Guilt and Gaming

[mjmjr25]

Now that I have found some games I am very much craving to play (PS3 fighters and some MVS stuffs) I have a new issue - guilt.

It used to be I would play along side my kids on the Wii, or just watch them, and then on the weekend or after they were down to bed, I would play a shmup for 30 minutes or something.

However now, I am very much into a few games i've recently acquired, and am wanting to play more often. The problem is the games I want to play (more violent fighters/shooters) that I don't want my kids exposed to, I have to play downstairs or in the bedroom - thus i'm not with them. So now I have this guilt going on...

Do any of the other parent/gamers experience this? Obvious suggestions I am missing?

[aaron]

yeah, this has happened to me before. i just altered my schedule to make sure i was spending the time i had with my son, with my son. i am divorced though and he doesn't live with me, so it's probably different for you.

i just would schedule myself some time to play when it was convenient for everyone else involved. the trade off is that i don't play games very much anymore, but i do get some nice quality time with my son and my girlfriend.

plus i just like to look at my games on a shelf anyway. haha.

[Xeogred]

For a different perspective ... (although easy to say violent games are a completely different beast than they were ~15 years ago), I grew up playing Doom in Kindergarden, played the MK games, Killer Instinct, loved Resident Evil, etc. lol, didn't mess with me at all as a kid.

But again, yeah I guess if I had a kid I'd maybe second guess having them around while playing some games thesedays, or what I allowed them too.

[dsheinem]

My not quite two year old loves Killzone 3. He points at the TV with an old GunCon and goes "bang! bang!" while I play.

[CFFJR]

My not quite two year old loves Killzone 3. He points at the TV with an old GunCon and goes "bang! bang!" while I play.

I'm not much of a kid guy, but that's adorable.

[mjmjr25]

My not quite two year old loves Killzone 3. He points at the TV with an old GunCon and goes "bang! bang!" while I play.

I'm not much of a kid guy, but that's adorable.

I thought it was extremely cute when my boys would play X-Men v Streetfighter and imitate moves in the air. However, it was not cute when they were trying to "finish" our 1 yo daughter. It's one thing to do moves in the air, or point fake guns, but when they start really acting scenes out on each other - it's very scary and the wife puts down some hard and fast rules (which after last night, I def. am fully on her side now).

[Rurouni_Fencer]

I can relate with my younger sisters. They're about 5 and 7 years younger than me, but liked videogames almost as much as I did.. I remember playing Final Fantasy VII with them watching rabidly next to me. (They'd nearly break down if I ever started playing without them..)

Anyway, at the time as a 15 year-old high schooler, (my sisters being 8 and 10,) I had to plan my time with Mortal Kombat 3, or Bushido Blade, or Duke Nukem without them, (I was responsible enough as an older brother to not expose them to wanton violence.) Weekends were pretty much solid, as they'd go to bed around 10 o'clock, and I'd fire up Resident Evil almost as soon as they'd go to sleep. When they were awake, I made it a point to slow my gaming sessions down to where I had a game to play with, and only with, my little sisters, (FFVII) and a game to plow through on my own (Resident Evil) when they were asleep or doing after school activities when they got a little older.

Now that I'm almost 30 years old, and living with my future wife who also enjoys playing some games together, I still stick to this rule, because I will feel guilty if I don't play Little Big Planet or Donkey Kong Country with her taking turns.. When she's away, I still have my Bulletstorms and Marvel VS Capcom 3s to play through on my own.

[emwearz]

My not quite two year old loves Killzone 3. He points at the TV with an old GunCon and goes "bang! bang!" while I play.

Some of my best childhood memories are playing games (Most were P&C but a few shooters) with my old man.

[Anapan]

I try to keep my niece distanced from violent games, but I let her play Grand Theft Auto Vice City the other day. I told her it's a driving game (she's really into Mario Kart). You can't run over people or you'll lose your car. It seems to be going okay. The car control makes it easy for her to play. She drives a car until she sees a vespa and jumps out to get it because it plays more or less like a go-kart.
I was kinda worried about her watching me kill Colossi on Shadow of the Colossus but she understands that they are monsters.
My Brother lets her watch zombie movies once in awhile so killing zombies seems to be OK. I let her watch me play Zombie Vs Ambulance. She's been told and understands that zombies aren't people and are already dead. I don't know if that's okay, but she was concerned that I'd run over a couple of zombies that she thought were alive and got mad at me. Still, any war or FPS games not involving identifiably alien or monster enemies are strictly off-limits.
You might try the monster/zombie angle and see how that goes...

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Just to add my input. I really don't like playing violent games around my step-niece and nephew. However, I remember when I was three or four I'd watch my dad play Doom 95 on a Pentium 100. I've been playing M games without supervision since I was 5 or 6.

That said, I don't condone showing young children violent and explicit material of any kind. However, I don't think your child will turn into a deranged freak if they see you killing an alien or two.