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Not only did Nathan and Jen Glemboski use the lure of sweet, puffy marshmallows to lure their child into playing a real-life version of the arcade classic Pac-Man, they then sent the link into a gaming blog for our amusement. As long as you're living under my roof you'll eat those marshmallows! More »
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Commenter Madammina's tale of playing through Kingdom Hearts with her little brother reminds us how much fun it is to play video games with our loved ones in today's Speak Up on Kotaku. More »
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Being the parent of a 9-year-old boy and a gamer, I'm a huge fan of parental settings. More »
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It's okay to work all night and sleep all day with Go Play Lumberjax, the first game in Majesco's new line of family friendly games for the Nintendo Wii. More »
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In June, Yahoo's 'lifestyle' site Shine hosted a Sony Online Entertainment survey into the gaming habits of US families. More »
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KingIsle entertainment has announced the launch of the open beta for their family-friendly MMO Wizard101, which combines magical adventures with card-based spellcasting battles to create something that seems to have attracted a larger following than they originally expected. Never underestimate the power of rabid card-game fans. More »
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I'm not sure if it is a good thing that the best MMO at E3 2008 could be a game aimed at 9-14 year-olds, but I am sure that Sony Online Entertainment's Free Realms is a very good thing indeed. There are plenty of free MMOs aimed at the kid market out there, but they all tend to share certain bad traits. Shoddy graphics, poor-quality interfaces, and an overall lack of polish. SOE is taking the social children's game concept, applying a World of Warcraft level of polish, packing it with personality and mini-games, and unleashing it upon the computing family for free. They are going to tear the kid's MMO sector apart. More »
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At around 6PM on Saturday my brother and his son Wade arrived at my Atlanta-area apartment secret lair, where I have been watching my other nephew Xavier doing much better at Halo multiplayer than I could ever hope to, making me look good by using my gamertag and not talking on the headset. This gathering wasn't about Halo, however. It was about Rock Band. I didn't really have high hopes, as I had tried playing with Xav a bit earlier with hilariously sad results. More »
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Just in time for Black Friday feeding frenzy, an anonymous tipster informs us that Sam's Club will be unleashing the "Wii Family Bundle." The package comes with a Wii, two extra Wii remotes, two extra nunchuks, Super Paper Mario, Mario Party 8 and Brunswick Pro Bowling. More »
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Buried with the news of the Xbox 360 Family Timer was an interesting date: early December. That's when Microsoft says the timer will be available on the Xbox 360. Here's a safe bet: The timer is part of the Fall Dashboard update, which means we won't be seeing the update until early December. It sure seems like Microsoft is getting dangerously close to making this a "winter update"! No news yet on the other features we will see in the update, but my sources tell me we will be hearing more about the update in the next week or so. But let's play a game, shall we? How many more PS3 firmware updates do you think we will see before the Xbox Fall Update actually arrives? More »
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One of the things I enjoy about the internet, and gaming in particular, is getting other people's views on games and how they see them, because let's face it, everybody plays and enjoys games differently. Play.tm has a great little article up from the perspective of a family gamer. A guy with a wife and a couple kids and how they enjoy gaming together is quite different from say, the way I enjoy games with my friends. It's a smart and funny that and takes a look at current gen gaming through the eyes of a parent. More »
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Just in time for Father's Day, CNN has a positive article up on the subject of families who game together. From the Wii to Diablo and Guild Wars, the message is that gaming with your kids can equal a (gasp!) positive way to spend time together, as opposed to the usual litany of complaints that equal gaming will turn your children into blank-eyed violent zombies. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=269504&view=rss&microfeed=true Here's a trio of new Japanese PS3 ads. Each of them delivers hard hitting messages. Take the one above: Nothing says family time like polishing PSPs together. More »
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