did you ever..

[shateredsoul]

Did you ever try to show off something "cool" you could do in a game (arcade or console) as a kid to your parents? Only to get less of a reaction than you expected? (i.e. instead of a "wow that's great!" you'd get a forced "oh that's nice").

I even have a video of me, as a kid, trying to get my dad to video zelda II instead video taping my cousins and I.

I just started to think of that because of this blog http://www.lifeintheanalogage.com/

Now I do the same with my wife and try to convince her that it's something cool to watch , but then I get the same reaction or.. get told to help and clean up =(

[Funnel]

Actually this struck a chord with me... when I was little I was playing Mortal Kombat II on Snes and I called my mom to show her a move I made with Liu Kang, but when she came into my room she didn't care and told me to clean the "Pig Sty" of my room. Hehehehe fail.

[hypernova]

Yup...did it as a child, and now my kids do the same thing at the most mundane things in games.

[wp34]

Yup...did it as a child, and now my kids do the same thing at the most mundane things in games.

+1

My oldest is into turn-based RPG's and I hate to admit I have the hardest time taking an interest.  He has introduced me to some good bands and Anime though.

[SavannahLion]

I believe my mother secretly liked video games but didn't really catch an obvious interest until games like Grim Fandango and Grand Theft Auto came along. Not sure why she likes those two.

My father on the other hand couldn't understand what the point of, "all that jumping around," was. He was an odd man though. He always wanted me to read and helped me maintain an extensive library of books but discouraged me from writing as it was, "merely a useless hobby that doesn't earn anybody any money." I now know he was absolutely useless with money so this advice was equally as worthless.  

However, I do remember one incident when a buddy and I were playing Wonderboy 3 on his SMS. He was convinced the stone heads that spit fire looked like some T.V. personality. I wasn't really convinced so he calls in his mom to take a look. So he and I are sitting there while he's talking to his mom and his mom isn't saying anything. Finally after a minute or two, he shuts his yap. She merely says one thing.

"What's with all the porn on the walls?"

[lilshawn]

"What's with all the porn on the walls?"

 

oops!

it's not porn...it's art!

[Samstag]

I believe my mother secretly liked video games but didn't really catch an obvious interest until games like Grim Fandango and Grand Theft Auto came along. Not sure why she likes those two.

Sounds like your mom has better taste in video games than you do. 

[shateredsoul]

funny thing is that my mom did like video games! She loved super mario bros up to snes. Then she lost interested when it all went 3d and regained interest with bomberman on the gamecube and then gained interest in the nintendo ds with New super mario bros. It was my dad's attention I wanted any therapists in the house?

[SavannahLion]

"What's with all the porn on the walls?"

 

oops!

it's not porn...it's art!

It might be fair to mention that my friend had a fetish for pregos.

[ark_ader]

"What's with all the porn on the walls?"

 

oops!

it's not porn...it's art!

It might be fair to mention that my friend had a fetish for pregos.

TMI

[knave]

I don't think my parents understood anything about video games, They though of them as just another kids passtime like cartoons.

My children, however do something I never would have thought to do...they ask me for help on a level when they are stuck. My folks just just couldn't have helped if they had tried.

Pretty interesting really.

[ChadTower]

My kids learned not to bother asking me for help on a level.  I'll tell them to practice more.  Then I'll make them play Rygar on the NES as punishment if they get mouthy about it.

[Bootay]

My kids learned not to bother asking me for help on a level.  I'll tell them to practice more.  Then I'll make them play Rygar on the NES as punishment if they get mouthy about it.

LOL Nice. When video games first hit the scene my dad was into them and even took me to all of the arcades back when I was a kid. He played along with me...one of his favorites was Zaxxon. When I got an Atari 2600 he played those games with me. When I got a ColecoVision he still played but not as often...and then that's it. After the video game crash my dad officially hated video games. Hated them with a passion and complained about me playing them as a teen. Always telling me I am wasting my time with these useless games. Now this year for Christmas he gets a Wii and is all about Tiger Woods golf on it...LOL

Now my son is always asking me for help playing games, but like Chad, I don't help. I make him practice. Now he is almost just as good as me.

[RayB]

PSSHHT! Whatever!! You two are just saving face because you know danm well your kids play better than you and you'd be no help to them anyways! 

[ChadTower]

That day is definitely coming.  It's not here yet, though.

[Mikezilla]

---fudgesicle--- Rygar. 

[Bootay]

PSSHHT! Whatever!! You two are just saving face because you know danm well your kids play better than you and you'd be no help to them anyways! 

My son is almost there. And when he bugs me enough I sometimes help him but I prefer for him to learn on his own. But he definitely is getting better at the newer games. I played him deathmatch in Black Ops and he smeared me. 

[NiN^_^NiN]

---fudgesicle--- Rygar. 

Why so mad about rygar i love that game use to play it on c64 all the time it wasn't a hard game you just had to be smart about it and careful unless the nes version is even harder 

[ChadTower]

The NES version was like 3 hours long (if you had a map) and had no save points or passwords.  That's the point of my joke.   

[dendawg]

It might be fair to mention that my friend had a fetish for pregos.

He had a fetish for spaghetti sauce? 

[SNAAKE]

showed my brother how I swapped the awful music from mvc2. he didnt seem to care at all. probably because he never played the game...

[shateredsoul]

I can still school most of my little cousins on street fighter and platforming games, but yeah, those I haven't really been good at a first person shooter since Halo 2.

[leapinlew]

I got killed playing my niece and nephews at Mario Kart 64 when I visited them on a business trip. I secretly practiced the next 2 nights while they were asleep and was able to crush them on my last day there.

I felt terrible about it. 

My nephew seemed really interested about something he was playing on his ipod touch. I asked him what he was playing and for what seemed like the next 15 hours he explained to me every aspect of the game (something to do with growing zombies. Looked like some kind of undead farmville). Long story short - I was the eyes glazed over adult.

[Howard_Casto]

I think I can understand why parents and "old people" don't appreciate video games because many things that "normal people" do I just don't appreciate either. 

Sports for example... grown men will drool over some "amazing play" and to me I'm just "meh".  While it may seem impressive if you are a sports fan, to a non sports fan you look at the bigger picture and realize that someone has devoted their entire life to learning how to run a ball from one end of a field to another and yet people are amazed when they actually succeed at running a ball from one end of a field to another.   

I think that's where the lack of respect comes from.  To us it's an immersive, complex interactive challenge.  To them, no matter how complex the game actually is, all they see is a person getting excited about eating a power pellet on "the pacman".