New Videogames Guide for Parents in Time for Holidays
By Shawn on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 1:50 PM PST In Gamer Life, Games
For those parents that find videogames and ratings confusing, John Davison former editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly and Official PlayStation Magazine has launched What They Play, a new site aimed at being “the videogames guide for parents.”
In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Davison who is father to two young boys himself explains why he felt the need for such a site:
We wanted to provide a place where parents can turn to for neutral, objective information on the games their kids might want to play.
We really believe that it’s the parents that should be controlling [what games their children play]. And the best way to do that is to tell them the facts so they can make the call.
Ira Becker, a former Ziff-Davis colleague, is partnering with Davison on the “What They Play” site.
As a parent myself, it’s good to see that gamers are encouraging parents to take a more active role in raising their children. Sites like What They Play and Andrew Bub’s GamerDad: Gaming With Children are great resources to inform and educate parents, many of whom have been told by the media that videogames are evil.
via GamePolitics
I do not understand why parents are so confused with the ratings. They seem straight forward to me. Perhaps more parents need to take the time to check out the writing on the game boxes too. Another grand idea would be for them to hop on the web and google whatever games their kids are into. It doesn’t take long at all to find out everything about any given game. I think most parents are simply not responsible. At the same time, the adult gaming world shouldn’t pay the price for their lack of interest.
I believe part of the problem with videogame ratings is the wording. After all my kids are mature for their age. However if you point out that the ESRB Mature rating is equivalent to the film industry’s rated R most parents will get it right away. Sometimes I feel we should be posting both the ESRB rating and an equivalent film rating on packaging.
The other problem with videogames is people are just plain ignorant and are afraid of what they don’t understand. We were told on parent orientation night at my daughters’ elementary school that one of the three things most school shooters/serial killers had in common was playing “evil videogames” by the school’s principal (who has a doctorate).
Rather than following my first impulse, I thanked the principal for being so concerned about videogames and their effect on children, and pointed him towards GamerDad’s site and the new What They Play site as suggestions of references to put in the pre-holiday school newsletter.
Hopefully he and other parents can be educated about videogames