Born to Game

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Submitted by Shane on February 21, 2007 – 10:02 am10 Comments

Well I’m now the proud owner of a bumbling baby boy who is 7-weeks old at this moment in time. Some kids were born with a silver spoon, this one was born with a joystick. I get very, very little time to game or blog these days for obvious reasons, but that’s OK. When I do get a chance, it’s 15 minutes here, 25 minutes there. I thought it’d make a great photo to throw the XBL headset and wireless controller on Callum and then It dawned on me – at what age is it OK to let your child, game? He’s obviously not gaming here; that’ll be a few years down the road if he even wants to play. But I was curious, so if any of you have a kid who games with or without you, at what age did they start and what games do they play?

http://libraryvoice.com Chad

Congrats on the new arrival. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to build gaming back into your lifestyle. It will just be very difficult to play for hours at a time. Try finding games that allow you to save at anytime, anywhere in the game. It makes life a lot easier.

I’ve got a two year old, and he enjoys holding a control while I play. Of course, I only play games like Lego Star Wars II around him, but I think holding a controller lets him share the experience with me. I think his two favorite games are Burnout 3, which he calls “Race cars” and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4, which he calls “skateboard.” Enjoy the time with your child and your games.
Ktank

Congrats on your baby.
I dont have kids myself but i started playing playing amiga when i was just 2 years old. Im 21 now and ive played to many games cause my mom didnt stop me. Kinda ruined my schooling but meh. So just a friendly tip. Its not about when you let your kid start playing.. Just make sure his school comes first when he’s older
Shane

It would be cool if he played (after schoolwork is done) but I’m not hoping for it. I’m a passionate gamer so I often wonder if he’ll get into it.
James

Geez, cuteness overload! What a handsome little chap you’ve got there. Happy too!
Shane

Takes after his Mom and Dad
Stephen

Bravo Shane, look at that devil!

My daughter plays Super Mario Bros on the Virtual Console and she’s 22 months old. She tends to forget where the 2 button is and I need to remind her to “press the 2″ to jump. Usually it’s too late at that point.

She’ll walk up to the TV and say, “Hi, Mario!” and then she’ll command him to jump. She hasn’t beaten a stage yet but she gets dramatically better every time she plays. She’ll be playing better than me within a month. I’ve got pictures of her as young as three months with a controller on her lap. I’m a sick man.
Subnet6

Wow, that’s an adorable picture. Way to get him started off right!

As for gaming as a child, I’ll offer my experiences. I tinkered with the atari 2600 at a friends house (I was about 9 years old) but my parents never would buy our family one because they didn’t like video games. By the time I had a weekly paper route (age 11) I had saved enough money to buy an NES on my own. They weren’t agreeable but they knew they had to let me use my own money as I saw fit so they made me a deal. I had to read 1 hour for every hour I spent gaming. Let me tell you, that is the best deal I ever made. Basically, I could play as much as I wanted as long as I was reading just as much. Because of my mad addiction to video games as a child I have read an enormous number of books. Because of that I excelled in most every subject in school besides math which I hated. Anyway, moral of the story is, use the game machine to get your kid to do some good things too! It’s very motivating for a child to work to get to do what they love. It teaches lots of great lessons.
http://www.myspace.com/halicats Adam Whitehouse

TYPO * Those damn looks are still running in the family eh Shane !
Travis C.

I see the glare of a future pwn3r in his eyes. /Grats! I started out at about 5 with a good ol’ Sega Saturn. Good times, good times….
http://www.consolecolors.com Kat

He’s sooooooo cute!