Today's gaming family.

[gogoblender 3,069]

This is a question that's interested me for a while now. How do today's families cope with the explosion of video games in every day life, and how does this impact a family trying to raise kids? When I was growing up, we used to have a once a while time with my parents, with scrabble, monopoly or Careers. The games were deep, the fun raised itself to yelling matches, and we'd feel good after walking away trying to duke it out against parents or siblings. I'm just curious at to how families these days plan "together" time. If parents are playing video games themselves, do they purposely choose games they know their kids can join in with...sort of like a family clan? I'm thinking the opportunities here could be fantastic. However, I'm also thinking that if parents are playing one thing, and the kids are playing something else...could a gap be created with everyone in the family turning into their own "stream" after school and work...how do you keep the togetherness going today?

 

I know here on this site, we have a good number of families, I'm wondering if these questions are already coming up, and if frustrations arise, or, because of good planning, things are going as well as in my day...but with different tools.

 

Should every member of the family be entitled to their own computer? Isn't that kind of expensive? How about one computer for the entire family to use... does everyone have planned times on when to use it? Would there be a weekly Monopoly being played on it? ^^

 

One of my friends has his entire family playing WOW. It must be interesting to actually interact with your kids on line...how does that work out? lol, do you have to chastise or punish for bad behaviour in the game?

 

 

Hoping to see some interesting responses here. I'm sure that games are here to stay, and it seems like families are as well. Fascinating to see how today's family deals with all this.

 

Cheers!

 

gogo

[stargazer 0]

Ok here goes....I may be a bit off on this as both of moonwatcher's and my children are grown with little children of their own, but:

 

Both of our grown children play WOW, we have tried it but don't like it....we are devoted to GUILD WARS....LOL

 

Both grown children also have GUILD WARS our son and his wife play guild wars also (occasionally) and we team up to run together either the son or daughter-in-law as they only have one computer at this time.

Our daughter isn't fond of guild wars but our son-in-law will play occasionally.

 

We use this as a way of getting together to say hey and chat, as daughter and family live about 130 miles away and now son and family are 1400 miles away.

 

When both kids were home the game of choice was DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS....table game so we used our imagination....Moonwatcher was the dungeon master most times he could dream up the most challenging and "wicked" quests and dungeons ever! We all had our own set of dice and miniature pewter characters that we would move around the table like we were actually running them....ahhhh I miss those days....hours and hours of fun. A dungeon run would usually run all day long and far into the night. We would break for a meal and then right back at it, sometimes just eating snacks while playing for hours on end. I remember one weekend we played for the full 2 days without stopping for sleep...dang did we crash when we realized that it was Sunday night and we all had to go to school/work the next day.

 

stargazer

[tomi 0]

Ohh this is a very interesting topic here! I wanted to know these things too from others.

 

Well well...in my case, my parents don't even want to hear about video games. Even if they sometimes play Taipei.(Taipei

Sometimes checking mail, or even surf the net.

They dont like if we (bro, me) are playing video games, but they know that in these times you can't stop something that millions of families use, especially if you have the chance to buy it for your child. I don't say that parents can't say their child that they cant play vid games, but after they grow up...it is hard. In these times someone might be outcast from his/her class for example if he=she doesnt play vid games or doesnt have a cpu. If everyone around you play video games you'll have a feeling that you should try out to, ask your parents to buy.

(Unfortunately the same thing is true with drinking, and smoking.)

 

Surprise, but sometimes my family or even with enci's family we play some scrabble, cards, board games.

Playing video games with my parents would be very very strange. I can't even imagine.

 

In my family, we have (had) 1 desk computer and 2 (was) laptop. A few days ago it reduced to 1 laptop.

In most of our spare times I use the laptop and my bro use the other one.

Sometimes parents ask us to use for some time though.

 

Having an own computer for all members of the family might be necessary, but only if every member use if often. Can cost a lot, but you need to buy them only once, and everyone will feel good, and have fun in their spare time.

 

I dont say that in every family there mist be x number of computers, but it is not a very expensive stuff to buy in these days. Everyone can afford one computer in the family. (In most of families I mean)

 

Well that's me, but I'm very looking forward to other's answer.

 

P.S My dad is working on buying me a new computer. So I can play Sacred 2, requiem and many more games.

Edit: P.S.S: But my other family is playing a lot of games here, with me.

Edited July 23, 2008 by tomi

[Genenut 8]

Lord and I have played diablo networked with our eldest (the younger one is 3, a bit too small to play on a computer by himself). We have also played Call of duty networked and one other game that eludes me right now. We also play D & D like moon and star gazer every other sunday. Our youngest gets to be the kender *g* as he is always "holding" someone's dice for them.

 

If my eldest could not contantly break his computer we would be a 3 computer family. As it is were a 2 computer family and our eldest has VERY limited time on our computers (last time he snuck time on lord's puter he almost made us wipe and reinstall he put so much crap on it - even with anti virus and such)

 

We do have table games like monopoly and such but its really hard since most have very small peices and kenders love shiny stuff so we tend to lose parts if we play while the youngest is awake.

[tomi 0]

Ohh well I could say something of the limits too. A few years ago I was allowed to play only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 2 hours each day. Horrible! (Though I didn't get viruses.)

 

For now, somehow computer gives a big part of my life.

Edited July 23, 2008 by tomi

[Arilaftia 0]

Well I can say from my point of view.. if the balance isn't there of quality time and game time it will blow up. 18 hours locked in a computer room playing WOW kinda kills whatever relationship there is, so alot of it has to be self control and knowing when the heck to shut it off. Now its just me and my son, we both have computers, I play Lotro but always have time to share and be with him. He also plays games and such on his computer near me. But I know when to turn it off.

 

I will say though, being Ive been so shut off from the outside world for so long.. that I need it and the mental downtime it does give me. My son enjoys watching me play as I enjoy watching him play and beat his games. I think we all need some sort of fun in our lives and if used responsibly it can be a fine balance in life.

[Katran 0]

On my part I would say we are not a computer using family apart from me. So our togther time in the past came to playing games like monopoly card games cluedo and some other games. in todays time the family time has to come down to watching TV there are some good shows on Tv that can make a great time to spend together once or twice a week and there are always sports to share with your father on TV or on stands

[stubbie 21]

All my family use the various computer/laptops we have but I am the only hopelessly addicted gamer.

My wife uses her laptop for emails and business, our eldest daughter uses hers for study and watching You Tube and our youngest daughter uses the lounge room pc for chatting.

 

Last weekend my eldest and her boyfriend and his mate came over on Saturday night and we played Star Wars Monopoly.

Sitting around a table, wheeling and dealing and laughing together............now that was real fun

 

stubbs

[Lord of the North 10]

Lord and I have played diablo networked with our eldest (the younger one is 3, a bit too small to play on a computer by himself). We have also played Call of duty networked and one other game that eludes me right now. We also play D & D like moon and star gazer every other sunday. Our youngest gets to be the kender *g* as he is always "holding" someone's dice for them.

 

If my eldest could not contantly break his computer we would be a 3 computer family. As it is were a 2 computer family and our eldest has VERY limited time on our computers (last time he snuck time on lord's puter he almost made us wipe and reinstall he put so much crap on it - even with anti virus and such)

 

We do have table games like monopoly and such but its really hard since most have very small peices and kenders love shiny stuff so we tend to lose parts if we play while the youngest is awake.

 

The other game Mom and I have played networked with our eldest was Quake 3 and it was a frag fest (with eldest being the big receiver of incoming ammo). Mom also collects monopoly games and we do pull them out to play to. mom's sister and her hubby gave us a Wii for Christmas and we all enjoy getting in a round or two of golf or a few frames of bowling on it but some of the other games do give you a workout. As it turns out a week from this Sunday will be our next D&D adventure and we have gone back to play second edition with a few house rules added. I am the DM (Dungeon Master) and I can get very creative with the magic items and new monsters from deep in the dark corners of my mind. If anyone would like me to start a D&D thread to list some of these items or to post some of their own creations for D&D just let me know. Could even try a version of an old school D&D game where you played via mail, but could do it via a thread and pm's.

[gial 2]

I was out of town and missed this thread. My kids are in their 20's now -- we always played board games with them. Monopoly was a favorite, and Risk. Plus a whole bunch of new ones I can't even remember the name of. Family interaction is really important.

 

My son got into video gaming in his teens. I really never played online much until they were grown and gone.

[EvilMale 7]

As a family My time is really important with them and even more special with my wife. I do know there is a fine line between just enough and too much. I will have to admit that some of the games I have gotten into have been really time consuming and I have had to pull my self away from major overkill at times. But My family and real life always comes 1st. They are #1 and after all its just a game. I have heard of marriages going to the dumps over spouses taking it too far. Gaming is supposed to be fun. Its not a job. And its not real life. And in some ways I wish the companies putting these games out would realize this once a game is turned off the game should stop. But hey its not a perfect world and these are the days of high speed gaming.

[chattius 2,522]

Recently our family started to play more board games than just 2 years ago. Our internet access is via a radio link down to a tower in the valley and at storms it is not really stable. Also the bandwidth is limited. When my wife or me have to do downloads for our jobs the kids have to stay by side.

Most recent multiplayer games demand stable internet access which is not always given. So the good old board games had a renaissance.

Settlers of Catan, Monopoly, Trio, ....

 

Another place boardgames are played is strangely the waiting room of my wife as a doc. It is not as in towns where you give the patients a time when they have to appear. People here are used to pop up tuesdays evening when farmwork for the day is done. Sometimes it is a matter of minutes sometimes it needs more time. Some have kids with them and so often a quick board game is played. Mainly classics with a playtime of around 10 minutes.

Most played recently is Cuatro.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/149863/cuatro

It is a funny little game.

[Gilberticus 374]

Jenn and I play a lot of Mancala, and I'm elated to have found a four person version of the game, for when the twins are old enough to play. Which now gives me an idea. When my brother and I were young, my mother promised us each a gold Rolex watch if we stayed away from drugs and abstained from alcohol until we were 21. I think I'll make the same promise with the twins, except I'll make them each a Mancala board, using quartz, rose quarts, amethyst, and jade instead of glass stones. I think I'll do that today, I have a lot of fragments of all those I've procrastinated grinding. Eh, if they don't honor that deal, I can always sell the boards on E-bay. If you've ever wondered what gem carvers do with the little fragments of gems left over from carving, we normally grind them to dust and sell them to companies like Swarovski.

[Ysne58 236]

Nice idea Gilberticus!

[chattius 2,522]

Allowing alcohol or not is always a problem for parents once the kids are 15. At parties there will be alcohol. So we did it the way that we allowed our oldest to drink with the adults at family parties first. The idea was to show her symptoms of drinking, change in behaviour when drinking and get a bit trained in absorbing alcohol.

We always feared that she would get too drunk at a party, luckily it never happened. She learned to say no when feeling that her alcohol tolerance level would be reached.

[Ysne58 236]

My kids hate the way wine, beer and anything else alcoholic taste.

[Delta! 985]

we have a few fun games that we like to play as a family together. One of the favourites for all of us is 30 Seconds, the quick thinking fast talking game, but we also like rummikub, pictionary, scrabble, Monopoly, Mastermind, Boggle(I kinda kick ass, especially if we can do Afrikaans and English words) card games like canesta, rummi, poker etc.

As a family, I'm the only one playing PC games or any kind of video games.

 

My parents never banned alcohol from us, and as a result we didn't grow up and go on drinking spree's because "now I'm allowed"...

 

Delta!

[Gilberticus 374]

Oh, I know my twins will probably drink, just as mom knew we would. Like mom, I'm giving the kids a chance to think they're pulling one over on ole mom and dad. I didn't lose the watch bc of alcohol, it was...other stuff. I'm not really worried about alcohol, as long as there's no driving intoxicated