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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."
duh! its easier to defeat a kid..
I'd be a little more impressed with that TV, missy. That's your college education you're looking at.
and think of a different meaning for the word "adult"?
Pr0n with my parents would just be a bit odd...
Monstar L
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.
That brief 24 hour window when I can crush my nephew in a new game before he can devote all his free time to memorizing all the combo-moves and strategy guides. It doesn't matter if I never win a game again after that, the memory of that defeat is seared into his soul. Muahahahahahahah
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.
Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
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.
-- SouNerd.com
My son, 12, and I often play PS2, or multiplayer PC games together. Crash Team Racing, or Gauntlet on the PS2, and assorted games like Age of Sail II, etc, on the PC. We have fun, and that's what counts.
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 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.
You can bond with your children by sharing the gaming experience. Even when they are too small to operate the keyboard and mouse, they can always wear the headset while playing CS or Battlefield 2. "Tell DethBr1n90r he is a fucking faggot, honey!"
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
He loves them both and so do I.
http://planeshift.it/
http://heroscapehq.com/
Meh.
Man #1: Dad's starting to lose it. Just the other day, he put the milk outside at night, and put the cat in the fridge.
Man #2: Yea, bro, I've noticed he's getting worse by the day.
Man #1: Yea, I'm thinking I should get him to move in with me, so my wife and I can watch over him close. Would you mind helping out on the weekends?
Man #2: Yeah, right!
Man #1: What do you mean?!
Man #2: You remember when we played Enemy Territory? And he'd covert ops our asses left and right?
Man #1: Yea... and he'd always voip over to use "You've been pwned noob! Just cuz he's got your uni on doesn't mean he's on your team. LOL!"...
Man #2: Send the fucker to a home.
Man #1: Yeah... what was I thinking?!
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
With a sample so small, this is speculation masquerading as data.
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.
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!
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
Back in the day, my dad would give me a bunch of magazines and a Vic-20 with a cassette tape drive.
"Here you go son, I got some new games for you."
"But there's only a memory cartridge in the machine!"
"No, the games are in here," he'd say, patting the stack of magazines. "Let me know when you have something typed, in so we can play together."
[pink beam of light]
I never thought of having kids for multiplayer purposes... could be quite useful when your buddies are busy.
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.
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.
Meanwhile, every time a new DDR title is released, thousands of downstairs-apartment-owning tenants cry out in agony...
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
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.