Today, as everyone in the U.S. knows, is Father’s Day. Gamasutra has a pair of articles up on dads and gaming, and both are worth reading.
The first one is on how having children has affected game designers, in their views and what games they work on (or prefer to work on). The other is about developing a relationship with dad by killing things with him.
That’s game violence, of course, not real-world killing. Just so you know ;)
I know that many of you guys out there are also fathers. Do you play games with your kids? Which games? What games do you keep away from the kids? Has having a family changed your views of games at all?
While you ponder those questions, check out the links below and see what others have to say.
Everyone,
Here are some new games for the dad or child in everyone:
June 19 Call for Heroes: Pompolic Wars
June 26 Defender of the Crown: heroes Live Forever
June 26 Overlord
June 26 Seven Kingdoms: Conquest
So, Scorpia, are you going to buy and play Overlord or Call for Heroes????
Before our computers stopped properly using the network to converse (hubby is working on it… someday) my daughter and her dad used to play Unreal Tournament, Battlefield 1942, Star Wars Battlefront II, and some other games together. Of course, when we can get three of the computers working together we all three play. ::grin:: It’s great fun and a nice family bonding experience. I’ll never forget the warm feeling that comes from hearing your daughter, who is playing the droid forces in Battlefront, say, “I am parts!” as her droid blows up.
I play Guitar Hero with the younger daughter, and Dance Dance Revolution with both of them.
It’s good fun.
More games for the whole family.
A fansite of Blizzard is saying that Blizzard will be announcing a WOW expansion and a new Diablo game during Blizzcon in Aug. Looks like the rumors of D3 coming are correct.
But, then again, with the Hellgate set to open in London town in Oct., who cares???
By the way, is this London in England or Canada. (Yes, there is a city of London in Canada.)
I have 2 kids, my daughter is 3 and my son jut turned 5. Yesterday on Father’s Day my son and I played “Flatout” together. I steer while he hits the gass and brakes. He also provides running commentary and sound effects and tells me where to drive which is almost never on the track. He adds “ouch” sounds in time with the driver hitting hte ground during a crash then pretends to call an ambulance and makes siren noises until the game resets. I love it. He even drives the car without my help if I dont’ follow his instructions.
As for games I play - it sure has changed my play habits. I’d love to play F.E.A.R. but after having him wake up and come in while I was playing DoD one night and getting upset that Daddy was shooting people I almost never play shooters anymore. If I do it is without sound so I can hear him come in the room and turn off the screen before he sees anything.
It also puts a damper on my game creation hobby as I can only work on the violent/scary parts when he and his sister are asleep as well.
Now when they get older I fully plan to play shooters or RTS or even MMO’s with them.
My opinion on violence and children can be summed up by reading the book “Killing Monsters”. Kids need to pretend play at shooting, etc to work through their own anxieties about death, etc. Parental involvement to help guide and explain the difference between pretend and real life is needed, not just in games but in all aspects of their lives. Parents or politicians who cry about game violence are morons and not thinking about the fact that violence is in all things; art, movies, computer games, books, comics, etc. Parents need to be involved in raising their kids and actually BE PARENTS and not their childs playmate or even their ‘best friend’. Show me a parent who says they are their childs ‘best friend’ and I’ll show you a child that is emotionally stunted and not capable of being a productive member of society, heck.
Video games don’t create violent children, bad parenting does.
As for government intervention - the government, all governments, need to quit the nanny buisness and go back to worrying about important things - like weeding out their own corruption and reducing their spending.
On a similar note I’d like to thank the baby-boomer 60’s me generation nimrods for neglection their parenting duties and making the majority of my generation into disfunctional misfits. Everyone of the old hippies needs their @$$ kicked.
Funny thing about Dads and pasttimes. I’m not a Dad, but I grew up in a rural area. My father’s pasttimes were things like hunting and fishing. So, I went out and killed actual living things with dad… and yet I consider myself fairly normal and well adjusted. :P
I haven’t been hunting or fishing since high school, but I always did like the Ranger class in AD&D. Go figure.