Stiltzkin

Videogames are actually useful if played responsibly. For example, just by playing lots of Squaresoft RPG's I have increased my vocabulary (because they tend to throw out lots of obscure words in the dialogue of those games) and I actually pause the game, grab my dictionary to look up them words, then resume the game with a better understanding of what's going on.

Also, if your child is not athletically inclined, playing a first-person shooter might keep them from losing all their reflexes. I realize most people don't see videogames this way, but I know for a fact that I would be less of a person today if I had never played videogames, ONLY because I know how to be responsible with videogames, meaning I don't get addicted to games and let them get in the way of my studying or other important parts of my life.

When I have kids some day, I'll definitely introduce them to videogames and how to be responsible videogamers.

I've set aside a "videogames trust fund for after retirement" already for this exact reason.

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JustDisGuy

We bought an XBox in no small part to keep the kids that visit us from wanting to install and play games on our computer. They get their games, and I get a computer that's relatively reliable.

Of course, once we got it I had to play with it and now I'm afraid I spend a bit too much time playing around with it. Not playing games on it mind, but playing with the system itself. It's actually basically a computer that you can do all sorts of things with, including loading and playing all the old arcade roms on, or playing your MP3 collection over your stereo. It's kind of addictive...

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FngKestrel

I don't think it's fair to demonize all video games. Video games are a form of media and entertainment that you can't hide from, so I feel that it's better to expose your children while you still have some sort of direct interaction with them and can give them a chance to understand your perspective on things and decide for themselves, tempered with your attitudes towards it. On the flipside of things, it's not appropriate to desensitize your children towards things like violence and swearing, which more and more video games seem to be embracing.

It's similar to things like movies. Would you let your kids go see an R film? How much do you know about the movies that they go see? How much do you know about the games your kids are playing?

merkerguitars

I have a PC but actually don't use it alot for gaming...every once and awhile I'll be a hardcore gamer for about a month and then back off for about a couple of months. Last console I owned myself was a Sega Genesis. Every once in a while i'll end up playing ps2 at cause my roomates nephew spends the night to hang out with his uncle and play games for awhile or end up playing Xbox at a LAN party.

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Baron Opal

I have my computer, no need of a console. Plus, I don't really have time to play said games. I have one that I am interested in, but it doesn't perform well on the computer that I have. next year sometime I'm going to upgrade, and then I'll be able to play my game.

keyshawn

my video game console Timeline:
NES ? - 1993/4
genesis - 1st Communion [2nd grade, 95] - 97 [literally, my dog urinated on the console, and it ceased to work....all of my friends think that's the funniest thing ever].
PS1 1997-2001
PS2 2001 - ?
Dreamcast Yesterday - ?
[PC 1996 - ?][Though until junior high it was limited to educational software and pac-man]

A healthy balance between video games and outdoor activity seem to be quite rare nowadays for adolescence, according to the fellow posters. Growing up, I think I've received a good balance and continued to do so. [18 here] Nor do I think it's that difficult to have one.
I recall days of playing whiffle ball by myself all afternoon in the summer, riding bike with friends and spending a majority of the afternoon outside; yet still occasionally playing video games.
Fortunately, my parents were somewhat frugal with the new video game technology, and was forced to spend my own money for them, save for a christmas gift.
During high school, my video game time has decreased quite a bit, and usually I wait until about 9 months or so after the game's release to buy it. The value of a video game to me, now, is probably only worth $15-20.
The dreamcast, I just received yesterday [bought it online last week] to play the more unique games that it has [jet grind radio, rez, and many more]. I'm frustrated that the video game community hasn't matured as much as I expected or hoped. More titles like 'beyond good and evil.' would help the gamers whose tastes have become more refined, to stay with video games for entertainment.

Coppertop

Regarding the post you linked to, I always loved books. I've read more books than anyone else I know. I also played outside everyday when I was younger and the weather allowed. I had a bike I'd ride with my friends. We'd explore all over my neighborhood. We played baseball and football in the street. I would go swimming in my pool in the summer. I also played video games. Hell, I play them now. My kids will play them too most likely. And I am a (reasonably) well adjusted adult.

Besides, video games like Splinter Cell can teach you the best place to hide the bodies!

MooseMan3000

I had a Nintendo as a kid, and I loved it. My mother hated it. My dad bought a few games, but she never did. She hated the fact that I enjoyed playing Nintendo. After that system broke, she refused to get another one. So what happened? I became a video game junkie. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just the truth.

When I went to college, I built my own computer and have (roughly) 20 or so games installed, several others laying around. Last summer I bought a GameCube and have since bought maybe 20 or so games for that. My favorite way to spend a Saturday night is at a LAN party, or at a friend's house playing Soul Calibur.

Despite my mother's constant attempts to make me adopt her lifestyle (read: newage quasi-hippy massage therapist mountain bike addict), the simple fact is I enjoy other things. I have nothing against mountain biking, and I rather enjoy rollerblading, but my lifestyle is not hers, no matter how hard she tries. Ultimately her refusal to hav video games in her house made no difference to me.

Sbudda

Let's see.... I've had An Atari 2600, the NES, the Super NES, the Nintendo 64, the PlayStation, the PlayStation 2, the Gamecube, the Dreamcast, the Gameboy and the Gameboy Advance. I think that's it. Oh yeah, and more computers than you can shake a stick at (for a total of 6 PC's and 2 laptops over the course of my life).

Despite all of this I still played sports, I did very well in school (and when I did poorly it was due to women, not games), and have gainful employment. In fact, when you have all of these systems and your parents only bought one of them (ahh 1986), being gainfully employed was the way that I was able to accumulate these systems. It taught me the value of a dollar (most of my systems are pawn shop systems), the value of hard work, and the value of getting everything done that I needed to get done before I started playing.

At the same time, it gave me something to play with my parents - my father was pretty old and couldn't really play basketball with me, but we had a great time playing Double Dribble back in the day. The old NES version of Jeopardy! was a good family game too.

Now I've had my share of marathon sessions trying to beat the latest Final Fantasy, and up until a few months ago I was part of a gaming clan that competed in FPS games that took up a few hours a week. But never was it a problem, I simply played while my wife watched 7th Heaven (I hate that this is allowed in my house).

My hand eye coordination is amazing. There was a study that proved that surgeons that played at least 6 hours a week had fewer mistakes with endoscopic surgery. The Army uses a number of FPS games to teach the value of squad manuver and command structure. As a person who was always interested in figuring out how things worked, playing games got me interested in game development, and later enterprise level computer programming - which is what I do now.

It is my opinion that people who choose to shield their children away from different aspects of life are doing the children a great disservice by not allowing them to find a moderate position when they make decisions on their own. I would never suggest that games are the end all be all solution for people - but I wouldn't suggest hiding it as if it were a bad thing either. I was forbidden to watch horror movies as a child, but my wife was forced to watch them all when she was a little kid. Guess who still gets scared at those movies today (that would be me).

Right now I live far away from my parents, but every now and again I can still pop in Tiger Woods and play a game of golf with my Dad over the Internet. I would think this would be a difficult thing to do had we not bonded over games like this in my early childhood.

Don't you hate it when you get quite far in your post and forget what the origonal poster was talking about? Ah well, this should be my cue to stop then.

Sbudda

If you've just gotten a DreamCast, you might find this site extremely interesting.
http://www.dcemulation.com/

The idea is you can burn old NES games (and other old console and arcade games) to a disk and play them on your DreamCast. This includes all of the classic games, translated versions of foreign games, and hacked versions of games like Super Afro Bros (a mildly amusing version of SMB). It will also play movies and MP3's and all of that good stuff - including Linux.

My wife particularly enjoyed played Rygar on it. The origonal version had no save or password feature, but when playing the game on the DreamCast, you can save the state of the game to the memory card and come back anytime to continue. The DreamCast is a modder's delight.

See what playing games can teach you?

FngKestrel

There's a mailing list I'm on that tries to explore more educational uses for games and looking at the applications that promote that. America's Army developed by the Army has been one of the more effective promotional tools to come out.

Serious Games if you're interested.

Hear hear!

Lebell

The last console system I got was an Atari 2600...and I still have it. All my gaming since has been on PC. Still, they kids have a Nintendo around here somewhere, but obviously I don't play it.

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Lefty04

My kids had a Playstation, then went to X-Box. After two X-Boxes died (couldn't read the disks), we went back to Playstation 2.

Sbudda

this might interest you

http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/dvd_drive.htm
(how to repair a bad DVD drive on an xbox)

Jonsgirl

Several systems. We now own 2 ps2s. and A Gamecube. And the computer. At some point after I get home (March 05) we'll pick up an X-box.

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Kalnaur

So my question is why do you not want video games in your house? I ask this because I am aiming my carrer at the video game field, perhaps even starting my own game company, and want to know why the "no thanks" demographic says "no thanks".

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HK-47: I'm 98% percent sure this miniature organic meatbag wants you to help find his fellow miniature organic meatbags.
PC: And the other 2 percent?
HK-47: The other 2 percent is that he is just looking for trouble and needs to be blasted, but that might be wishful thinking on my part.

Tidus

Got a PS, PS2 and a PC.^_^

Ganguro

I finally bit the bullet and got an xbox after seeing one for sale at under a hundred dollars and having a birthday come up. I got my ps2 free with my cellphone, and bought the gamecube for a xmas presnt for my parents a few years ago, then stole it from them. Heck my girlfriend just bought her mom a gamecube and mario kartD for her birthday.

As long as I can remember I've been raised and encouraged to use entertainment technology responsibly. My parents were big videogame nuts when I was a kid and I can remember getting up in the middle of the night seeing mommy play centipede on the Atari 2600, or 5200 and dad beat Ms. Packman over and over again. I remember fondly as a family sitting around playing duckhunt, mario, and pictionary on the NES. I remember how proud my parents were when I made a wheel of fortune knock off on our old 286. I remember playing Oregon Trail and learning about history and fur trapping in the first grade and wanting to read about these things after playing the game. I remember retoring old arcade cabinets in the garage with my dad. Gaming has been good to me and my family. My parents are near 60 and will play DDR with me at on holidays. The entire family (even my grandma who is over 85) will sit down and play bomberman after a good Xmas or thanksgiving dinner.

As long as I live, and as long as there are good games out there I will always support gaming and other entertaining technologies as ways to bring people together.

jon_264

I've only got one console (PS2) and would definitely consider buying an XBox if I had the time and money to make it worthwhile. I don't seem to get as much time to play the PS2 as I'd like as I have a young son who takes up a lot of my time.

Slavakion

NES, Genesis, PSX, N64, PS2, GC, GBC, Game Gear, PC. I like video games, yes. But i don'tplay them as often as I used to. Every now and then something will absorb my attention for a few weeks. Other than that, it's spotty.

splck

Don't own any... never have, never will.
I find them boring.

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TexanAvenger

While I've played a few games, the only system I own is my Atari 2600... Well, up until I found that text-based game thread in Tilted Nonsense anyway...

DeterminedPower

1.) Started off with the Pong paddles that you hooked to the TV
2.) Atari after that
3.) TI (learned to program on this pup)
4.) Commodore 128
5.) DOS based PC, did a lot of gaming on that
6.) Sega
7.) Now, I just use a PC and play mostly online poker and some FPS

Looking at getting a XBox or a PS2. I miss playing Madden NFL Football that I got addicted to on Sega.

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piesen

I just have a pc and that is enough for me, play mostly FPS games and poker

omega2K4

I've got too many video games systems to list. When and if I have kids, we're definately going to game together.

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Xenomorph

Some games can be used to great educational and/or practical effect. A lot of people are under the impression that video games are still essentially what they were 20 years ago...tests of reflexes that rewarded the ability to make your little character jump at the right time, or hit the A and B buttons in the right combination to make him do a super punch. This isn't the case.

Some very educational stuff slipped under my radar and got into my brain. I wouldn't touch anything as obvious as "Reader Rabbit" after I was 6 or 7, but games set in historical contexts sometimes managed to be educational. Play "Civilization 3" or "Rome: Total War" for a few hours and try not to learn something. I've forgotten about the strategy game itself in Civ 3's Civilopedia feature, which gives a little 2-page informational blurbs on all sorts of historical figures, technological advancements, military units, significant events, civilizations, and so in. The real Rome, for example, seems much more interesting after you've been playing as the digital one for a few hours.

Text-based online games are a good way to improve both writing skills and typing speed. Some of them are just timesink roleplaying games about playing 12 hours a day until your elf wizard is level 100, but some are creative and even literary. Elendor, a Tolkien-based MUSH at www.elendor.net, has helped me improve my writing ability quite significantly. MUDs and such have been around for a while. My parents were caught off guard when my 7th grade keyboarding teacher said I was the quickest in the class, and it wouldn't have happened if I was booted outside every day until I was 13.

I do acknowledge that it can be a serious distraction, and I've seen most of my fellow gamers dodge school and work-related responsibilites for a bit more gaming time. I've done it myself. I've even seen some people get very seriously addicted to those games that can be played for literally days on end without coming to any sort of a conclusion. I've seen people fail out of college playing poker, watching TV, and drinking, too. The argument that games are potentially addictive isn't enough to stop me from playing them any more than it would keep away from a night of cards, a good show, or a couple beers.

I play a bunch of games and I hope if I have any kids I'll be able to enjoy them with the little buggers in the same way that I will playing catch or kicking a soccer ball around.

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Suave

I personally believe that denying a child something that is considered normal to have by other children is a negative thing, even if it is a video game system. It may seem superficial, but things like that can lead to marginalization of the children, and no matter how awesome or special your child is, what they want and what is least stressful for them is to fit in. Besides, if you give them a system of some type early, and train them from a young age not to overuse it, they're more likely to listen.

CityOfAngels

Here is a list of the videogames systems I've ever owned:

Intellivision (Dad sold it at a yard sale)
Atari 2600 (Dad sold it at a yard sale)
Nintendo (I have three of these. Two are the old versions that don't work anymore, and the other is the top-loading version that's hooked up to my TV right now)
Super Nintendo (Stuffed in my closet. Broken)
Game Boy (Packed away and inoperable)
Game Boy Pocket (Gave it to my friends, who were portable-game-less)
Game Boy Color (Remains in the bathroom, with only Tetris inside it, unless my brother comes over, when he puts Pokemon in)
Game Boy Advance (Currently Playing Dragon Warrior on this)
Sega Master System (Bought this PAL version about a year and a half ago. Was never able to operate it on my NTSC tele)
Sega Genesis (Stopped playing it because it now emits a buzzing sound whenever I operate it)
Sega CD (Stuffed in my closet, connected to my Sega Genesis)
Sega Game Gear (My dad shoved his pocket knife inside it and farked up the screen. Trashed it)
Sega Nomad (Traded this online for my Top-Loading NES system)
Sega Saturn (Stuffed in my closet. Needs some repair, maybe just a replacement connector)
Sega Dreamcast (Stuffed in my closet. It resets at random, so I gave up on it)
Sony Playstation (I went through two of these. My last one I traded in to EB for my Game Boy Advance. Seemed like a rip off then, but it's a deal now)
Sony Playstation 2 (I'm on my third one of these. Currently hooked up to my TV, alongside my top-loading NES)
PC (750 MGHZ Intel Celeron, 19 GB storage, li'l over 200MB RAM, virus/torjan/spyare-filled piece of crap. Typing this message with it now)

I've been playing videogames all of my life. I remember my Uncle giving me my Intellivision, and my favorite games on that were Burger Time and the Dungeon-Hack-style Dungeons and Dragons game. I was too young to know where my Atari came from, but I remember my favorite game on that was (believe it or not) Strawberry Shortcake. My first brand-new system was my first NES, given to my older brother and I on Christmas morning when I was (I think) four years old. I remember thinking that it came with Zelda packed inside for quite some time, because when my parents wrapped the system, they stuffed Zelda in the NES box.

Ah...the memories. I, for one, do NOT planning on depriving my future kids of the joy of videogames. I plan on playing videogames with them, just like I always wished my father would do with me.

P.S. This thread just gave me an idea. Can anyone say, "TFP Halo 2 party"? Not that we all have to play Halo 2, but any sort of videogame party would be kinda cool.

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