How old should one be to start playing Doom?

How old should a kid be to start playing Doom? How old were you when you got the game? I'm just looking for some opinions on this... everyone is entitled to their opinion, so if you think you need to be 15 then please say so and include a little reasoning if you want to.

I don't know, I was probably ten when I fist played it.

You should play Doom as soon as you escape the womb

I've been playing since 93 and I was born in 91 so.. 5!

I was in 6th grade... so 12. Of course, it caused irreparable damage to my psyche.

My parents tell me that I was able to play Doom before I could talk.

heh

Well, I can't speak for anyone since I started playing when I was like 4 slamming the space bar down while sitting on my father's lap.

I got SNES Doom on my 6th birthday in '96. If I had Doom before that, I can not remember it, though I remember playing Wolf3D at a very young age.

I was 6 when I first played Doom and I'd say I turned out alright... only started 3 or 4 school shootings myself :D

If you're still in the womb...


Then you'll probably have to use wireless to DM.


Otherwise, carry on.

There's no definitive age for introducing your kid to Doom. Some are smart enough to understand violence and satanic imagery in the context of a video game, some definitely aren't. There's also the "scary" factor to Doom, but I don't think there's enough of it to actually traumatize anybody.

I'm speaking purely from the standpoint of a father since I wasn't a kid when I first played Doom. My daughter (6yo) has seen me playing for as long as she's been around, but she's shown almost absolutely no interest, whereas my nephew (9yo) looked like he was ready to sell his soul just for a couple of clicks, but I attribute that to his parents being too anal on the amount of time he gets to spend doing anything other than homework, which's fine since it's pretty evident that video games increase the chances of your kids growing up like complete douchebags.

I started playing when I was 13 (1994) but my son Dylan is compartively competent at 6. He actually started playing at 4 but I would say that's too early as he had nightmares so I had to stop him playing.

Also, 6 is a good age to start mapping.

I was 5, or maybe even 4 when I started... But I was afraid of playing without IDDQD. And I escaped to the menu from fear when I met Icon of Sin.

I was 11 when I first played Doom in 1993. But I'm sure a younger child could grasp it without being too scared.

Whether sitting on your parent's lap when you're very small and bashing the space bar counts as "playing" is up for debate though. It's like when your dad lets you change gear for him when you're in his car and saying that you learned to drive that day.

I think a person will like doing in their life what you're introducing them to do at a young, childish age. So if you don't want your kid to become a hardcore gamer with little time left for going out, I'd suggest sending him/her to sports instead. They may not like it at first, but will get the hang of it once they find sporting is also like a game. I wish I was forced by my parents to do more ball sports, considering they're equally games as Doom...

Technically, 17.

Other than that, it all depends on how your parents or grandparents feel about it.

As soon as they can press buttons on a keyboard.

Anywhere from 2 to 90. I started when I was six. Before that, I played Duke Nukem.

Also, 3 years after starting Doom I bought my first pistol, a Glock 17...

printz said:

I think a person will like doing in their life what you're introducing them to do at a young, childish age.

I wonder. For some stuff, people who discover it later in life get more obsessed than people who grow up with it. Religion, for instance: people who are raised that way tend to make less of a big deal out of it than people who "see the light" for the first time later in life. Maybe what you're around from a young age, seems like a normal part of life, nothing to get obsessed with. Of course, what I don't know about child (or any) psychology could fill whole libraries...

I wish I was forced by my parents to do more ball sports, considering they're equally games as Doom...

That can be taken too far. When I was a kid, the kid next door was forced to play baseball, basketball, and football... and was taught to "be a winner" at all costs. It leaked into the rest of his personality, he had to always be better than everyone else, at everything. Guy grew up to be a grade-A douchbag.

How old was I when I first played Doom? Probably 23 or 24. Too old to really be relevant to this thread. If the OP is wondering about whether to let his kid(s) play Doom, my advice (worth exactly what I'm being paid for it, I guess) would be, if they see you playing a lot, and they seem really interested, let them. Smart kids understand the hypocrisy in "do as I say, not as I do", and at least some of them grow up to be cynical bastards if they're exposed to enough of it from their parents...

Most four year olds should have the necessary skill-set, I think.

First Doom I played was PSX Doom back in 96, which would have made me all of 14. Good times :)

I was watching my brothers at the age of 4, and played it by just pressing CTRL for shooting, while my brother was controlling the player.

I think I fully started playing it at the age of 5-6, scary times.

Yeah, as long as they don't scare easily from things jumping out at them from hidden areas in the walls (or impaled bodies) little kids should be fine.

[PROTOTYPE] said:

Also, 3 years after starting Doom I bought my first pistol, a Glock 17...

What. The. Fuck.

There should be a mod that changes the weapon/monster graphics and sounds into something that is not violent at all. Like, the gameplay would be unchanged, just the sprites and sounds would be changed into something appropriate for all ages.

I was around 6 when I started playing Doom but ideally the womb should have some way of running Doom through DOS so kids can start playing ASAP!

TimeOfDeath said:

There should be a mod that changes the weapon/monster graphics and sounds into something that is not violent at all. Like, the gameplay would be unchanged, just the sprites and sounds would be changed into something appropriate for all ages.

Chex Quest?

A four or five year old probably would have enough hand eye coordination to play Doom and make sense of what is happening on-screen. I was four when I first started playing. I would sit in my father's lap and press the fire button while he aimed and moved around. I remember eventually grasping what weapons to use on which enemies and roughly how much ammo I should use per encounter. My father would go to some length to make sure I could distinguish the game from reality.

On the other hand, I didn't start making levels competently until I was thirteen. I had played a bunch of 1995 pwads before I ever picked up an editor so I started to hold myself to a higher design standard before I even learned how to make a bare-bones map with solid gameplay and interesting puzzles. As a consequence, my first maps were clunky, short, oddly detailed, and poorly paced.

I started to play the gba version when I was 7. Then I got the xbox live arcade version when I was 9.

When I was younger, I saw Doom a few times. I thought it was an interesting game and I wanted to give it out a try. One day, I saw my uncle playing the 32X verison (I'm sure it was that version) and I wanted to watch him, but he wouldn't let me because he said I was too young to watch. When I was 18, I finally got my copy of The Ultimate Doom and Doom 2, and I started to play the games and I had a lot of fun.

I heard of people that played Doom that were younger than 17, and I also once heard that someone started to play Doom at 3 years old. So to me, it doesn't matter how old you are, it matters if you're skilled enough to play.