpted mind.

All the natural

[Tellarin]

I don't get why all this about grown ups playing games. It is all the natural.
As Huizinga points in his book (Homo Ludens), since 1939 and before, play is part of culture. And play is inevery aspect of our lives.

Re:duh!

[Bootvis]

Skilled fps-gamers tend to be smart also. There is actually thinking involved in games like CS and Quake. With good reflexes you can rack up some kills on a public without thinking, but as your opponents improve thinking ahead and predicting them gets more important.
 
  Teamgames also require some good communication-skills

Sample size is too small

[soricine]

This is a 'national' survey, with a sample size of 500?

With a sample so small, this is speculation masquerading as data.

Ulterior Motives

[sdamberger]

The only ulterior motive mentioned was to know the content of the games which is certainly a good thing. I like to know what my son is getting bombarded by daily so that I can combat anything I think is negative.

I just enjoy the games and the time spent with my son. I also like to game with him because it lets me see how he reacts to competition in a friendly environment. I get to give him advice on how to handle winning and losing.

Re:duh!

[ShieldW0lf]

Yeah, but kids also seem to know surpsingly little about strategy and tactics. Their nimble little fingers may rule FPSs and fighting games but RTS and TBS will always be the domain of a well sculpted mind.

Don't know about you, but when I was younger playing MegaTF on Quakeworld, we were doing offense vs defense training and tactics twice a week for weekly 12-on-12 CTF league matches. I'm proud to say that at one point, I was the top ranked Pyro in the world, and could use evasion, communication and guerilla tactics to penetrate and disrupt the flow of just about any defensive strategy. I imagine young people today are doing the same sort of thing, and generalizing them as poor thinkers and strategists is both prejudicial and stupid.