I was talking with a coworker about what games my parents allow me to play, and what they let their kids play. My parents were fine with most things bloody things, like Resident Evil 4, Left 4 Dead and Gears of War, mostly because you were fighting like aliens or zombies. They were fine with military shooters too, and got really interested in the Modern Warfare storylines. The game that they really had a problem with was GTA, of course, but later, when my little sister started playing it, they got invested in GTA 5’s story, so eventually we could just play whatever we really wanted. How bout you all? Did your parents have any weird or strict rules in games or movies?
No rules, except that they weren’t paying for anything, so I play a bunch of free-to-play games and (maybe) learned the ways of Captain Jack Sparrow 🏴☠️ 😉
I mean, my parents didn’t even care if I shoplifted as long as I don’t get caught. (I don’t shoplift, but if I did, my parent would be more worried like “did they see you take it” more than the morality/legality implications.)
I remember when Super Smash Bros. Melee came out, I had to convince my parents to let me get it on the basis that the first game was rated E, so this sequel clearly should’ve also been E instead of T. Didn’t actually take much convincing, they were fine with it.
I never asked to play any M rated games, because there were never any that interested me to begin with. I think they definitely would’ve said no.
None. My folks didn’t have any rules about games. Then again my parents really didn’t do rules.
My parents only had a few important ones, like don’t touch the guns, (they kept them out of reach usually.) And don’t mess with the cattle or play in the road.
I had rules until I started getting an allowance and could guy my own games. That was around the time of GameCast.
Rules
- Nothing M rated
- Only 1 new game per year, so choose wisely
- We could rent from blockbuster, but I couldn’t rent the same game more than once, so I better finish that game in 3days, 5 days if they were feeling generous that week.
- I was allowed to borrow games between friends, but since I had like 4 games to trade, they never wanted to let me borrow their games.
I must say, great thread for a gamer that is now a parent.
In my childhood I could play anything, but graphics were not good enough to leave much marks.
Now my 11 year old worked his way up from GTA San Andreas to playing GTA5 and RDR2. He was watching the cut scenes anyway on YouTube (crappy moderation for violence there). Trying to avoid sex as much as possible, worried about GTA6 (we’ll probably play it together). Anyway, the greatest shock for him was the choice in GTA4 (kill your friend or the rich guy).
Anyway, the greatest shock for him was the choice in GTA4 (kill your friend or the rich guy).
what did he choose?
<13 it was pg 13 or less, not that I really cared about anything else tbh.
By about 13-15 it was anything except porn (ex. doom eternal was allowed) this is also when I was allowed unrestricted Internet, so I was being sent photos of decapitated heads on discord anyways lol
at 16 I got a debit card and no rules
As kids we had a dos 286 pc with some basic vga games. Nearly all of them were educational so my parents let us play those whenever. We got a used SNES for xmas the year the n64 came out, and we played that as much as we could. My parents didn’t know then and still struggle now with computers, so they let me do as I pleased with the PC, within reason.
As a teen I bought my own computer and my own PC games. My parents probably would not have approved of me playing half life, doom, quake, UT, and other graphic games, but I played the hell out of those. I also had stuff like myst that were pretty low key but fun. My PC was my own personal machine, so I did with it what I wanted, when I wanted.
The usual concern with most older gen gamers was having parents telling us video games would rot our brains. As they stared at the TV for hours most nights… Video games sharpen your motor skills, reflex times, logic and reasoning skills, among other things. I find quite the opposite to be true and would advocate that video games are actually very, very good for you in many ways, unlike most television shows. I highly encourage gaming over watching. Our family game night is usually played on a console rather than a table.
I generally wasn’t allowed to play video games because they were a waste of time. Eventually I was allowed to play dexterity-based games like DDR and Guitar Hero, but not often.
Most of the games I’ve played were after I moved out, and I never really got into them.
My mom was really against cursing and of course anything sexual, but the rest was pretty much fair game.
An exception would be Manhunt, but I even got to play MGS3 as a kid (which ended up being my favorite game of all time.)
I grew up with gaming on a DOS PC, Atari, and original NES. My parents didn’t regulate my use, but refused to spend money on consoles or the games themselves. I supported my gaming interests with summer jobs, skipping lunch and saving the lunch money instead. Both of my parents were also addicts, so I could usually steal 5-10$ once in a while when they were high without being noticed. Not sure when the ESRB rating system rolled out, but it’s something I paid attention to when buying games for myself, and eventually my kids.
When I had my own stepchildren, they were free to game as much as they wanted when chores and homework were done, and adhered to a 10 pm lights out to get 8 hrs of sleep. As my stepson grew more interested in mature titles, I often played those titles to see what the content was like before deciding if I would allow him to play it. His bio mom was clueless about games, and tended to be more restrictive than me. I played OG halo before deciding it was a game he could play as a 14 year old. I played some of the GTA games before deciding he had to be 16 before we would let him play those. (My issue was picking up a prostitute and then being able to beat her after to get the $ back.) I started playing WOW because my stepson wanted to play. After some exploring I thought it was a safe title for him. Gaming was something that brought us closer together, and I spent so much time gaming with him. If I had the chance to give birth to my own kids, I would wish for a biological son like my stepson.
Computer games and handheld games were allowed, but no video game consoles ever until we were adults.
Only one hour a day initially. And my mom hated any games with guns, so no games with guns. Creating an absolute bloodbath in Age of Empires was completely okidoki tho. At some point I wanted to buy GTA 3. My mom obviously said no (and fairly so, I was like 12 or something). But my dad, in an absolute chad move, said “oh I know that game, it’s fine”. I tended to play at the houses of friends who had less strict rules. I remember playing GTA Vice City on the original Xbox some time before I was allowed to buy GTA myself.
I was playing mortal Kombat when I was 9-10. They didn’t do due diligence, and if I thought they’d have a problem with it, I would just lie about it. I’m still playing mortal Kombat but compared to everyone else in the world, I suck ass now. Same with call of duty. From 19- 28 or so, I was awesome. Quit playing when they announced advanced warfare because it was getting too corny and the maps kept getting worse and worse for making plans, and all about chaos and random encounters. Got MW2 with my PS5 for nostalgia, and I again found that I wasn’t as good as I used to be. Oh and all the stupid skins like santa running around in a warzone was fucking stupid. They should’ve left that to fortnight. These days I mostly play racing sims (thankfully I’m still really good at GT7) and RPGs which is funny that as I got older I wound up playing more family friendly stuff.
The only rule was I had to get them myself (unless it was a special occasion) and not to disturb the house while gaming.
Most of my PC games were from the win95 and MS-DOS era. But I do remember getting half-life 1 and eventually 2, and all the crazy mods that came out for those.
I remember playing the leisure suit larry games and not understanding any of the jokes haha.
I don’t remember my parents having many, if any, rules for games, probably because I was the final child by that point. They didn’t really have to worry too much about me getting into games too mature for me ( probably the worst I could remember when I was still little would have been Turok on n64 ), so I was fine either way.
I do remember on weekends, though, my dad specifically trying to get me, someone who doesn’t like to eat breakfast in general, to eat before I’d play games. That was around middle school when that would happen.
