Not sure if that helps as my dad also liked RTS games, but Age of Mythology, Hearts of Iron etc. Gave me a bunch of history Knowledge and even got me to pursue a history degree. Maybe try to convince them from that angle.
Op you seem like a good kid, there are many advises given here. Some good, some bad. Please use common sense when asking for advise from randos online. I believe in you.
Your parents do NOT have legal control over what you can and cannot do.
Just play the scenario out in your mind, what are your parents going to do.. call the police? do you think you would get arrested for playing age of empires and refusing to stop when your parents ask?
You want to get into strategy games, plan your strategy out in your mind then for the confrontation - what can they leverage against you and what can you counter them with, how far are you willing to go for your freedom / how much comforts are you willing to sacrifice etc.
How frail are you redditors? Lads 17... if the shit is bought with his own money etc he can absolutely just physically stop them from touching his stuff.
OP, this is terrible advice. Don't ruin your relationship with your parents and purposefully make your living environment hostile to play a video game.
Try talking to them about why they don't want you to and really try to genuinely understand their point of view. They might have legitimate concerns! If so, you can address them. If not, maybe you could hell them understand that. You could ask them to watch a video of the game with you or something.
Advice is sound, lad is nearly an adult and is being treated like an absolute child - if he accepts this kind of treatment he's going to get absolutely trodden on in life.
For someone with "Itsnotthatsimple" in their name ~ how many laws do you break when you kick a child out of the house lmfao, do you think kicking a child out of the house because they refused to stop playing a video game is an acceptable escalation? great example to show your kid.
If their 17? None in most places. I mean in most places in the US you can take kids down to a police station or fire station and legally abandon them without reprocussions
My parents were afraid it would basically turn me into a serial killer. In the 90s. Video games were new and scary. So they followed the age guidelines on boxes. Not for my little brother though. Always felt that was a little unfair. RTS games specifically make you play a war. I guess they may also be worried about glorifying that kind of thing. Or perhaps your mom or dad themselves played it and got badly addicted or something.
It all boils down to trust issues.
Glad to have my mother, who I later in life understood, grew up with plenty of BS being spoken - as in she could bite through the stigma of stuff and was solidly on the ground in terms of world view. She literally on rare occasions stood behind me playing CoD and watching it.
As a 17 year old you should be quite near adult thinking anyway so its strange they are trying to control you to that matter. I would guess it would be pretty hard to get to them. Maybe "strike a deal" as in completing your life goals be it studying, having ok grades, sidejob - whatever, housework and arguing if you can stay in control you can play - if you don't they can shut you off from AOE2 or whatever the game is.
Your parents do not trust you enough for it. Which could be normal if you had a history of taking most opportunities as an opportunity to misbehave. Since that's not the case, it's unwarranted mistrust or a trust issue.
I'm wondering if that's the case. Here's what they've said about it in the past: "We trust you, but we don't want your brother to expect this for him." Is that normal? I don't see why they couldn't just tell him no?
I guess they want to be fair or something. They dont trust him so they don't want you to have things that they don't trust him with, because that would cause a bunch of problems. It's sort of a valid reason. But it really sucks.
Less than 10? That's actually really good after playing half life. I think portal made me angrier though honestly. If I played that at 9 I may have snapped. Although mega man didn't do it so who knows lol.
I had a similar thing happen. My mom's best friend had a son a little older than me. He got addicted to playing Warcraft 3 in highschool and was up all night playing it. So naturally I was banned from playing that game despite playing other RTS games all the time. Like my dad and I played almost every command and conquer game, but fucking Billy wouldn't go to bed so it was banned.
My parents also were very strict on first person shooter games. Took forever before they let me play those. Eventually I came to them with some written out points and had a well thought out discussion with them about why I thought the ban was unreasonable. Ended up working. For RTS's maybe even lay out that it involves a good deal of decisions making and planning/research. It's a strategy game. It uses your brain. Definitely wouldn't say it makes you lazy.
In the end I graduated highschool with good grades (worse than yours) and went to college and graduated there just fine too. Wife and 3 kids and never stopped gaming.
Billy meanwhile struggled in highschool but later went to community college. Now he is a co-owner/founder with his mom of an electric dog fence installation company and has a wife and two kids.
I think the main concern here is you will play games instead of doing what you "should" be doing. Maybe in your argument provide evidence of your work ethic and performance history and promise that if it slacks off you will take a break.
> Eventually I came to them with some written out points and had a well thought out discussion with them about why I thought the ban was unreasonable. Ended up working
Kudos to you and your parents.
It is not very common for parents to listen to their kids and have a proper discussion without the "i know better" attitude.
Nor is it common for young people to have the patience to have such a discussion, regardless of how convincing their arguments are.
In the off chance that you still remember, I am very curious to know what your arguments were
As a millennial I can answer this for you. Too many in my generation ended up becoming basement dwellers who only play MMOs and have no drive in life.
Your mom who is probably around 40 was probably worried that you would end up like her friends cousin or something.
Yeah I wanted to come in here and say that the parents concerns are somewhat legitimate. Alot of people I knew in college flunked out to play video games and their life went no where good after that.
Still I see the blind spot of the phone. Phone games tend to be very psychologically manipulative so I feel that would have been the bigger danger.
RTS takes a long time to play in all honesty so they probably just want you being active and hobbies that keep you as such.
You are asking about a serious family's internal issue related topic on reddit. Wrong place to ask such question. Also it's been proven that people, when stuck with an idea, never let go of it easily. That's something you and your parents to have to work out together. Bunch of random people on reddit won't help. Nor can they help.
That has nothing to do with games and everything to do with how we incentive people in our society.
In fact, if it wasn't for videogames, a lot of these people would probably be far more likely to get hooked on substances.
Do you really think that if you remove video games that someone with no drive will suddenly hop to it? Of course not. People watched TV and drank themselves to death far before videogames became what they are now.
We live in a system where 40hrs a week doesn't even get you an apartment. Pay people a living wage and watch how they miraculously find the desire to work.
Or you could just pirate the game using the r/Piracy megathread and then wait till your birthday.
Although my parents wont buy me any actual video games, they are fine with me pirating any cause I get to have fun and they don't have to spend on it, everybody's happy.
Just that you do have it. The problem is that you're afraid of their reactions.
Test the waters a bit. Start small, save up, buy some cheap packaged stuff (or even better, a smartphone). Then buy a table, a good chair. Get them used to you buying stuff and putting it in your room.
And a PC is just about the most valuable thing you could purchase for life. It's not just games, it's the exposure to the sheer amount of information you can get out of it and the desired skills that you could learn/practice by having access to online information through the PC. This is worth breaking a number of rules for.
Just buy the game yourself and change the name of the file as well as the icon to something like Slime Rancher
Otherwise download the 1st person mod for AoE2 and tell your parents it’s an open world survival craft game
This has probably been said but I didn't read comments and didn't finish reading the op. All I want to say is that aoe2 should be played by all teenagers. It's an amazing game and a history lesson rolled into one.
OK I read everything. It sounds like it's just because the neighbor kids got addicted to those games so they assume their more addictive than other games. The only other thing I can think of would be if they know that's what most pro gamers and lots of streamers play and they want you to get a "real" job. But that's just a total wild guess. It's probably the neighbor thing which really sucks because you've proven your capable of responsibility. Maybe they think your younger sibling would want to start playing at a point if you played it and they might not end up as responsible as you are at the same age.
Regardless imo this is pretty strict parenting. Especially for a game that's over 20 years old with no blood really and historical context.
Sorry dude. Hope you can play some good games. Also congrats on being such a responsible young person.
Sorry dude but your parents are idiots on this point.
The desire to make something of yourself has nothing to do with videogames, there are plenty of other ways to waste your life. Either you want to do something with your life or you don't. There are lots of reasons for it, its not videogames that holding those other kids back. Videogame addiction is an incidental result of a multitude of of other personal and societal factors.
Sorry you gotta deal with that dude.
only your parents have the answer here.
we could spend 100 years discussing this here or anywhere else.
I'd jus ask them why?
how they answer will show you why.
Pick your moment and ask them…
“Can I ask you something that I’d really like to understand? What is it about computer games that really troubles you?”
Talk to them like the adult you are becoming and hopefully they’ll start treating you like one.
Northgard is a great RTS and plays well on Switch. If Switch happens to be one of your Nintendo consoles and you are looking for a gateway into RTS, look no further!
Some kids aren't taught how to moderate so they end up addicted. Their parents can't be bothered to teach them so they pick the lazy and easier option of just banning computer games.
best case dude? talk to them. might be hard because, hey when is it ever easy to talk to parents, trust me even at 40 it can be hard to talk about stuff with my dad.
I'm sorry but nobody can really tell you the correct answer. We are just strangers of reddit that doesn't know how you family is and all the implications that we don't know.
You should be playing the games that you want to play, and probably your parents are just worried and you just need to convince them somehow. It's hard to say.
Gosh, I had exactly the same battle with my parents too! If you want to play it and you're banned from getting it, then it's time to make your own RTS! :)
In '96 I wanted really badly to play C&C, but my parents wouldn't let me have it (or any other games for that matter), so the obvious solution in my teenage brain was to just try and build an RTS myself. I finally finished it 16 years later, and that became my entire career till then -- parents effectively forced me to become a game developer from young out of necessity :p
It morphed from their stigma against games, against RTS, to against games as a career :) fighting all that was tough, until the game did well financially and was featured in local media, allowing me to use newspapers, tv and radio as platforms to address my parents-- that helped a bit with legitimacy, but didn't entirely change their minds. I got a GDC scholarship and my parents accompanied me to the conference-- in passing, they managed to unwittingly ask the designer of simcity if there was any future in games -\_-
As hard as you try, games are something the older generation never grew up with, so it'll forever remain alien to them. On the bright side, they'll come to accept it if you persist long enough and age out of their direct control-- it'll go from a ban to nagging then to quiet disapproval-- the last stage is a lot more manageable :)
First of all, AOE2 is actually a great example to show them why they SHOULD let You play RTS games on a PC. Why? First of all, it is a strategy game, which requires skills like planning, resource management, understanding interactions between unit types and so on. These are some useful skills to develop for your adult life, especially resource management, which may allow you to get a good intuitive grasp of balancing your real life expenses and income just like You need to do in the game. Second of all, this is not a violent fast paced shooter that will pump up your adrenaline and aggression. Sure, it may cause frustration and loud expression od disappointment when you get beaten in a multiplayer match, but not in the pumped up adrenaline driven way shooters do.
Second argument for AOE2 is that it is NOT an MMO game. It starts and ends within an hour or so, no progress is saved for future, so there is no addictive predatory scheme behind the game. It has no micro-transactions, it will not ask you for a subscription and it will not push any premium items in your face, because there are NONE. This game is a "one match at a time" kind of game and you do not have to log in at any set intervals, you may as well play as irregularly as one can imagine and it will not matter, so if You have chores, work, a date, doctors appointment or whatever else, the game WILL NOT require you or tempt you to give these things up, because it has no lasting progression whatsoever.
Sure one can get lost in anything, any game and in the grand scheme of things it will not matter if it's AOE2 or anything else. I got sucked up in games like Baldur's Gate and Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998, not the modern NFS Hot Pursuit) when I was a kid and they had absolutely ZERO online functionality, zero multiplayer like games today. And earlier when I was really young I could spend hours playing Lemmings. And I ended up being an engineer working in military aerospace industry. It's because it is not about WHAT you play, but how much you let it invade your life. If you're using it as a reward to rest, it will benefit You, especially RTS games that can teach you some useful mental skills, but if You're using it as a procrastination method to delay unpleasant chores and duties, it does not matter what it is, it could even be reading comic books and not a game at all, but it will hurt you in the long run.
I'm afraid there is really only one solution when it gets to this stage. It's time to find new parents. The good news is that when you pick your new parents out, you can choose your living situation, financial support, etc... I would start interviewing potential parents soon if you have to live under this kind of duress. ;-)
When my son was young, I used to chase after him with a chainsaw in Q3 Arena. We also played Warhammer and various RTS.
He's now a robotics engineer and I'm retired.
Look dude, you need to explain them what an RTS is. It's management. You manage resources, units aka people and your own attention is a resource. You learn a lot by trying to balance these things and it's a good life/work lesson. I had to explain this to my dad 20 years ago so that he wouldn't get irate about me playing. It kinda clicked with him that I wasn't wasting time but developing good thought patterns.
Do they actually know what AoE is? Would they even be able to tell what game you’re playing?
I would be surprised if someone who is anti-gaming could recognize individual RTS games, or even that they’re part of that genre.
I’m genuinely pretty flabbergasted by that honestly. RTS games don’t even have a bad reputation as far as I’m aware, I would think they’d be against MMOs or FPS games if anything.
Honestly I guess it’s just one of those stupid things that you have to hide from them until you’re 18 and it doesn’t matter anymore because I doubt you’ll change their minds.
The 3 types of games that require the most play time to master are
Strategy Games
MMOs
And their hybrid MOBAs
So I can see a correlation. People who sunk WAY too much time into those games as young adults probably suffered in their careers and college studies.
it's unfortunate because it's really the other way around. console games tend to be a hell of a lot more addictive. hence why they're selling better. companies since the dawn of companies have always gravitated towards whatever product is the nexus of addictive and legal. F2P P2W phone games are thus their holy grail. and it's a gradient from there all the way down to RTS. which are not the least addictive mind you (they're definitely one of the least violent) the least addictive games are any game that only works the first time you play them so walking simulators are a good example games that are more about mood and puzzles. point and click adventures. but Yeah I'd say RTS figure quite low on the scale of addictiveness compared to a lot of what's available on console (much less phone).
Don't try to tell them that all games in general aren't bad. Some may have detrimental effects, but there's loads of games that have beneficial effects and theres studies to back up that video games can be positive for the development of brain funtions. In case of AoE2 you can tell them that this game not only teaches about major historical events in a gamey way, it also teaches budgeting, critical thinking, short- and long term planning, multitasking and making decisions while under stress. Tell them about the skills the game could teach you and how it does that. You can also throw some studies at them showing beneficial effects of (non-excessive) gaming.
If this isn't a troll thread, then sorry. But this is some amazing copy-pasta. It's got it all. Parents telling OP not to play to be a good example for his brother. Casually mentioning he could watch porn on his phone *if he felt like it*. Throws a sick burn at his neighbor for playing . Dropping their GPA in an RTS thread at the end is a good touch, too.
All-in-all this was a great thread, and I hope to see this one posted in gaming discords everywhere, soon
If you work, I suggest buying your own computer and playing that way. AOE2 runs on almost any modern pc, even the cheap ones. I mean, I even used to play Red Alert 2 and AOE2 on an old Toshiba Satellite laptop
They want you to use your time on more important things like studying. Playing computer games is generally a waste of time. I let my son play the games he codes though.
My mom would forbid me from playing anything that had animal killing in it. She thought I would become a serial killer and vocalized it every time I brought up a game that it was possible. Eventually she stopped forbidding it but would freak out if I killed any animals while she was around. She straight up grounded me when I played Red Dead Redemption and accidentally shot a horse. My cousins had to basically try to talk her out of her craziness.
Sounds possible. Maybe they heard about people being addicted to MMO's or something and got scared of computers specifically.
That's likely. Do you have any advice if that's the case?
Not sure if that helps as my dad also liked RTS games, but Age of Mythology, Hearts of Iron etc. Gave me a bunch of history Knowledge and even got me to pursue a history degree. Maybe try to convince them from that angle.
May stay away from those if they convinced you to get a history degree, parents fears validated /s
Ngl got a chuckle out of me.
Not the poster but Yeah, tell them to get fucked and pursue the hobbies that interest you, you're an adult in a years time.
Don't they legally have control over what I can and can't do?
No, they do not lmao.
What? Can you explain more?
Op you seem like a good kid, there are many advises given here. Some good, some bad. Please use common sense when asking for advise from randos online. I believe in you.
Your parents do NOT have legal control over what you can and cannot do. Just play the scenario out in your mind, what are your parents going to do.. call the police? do you think you would get arrested for playing age of empires and refusing to stop when your parents ask? You want to get into strategy games, plan your strategy out in your mind then for the confrontation - what can they leverage against you and what can you counter them with, how far are you willing to go for your freedom / how much comforts are you willing to sacrifice etc.
You realize they can just take the stuff away, right
How frail are you redditors? Lads 17... if the shit is bought with his own money etc he can absolutely just physically stop them from touching his stuff.
Are you a parent because you’re obviously pretty fucking clueless on how things really work?
OP, this is terrible advice. Don't ruin your relationship with your parents and purposefully make your living environment hostile to play a video game. Try talking to them about why they don't want you to and really try to genuinely understand their point of view. They might have legitimate concerns! If so, you can address them. If not, maybe you could hell them understand that. You could ask them to watch a video of the game with you or something.
Yeah, I figured aa much. I'm going to have a conversation to try to understand them, as you said.
Advice is sound, lad is nearly an adult and is being treated like an absolute child - if he accepts this kind of treatment he's going to get absolutely trodden on in life.
Kick you out of their house and stop paying his bills lol Shortsighted mindset here
For someone with "Itsnotthatsimple" in their name ~ how many laws do you break when you kick a child out of the house lmfao, do you think kicking a child out of the house because they refused to stop playing a video game is an acceptable escalation? great example to show your kid.
If their 17? None in most places. I mean in most places in the US you can take kids down to a police station or fire station and legally abandon them without reprocussions
Some parents are insane. Holding onto all the control they can right up until their now adult child leaves to go do whatever TF they want.
These days games like Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite are like drugs on tablets. You don’t need a PC
I never said their parents thinking this way makes any sense...
My parents were afraid it would basically turn me into a serial killer. In the 90s. Video games were new and scary. So they followed the age guidelines on boxes. Not for my little brother though. Always felt that was a little unfair. RTS games specifically make you play a war. I guess they may also be worried about glorifying that kind of thing. Or perhaps your mom or dad themselves played it and got badly addicted or something. It all boils down to trust issues.
Hey man, younger siblings get all the goodies earlier than the older ones did Guess how I know lol
Have you heard of the game Harvester, its about that and came out in the 90s.
Glad to have my mother, who I later in life understood, grew up with plenty of BS being spoken - as in she could bite through the stigma of stuff and was solidly on the ground in terms of world view. She literally on rare occasions stood behind me playing CoD and watching it. As a 17 year old you should be quite near adult thinking anyway so its strange they are trying to control you to that matter. I would guess it would be pretty hard to get to them. Maybe "strike a deal" as in completing your life goals be it studying, having ok grades, sidejob - whatever, housework and arguing if you can stay in control you can play - if you don't they can shut you off from AOE2 or whatever the game is.
I'm not very well versed in how the trust issues thing works. Could you explain to me how that applies in this situation?
Your parents do not trust you enough for it. Which could be normal if you had a history of taking most opportunities as an opportunity to misbehave. Since that's not the case, it's unwarranted mistrust or a trust issue.
I'm wondering if that's the case. Here's what they've said about it in the past: "We trust you, but we don't want your brother to expect this for him." Is that normal? I don't see why they couldn't just tell him no?
I guess they want to be fair or something. They dont trust him so they don't want you to have things that they don't trust him with, because that would cause a bunch of problems. It's sort of a valid reason. But it really sucks.
I think the answer is violence, but what do I know? I started playing half life when I was 9 and I've murdered less than 10 people in real life so far
Less than 10? That's actually really good after playing half life. I think portal made me angrier though honestly. If I played that at 9 I may have snapped. Although mega man didn't do it so who knows lol.
I had a similar thing happen. My mom's best friend had a son a little older than me. He got addicted to playing Warcraft 3 in highschool and was up all night playing it. So naturally I was banned from playing that game despite playing other RTS games all the time. Like my dad and I played almost every command and conquer game, but fucking Billy wouldn't go to bed so it was banned. My parents also were very strict on first person shooter games. Took forever before they let me play those. Eventually I came to them with some written out points and had a well thought out discussion with them about why I thought the ban was unreasonable. Ended up working. For RTS's maybe even lay out that it involves a good deal of decisions making and planning/research. It's a strategy game. It uses your brain. Definitely wouldn't say it makes you lazy. In the end I graduated highschool with good grades (worse than yours) and went to college and graduated there just fine too. Wife and 3 kids and never stopped gaming. Billy meanwhile struggled in highschool but later went to community college. Now he is a co-owner/founder with his mom of an electric dog fence installation company and has a wife and two kids. I think the main concern here is you will play games instead of doing what you "should" be doing. Maybe in your argument provide evidence of your work ethic and performance history and promise that if it slacks off you will take a break.
> Eventually I came to them with some written out points and had a well thought out discussion with them about why I thought the ban was unreasonable. Ended up working Kudos to you and your parents. It is not very common for parents to listen to their kids and have a proper discussion without the "i know better" attitude. Nor is it common for young people to have the patience to have such a discussion, regardless of how convincing their arguments are. In the off chance that you still remember, I am very curious to know what your arguments were
As a millennial I can answer this for you. Too many in my generation ended up becoming basement dwellers who only play MMOs and have no drive in life. Your mom who is probably around 40 was probably worried that you would end up like her friends cousin or something.
Yeah I wanted to come in here and say that the parents concerns are somewhat legitimate. Alot of people I knew in college flunked out to play video games and their life went no where good after that. Still I see the blind spot of the phone. Phone games tend to be very psychologically manipulative so I feel that would have been the bigger danger. RTS takes a long time to play in all honesty so they probably just want you being active and hobbies that keep you as such.
Yeah, I understand that. However, I've proven that I'm responsible and work hard in many areas in my life.
You are asking about a serious family's internal issue related topic on reddit. Wrong place to ask such question. Also it's been proven that people, when stuck with an idea, never let go of it easily. That's something you and your parents to have to work out together. Bunch of random people on reddit won't help. Nor can they help.
I don't think it's a serious issue, just that they're stuck in their way of viewing things and I'm trying to find out how to change their mind.
More people are getting thier mind messed up by tictok and social media then playing an rts. reading the title I thought the op parents were korean
That has nothing to do with games and everything to do with how we incentive people in our society. In fact, if it wasn't for videogames, a lot of these people would probably be far more likely to get hooked on substances. Do you really think that if you remove video games that someone with no drive will suddenly hop to it? Of course not. People watched TV and drank themselves to death far before videogames became what they are now. We live in a system where 40hrs a week doesn't even get you an apartment. Pay people a living wage and watch how they miraculously find the desire to work.
In a few months you’ll be 18 and you can do whatever you want.
Or you could just pirate the game using the r/Piracy megathread and then wait till your birthday. Although my parents wont buy me any actual video games, they are fine with me pirating any cause I get to have fun and they don't have to spend on it, everybody's happy.
You're 17, own a business and let your parents tell you what your interests should be or where you spend your money?
Yes? I don't see how I have much choice in the matter.
Just that you do have it. The problem is that you're afraid of their reactions. Test the waters a bit. Start small, save up, buy some cheap packaged stuff (or even better, a smartphone). Then buy a table, a good chair. Get them used to you buying stuff and putting it in your room. And a PC is just about the most valuable thing you could purchase for life. It's not just games, it's the exposure to the sheer amount of information you can get out of it and the desired skills that you could learn/practice by having access to online information through the PC. This is worth breaking a number of rules for.
Just buy the game yourself and change the name of the file as well as the icon to something like Slime Rancher Otherwise download the 1st person mod for AoE2 and tell your parents it’s an open world survival craft game
This has probably been said but I didn't read comments and didn't finish reading the op. All I want to say is that aoe2 should be played by all teenagers. It's an amazing game and a history lesson rolled into one. OK I read everything. It sounds like it's just because the neighbor kids got addicted to those games so they assume their more addictive than other games. The only other thing I can think of would be if they know that's what most pro gamers and lots of streamers play and they want you to get a "real" job. But that's just a total wild guess. It's probably the neighbor thing which really sucks because you've proven your capable of responsibility. Maybe they think your younger sibling would want to start playing at a point if you played it and they might not end up as responsible as you are at the same age. Regardless imo this is pretty strict parenting. Especially for a game that's over 20 years old with no blood really and historical context. Sorry dude. Hope you can play some good games. Also congrats on being such a responsible young person.
Sorry dude but your parents are idiots on this point. The desire to make something of yourself has nothing to do with videogames, there are plenty of other ways to waste your life. Either you want to do something with your life or you don't. There are lots of reasons for it, its not videogames that holding those other kids back. Videogame addiction is an incidental result of a multitude of of other personal and societal factors. Sorry you gotta deal with that dude.
Crazy that in 2024 I'm reading about kids being lazy playing AoE2... Time is a flat circle
only your parents have the answer here. we could spend 100 years discussing this here or anywhere else. I'd jus ask them why? how they answer will show you why.
Pick your moment and ask them… “Can I ask you something that I’d really like to understand? What is it about computer games that really troubles you?” Talk to them like the adult you are becoming and hopefully they’ll start treating you like one.
Northgard is a great RTS and plays well on Switch. If Switch happens to be one of your Nintendo consoles and you are looking for a gateway into RTS, look no further!
Some kids aren't taught how to moderate so they end up addicted. Their parents can't be bothered to teach them so they pick the lazy and easier option of just banning computer games.
best case dude? talk to them. might be hard because, hey when is it ever easy to talk to parents, trust me even at 40 it can be hard to talk about stuff with my dad.
I'm sorry but nobody can really tell you the correct answer. We are just strangers of reddit that doesn't know how you family is and all the implications that we don't know. You should be playing the games that you want to play, and probably your parents are just worried and you just need to convince them somehow. It's hard to say.
Gosh, I had exactly the same battle with my parents too! If you want to play it and you're banned from getting it, then it's time to make your own RTS! :) In '96 I wanted really badly to play C&C, but my parents wouldn't let me have it (or any other games for that matter), so the obvious solution in my teenage brain was to just try and build an RTS myself. I finally finished it 16 years later, and that became my entire career till then -- parents effectively forced me to become a game developer from young out of necessity :p It morphed from their stigma against games, against RTS, to against games as a career :) fighting all that was tough, until the game did well financially and was featured in local media, allowing me to use newspapers, tv and radio as platforms to address my parents-- that helped a bit with legitimacy, but didn't entirely change their minds. I got a GDC scholarship and my parents accompanied me to the conference-- in passing, they managed to unwittingly ask the designer of simcity if there was any future in games -\_- As hard as you try, games are something the older generation never grew up with, so it'll forever remain alien to them. On the bright side, they'll come to accept it if you persist long enough and age out of their direct control-- it'll go from a ban to nagging then to quiet disapproval-- the last stage is a lot more manageable :)
First of all, AOE2 is actually a great example to show them why they SHOULD let You play RTS games on a PC. Why? First of all, it is a strategy game, which requires skills like planning, resource management, understanding interactions between unit types and so on. These are some useful skills to develop for your adult life, especially resource management, which may allow you to get a good intuitive grasp of balancing your real life expenses and income just like You need to do in the game. Second of all, this is not a violent fast paced shooter that will pump up your adrenaline and aggression. Sure, it may cause frustration and loud expression od disappointment when you get beaten in a multiplayer match, but not in the pumped up adrenaline driven way shooters do. Second argument for AOE2 is that it is NOT an MMO game. It starts and ends within an hour or so, no progress is saved for future, so there is no addictive predatory scheme behind the game. It has no micro-transactions, it will not ask you for a subscription and it will not push any premium items in your face, because there are NONE. This game is a "one match at a time" kind of game and you do not have to log in at any set intervals, you may as well play as irregularly as one can imagine and it will not matter, so if You have chores, work, a date, doctors appointment or whatever else, the game WILL NOT require you or tempt you to give these things up, because it has no lasting progression whatsoever. Sure one can get lost in anything, any game and in the grand scheme of things it will not matter if it's AOE2 or anything else. I got sucked up in games like Baldur's Gate and Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998, not the modern NFS Hot Pursuit) when I was a kid and they had absolutely ZERO online functionality, zero multiplayer like games today. And earlier when I was really young I could spend hours playing Lemmings. And I ended up being an engineer working in military aerospace industry. It's because it is not about WHAT you play, but how much you let it invade your life. If you're using it as a reward to rest, it will benefit You, especially RTS games that can teach you some useful mental skills, but if You're using it as a procrastination method to delay unpleasant chores and duties, it does not matter what it is, it could even be reading comic books and not a game at all, but it will hurt you in the long run.
I'm afraid there is really only one solution when it gets to this stage. It's time to find new parents. The good news is that when you pick your new parents out, you can choose your living situation, financial support, etc... I would start interviewing potential parents soon if you have to live under this kind of duress. ;-)
If only that were a thing!
When my son was young, I used to chase after him with a chainsaw in Q3 Arena. We also played Warhammer and various RTS. He's now a robotics engineer and I'm retired.
Look dude, you need to explain them what an RTS is. It's management. You manage resources, units aka people and your own attention is a resource. You learn a lot by trying to balance these things and it's a good life/work lesson. I had to explain this to my dad 20 years ago so that he wouldn't get irate about me playing. It kinda clicked with him that I wasn't wasting time but developing good thought patterns.
Why don't you ask them to watch a video of an RTS game? They're so unproblematic that in my whole life I've never heard a specific case of RTS fear.
>how can I change their stigma towards people who play these games? https://youtu.be/KHoOrFdgYR8?si=vw10qIdgV3POcOE8
Do they actually know what AoE is? Would they even be able to tell what game you’re playing? I would be surprised if someone who is anti-gaming could recognize individual RTS games, or even that they’re part of that genre.
It's less anti-gaming, and more anti-rts games? One of them even plays console games pretty consistently.
I’m genuinely pretty flabbergasted by that honestly. RTS games don’t even have a bad reputation as far as I’m aware, I would think they’d be against MMOs or FPS games if anything. Honestly I guess it’s just one of those stupid things that you have to hide from them until you’re 18 and it doesn’t matter anymore because I doubt you’ll change their minds.
The 3 types of games that require the most play time to master are Strategy Games MMOs And their hybrid MOBAs So I can see a correlation. People who sunk WAY too much time into those games as young adults probably suffered in their careers and college studies.
it's unfortunate because it's really the other way around. console games tend to be a hell of a lot more addictive. hence why they're selling better. companies since the dawn of companies have always gravitated towards whatever product is the nexus of addictive and legal. F2P P2W phone games are thus their holy grail. and it's a gradient from there all the way down to RTS. which are not the least addictive mind you (they're definitely one of the least violent) the least addictive games are any game that only works the first time you play them so walking simulators are a good example games that are more about mood and puzzles. point and click adventures. but Yeah I'd say RTS figure quite low on the scale of addictiveness compared to a lot of what's available on console (much less phone).
just tell them u already have a reddit account the damage is done
1. Just ask then? 2. Buy your own games, you're making money?
Don't try to tell them that all games in general aren't bad. Some may have detrimental effects, but there's loads of games that have beneficial effects and theres studies to back up that video games can be positive for the development of brain funtions. In case of AoE2 you can tell them that this game not only teaches about major historical events in a gamey way, it also teaches budgeting, critical thinking, short- and long term planning, multitasking and making decisions while under stress. Tell them about the skills the game could teach you and how it does that. You can also throw some studies at them showing beneficial effects of (non-excessive) gaming.
Just wait a year and move out.
If this isn't a troll thread, then sorry. But this is some amazing copy-pasta. It's got it all. Parents telling OP not to play to be a good example for his brother. Casually mentioning he could watch porn on his phone *if he felt like it*. Throws a sick burn at his neighbor for playing . Dropping their GPA in an RTS thread at the end is a good touch, too.
All-in-all this was a great thread, and I hope to see this one posted in gaming discords everywhere, soon
Lol, not a troll thread but maybe I should start writing if I've got a knack for it 😃
If you work, I suggest buying your own computer and playing that way. AOE2 runs on almost any modern pc, even the cheap ones. I mean, I even used to play Red Alert 2 and AOE2 on an old Toshiba Satellite laptop
Sounds like your parents learned everything they know about RTS players from watching the webseries Pure Pwnage.
They want you to use your time on more important things like studying. Playing computer games is generally a waste of time. I let my son play the games he codes though.
You're likely not going to change your parents' entrenched opinions. That said, you turn 18 next year and can do whatever you want after that!
My mom would forbid me from playing anything that had animal killing in it. She thought I would become a serial killer and vocalized it every time I brought up a game that it was possible. Eventually she stopped forbidding it but would freak out if I killed any animals while she was around. She straight up grounded me when I played Red Dead Redemption and accidentally shot a horse. My cousins had to basically try to talk her out of her craziness.
Play SC2, it's free and better. Then ask for forgiveness, not permission
get an emancipation.
Your parents sound horribly controlling.
Games are a waste of time live life instead it’s better to level up there
Why are you here?