Not sure whether this goes in IMHO or Cafe Society, but given the poll-ish nature, IMHO it is…
Quick question for the Doper parents out there – at what age do/did you get your kids started full-tilt on a video gameing console (XBox, PlayStation, Gameboy, etc.)? I don’t mean periodic bouts with “edutainment” computer games, but rather the age where you bought a dedicated game machine expressly for the purpose of letting your child play with it?
Well, let’s see. Dad bought us an Intellivision when they first came out in 1980. I was 10 at the time. That seemed about right.
My son got one at 11 and a half, mainly because he underwent spinal fusion surgery that summer and was laid up in bed for most of it. He was also, at the time, a book-hater (he must have been switched at birth!), and I didn’t want him watching television and DVDs for 12 hours a day. So we “let” Uncle Chris get him a Gameboy and give it to him in the hospital.
I’m pretty satisfied with it. He was old enough that he had already figured out other ways to play, so the Gameboy is an addition, not his sole means of self-entertainment. He loves to have something in common with the other kids at school, and they play together. It’s good at his age for car rides and waiting in the doctor’s office (sound via an earbud), but he knows it’s not to come out at family parties or any other time adults expect his full attention. It’s one of the first things taken away if he’s mismanaging his time.
I wouldn’t do it any earlier than 11 or 12. I won’t do a console one. I don’t want my TV monopolized, and I can’t stand the glassy stare of kids playing.
My husband got himself a PS2 when our son was about three and a half years old. Within six weeks, Elliot (the kid) was able to play several levels of Batman: Vengeance on his own.
I realize that’s pretty young, but it doesn’t seem to have had a negative impact on anything other than our pocketbook at this point. (Elliot’s 5 1/2 now.)
Horribly, my mother wouldn’t let my brothers and I get a Nintendo, Atari, or the like until we saved up enough to pay for it. To her, that seemed a reasonable compromise. It took years and once we got one, we threw ourselves into it with reckless abandonment.
(Note that we already had our own computers with assorted computer games).
I would suggest at least age 23 or so, after he’s graduated from college and has a job and can pay for the damn thing for himself.
Both kids are now out of the house. We now have an Xbox.
My 14- and 12-year old boys have an Xbox and are saving for an Xbox 360. My 7-year old has his Plug N Play games. It’s a joystick that plugs into the TV, and each one has a few different games on it. There’s Spongebob, Batman, and others. And it’s cheap- less than $20. I don’t let him play it that much, but it’s really helped with his hand-eye coordination, which he has issues with.
I got my first Game Boy at 5 or 6, and my first real console (the Super Nintendo) at 7 or 8. I remember being distinctly resentful that my friend had a NES and that my mom wouldn’t let me have one. There were initial restrictions on Game Boy time, but by the time I got the SNES (and for all subsequent such ‘toys’) there were no real restrictions other than threats of having it taken away that were never acted upon.
Of course, the types of games I was playing on those were a LOT different than most of the games you’re going to be playing on the consoles these days.
My eight-year-old son gets a lot of play out of his Gameboy Advance. He spends much more time with that than our Gamecube or Playstation 2. He’s had it since he was seven.
He’s actually been playing games since he was four, but its only in the last two years or so that he’s actually had enough hand-eye coordination to really get into them. I don’t think I would go out and buy a full console (as opposed to a handheld) for a six-year-old unless someone else was going to be playing along with him.
If you do get a console for a younger child, I recommend the Spyro series of games. They’re fun platformers tuned to a kid’s skill level. They’re what my son cut his gaming teeth on.
My sixteen year old got hers when she could afford it. I would never have paid that much for a toy for her. We already had a computer with several non-educational games so I left it up to her to pay for it herself.
She saved for over a year and I finally pitched in a few pennies so she could buy her PS2 before Christmas (I wanted to get her a game for Christmas). She was fourteen.
I never got one. No consoles, no handhelds. Back in China I think we had a NES with one of those 100 Games in One! cartridges which was in fact 4 games repeated 25 times but I was 4 and never had the hand-eye coordination to do anything. I never felt particularly deprived. Then again, I got my fair share of handheld gaming through ROMs so maybe you should buy them a Gameboy to turn them off software piracy 
Thanks for the replies so far!
rjung: I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m sure you’re old enough to get a game console for a kid. 
If you don’t want to blow the big bucks and the kid is young and won’t know the difference you may want to look at used Nintendo 64s, Playstation 1s, or a Sega Genesis. You can get a system for less than $50 and games for $8-$20.
Not five. Vynce was five, and I was eleven when our aunt bought us a Nintendo. Since then, he’s owned every game system mass-produced in the US except the X-Box and that new PS handheld deal. Of course, now he wants the 360…
And I do mean every. The big ones, plus the ones hardly anyone I knew had like TurboGraphix 16, Lynx etc.
You don’t want to addict kids that young
We have a Playstation 2. We’ve had a console for I think as long as the kids have been around. And we bought our son a Gameboy at four.
The Playstation was played with a little - but not much at all - from maybe a late three until maybe mid five. At that age we’d put in SSX (snowboarding) and let him run downhill. At about mid five he started to “get it” He was a late kindergartner and turned six right before school started. It was about that time that the Playstation and the Gameboy (but particularly the Gameboy) seemed to click for him. I don’t know if it was age or peer group - certainly that was the time where he was watching other kids play video games for the first time instead of just watching his parents.
My daughter is six now and has little interest in either the Playstation or her Gameboy. She does enjoy games on the PC, but likes adventure games and not the twitch games that the Playstation and Gameboy tend to be.
One thing is that a lot of these games require at least minimal reading skills - or you learn by watching. Which means that unless Mom or Dad are willing to do a lot of reading or your kid is going to watch older kids play and learn that way, its easier if they are reading at about a second grade level or so.
Oh, and - except for the Gameboy and other personal type game machines, our kids aren’t real likely to have one just for them…My sons friends think its really funny that Brainiac4 and I play games on the Playstation.
How about waiting until the kid starts begging for one? If they want one, they’ll probably be able to get something out of it. IMO, video games set a great example. You may lose a few times, but you’ll eventually make it if you persevere. They also require you to follow orders, and often contain repetitive and boring tasks – all things I think are beneficial to be exposed to.
My only concern with video games is that they stop children from using their own imaginations. However, I can’t say that watching TV or reading books are any better.
That’s sort of the quandry I’m in right now; my kid is turning six, and is now starting to beg for a Gameboy (probably because he’s been exposed to other kids at school with Gameboys). I’m hesitant to get him one, though, because he already has a tendency to scream “I’m bored!” at the drop of a hat – I don’t want to have him crack open a GB and zoning out as soon as we head out the door.
(On the other hand, as a gamer parent in withdrawl, I’d love to get a system. Don’t ask how many times I’ve played the store demo version of Burnout just to get my fix… )
I agree, but I’m just not sure yet if he’s got the maturity level for it at this time. He already gets frustrated if he plays a board game and someone else is winning…
I agree about the television, but as an unabashed bibliophile, I will gladly buy books for him any day of the week. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if I find out he’s already reading two grades above his level…
If they’re girls, middle school. If they’re boys, never.
Some boys get so addicted to these things and you don’t know if yours will be the type until it’s too late. Girls seem to lose interest more quickly.
My boys had a Sega. They would play with it a reasonable amount of time so when they wanted a Play Station we got them one. It was like crack to them. Can’t keep them from wanting to play it all the time. We can keep them from playing too much but that’s all they want to do when they’re not.
It’s not worth the risk.