Should I let my 4 year old play Quake 2? - The Bear and Badger

tigersgogrrr

What games do you let your kids play? When did you let them start playing games on their own? And what games are you happy playing in front of them? Or are you completely against them even being aware of the monstrous pull of the devil's digitals?

In my job I've always been shocked to see/hear how many 7-8 year old children watch their dads play Call of Duty. As Cub has got a little more interested in these things (despite me barely every playing anything in front of him), I have started to ponder when I'd be happy letting him see/play various things. And it got me wondering about your experiences too.

Over the past 6 months he has enjoyed watching a smattering of Forza (cars), Wreckfest (smashing cars), Mario Kart (cars... and he can just hold down a button to play), Peggle (he likes the rainbow and fireworks when you finish a level) and recently I've let him watch a little Cuphead as it is totes cartoony. I've now started playing a little Dragon Quest which I've let him watch as I think it passes the TigerTest of Suitability as it may have fighting - which is by and large a no-no - but it is very cartoony and the monsters are - so far - very silly. He's four and a half.

regmcfly

Just don't do puff puff in front of him.

Unlikely

You should absolutely not let your four-year-old play Quake 2 because it's shit.

acemuzzy

I'm almost certainly unnecessarily cagey on this front. My three (10, 9, 5) have played SMB1, LttP, and Fall Guys, some CBeebies games, a couple of other apps (hidden people, trees n tents, mom where's my console), and that's literally it I think. They don't even really know I have a console or two, let alone that I sometimes do shooty shooty.

I don't really know why. They don't seem interested in more, but cause/effect?

JMW

My 8 and 5 year old are absolutely loving teaming up (on my PC/PS5) on prop hunt, black ops. You just shoot furniture basically, and I have a little xp farm running. Win win.

Wookienopants

My two are very much into Switch with me. They're 4 years old and we regularly play Mario Kart together. They also play Yoshi's Crafted World together, we all play Mario 3D World and they love watching my wife play Odyssey.
They also adore Animal Crossing and try to read the text.

I let them watch me play Monster Hunter World as they are obsessed with dinosaurs and love the monsters.

That's about it. I don't really play shooters in front of them and avoid anything that isn't family friendly.

Dinostar77

My son is too young, but it will be nintendo games on wiiU DS and Switch. Violence can wait till their teens.

The Daddy

regmcfly wrote:

Just don't do puff puff in front of him.

Haha, I’ve been playing DQXI with the boy, I’d been avoiding reading the dialogue on the puff puff bits. I recently looked up what it actually meant... :-/

TheBoyRoberts

I let my Son (almost 7) play almost anything he’s interested in.

Fortnite is top of the list, and he’ll dabble with Lego games, he’s completed Star Wars Battle Front 2 a number of times and ive lost count of the times he has totally nailed both Spider-Man games.

AstroBot is a firm favourite too and he’s bang into my Rift CV1.

I’ll not let him play (if he were to show an interest that is) in GTA and the likes.

We also play lots on the switch too, MARIO Kart and what not.

Diluted Dante

Only if it's the RTX version.

Moot_Geeza

Tilly's 6 and already describes herself as a gamer, unfortunately. I'm fine with her being into games, it's fair to say I've encouraged it, but don't call yourself a gamer, kiddo. She mostly enjoys the Nintendo standards, and otherwise I pick and choose what I let her play based on wherever the goalposts are that I keep moving around in my head. I stopped her watching Horace (which is PEGI 7), I didn't let her play Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (despite considering it), I let her play Streets of Rage 4 but my wife overruled me because knives (after we'd completed it once, lel), and we're currently pushing through River City Girls in co-op, which might well be a 12 but I haven't checked. In terms of films I've let her watch LOTR, the second and third of which which are rated 12, and was fine with it, but I wasn't as keen as I thought I'd be for certain scenes in The Goonies or Addams Family, both certified PG. I guess I'm not into mid-level swears in kids films now I'm an adult.

Moot_Geeza

regmcfly wrote:

Just don't do puff puff in front of him.

I can't even vape vape. I lost my snazzy silver vape a couple of months ago and it turns out Tilly binned it for my own good.

The Daddy

Yeah, I assumed puff puff was a smoking thing. It's not!

Diluted Dante

Moot_Geeza wrote:

regmcfly wrote:

Just don't do puff puff in front of him.

I can't even vape vape. I lost my snazzy silver vape a couple of months ago and it turns out Tilly binned it for my own good.

Tilly must be protected at all costs.

Gamermike

I was pretty strict with the types of games I would let my 7 year old son play up until lockdown 2 when I finally caved and let him play Fortnite, as all his school friends were.

He has been pretty obsessed with it since - no other games have had a look in except Astrobot and a bit of Minecraft. While it is cartoon shooty shooty, I really don't mind as he genuinely enjoys playing/messing about, gets to chat with his friends and gives me a bit of peace and quiet. Its also been kinda cool to multi format co-op with him (im on PS5 on tv, hes on Switch screen) and help him do challenges etc. He definitely prefers to play with friends; when he ends up on solo on his own he usually loses interest... so its been a good thing for him to occupy his mind and chat with friends (its hardly ever about real world chat, more about whats your favourite skin etc).

We've set rules; no strangers, only play with friends etc but he has made online friendships with people in years above him at his close knit village school, so i'm hoping that will help him when he goes back and things return to normal. I don't play my games around him though, he's heard of Call of Duty and GTA etc but knows they are grown up games.

Lord_Griff

Fortnite doesn't sit right with me, I let my eldest play over lockdown but all the skins, loot, shooting nah, not yet. Minecraft is fine but clearly addictive. Akin to Pringles, unearned achievement, and gambling... which block will give me diamonds? Maybe if they did something actually creative. Operation procrastinate is what I term it when the two of them are looting a village, being hobos.

Diluted Dante

Lord_Griff wrote:

which block will give me diamonds?

Y=9

Lord_Griff

Diluted Dante wrote:

Lord_Griff wrote:

which block will give me diamonds?

Y=9

Y=12

regmcfly

Cillian is trying to grab the pad out of my hands when I play Spider-Man. We gotta real Gamer here folks.

MattyJ

9 year old loves fortnite too, and the usual minecraft. But I've been letting him download gamepass games to try so he's been getting into a bunch of random stuff like TABS, Grounded, Trailmakers, Subnautica...

He plays stuff on switch like animal crossing, mario, mario kart, Splatoon as well.

Only thing he's not allowed to do is play games with adult language, actual violence with blood etc and generally things above his age range. He has dabbled in Destiny 2 a bit though, but again no blood or swearing.

For a while it was allllllllllllll fortnite allllllllllllll the time so took a bit of encouragement to get him away.

MattyJ

Microsoft send me an email with the amount of time he's spent on various games over the week which is handy.

Knight

Fortnite’s success is remarkable. Under 10s love it and yet it’s deep enough to have spawned a huge competitive scene.

Lord_Griff

MattyJ wrote:

Microsoft send me an email with the amount of time he's spent on various games over the week which is handy.

Ok, how does this work?

Gremill

Lord_Griff wrote:

MattyJ wrote:

Microsoft send me an email with the amount of time he's spent on various games over the week which is handy.

Ok, how does this work?

Microsoft family account. It's breaks down time spent on Xbox, web browsers etc. Quite handy.

My 15yo plays pretty much anything he wants now. I held out on GTA, CoD etc for a while but eventually caved in with the proviso that he couldn't play the campaigns - which to this day he hasn't, he's only interested in playing online with his mates.

My 11yo plays Apex, Battlefront 2, Gang Beasts etc with friends but nothing too explicitly and extremely violent or bloody. He's a bit more into single player than his brother and has completed all 4 Batman games, for example. They're 18 certificates, but I couldn't understand why having played through them myself so let him - which has led to him getting into comics, which is a nice side effect.

I tend to let them get on with it, they always ask for permission to play anything new.

HawBawJaws

I've been thinking about this kinda thing recently. Tried Cullen on a driving game, but he's still not totally realised he can control the car on screen, he's just enjoying pressing buttons on the controller. I did that thing of giving him a controller with no battery in it while I played, but he cottoned on pretty quickly.

Any cheap/free games anyone can recommend? He's three and a half, knows how to work ipads/kindles etc.

yourfavouriteuncle

My son won 3k on Fortnite a while back so start ‘em early i say.?

The more nefarious shit is the micro transactions, managed emotional state/staged gambling of loot packs, cards etc. Just don’t ever bow to the micro transaction part and they’ll be fine. Free to play means literally that in my house. He may have spent hours on some of em but he’s never spent a penny on that shit.

Gremill

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

My son won 3k on Fortnite a while back so start ‘em early i say.?

The more nefarious shit is the micro transactions, managed emotional state/staged gambling of loot packs, cards etc. Just don’t ever bow to the micro transaction part and they’ll be fine. Free to play means literally that in my house. He may have spent hours on some of em but he’s never spent a penny on that shit.

I'd like to say I've done the same, but both me and the 11yo have spent cash on Apex Legends - mainly the battlepass. It's such an amazing game that I didn't mind. He did get a bit 'gotta have them all' for a while, but realised himself that it was a water of cash. We've both agreed that we won't spend any more money on it.

Lord_Griff

Gremill wrote:

Lord_Griff wrote:

MattyJ wrote:

Microsoft send me an email with the amount of time he's spent on various games over the week which is handy.

Ok, how does this work?

Microsoft family account. It's breaks down time spent on Xbox, web browsers etc. Quite handy.

My 15yo plays pretty much anything he wants now. I held out on GTA, CoD etc for a while but eventually caved in with the proviso that he couldn't play the campaigns - which to this day he hasn't, he's only interested in playing online with his mates.

My 11yo plays Apex, Battlefront 2, Gang Beasts etc with friends but nothing too explicitly and extremely violent or bloody. He's a bit more into single player than his brother and has completed all 4 Batman games, for example. They're 18 certificates, but I couldn't understand why having played through them myself so let him - which has led to him getting into comics, which is a nice side effect.

I tend to let them get on with it, they always ask for permission to play anything new.

Thanks chaps.

davyK

Age is a number. Knowing your child is key to this; as is knowing what they are up to. And too much of anything is bad.

Those games that glorify gore a bit too much or have controversial content re treatment of women probably should be left on the shelf.

Reading that some here advocate steering clear of missions and playing MP seems to be a sensible approach.

My girls being quite girlie never went for that sort of game anyhow. Boys and guns.

SpaceGazelle

Has he asked to play Quake 2, Tiger Dad?

Lord_Griff

I started mine off on Harvester, on a dusty 3D0.

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