Parent-friendly games

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
My time playing League of Legends may be drawing to a close. As my wife approaches her due date and we prepare for our little one's debut, my process for selecting which games I play and when is changing.

Blocking off 45 uninterrupted minutes for gaming will, in the very near future, no longer be feasible. LoL also includes a feature which records the number of games a player has left early. The intended design was discourage and punish ragequitting, but it has the unintended side effect of also punishing parents who need to quickly exit a game to check on a crying child. Furthermore, quitting the game early will put your team at a significant disadvantage.

LoL is an example of a very parent-unfriendly game, even if that was not the developers' intention.

Team Fortress 2, with its drop-in, drop-out gameplay and ability to temporarily switch to spectator on a moment's notice, would be a game I'd consider parent-friendly.

What are some other parent-friendly games?
 
I know you never really got into GW, but I consider that very parent friendly. There is very little content you can't complete in 30-60 minute parts, and very little you can't do solo with NPC allies.

Should also note: I expected that when my 2yo was born, gaming would all but cease. Parenting requires a lot of time, for sure...but an 8:00 (or similar) bed time and naps leave plenty of time for you to spend with your lady or your games.
 
Hey everyone, Tek thinks he can play games with a baby on the way!! Let's all point and laff! :p /sarcasm

Even still, I would suggest games that put you to sleep, since you'll be lacking in it for the first few months. Hmm, how about a sports game? Those things bore me.

In all seriousness, HL2: DM, L4D2 Scavenge mode (about 8 minutes or so compared to the hour-long Versus), a Flatout:UC race, some MNC, oooor PS3 gaemz.
 
I have 2 kids, and one of the way, and my gaming hasn't changed too much from when I didn't have kids...I mean...before I had kids, I was playing 4-6 hours at a time...but now I only get in 1-2 hours... You can still play just about anything... Games without pause can be annoying though...however...if both of you are home, depending on what you are playing...you can take turns...

However, casual games do make things easier...as do Facebook games :p ...MMOs actually seem to work well...you can get in the perfect position to feed the baby, and program your mouse to do all necessary functions... :D
 
I still get between 30-120 minutes on given days with a 2.5 month old (the 2 year old goes to bed at 6:30 :D). But that time is not solid. I usually have to duck away from the keyboard at least once (and usually more) during that play time.

Online FPS tend to work well:
TF2
DoD:S
CS:S (not quite as well due to round system)
NS2 - If it is ever released. . .my brother pre-ordered it for my birthday 10 months ago. Time to go harass him about my birthday present!

I've also been playing Champions Online F2P which works well since I can fly my character into the sky and leave him there while I tend to real life. I've solo'd everything up to this point (level 17) because I hate standing around and waiting for other people to get on the ball (as tends to happen in every MMORPG I've played).

Of course, I find that many other things are seeking my attention now and I'm having to divvy up my time more. I constantly want to create things in Blender but never seem to finish them. And I've taken up drawing as a bit of a hobby (still learning, but it's rather fun). I've gave up buying new games about a year ago (when I threw out a bunch of old games I had probably spent over $500 on through the years) and now I'm considering removing them from my computer entirely. They are an enormous time-sink with nothing to show for them once I am done (except elevated blood pressure in the case of FPS), and yet I always seem to get sucked into them.
 
Patriot said:
I hate standing around and waiting for other people to get on the ball (as tends to happen in every MMORPG I've played).
Click to expand...

Ugh. Sooooooo true. That's my present issue with the dungeon queues in WoW, and I gave up raiding. Battlegrounds & open world PvP zones are much more parent friendly (especially if you are a rogue and can stealth to afk).

Swords and Soldiers is a good game for parents since you can pause it anytime, and many of the battles can be short. I also like Puzzle Quest for that reason.

When your baby is first born, all they really do is sit there and blink. And poop. They still need a lot of attention and love. It's when they learn how to climb and get mobile....that's when you have to start playing goalie more often. ;]

PS: DON'T try to play an MMO, while holding your baby, while trying to eat a beef and bean burrito. Trust me, you will just end up with a beef and baby bean burrito.
 
Patriot said:
I've solo'd everything up to this point (level 17) because I hate standing around and waiting for other people to get on the ball (as tends to happen in every MMORPG I've played).
Click to expand...

That's why I like GW so much. It stresses me out when I have a bunch of people waiting on me, and it stresses me out if I'm ignoring my family. So when my time is questionable, I just play with NPCs and chat. Everyone has to afk on people sometimes, too, so that's why I am glad I play with friendly people who understand there is life outside of a game.

Honestly it just comes down to - anything that can be paused (or AFK without ticking people off). Of course, GW isn't the only game you can do this with, but come on Tek, THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
 
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Call of duty 4 and 2 are both still fantastic games and both of them have a spectator mode you can drop into. They're also cheap atm.
 
Frankly, that first 6-8 months (prior to sleeping through the night) I didn't get any significant gaming done. What I did do, was in one of the following 3 categories: popcap games, single player empire-builders, and GW with its AI companions.

Someone up above made mention of single player, RTS games, and that's probably the best that you're going to get in terms of 'parent-of-infant-friendliness'

You just got to remember, that parent-of-toddler and parent-of-pre-schooler and parent-of-school-age has a different set of concerns, and thankfully uninterrupted hour long blocks aren't USUALLY one of them. And as I say that, I realize that you've been in game with me when I had to go sudden AFK due to child.
 
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