Friends, family and gaming?

[David J.]

I've asked this before, but that was when the forums where small. Now, how do your friends and family feel about gaming?

My folks are pretty cool, and my mom is VERY supportive, she'll go game hunting, and expressed disapointment when I took a break. My dad is OK with it, but once in a while he gets excited. Just as long as I pull a C in my classes, and pay the bills, it's no contention. My grandparents dabbled in gaming a bit.

Most all of my friends are gamers, but they like the tripe that's Final Fantasy, GTA, and all of that crap. But there is some middleground somewhere.

[Vyse of Arcadia]

On the issue of family, my mom'll play Tetris or Yoshi every now and then. Yes, Yoshi. That old NES/GB puzzle game. My brother is a pretty big gamer, with tastes somewhat similar to mine. Meaning he enjoys every genre I do, but our tastes differ on specific games. He swears by Final Fantasy Tactics, I swear by Skies of Arcadia. (And, oddly enough, he's the younger brother.) Before he passed away, my dad occasionally played a Super Mario Bros. game or perhaps Space Invaders or Galaga.

My parent's regulated my game playing through middle school, but gave up when I got to high school. And now that I'm in college, my mom doesn't even attempt to suggest I play less.

As for my friends, most of them are gamers, but they generally prefer their games new and pretty. They have trouble appreciating older games. Unlike me, most of them started seriously gaming with the N64, and completely missed out on Nintendo's earlier systems and all of Sega's. I take that back, Ben had a Dreamcast. Anyway, our tastes as far as gamers go aren't very much alike. As David J. stated above, they're into mainstream tripe, by and large.

My girlfriend isn't much of a gamer at all, with one very, very important catch. She absolutely loves the Genesis Sonic games. Yes, I know, she's quite a catch. No, I plan on hanging onto her for a while yet.

[David J.]

It isn't too hard to find a girl who loves games.

I went on a date with a former coworker, back before she took a turn for the worse, and was tollerable.... and she really wanted to go to the arcade, so you bet I took her. It was fun. She even gave me her number and crap on a EBgames recept.

[Joe Redifer]

I have a niece who plays videogames, usually just the crappy ones, though. She really likes Final Fantasy. I think most of my friends like videogames to some degree. One of them seems to like me only for my videogames. When I get a Wii I think my family will enjoy playing Wii Sports, but not any other Wii games.

[JFLY]

My girlfriend only likes the Wii. She'll play the hell out of Wii Sports (bowling and tennis mostly), though I did catch her playing Bonk on the Virtual Console once. That put a smile on the ol' mug. My brother plays sports games and classic 80's arcade games (Galaga, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Jackal, Donkey Kong, Punch Out). Like Joe, I too have one friend who only likes me for my videogame collection. Everytime he comes for a visit he asks me to drag out my Neo Geo collection just to play some Magician Lord and Sengoku.

[Kikoskia]

It's best if I work this into a list:

Mum: Only really plays Buzz! Is only really getting good at using her computer to type. Accepts that I play computer games.

Dad: Used to play games when he was younger, usually RPGs on the PC. Now, he rarely plays anything barring Menace on an amiga emulator. He also accepts that I play computer games.

Little Sister: Owns a Gamecube, PS2 and PSP and of course her PC. Also owns a Game Boy Advance and that megadrive I gave her, but she rarely plays that anymore. She likes her games new and shiny, for definate.

Big Brother: Has a PS2, Game Boy (original) and his PC. Tends only to paly Sports Games and Buzz! Not an avid gamer really.

Big Sister: When it comes to games, she's a loony. She owns a PS2, Gamecube, Game Gear, N64, Game Boy Advance SP, not to mention her PC probably among other things. She is a compulsive buyer, so she buys a lot of things she never plays. To this day, I am still planning on buying her game gear off her.

Friends: I have a mixture. Most of my friends like all the new stuff, but I have friends that collect for older machines; for example, one I know has an Amiga and a megadrive and one is almost as loony as me, having 8 consoles including a Megadrive with Mega CD and Mega 32x. Most of my friends see my megadrive collecting as slightly loony, but I let them think that.