What were your family videogaming rules?

[ccovell]

Hi, folks.  I'm doing a simple bit of research for one of my classes.

When you were a child, what family rules did you have in your household regarding videogaming?  Eg: time limits, sharing with siblings, punishment, timeout periods because of tantrums, etc?

Feel free to share your answers.

[Black Tiger]

Only rule I can think of during our Intellivision days was our parents got to play as long as they wanted first and when they were ready for a break, I got a shot. My Brother played less because he was pretty young during most of that period and the 8-bit gen was his equivalent. My parents weren't interested in video games after Intellivision.

[TheOldMan]

When you were a child, what family rules did you have in your household regarding videogaming?

"No fighting over the T.V."

Of course, it was pong.  (A Coleco Telstar, iirc.)

[Dicer]

I was an only child so when I go time it was all mine...between the beatings and stuff of course.

[HuMan]

Homework and chores first, then games.

[turboswimbz]

Hmmm so I think I fall a bit later than the guys before me.  this woulda been during the SNES / Gensis up to Gamecube/PS2/xbox ish stage for me and my brother. these were not hard fast rules but in general:

1)  homework first

2) We could play as much as we wanted on weekends etc. or when we weren't busy,  however during the summer months were frequently told to go outside.

3) Whatever sports/other activity we had we couldn't miss playing video games (this one was for my brother)

4) No trading games with friends/borrowing from friends. for argument's sake.

5) We had to play 2 player games if both people wanted to play. 

6) If we raged we got yelled at, if it happened again we had to put the game down for the day. I think this happened maybe once though.

A)  This one may make people happy. Although not really applicable probably.  The turbografx was kept in storage in the attic.  If I brought it down when I was done I had to repack it in the box and make sure it was stored properly. 

[Michirin9801]

Unfortunately my childhood gaming rules were rather strict... "Gaming only on weekends, only after homework, and only one for one hour"

That said though, I've spent a lot of time at my grandma's house playing on my cousin's Super Nintendo, away from my mom's judgemental sight, but even at home I found ways to break those rules constantly, and my mom knew, thankfully she got more lenient over time...

As for the whole "fighting over the TV with your siblings", even with the very limited play time, me and my sister fought over both the TV and the PC a lot, and those fights have only stopped once we got our own 'screens' if you will... I tried to compromise and play 2P games with her, but she preferred to play alone, and generally wasn't into the same games that I was... Our bickering only got punished when it went too far (or too loud) said punishments were often physical...

Thinking back now, it was quite miserable, I'm so glad that those times are over...

[retro junkie]

  Ummmmm...................there were no video games when I was a kid. About in my teens there was one guy in the whole neighborhood that got a "Pong" game system when they came out. That was all it would play, Pong. We were fascinated by it. His parents would not allow it to be played over the main TV. We had to use the spare B&W 13" TV, tube of course. I don't remember much else about it except you had to have someone to play with you. It was not a single player game.

[MrBroadway]

None, really. By the time my younger siblings were old enough to really play, we had two TVs, a TV in my room and a TV in the living room. When I was very little, of course there were time restrictions, but they were mostly limited to after-hours. So no gaming late at night, etc. I was mostly raised by my siblings after my mother's death, and I don't think my dad really cared too much, so I was spared the strict rules other kids had.

[Punch]

My mom usually got angry at me for playing games all day long on the only TV we had but since she didn't watch much she didn't make me any kind of rule. Since my dad worked during the day he would use the TV only during night and weekends, so I could usually play after school every day.

On our PC however there were tons of restrictions, my dad didn't trust me with it so I would play games only when he wasn't doing anything on the PC and when he was around. Of course rules got looser with time to the point where the only rule was "don't overwrite my Half-Life/SWAT 3 save game or you're not playing them again"

[esteban]

(1) No TV at all, except on special occasions (black and white TV from basement temporarily relocated upstairs for watching Dr. Who a few times a year). Video games at friends/family is OK.

(2) 1987. Color TV finally arrives in living room. NES shortly thereafter. Homework/chores must be completed before TV/video games.

(3) Obviously, I would sneak downstairs to play video games and watch TV all night. VCR records late night movies whilst I played NES.

(4) My brothers had their own scams.

(5) My dad cuts the power cord to prevent three kids from watching TV without permission (thanks to my younger brothers, who watched Nightmare on Elm Street, against my advice, and were so frightened they kept my parents up all night).

(6) My dad makes "the plug" (male to male AC cord). "The plug" attaches to TV (he installed a female AC receptacle on TV cord) first, and then the AC outlet. Yes, the plug is very dangerous if misused.

(7) TV/video game withdrawal is WORSE THAN ALCOHOL/HEROIN WITHDRAWAL.

( 8 ) My brothers and I scour house to find hiding spot for "the plug". We play video games covertly.

(9) In a dream, I have a revelation: I can make my own plug by wiring up my own (an old fan plug is sacrificed because it is old-skool and has screw terminals for wiring AC). Yes, electricity is dangerous. 1930's Bakelite AC plugs are all I had available in home...I didn't know supermarkets sold modern equivalents. I thought my dad made his "plug" from speciality items only available from hardware store. My ignorance evaporates one day when I wander down a formerly "boring" aisle of the grocery store.

(10) Parents are SUPER pissed-off when they discover my brothers and I cut various lamp cords around house to make extra "plugs" for our video game addiction. Why didn't we just sacrifice extension cords? Because we were stupid.

(11) My own kids have to finish homeowrk/chores before they watch TV/play video games. I have been tempted to make a "plug" when they break this rule, but, then again, I don't want them to be electrocuted.

[TR0N]

Didn't really have any when i was a kid.Long as it didn't get in the way of school i could play it at a any time.I was the one that played them,my sister was never interested at all.Any console i had was mine i didn't have to share or any thing.

[Lost Monkey]

I started on the 2600 circa 1982 - Grade 8.

One rule - I had to make money and pay for the system and games.  My parents only ever bought me one game - Defender.

They did get annoyed with having the system in the living room, though, and eventually we moved the TV down to the unfinished basement, which was were my "first video game all nighter" occurred. 

https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=13089.msg258420#msg258420

(Freaky - that post was 5 years ago to the day...)

One rule I remember a lot of my friends having to abide by - they weren't allowed to play games for more than a couple of hours at a time because their parents were afraid of screen burn-in.

[Necromancer]

I don't remember any specific rules, but we'd get told to quiet down if we got too loud and rambunctious or if we started started fighting over someone "cheating" or not sharing the system.

If I was naughty in some way, I'd also get grounded from playing games for a week or two.  It was a good deterrent, more painful than not being able to watch TV or having to go to bed early.

[Digi.k]

no rules. I was left to my own devices