Do you game with your kids?

[Doctor Setebos]

We here at EvAv enjoy a demographic on the more mature range of the gaming spectrum, many of us with our own gaming spawn. This article over at MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22687545/) asks the question of whether or not gaming with kids might actually be a waste of time. Fortunately, the focus of the article is good news for the gamer generation.

“It is a shame that parents don't see this as an opportunity for bonding, communication and supervision,” he says. “Clearly, boundaries need to be set, but there are way more positives than negatives.”

[TheKeck]

I very much look forward to the time when my son will be old enough to play games with me.

[Returner]

If I had kids I would lock them up in a room one with Silent hill the other with Animal Crossing. I guarantee you the one playing Animal Crossing will turn out to be a serial killer or worst a politician.

[Heretic Machine]

I don't have kids, but my parents never gamed with me. I tried to get them into it several times, but they just shrug it off. Kinda sad, really :(

[Zanzibar]

Hell yeah. My kids and my GFs kids play Rock Band with me routinely. We used to play Shrek Super Party and Fuzion Frenzy, and now we do trivia with Smarty Pants.

They want to play Halo, but I have to draw the line somewhere ;)

[Evil Avatar]

My Son is playing Pirates of the Caribbean Online behind me on my main gaming PC. I've been shoved into a corner on laptop for today.

[LarsenNET]

My son is way too young (6 months) but I look forward to it.

[LilAbner]

My nine-year-old son is a gamer. His mother and I are divorced, and she has primary custody but I have set him up with wifi so we can play DS and Wii games online. We are both looking forward to Smash Brothers Brawl, but he was really disappointed when I told him it was delayed 'til March.

At least we have Mario Kart DS to hold us over 'til then. :)

[bone_matrix]

I'm also on the list of guys looking forward to playing games with my kids.

[Scull]

My son and I play together all the time. We love it and spend most of our game time with each other.

[Xerxes]

If I had offspring, they'll be open to it.

[dirtbag]

Who are you calling 'mature'?

My dad occasionally gamed with me -- I remember some fun sessions of 'Castles of Dr. Creep' in particular. We're about to start our family, and I look forward to passing along my gaming genes.

[Jackel]

I'm looking forward to gaming w/ my daughter as well. Its great, me and the wife both play video games (hers are the party wii type games) so we'll have a grand time playing the 3 of us.

[Zander]

I have 2 boys, 13 and 8. They both play with me very often, most genres. Other than the obvious Rock Band, which is perfect, XBLA games are constantly played. 4 player simultaneous games are a god-send for us.

Actually, my 13 year old and I have the new Advance Wars pre-ordered for next week, another great game to play with your kids.

[H1PO]

I am a kid. But no, my parents do not game with me. They hate the fact that I play games so much.

[agentgray]

My son is five and got and S rating in every Excite Truck race on the normal difficulty. He averages a 200 in Wii bowling.

And we only let him play 15-20 minutes a day.

We enjoy: Boom Boom rocket, Excite Truck, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Geometry Wars (both versions), and we already have Burnout Paradise on pre-order. (The open world is brilliant for him...he can just drive around).

Oh, and he has a fascination with Double Dribble. So, yeah, we play.

[Kamalot]

I play games with my kids, and my siblings' kids.

[Jetherik]

Yes, Yes, and Yes! We started with uptoten.com with Boowa and Kawla. They always watched me play EQ and at times I would let them move the characters (without telling my party who was driving - such fun!). Now I will be getting a second account for City of Heroes so we can play together. Everyone in the family plays the Wii together as well - which is also a lot of fun to do. If only Rock Band for Wii would come out, then I would have a full band!

[Karamazov]

My dad played Mario Kart and Goldeneye with me all the time.

[Johan]

Video games? I play co-op games with my kids...they're not as into it as I am, which is probably for the best anyways. Honestly, I'd rather they read books like I did when I was a kid.

Sorry. :o

Board games are another story. I enjoy those more with my kids than video games. I think there's more conversational interaction and more eye contact, which I like. With a video game, your attention is focused on the screen.

[Purple Santa]

I've tried playing with my "kids" but they just chew on the controllers. Of course my kids are the four legged furry kind...at least they are cute cats...so I keep em around anyway despite they are lousy at co-op play.

[Å®ÇTÌ¢ VåmÞ‡®Ë]

Hell yeah. My kids and my GFs kids play Rock Band with me routinely. We used to play Shrek Super Party and Fuzion Frenzy, and now we do trivia with Smarty Pants.

They want to play Halo, but I have to draw the line somewhere ;)

My son begs and pleads to play CS.
Or GTA.

Not yet young Sith. Gotta be older for those.
My 16 year old daughter loves her PS2, wants a ps3.

My 10 year old son now has a GBA, GC and PS2. He just loves to try and beat my scores on GH or Tiger Woods :)

The baby, shes 4, just sits on the couch with a PS2 controller,while I play. ( it was non functional so I just cut the cord so she has her own controller.)

I not only play games with them I am involved in the games they play.
My son used to hate most everything I played until he gave it a chance.
He is so addicted to Puzzle Quest it's not even funny.
I like to just watch them think through puzzles or they beg for help :)

[Rylos]

I play games with my 6 year old daughter all the time with Bomberman Live and Mario Kart (DS, N64 & GC) being the games that get the most playtime, but she always wants try out any of the games that she sees me play. I almost shed a proud tear the first time she was able to pull of Chun Li's Spinning Bird Kick. :o

At the moment, she's begging me to let her roll a character in WoW but I have to keep telling her "No! No Chuck Norris jokes until your at least 15".

[LongStepMantis]

WoW at 6? Oh your god! ;)
Then you can deal with gems like "Daddy, what's a goatse?"

[Ridlin]

I game with my 6 and 15 yr old boys. Co-op is by far the best way to go. Great way to get close and help them learn patience.

[Mortis]

I don't have any kids but my Dad and I still play things together from time to time. We played R6:V quite a bit, played through Gears, played some Crackdown. We also played Nintendo and Sega systems together when I was young. I have many fond memories of the old school gaming we did.

[atariv8]

I play 360/Wii/PS2/DS/PSP/N64/PC/Atari 2600 even C64 sometimes with both my kids. I mostly play Transformers and Spiderman with my 4 year old and most everything else (except extreme M) with my 8 year old. His mom cracks down a bit harder than me on the m rated stuff...I just hate I can't enjoy some of the cooler m rated stuff with him now. When he's old enough to play some of the m games they probably won't hold up to the newer stuff. He loves Oblivion (lucky we got the copy with the Teen rating on it), Crysis, Orange Box and Lego Star Wars. He's going nuts waiting for Fallout 3, but I think he's going to have to wait on that one. We also do tons of board games (Crossbows and Catapults!), read books and comics, write and draw comics, play soccer, etc. Just cause we love to game doesn't mean it's the only thing we do. Anyway I can spend more time with them the better.

[Spigot]

My 3 1/2 year old son hasn't shown much interest in games at all until recently. He likes to fiddle with the controllers but hasn't quite made the correlation between what he's doing with the controllers and what the avatar onscreen is doing.

I picked up Spiderman: Friend Or Foe the other day because he's a huge Spidey nut and I figured it'd be fun to play it with him in co-op. He didn't do much for the first while when I was playing with him so I just quit and let him monkey around on his own.

A few minutes later, I turn around and not only is he actually going the right way through the level, he's laying the smackdown on the bad guys like nobody's business! Woo!

I just picked up Rock Band tonight so I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll be able to have him sit on my lap and help me play the drums.

I'm just hoping that Spidey:FoF is his gateway game... I need someone else around the house to play with!

[JRR006]

My father gamed with me when I was little. We played C64 games (er, I hit buttons occasionally, and he played) and when I was a bit older NES games. He doesn't play anymore, but he always likes to watch what I'm playing and hear about the newest stuff. (Maybe that's just fatherly interest in my hobbies, rather than a real desire to keep up with videogaming, but... whatever.)

I play videogames with my six-year-old cousin when she visits, which is usually a month-long affair over the summer. Her favorite way of trying to stave off bedtime is saying "When I finish this level please?" Her dad plays with her at home as well, so I think I'll have a co-op partner in about ten years' time.


If I have children of my own, I will game with them.

[3Suns]

I have 3 sons and we often play 4 player splitscreen. (we have the Wii, Gamecube, 2 N64s, an Xbox, and a 360). I would buy more, but until I am guaranteed to get a falcon motherboard, I won't spend another cent on risky hardware.

Just this December, my oldest two (ages 11 and 9) started playing Halo 3 online, but without headsets. They only play in the doubles and FFA gametypes, so they never have to worry about teammates. We, they, have a great time playing games.

The article is dead on about it being an opportunity for bonding.

[Johan]

One addition: I tried some single-card wireless play last night for the first time with Mario Kart DS and my seven-year-old. We had a blast.

I let her win, of course, but not every time...that would be unrealistic! :D

[OpSteel]

I play with my 5 year old son as well. Lego Star Wars is his favorite even after over a year. We also play co-op on Mario Strikers on the Wii.

He has a decent little collection going. I'll probably pick up Spidey:F0F for him next.

Co_op is the way to go with this age. You can help them out and keep them from getting as frustrated. Also it is a way to make a bond with them on a different level that will hopefully hold up through the evil teen age years.

[Brinstar00]

I play all the time with my 9 year old. We played co-op GoW, Halo 1, 2 and 3. I also play board games and card games with him. I tried playing some CCG's but it is still alittle to complicated for him. But I really enjoy it. It seems to me that if your really bonding early with your kids, hopefully that relationship will stay strong as they become teenagers.

[atariv8]

Also it is a way to make a bond with them on a different level that will hopefully hold up through the evil teen age years.

Exactly. You don't have to be best friends (cause you still have to be dad or mom), but where there's a similar interest there's a way in for conversation.

"How about a game of Halo, oh and by the way, babies are made with penises, keep yours in your pants OK? **Cough** How about capture the flag?"

[atrus20]

My wife and I play games a lot both on the 360 and computer so my 3 year old son wants to play with us. We let him play online games like at nickjr.com or pbssprout.org. We also got him a Leap Frog Leapster with 5 games that he enjoys. He loves playing but only plays for about 20-30 minutes then he wants to go outside which is a good thing. My 2 month old daughter doesn't seem too interested, she just likes to eat, sleep and poop. ;)

[Meglomaniac]

I play games with my kids on a regular basis. Games can be an effective way to teach kids strategy, morals, consequences, and the difference between pretend violence and real violence. Plus games like animal crossing and others that have bunches of text help to encourage kids to read. My oldest, when she was 5 managed to get me the first copy of Halo 2 collectors edition by beating everyone else to the front of the line on launch day. We mostly play games like mario party, big brain academy, singstar, DDR but we mix it up with the occasional halo match and more. Also playing WoW with my wife and oldest daughter is quite fun, we quest together on a regular basis.

Of course, on nice days we make the kids go outside and play with other kids in the neighbourhood.

[NeuroMan42]

All the time. Fridays are game nights... Boardgames, Card, or Wii.

My daughter covers my 6 in Umbrella Chronicals. ;)

[Gaunt]

My dad watched me play NES years ago, but about the only game he played with me was Lee Travino's Fighting Golf (why fighting? dunno... it was just golf).

My son's first birthday is coming up. He loves the 360 controllers for some reason. Giving him a controler-s or something less useful just doesn't cut it. Surprisingly he has already sorted out that the relationship between the controller and the images, as he will mash various buttons and look at the TV to see what happened.

I'm really looking forward to gaming with him in the next few years, assuming he's interested. I'm fully expecting to have a kid that has almost no interest in anything I'm good at. :)

[CooterTKE]

back in the day my parents used to play NES games with me and my dad used to try Golf/Football games one the PS back in the day. When goldeneye came out we would play during family gatherings. I am sure when I have kids I will try to play video games with them and they will just laugh at me because I cannot figure it out.

[The Jeremiad]

Two kids, 9 and 11, and we play all the time together. Big ones in rotation right now are Mario Galaxy and Rock Band. We also just cracked open Zack and Wiki, and are having an absolute blast with that.

[Doctor Setebos]

Yes, Yes, and Yes! We started with uptoten.com with Boowa and Kawla.Haha! My 5-year-old LOVES the Boowa and Kawla games on UpToTen. Awesome! I wondered how many others knew about that site. :D

As for me, my son loves to help me play games like Super Mario Galaxy (when mom isn't really itching to help out as player 2) and Zack & Wiki. He's recently started playing games like Cars on his own, and loving it. Great bonding moments, indeed!

[Neon Wraith]

When I was a youngin' my grandfather used to sit down and play asteroids and pacman with me on our old atari 2600.

Now I have a child who is almost 3 that loves to watch me play CoH/CoV (she constantly asks me to play it so she can watch her favorite) and I hope she gets into the hobby like I did.

In the future i fully intend on sitting down with the grandkids(and hopefully great-grandkids) and laying out the smackdown on them. :D

[straximus]

My daughter (who will be 4 in April) apparently likes to play the Freddi Fish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddi_Fish) games at her mom's house. We got a VSmile for my house at xmas this year, and we've played some 'Bob The Builder'. She's also shown interest in Ms. PacMan on her mom's NES, after seeing me wear a PacMan shirt on several occasions, and play PacMan CE on the 360 once. Oh, and she loves to play with the Photo Channel on the Wii, and draw on the pictures we've loaded in.

She's just starting to get the hang of using a joystick to move a character around on screen. I'm really looking forward to this year, because I think we'll really be able to start playing some stuff together.

[Spigot]

Heh. Tried playing the Rock Band drums with my son this afternoon. On the one hand, he loves hitting the drum pads. On the other, all he wants to do is pound on the drums. They need to have a 'mess around with the game' scenario where he can just pound away without worrying about losing the song.

Does Practice Mode let you do that?

[MelbaToast]

I don't have any kids to play games with, but if I have kids, and they're interested in them I'll definitely play with them.

I've got some really good memories of growing up and playing Blades of Steel with my Uncle.

[MrE]

Both my daughters and I play games together on the Wii, and they watch me play on 360 and PS3. I find it comforting that they enjoy gaming as much as I do. They also have their PCs to fall back on when all else fails. Gaming is the medium in this household vs watching TV. They do enjoy watching TV, but most of the time opt for a gaming session instead.

[Ikenstein]

I don't have kids, but my nieces always want to play whatever I am. I did let the older of the two take over with GlobalGoonzu once. She had a lot of fun with it.

[Xerxes]

My son begs and pleads to play CS.
Or GTA.

Not yet young Sith. Gotta be older for those.
My 16 year old daughter loves her PS2, wants a ps3.

My 10 year old son now has a GBA, GC and PS2. He just loves to try and beat my scores on GH or Tiger Woods :)

The baby, shes 4, just sits on the couch with a PS2 controller,while I play. ( it was non functional so I just cut the cord so she has her own controller.)

I not only play games with them I am involved in the games they play.
My son used to hate most everything I played until he gave it a chance.
He is so addicted to Puzzle Quest it's not even funny.
I like to just watch them think through puzzles or they beg for help :)

I always thought this was Johan's alt.

[Xerxes]

Video games? I play co-op games with my kids...they're not as into it as I am, which is probably for the best anyways. Honestly, I'd rather they read books like I did when I was a kid.

Sorry. :o

Board games are another story. I enjoy those more with my kids than video games. I think there's more conversational interaction and more eye contact, which I like. With a video game, your attention is focused on the screen.

Let them play Morrowind or Lost Odyssey. Those games have so much text in them. :rolleyes: