To ask some questions to any gamers out there?

[lonelyorchid]

I'm interested to hear from die hard or even medium hard gamers out there.

I wouldn't class myself as a gamer although I do game but very sporadically and tend to get bored or give up when I find it too hard!

I started off playing nintendo when I was really young then moved onto SNES and then PlayStation.

I dusted off my Xbox 360 recently and introduced my 5yo DS to it and we play some of the Lego titles together which is lovely as I have many fond memories of gaming with my dad when he was younger.

I have read on here about some households where both the mum and dad are gamers and I'm interested about this.

Mainly about what games you play, are the multiplayer online, what those kind of games involve? How long/often you play, do you play other games with your kids, when you started gaming etc etc.

None of my friends/family are gamers so have no points of reference!

I'm just interested in a gamers lifestyle and how it came about. Do you have all the hi-tech for gaming?

The last time I was on the xbox was 2014 as seen on my last game saves. I'm finding it quite relaxing overall.

And I'm also looking for some ideas of some games I might be interested in as ita a minefield! I'm not planning on upgrading my console as this may be another faze of mine!

We've got most consoles lying around the house here - PS2 (we had a couple of PS1s but they've died over the years and backward compatibility means we don't need to keep them around), Wii (see the same for Gamecube), PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, XBox One plus both have a fairly decent gaming rig PC (not top notch because neither of us are really FPS online type people where every ounce of performance matters - but bought and replaced every 2-3 years max... I've had mine about 2 months if that when my old PC died).

RPGs are both mine and DH's mutual weakness - he still likes replaying very very old PS1 and previous type era ones (hence keeping so many old consoles around). I play much less than him these days as I just don't have the time or concentration span these days but they're still what I tend to play - I have a few remastered SNES era things on my tablet as well - vintage Final Fantasys mainly. We both play MMORPGs - never got into World of Warcraft much even though I tried vanilla version of it - but we both played Final Fantasy XI online for years and years (it's how we met actually) and now play FF XIV online instead. When the kids came along we set fairly strong limits to make sure that gaming time didn't intrude into family time - he tends to play stuff on his phone to get round that - but I'm fairly strict on it because I've seen people really lose the real world in favour of putting in another level or hour on MMORPGs over the years and I'm not going down that road and being old and grey and full of regrets.

He does play a lot of FPS stuff as well - but they're on consoles when the kids are in bed - I won't tolerate that stuff on the main TV when the kids are around - and we will break out the Wii for stuff like Wii Tennis on occasions with the kids but we have to moderate it as DD1 is an appallingly disgraceful winner!

Sounds bad that I've got these rules in place - but we were in a guild years ago where the leader was forever forgetting to go pick her kids up off the school bus or whatever because she was playing the game and I am still determined I won't ever go down that route now we have kids of our own. I don't know what happened to that guild leader or her family but she was forever complaining school were calling her in for meetings (she lived in the States so different legal system) and I've no doubt it was being noticed and I think her husband was covering for her addiction a hell of a lot.

I went through a big phase of World of Warcraft last year - I was VERY late to that one! (no raiding though - just casual play), then moved on to Skyrim V: The Elder Scrolls, which is MARVELLOUS.

We just got Assassin's Creed Origins, which is set in Ancient Egypt - I haven't had a chance to play yet, so if I can get off Mumsnet and do my work, I'm going to have a go this afternoon.

Witcher is supposed to be v good too.

For the children, they mostly love games they can play together so they love Minecraft and Terraria, which they can play on their devices. On the Xbox One they also have Slime Rancher, which is adorable, and Skylanders, which they got bored of relatively quickly. Minecraft has been the biggest hit with them.

Sounds like a journo request, but hey go.

I've been gaming for over thirty years. My father started off with the Pong plug and play console and an ancient Amstrad. My uncle was highly into games so we progressed with him to a Commodore 64, then an Amiga 500 followed by a 1200 and eventually a Windows PC. I've had every handheld and plug in console going, from a Gameboy to a Switch. DH has been gaming for about 22 years, but he started off with a Sega Megadrive. DS10 has been gaming since he was 2.

I love the old classics like Paperboy, SimCity and Monkey Island. Now I play RPGs such as Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls etc. Enjoyed the recent Monster Hunter World. However I mainly play online Call of Duty. It's therapeutic to me. I do enjoy the story modes but online is brilliant.

DS loves a Mario game, retro and new. He's played them all. He enjoys Minecraft, Forza, Fortnite, Roblox with his friends but on his own he'll play Portal, Unravelled, Zelda.

DH is into Final Fantasy, Halo, Gear of War type games.

We have frequent game nights with friends, usually in our own houses on online play, but sometimes all here if we want to play something like Mario Kart. Halo night is popular.

DH has an Xbox One X with 50" TV in the living room, with a Ps4 and a Switch hooked up to the same TV.

I have a 42" TV in the bedroom with an Xbox One and a Ps4 hooked up. DS has the same in his bedroom but with a Wii U instead of a PlayStation.

We hook the other consoles up as and when. We have everything from a Game Cube to a Megadrive, N64, Old Wii etc.

Anything else?