me and my pregnant girlfriend are gmers, so i doubt this to be a problem. but yea. moderation is key.

My kids are gonna be Pokemon masters!

personally i have no idea. because i love video games i do too know that my playing them has effected which direction i've taken in life. whether this is for good or bad, it's true. that and the fact that video games do take up time, especially to truly enjoy, they can be a kind of double-edged sword.

as for your friends situation, i truly pity it. he should have been more careful in making his wife know that he wanted his son to grow up with his hobby of video games.

As much as I love gaming and even though I grew up on gaming, I wouldn't introduce gaming into a childs life.

Gaming today is completely different then when I was younger. Modern games are designed to psychologically addicting, whether it's a game for children or if its a game for adults. This can potentially really harm a childs development especially when it comes to addressing real life problems.

When a video game presents a problem the solution is not only straightforward but is also rewarded with explosions of light and sound. In real life the rewards for solving problems are not instantaneous, and in some cases take years before they would experience strong positive feedback. The result would be a child who is constantly bored.

Our 2.5 year old likes to play a game now and then. Flying around in Wii sports resort, a balance game on the balance board, co-op in Rayman origins, all 3 of us in R&C all 4 one.
He's still more interested in the physical controllers though and what the buttons do. The actual game doesn't really matter. The more buttons are used in the control scheme and have a response the better.

Other then that he's already navigating you tube like a pro with the track pad on the laptop. I don't trust you tube to leave him alone with that though. He's clicking through links on bulldozers, might want to miss the ones showing industrial accidents...

Unsure if I even want kinds, but if I do have kids I think I will put certain restrictions on their game play. I'd rather them spend time playing sports, hanging out with friends, and studying. I played a lot of video games when I was younger, took some time away from them when I was a teen because if I didn't have homework I was out all day playing some form of sports. I only got back into games in my 20's again.

If its a boy, I'll probably give him a good introduction when hes 5 to some classics since he will more than likely be playing them sooner or later. If its a girl, I will immediately play whatever games I can with her so I can put her on the right track (away from boys.) When she does grow up and some lucky bastard finds out that she games, the cycle will repeat and I'll have grand kids to play games with me when I become an old fart. Of course I'll put them in sports and make sure the have good grades, but it's not like I'm gonna forget and abandon this hobby entirely because of them. :)

My kid's first video game will be a Pokemon game, just like mine was.

Yaaayyy!  

Don't want to share your console with your kid, eh?  Keeping all of that video game goodness for yourself, huh?  Very clever......