Parents and banned video-game related stories?

[Luke]

My mom used to warn me about D&D, but I never played it. I remember being afraid that it would turn me or my friends into murdering Satanists.

People who play D&D have friends?

[Menegrothx]

My mom used to warn me about D&D, but I never played it. I remember being afraid that it would turn me or my friends into murdering Satanists.

People who play D&D have friends?

D&D is a multiplayer game. It was a tabletop RPG LONG before it was turned into a bunch of console and computer RPGs.

[Luke]

My mom used to warn me about D&D, but I never played it. I remember being afraid that it would turn me or my friends into murdering Satanists.

People who play D&D have friends?

D&D is a multiplayer game. It was a tabletop RPG LONG before it was turned into a bunch of console and computer RPGs.

'twas in jest.

[MulishaSoldier929]

I have never personally had any problems between my parents and what games I played. They were pretty cool on the idea that a game is just that, a game. If someone acts up due to video game "violence" or whatever they probably were playing with a full deck to start with IMO.

I did know a kid in high school whose parents were ultra religious and overall didn't have a problem with him playing video games as long as it didn't have any magic in it. That was the kicker. Magic lol.

[ZeroAX]

The only time I remember my parents banning video games for me, was when I first got a Mega Drive and I started developing a strange movement behavior when I was sitting. Probably from being uncomfortable? I don't know. Anyway, I stopped playing the Mega Drive for 2 years cause we left Europe and it didn't work in NTSC territories. I got a Game Boy while I lived in the states and didn't show the same symptoms. When I came back I started playing on the Mega Drive again, and didn't get the spastic movements again. I have no idea what it could have been, but since it has gone away there has been no video game ban.

And the video game "ban" wasn't really a ban, it was just a limit to 1 hour per day (which was very annoying since it took 10 year old me around 1.5-2 hours to beat a Sonic game, so me and my sister had to combine our gaming time to be able to beat the games )

[Key-Glyph]

Some great stories here!

My parents never put restrictions on my gaming aside from "it's time for us to watch the news now so we're reclaiming the television for the evening, no ifs, ands, or buts" -- at least not that I was consciously aware of at the time. My parents were masters of gently steering me away from things they thought would scare or disturb me without opposing my choices outright, though, so I'm sure they were weeding certain things out in a deliberate way without my noticing. Instead of confrontations like, "No, we will not have that in our house," there would be a lot of discussions like, "Are you sure that's what you want? Don't you think that might scare you? Wouldn't you rather have something else instead?" I think this is a great technique, because even though my parents had an agenda, they were engaging me in conversation and letting me reason with them. It was a valuable exercise to go through regardless of whether I got what I wanted.

My best friend's mother, by contrast, would set an egg timer for fifteen or thirty minutes when we played video games at his house. When time was up (which was never enough to get anything accomplished), we had to go play outside.

And as a side note, my mom was the "reasonable" one. She's been into computers forever, let me have a lot of freedom with my play, and would sit and watch me play video games sometimes if I wanted to share something with her. She was interested in my interests, and we bonded over that. Same went with my brother, too. I particularly loved Xeogred's story about his grandpa, because I remember the afternoon my mom and brother beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game together on the NES. I was in awe, because I was so young at the time that my motor skills couldn't even see me through the first level (and I was also so frightened of the Roadkill Rodneys that I would put the controller down and cover my eyes instead of fighting them). Just a few days ago she watched me play Mass Effect 2 and exclaimed excitedly, "WOAH. Video games have come a LONG WAY since I last checked!" She then commended me on my sniping skills.

My dad, on the other hand, forbade us from ever bringing a Oujia board into the house. Yup.

[BoringSupreez]

My parents didn't know too much about video games, so my dad would ban or approve games based off the cover art and ESRB rating all the way until I turned 18, while my mom would let me police myself ever since I was 10. Needless to say I nearly always went game shopping with my mom. It was so awesome being able to buy whatever M-rated games I wanted while my friends couldn't even get T-rated games sometimes. If I hadn't grown up playing stuff like SOCOM, Doom, Quake, Gears of War, and Half-Life my memories and taste in games would likely be very different. Heck, I would have grown up as a Nintendo kid instead of a PC/Playstation kid. The only thing she wouldn't allow me to buy was GTA, and I don't care for that anyway.

[REPO Man]

Not a parent-ban story, but my Mom used to play Wario Land (she got it for me one Easter, along with a copy of Nintendo Power) and made it all the way to the last part of the game (in the skull tower).

She and my dad also made it to the second level of Sonic Spinball before I ever did.

I also remember when my cousins (the boy was a bit younger than men, while the girl was a few years older than me) would come over, and she'd fake not feeling well when she was over, then lie down in my room and play my Sega. This was when I had Sonic 3, which was the first game I ever bought myself. When my mom found out, she'd tell her to go back outside.

My parents also had an issue with buying me a console if I already had one. So when I had a PlayStation, I couldn't also get a Nintendo 64 or a Dreamcast. I would later get a PlayStation2, but then I couldn't get a GameCube. I'd later save up one summer (the summer I worked at my dad's jobsite) and buy a GameCube the day before school started. The next year I'd do the same for the Xbox. The next year, I'd buy a preowned Dreamcast from GameStop, and a Saturn lot from eBay the next year. And then an Xbox 360 and Wii the next two years. Still don't have a PS3, WiiU or PS Vita.

[Michi]

My dad, on the other hand, forbade us from ever bringing a Oujia board into the house. Yup.

Seances. That's what all the kids are into these days.

[Reprise]

And the video game "ban" wasn't really a ban, it was just a limit to 1 hour per day (which was very annoying since it took 10 year old me around 1.5-2 hours to beat a Sonic game, so me and my sister had to combine our gaming time to be able to beat the games )

Haha as I mentioned previously in this thread, I also had this "1 hour per day" ban. I forgot to mention this meant it took me years to actually beat most of my games without cheats, due to few games having saves back then