Dude, You Just Got Pwned By My Mom

from the up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-b-a-start dept

Think that the guy that just fragged you in Halo is some cherubic-faced pre-teen? Think again, it could be a 37-year old mother of two. A recent study reports that thirty-five percent of parents say they play video games. Gen-Xer’s, who grew up with video games, are now reaching parental age, and enjoy playing video games along with their kids. So, does this mean that Jack Thompson would have us believe that soon we’ll have roving bands of violent families picking fights at the local mall? Well at least that family is spending some quality time together.


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Comments on “Dude, You Just Got Pwned By My Mom”

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36 Comments
thecaptain says:

No Subject Given

That number will keep increasing as gamers continue to age.

I’m close to being a parent..lets just say all the necessary pieces are in place for it to happen in the next year or two..and I’m a gamer.

I don’t agree with legislation and Jack Thompson (what an ass). I do wish they have accurate ratings on games and that stores made an effort not to sell to kids, but I also know that 1) even if my kids buy an R rated game, they won’t be able to come home and play it, 2) it only takes a little effort to evaluate whether a game is suitable for my kids (and note…*I* want that decision and responsibility…NOT the government and not a bunch of self-righteous, self-appointed no-lifes).

My friends are gamers, they have kids, and they feel the same way…
Guess what? The kids sometimes play violent games , but they set limits, and they spend time TOGETHER with their kids rather than getting an X-Box babysitter…

Asher Schweigart says:

Re: Re: No Subject Given

Hey, i may be telling you something you already know, but from your wording i get the idea that you’re muting the whole game’s sound. You don’t have to do that, you can actually go into you xbox live settings from the dashboard and turn voice off. It’s under parental controls i believe. THat way, you still have the game’s sound. I hate playing halo with no sound!

Mike says:

Games, Parents and Kids

I’m 38, I play games, but am not an owner of a console system, just Internet and PC based stuff. I have been fortunate to get cast-off PC’s from friends so that both of my children have their own PC’s (ages 8 and 5). Rule #1 is no playing unless either my wife or myself is present. As for the Internet, no surfing unless I am in the room working/playing on my PC. Period. No arguments, no exceptions, that’s the rule – if you don’t like it, tough.

While we had a few disagreements initially and some chastising for random click behavior, they have learned that *I* have the final word on what is acceptable or not. I do not need the government being a third parent and do not believe they should be.

These people that keep blaming the games/music/whatever for the bad behavior of youth today need to grow up and stop being absentee parents. Get involved with your children, teach them the basic rules of life, teach them to care about others, teach them to respect other people and property. If you don’t, just exactly how do you expect them to learn?

Keith says:

Re: Games, Parents and Kids

ABSOLUTELY. The problem with most of the people screaming that the games/music/videos is destroying our childeren, is that they don’t have childeren. And they are looking for something to blame so they can say that they have a voice in the fight.

I, myself have two children (15, 5). My son is NOT ALLOWED to download anything or go to any site without my (and/or wife) approval. If he wants to “surf” the internet, fine, as long as one of us is in the room with him so he can’t “accidentally” go to the porn sites. As for our 5 yr old, she plays internet based games, but only after we go the site where the game is based at. She doesn’t know what surfing is (yet) and could care less, as long as gets to play sometimes.

Dave says:

Re: Games, Parents and Kids

I totally agree with you there. Too many people are blaming violent video games on children’s behavior, yet, the majority of violent video games (the really bad ones anyway) are M rated, meaning that a PARENT is buying it for them and thus it is ultimately the parent’s responsibility to have some sort of role in their child’s life.

On a different note, I think it’s quite awesome that many people, whom I would consider older, are still into a games. I get on a gaming forum quite frequently and the co-owners are both in their mid thirties, married and have kids.

Big Time Gamer says:

Re: Gaming Parent

I’m NOT a gaming parent but an uncle. All three of my bros. are gaming parent though. We range from 24yrs – 35 yrs. I grew up on the 6-switch atari.

We still get together and play game tournaments. Playing with the kids only enhances the fun, but I agree, Parents are smarter than the gov’t is giving credit for.

I really liked the games before the ratings. I mean, com o! What idiot parent would buy a game for their kid without lloking on the back cover or reading reviews. Even those of us that ARE gamers do that still.

I don’t know where I’m going with this.

Bryan says:

Government's Role

Hey – When it comes to something as contentious as video games, there’s no way the government could find an acceptable solutions for the “general public”.

I’m 35, I have 3 kids (1, 5 & 8) and let me tell you: it’s pretty hard to come to an agreement with my wife concerning what computer use is acceptable or not. How in the heck could anyone possibly come to agreement with the whole population?

I love video games, with PC, Mac, Console-based and hand-held games for the whole family.

My wife is not a big fan, but is willing to tollerate very limited and well supervised usage for our two oldest children (about an hour a week on average).

Having read a few other comments out there, other people have come to very different conclusions as to what’s acceptable. How could the government seriously entertain the notion that they could find true concesus for the general public?

Brian (profile) says:

Re: Government's Role

:: How could the government seriously entertain the notion that they could find true concesus for the general public?

They don’t even begin to entertain that notion. They entertain one even worse: that they think they know what’s best for the general public, more than they themselves do.

What’s worse is, edicts come from not the largest mentality in the nation, but usually the loudest and most influential. A group of moms banded together to complain about the “evils of xbox” are going to get far more consideration than a bunch of geeks who are too busy monitoring what their kids are actually doing with their free time.

Wyvern says:

Old People Rock

I am 39, been gaming for years, Xbox, Playstation 2, PCs(multiple as in 8+). Now if that surprises you, imagine the true fact that my retired father is an avid gamer, and UT2004 mapper. He is up until 2AM at least 3 days a week like any other avid gamer.

One of his buddies online is a Motorcyle Shop & Gun store owner who did at least one tour in Nam.

Gaming is for children and psychopaths of all ages!!!

wolff000 says:

Parents Pay Attention

Absolutely right, as gamers age there are going to be more and more parents playing games. What better way to know if you think a game is suitable for your kid than to play the game. When I have kids I don’t plan on stopping them from playing anything but X rated. Just like my parents did with me I will simply tell my kids not to copy the game or face the consequences. In my house consequences were often the removal of the game system, which made me act right instantly.

Anzaron, The Forgotten says:

Old Gamers

I am a 49 year old father and play World of Warcraft with my 25 year old son and 14 year old step-son every chance I get. We have a great time, and every once in a while, I get to teach THEM something about the game. And before WoW, we all played Ultima Online together, which my 42 year old wife still plays. The gaming universe doesn’t belong strictly to the young.

M. Craig Weaver (user link) says:

Re: Yup, I'm Old

I’m 47, and I play Halo on the PC, that’s the original Halo, as Halo 2 isn’t on the PC.

When I get home from work, I need to shoot stuff, I figure doing it on the PC is probably best.

I also enjoy winning against players that are my children’s ages.

I find there are some servers that are populated by old guys, like the one called “Spawn Killing Tank Whores”, a heavy weapons server.

family affair says:

Re: Re: Yup, I'm Old

im a 35 year old mother of 1, wife of a pycho gamer of many

years. i used to complain about his time on his pc game, then

he introduced me to halo, took just 1 month and i was hooked

i used to consider pc games for kids, lol, now im a kik butt halo

freak, hurray !!!!. husband plays WOW, my daughter plays

Runes…its a family thing..:) Love the tank whores server.

Max says:

Well, then...

I have to put in my two cents agreeing. It is the parents’ responsibility to control the games their kids play. I’m 41 and a gamer when I have time. My wife is not really into the games, but we both take the time to play with our kids (20,17,11 and 8 years old) on video games or otherwise. We do limit how much time they get to play and if they break the rules, they get time off from video games, no if and or buts about it. I do like the fact that since the rating system exists, we can quickly check the games for content and if our kids seem really interested in a game, we do more research. Yeah, raising kids does take work and sacrifice, but it’s a very small price to pay for the amount of joy we get from spending time with our kids.

By the way, my 70 year old dad, totally pwned me on Unreal Tournament last year.

Aija says:

Re: Well, then...

I, too, agree. It is always ultimately the responsibility of the parent(s) to decide what is best for their children. Furthermore, anything less is irresponsible on the part of the parent, and unConstitutional on the part of the government. I am a 26 yr. old mother of two (3 and 5). My husband and I have been gaming all our lives. My husband (25) and I play NeverWinter Nights, Quake, and WarCraft with my oldest daughter and my youngest enjoys simple arcade games (PacMan, etc.) and “educational” games (letters, numbers, etc.). I think video games are good for entertainment, learning, and one of the many ways to spend time with your kids.

DVD Dude says:

No Subject Given

It seems very obvious to me, but since more of the main stream gamers are ‘getting up there’ in age. Why don’t ‘we’ form some sort of coalition or group that expresses our views and concerns about what is going on in the arena that we all love to delve into. I myself am 33 years old, and still contine to play video games, and most likely will continue to play them until I am laid to rest. Also, if you want to continue this timeline into the future, more and more of us will be playing, and more of us will be in the ‘Jack Thompson’ positions. And then we will be able to control/mold what we want. That is how the world evolves. What is the corny phrase that most people use. “And the children will inherit the earth.” or something to that effect.
Just as in any other scenario, Our children will be controlling or setting the standards in the near future and most of this will all be a distant memory. But as for now, we need a united voice to speak for us, So hop to it and just do it!

seuaniu says:

let the parents parent

I agree with everybody that has the opinion that they should be able to parent their own kids, gov’t assistance not needed. I censor my own kids with respect to tv/movies/games, and while I don’t need or want help from the government, I could use some from console manufacturers. I want to password protect consoles, and have user logins just like my computer has. That would make it much easier to keep my kids from playing for 5 hours straight when they get old enough to stay home alone, and keep them from borrowing friends’ games that I wont let them play. My cable box lets me shut them out of any type of content that I deem inappropriate; my gaming console should too! That would, IMHO, make parents’ jobs much easier, and possibly help Mr. Thompson keep his mouth shut.

Taylor Moore says:

Re: No Subject Given

I’m 46 and play a few PC and Console games, “The Movies” and also Guitar Hero for PS2 which is a totally awesome game for a hack guitar player. Harmonix also make a hoverboard game called Antigrav that uses the eyetoy camera technology.
It is great to see some developer expand the landscape by integrating physical activity into the game controllers…awesome for kids activity and co-ordination versus “blisters on my fingers”.

some tech guy says:

No Subject Given

I don’t think the government seriously thinks it can tell parents is acceptable for their children. I do think there are a lot of irresponsible parents out there that don’t bother to take the time to make sure their children aren’t doing anything inappropriate. These same people don’t want to be held accountable for their in/action/s and want someone else to tell them what to do so they can lay the blame at someone elses foot when things go wrong.

Funny how this used to be the role of the religious institutes…

Dan Neuman says:

Gen-X Definition... and yes, I'm being pedantic.

While most of the posters above are indeed Gen-Xers, many people think Gen-Xers are relatively young. Douglas Coupland labelled Generation X as people born at the end of the Baby Boom. Even though they are Boomers, the ones born in the early and mid boom years got all the cheap real estate, all the good stocks and all the good management jobs. And then didn’t die. So us Gen-Xers are stuck in McJobs for many years waiting for them to move on. (Not that I can personally complain.)
The post-boomers (Gen-Y?) don’t (didn’t) have competition for all the entry-level jobs left by the many Gen-Xers (not as many Gen-Y as Gen-X), and now the children of the Boomers (Echo generation) are getting the benefits their parents got as they define a whole new market.
So if you were born around 1958-64, you’re a Gen-Xer. Otherwise, you’re just a wannabe. Ok, done whining.

Richard Jones (user link) says:

Not news to me

The community I play in (http://www.slak.com.au/) has a very high proportion of parents active, some of whom have kids who are active gamers themselves.

A couple of LAN parties ago it was one of the player’s birthdays. So his mum, another player, turned up with a birthday cake in the shape of one of the props from the game (explosives IIRC).

sadie says:

maen

meanyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

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