Get your flamethrowers ready, ladies . . . is it only me who finds it weird when

[BalloonSlayer]

. . . I hear about grown men spending hours on playstations or xboxes or whatever?

Aren't they supposed to be for kids? My seven year old has one, I have been expecting him to grow out of it over the next, oh, ten? years.

The train of thought that set this off is reading a thread on relationships, in which the fact that a 35 year old man still lives with his mum was held up as a massive alarm bell in regard to his maturity or lack thereof.

Now I tentatively agree, but for me a far bigger "awooga awooga" would be going off at seeing a man sat playing on a playstation. I mean, the clue's in the name isn't it?

I rather agree. Find it childish. And those online games about world conquest or trolls -what is that about? Just don't get it and would find it unbelievably unsexy.

well I quite often put the PS2 on when the boys have gone to bed........so I must be weird by your definition.

Aren#t grown ups allowed to have fun?

Don't have one but I believe they're quite addictive.

Almost as addictive as mumsnet

Anything in moderation, surely. If the time spent on the thing is detrimental to realtionship, parenting etc then yes you have a point.

If it's just an occasional hobby/recreation/way to relax then why not? After all, we have mn..

DH plays computer games. I watch crap tell and read mumsnet.

Sounds like a fair deal to me.

I have a very sneaking suspicion that most men are just boys in disguise. Some are better at hiding it than others. If it is not playstations or computer games, then it is fast cars, sports obsessions, rally car driving, motorcycles - you see where I am going. All big toys for big boys.

So, no the playstation thing does not surprise me at all. My dh loves his ipod like a teenager and fantasises over classic American sports cars. They never grow up, but who is really that surprised?

I reckon you're just crap at the games - no hand/eye coordination and no facility for understanding them.

Jealous, much?

What about when grown women spend hours playing computer games? Is that still childish, or a well-earned wind down from the stresses of modern female life?

I don't know any women who spend hours playing computer games (that is not to say that I wouldn't like to!). Apart from dabbling with mumsnet (my personal vice) I don't have time to sit on my arse doing nothing but trying to get to the next level. Unfortunately there is work, childcare, housework, cooking etc to keep me occupied (and I never seem to get to the next level with any of those things )

Whoops! I meant grown women as well. But the context was in finding someone attractive/unattractive so that's why I put men.

And I do keep having a go at a tetris game I bought for the kids but they find it too hard.

I guess I am thinking of people going out buying new games. It's just . . . I can't explain myself other than to say, well, they're games.

And hunkermunker you have perhaps hit the nail on the head - I am crap at them

And mumsnet is interaction with real people.

I hope.

My Dh is 51 and has just had 2 days off for a restto play World of Warcraft! He did do all the housework though too, though I did question when was it my turn to "have a rest".....I do spend hours doing my family tree though so probably as bad. God - listen to me - when did we get so sad! deffo getting babysitter this weekend and going out to get trollied.

I think some of the newer games consoles are aimed at adults now (Brain Training etc) but I can never get my head around adults playing some of the more childish games.

I do enjoy puzzle games, I don't see the difference between buying a Sudoku magazine to doing a puzzle online. There are plenty of adult games and adults have played games for centuries.

World of Warcraft (which I think someone eluded to) is an adult game, there is a lot of thought you have to put into it and I wouldn't allow a child of mine to play it before their mid-teens and only when school wasn't an issue. I know a lot of very intelligent people who play it, go LARPing, play RPG. There's no difference between the three really.

Bought playstation for husband for anniversary a couple of years back. Played a couple of games on it and beat him twice. never played it since. We stuck it outside our house and i am assuming one of our neighbours took it to enjoy themselves!

X-post there!

BalloonSlayer, there are plenty of games that include interaction with other people. I chat more to people on WoW than I do here because I'm actually chatting on voice or a chat room. I've been known to go in just to chat to someone.

I have a Gamecube and a Wii - DH has a PS3. I love playing Pikmin

And I'm bloody good at games - so it's enjoyable. If you're not good at it, you're not likely to enjoy it, are you?

Well there are any number of hobbies that people who don't do them find wierd, or childish. I am amazed at any rational adult having his/her fortune told or handing over vast sums of money to feng shi experts or crystal healers or any other peddlers of woo and bollocks. But it's a free country, let 'em get on with it.
I think perhaps it's important to make sure that anyone who lives in a family doesn;t spend all his/her time engaging in a hobby while everyone else in the household does all the work, but at the same time everyone is entitled to a certain amount of free time to do exactly what he/she wants.

Actually I asked for Brain Trainer for my birthday. DH and I played it competitively until we both got good scores and now we have lost interest.

My DH is 35 and plays playstation and PC games, he has actually got me addicted to Guitar Hero over the weekend...how sad!

Dp and I have played Zelda a lot on gamecube and then Wii. It is addictive and time consuming. But Mumsnet is much worse.

DP has a PS2 and I bought him a Wii for his last birthday - mainly because I wanted to play it! We enjoy it, but then maybe we're a little weird too

My OH spends time onn different games consols, but not all day and everyday. I spend time on the internet. I don't think it's weird.

yanbu.it is odd.but then dh finds my mn habit odd.

I was sure this thread was going to be about still be fed yoghurt when nearly fully grown (disappointed emoticon)...

So are all games wrong then, or is it just computer games? Are chess or backgammon players sad or weird?

Everyone has hobbies, it's just that some are perceived as being sadder than others. I can't understand why people obsessively follow football or watch soaps, have no problem with them doing it though. Different coloured anoraks, innit?

I am one of those weird women who plays computer games, by the way. With my DH. We do it to relax and have fun and many of our mates do online gaming too, so it's also a social thing, being as how we all have kids and live far away from each other.

If it's obsessive, then I'd suggest there's an underlying problem with a relationship or a person that the game is just a symptom of.

Horde FTW!!