This article got me to wondering…
1- Are you a Doper who games with your family?
2- Desribe the family that you game with (this includes “chosen” family).
3- Do you spend more time with your family because of being able to game with them?
4- Do you and your family find inherent value in the time spent together gaming?
5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity?
Fixed link.
OK, before I read the article (so as not to bias myself):
1- Are you a Doper who games with your family?
Occasionally, although more often my son plays alone.
2- Desribe the family that you game with (this includes “chosen” family).
My 14 year old son. When we play Hexic, the baby “helps” us by telling us the colors of the pieces. 
3- Do you spend more time with your family because of being able to game with them?
Yes, surprisingly. More time and more “quality” time.
4- Do you and your family find inherent value in the time spent together gaming?
Again, yes, surprisingly. I find that, much like being in the car, having a screen to look at and distract him makes my son more likely to spill his guts to me about things he’s normally loathe to talk to Mom about - girls, shaving, drugs, annoyances at school, etc. He talks a lot more when gaming then when doing anything else. I feel like I’ve gotten to know him a lot better since Christmas when he got an XBox 360.
He wants me to play with him more, but I don’t like most of his games. This led to him basically interviewing me and determining what kind of games I like, since I don’t really know the gaming vocab. Apparently, I like puzzle games and third person RPG’s, but not first-person shooters. Ooooookay. He’s got mostly first-person shooters, so that explains that. To fix this, he did some research and priced out a few games he thinks I’ll like and I ordered them. So we’ve gotten interviewing skills, induction, research skills and budgeting practice out of this! Who says video games can’t be educational?
5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity?
They can be, I’ve found out. I don’t know if they are as a norm or not.
Off to read the article now!
Well, the article doesn’t describe us at all, I’m afraid. Neither my husband or I ever owned a game console, and neither of us were gamers as kids (although I played a kick-ass pinball and arcade Mortal Kombat once upon a time.) I’m not surprised by their hypothesis, however - that people who grow up as gamers will introduce their kids to gaming.
1- Are you a Doper who games with your family?
I would say yes
2- Desribe the family that you game with (this includes “chosen” family).
Me and Mrs. Small, my nephew, and guys I hang out with (they are pretty much family). I imagine our child will enjoy gaming as well, mostly because we do it a lot.
3- Do you spend more time with your family because of being able to game with them?
No, I’d spend time with them anywyas, but it is a fun thing to do.
4- Do you and your family find inherent value in the time spent together gaming?
I think so. When my sisters were little, they played board games with my parents. This is kind of the same…
5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity?
I’m not so sure. I think many people would say no, but I think it’s absolutely possible. It all depends on the people who are using the games…
Brendon
5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity?
Y’know, I was thinking some more about this one and it occurred to me that he’s had a game system for years and it didn’t affect anything - but I think that was because it was a handheld. Only once he got the console type in the living room did I attempt to join him. That’s also how our time spent together has increased - the XBox doesn’t replace time we were already spending together doing other stuff, it replaces time he used to spend in his room alone playing the DS.
So responses may differ according not only to what games, but what type of game *systems *people have in their homes. Might be an interesting data point to collect.
I gotta say: WhyNot, you’re just about the coolest fucking person on the SDMB.
1- Are you a Doper who games with your family? As such, yes.
2- Desribe the family that you game with (this includes “chosen” family). Me and hubby, my little brother sometimes, my best friend. Maybe mum’s fiancé when he gets more comfortable with the family, depends.
3- Do you spend more time with your family because of being able to game with them? Hubby and I spend more time playing EQII (Everquest II) together where previously we would be doing things apart - me watching TV in the living room with him in the computer room, or both of us on the 'net but doing different things and not really talking that much to each other. Since we got the 360 we’ve also spent more time together playing co-op console games like Gears of War and Ninety-Nine Nights.
4- Do you and your family find inherent value in the time spent together gaming? Yes. I don’t get along well with my bro, but we can spend some good time playing games and chatting. Best friend and I used to spend hours playing Tomb Raider and Resident Evil and had some real deep & meaningfuls while playing. It’s a good way to share time with your loved ones and tends to be more interactive than just sitting staring at the TV/a movie (plus if you’re playing RE with a friend, you’ve got a spotter for those pesky zombies/puzzles).
**
5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity?** I think so. Especially with more co-op games on the market and the increase of “Party” type games like those for the Wii and the various Eye-Toy/SingStar games on the PS2. The increase of multi-PC households is also going to lead to more PC games being “family” style with party-based RPGs/MMORPGs being able to be shared between the family.
Hubby and I don’t have kids, we aren’t planning kids. But if kids happen, we’re definitely going to be raising them to be gaming kids. Certainly we’re going to cut down on the time spent gaming should kids come along, but I can guarantee it will still be our primary leisure activity. So I’d daresay the kids are going to want to play, and we’re certainly going to encourage it as it’ll give us a way to interact and relate to them.
For data points, in our household at this point in time (always subject to change depending on how much marketing has sucked me in):
2x PCs
1x Xbox
1x Xbox 360
1x PS2
1x Nintendo Gamecube
1x Nintendo Gameboy
1x Nintendo DS
**1- Are you a Doper who games with your family? ** Yes.
2- Desribe the family that you game with (this includes “chosen” family). My husband, my mother, my dad, and my younger brother, and my FIL and BIL. My father brings out all his Pokemon when he sees me coming. And he’s good. He kicks my Jigglypuff ass.
**3- Do you spend more time with your family because of being able to game with them? ** Absolutely - when I was living at home, though it was a one player game, we would all hang out in the living room taking turns playing our Animal Crossing characters, giving each other “helpful” tips and teasing each other for hours on end - more time spent together than we had in years.
4- Do you and your family find inherent value in the time spent together gaming? Very much so; we talk more about our lives, open up easier, we all feel pretty relaxed since it’s a casual and fun environment.
5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity? I surely hope so. It always has been in my family; I was born with an Atari joystick in my hands. I will continue this trend with my own kids, for certain. Only, hopefully, for them, it will be with Wii nunchucks.
In my two-person household:
1 laptop (Alienware - built for EQII - hunk of junk, but I’m going to run it 'til it dies - we traded the other one in for some DJ turntables wickawicka!)
1 PC
1 GB Advance
2 Nintendo DS
2 Nintendo Gamecubes
Looking to buy a Wii the moment they become readily available - gimme some of that reverse-compatiblity goodness! Earthbound, here I come again!
Back home (three person household, my mom, my dad, and temporarily my younger brother):
4 PCs
1 laptop
3 Gamecubes
1 PSP
1 PS2
1 PS
3 Nintendo DS
2 GB Advance
1 Genesis
1 Nintendo 64
1 Super NES
1 Xbox
1 Xbox 360
Aaaand, the old Atari is still there, but dad says it hasn’t been used in about 3 years or so…
I’m not kidding. There’s been some buying and trading, and it changes at times, but that’s the list as of this past Christmas. The hardcore gamers are my father and brother, my mother and I just got sucked into the swirling miasma. It’d be hard not to.
**1- Are you a Doper who games with your family? **
I started gaming back in the Pong days. By the time my daughter was born, we already had a collection of consoles in the house; it was pretty inevitable that she would be a gamer too.
2- Desribe the family that you game with (this includes “chosen” family).
My daughter, my nieces and nephews, and a few friends. My wife is not very interested in video games, nor are the other adults. Their loss.
**3- Do you spend more time with your family because of being able to game with them? **
No. I’ve always spent time with my family. As **WhyNot **says, gaming is just a part of family time.
4- Do you and your family find inherent value in the time spent together gaming?
Not necessarily. We spend time together anyway. Video games are just another facet of that, as are more traditional card and board games (which my wife and siblings *do *participate in.)
**5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity?
**
Most video games are inherently NOT family-promoting. Of the Big 3, only Nintendo has so far recognized the value of “family gaming” by developing the Wii, which seems to interest the “non-gamer” family members. It will be interesting to see if this takes off, and if Sony and Microsoft decide to promote more family play. Video games have the potential - let’s see if they live up to it.
Thanks! (I have no idea what prompted that, but I’ll take compliments where I can get 'em!)
Just for the record, not only was I not a gamer, I was actively ANTI-video games for years. You could probably find some rather incriminating whiny posts from a few years back in which I was sort of snottilly dragging my feet about even letting him get a Gameboy Advance. He was 11 before he got that, and only because he had major surgery and needed to be entertained without much moving.
It was a gateway system. A year after that he bought himself the DS, and then he was on to the “hard stuff”: the console. It was like my hard work raising him was for nothing! Turned away from my values and became…sob…a gamer. Next thing I know, he’s foraging through used bins and trading software with his friends to feed his habit.
I’m glad I waited as long as I did, but I no longer have any crisis of conscience over it. He had 11 years to learn how to entertain himself with (literally) rocks and sticks, and he won’t forget that. This is just one more thing, not the only thing, he does for fun.
1- Are you a Doper who games with your family?
Well, yes.
2- Desribe the family that you game with (this includes “chosen” family).
This’d be me and my SO, then me and his cousin and his brother.
3- Do you spend more time with your family because of being able to game with them?
Oh yes. His cousin and I have nothing else in common, and as for my SO, it’s good to have similar hobbies.
4- Do you and your family find inherent value in the time spent together gaming?
Absolutely!
5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity?
I don’t know. Considering how hand-picked my family is…I mean I mainly associate with his! I’m probably not the best person to answer this question.
Seconded. I wish I had a mom like her!
**1- Are you a Doper who games with your family? **
Yes (and yes).
2- Desribe the family that you game with (this includes “chosen” family).
I played video games of various sorts with my father throughout my childhood and adolescence, and continue to do so into adulthood. My siblings and I were avid gamers until I move out, and still play from time to time. My wife, of course. My daughter (who is 3) enjoys fooling around with Guitar Hero, but that’s about it for her so far.
3- Do you spend more time with your family because of being able to game with them?
In the case of my father, wife, and daughter, no; I’d spend / would have spent time with them in any case. In the case of my siblings, yes - we definitely spent more time together than we otherwise would have. I am six years older than my younger brother, and seven years older than my younger sister; when I was 15 or so and they were 8 and 9, it was one of the few interests we all had in common.
4- Do you and your family find inherent value in the time spent together gaming?
Yes. Again, the age difference between me and my siblings meant that we weren’t seeing the same movies, sharing friends, or generally having related interests (although we all did theater, so there was also that). But my sister and I could bond trying to finish Final Fantasy VII, and all three of us could resolve a lot of family tension by blowing the crap out of one another in Twisted Metal and its sequels.
Dad managed to teach me the rules and strategy of the major team sports at a level of complexity that would have been impossible in most other ways, just with object lessons on Baseball Stars and the various iterations of Tecmo Bowl and John Madden Football.
My wife and I are currently hooked on the aforementioned Guitar Hero, and slowly but surely working toward finishing Kingdom Hearts 2; we enjoy the story of the latter, and enjoy making fun of the story of the latter together, very much (the story is unbelievably bizarre and mawkish, but we lurve it).
5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity?
Yes. I’m pretty sure almost anything can be family-promoting, if you use it properly.
Time to chime in with my own answers…
1- Are you a Doper who games with your family?
Yes
2- Desribe the family that you game with (this includes “chosen” family).
My partner and I most of the time. We are both avid casual gamers on the PC and Mac, but we tend to play single-player games on those. My cousin and I used to play Halo online, and at a family Thanksgiving that I was unable to attend a couple years back, I played him and my Mom from 2000 miles away
3- Do you spend more time with your family because of being able to game with them?
Yes and no. I think my partner and I would spend more time together if we could find some 2 player console games that we both like. The single-player casual gaming that we both do on our laptops actually takes away from time that we would spend together, though, imho.
4- Do you and your family find inherent value in the time spent together gaming?
When it happens that we are playing something together, yes.
5- Are video games becoming a family-promoting entity?
I think they very well could, particularly if they are designed with that objective in mind.
Extra Credit:
We have…
An xbox
A gamecube
A PC laptop
2 Mac laptops