Wow, so that question about the best video game console to start your kids out on elicited a lot of very thoughtful comments, nearly 50 of them to be exact. But one in particular caught my attention. A reader sent me an email saying that the best console for a kid was none.

Here's his reasoning, it's a good read:

I am not able to comment on Kotaku so I will pass my remark along to you. A consensus of reputable pediatricians recommend no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of television for young children. And no television at all for children under 2. Most American parents let their children watch much more than that and usually from the earliest age. Not only do they let their kids have free run of the television, but they also keep the television on themselves "to keep them company" and their children have portable gaming devices and access to the computer. Once you factor in DVDs, videocassettes, Game Boy, computer games, and mom and dad leaving the tube running in the background all day, your kid is getting far in excess of that 1 to 2 hours. And from the comments on your thread, your readers are saying their kids are playing Game Boy at age 2 and 3.

Most parents have some amorphous and ill-considered notion that somehow gaming "encourages creativity." How do they arrive at this? They don't. They don't attempt to support it, prove it, or verify it. They just believe it and hope like hell it is true. I am a life-time gamer (been playing since Pong in 1977) and I game with my DS, Xbox, Gamecube. In addition, I am wrestling with whether or not I should give my daughter a DS at age EIGHT or whether I should wait until she is ten. In America in 2005, that just about makes me some sort of fanatic, crank, or luddite when most parents are letting their kids watch "Revenge of the Sith" or "Bride of Chucky" at age 2 and most kids have their own televisions in their rooms by age 5 (to go along with the three or four other televisions and videoscreens in the house and in the car).

The reason I don't know if I want her to own a DS is simply because right now she reads at every opportunity. When she's bored, she reads. Or draws or writes. In addition, she has taught herself how to play the piano by just sitting down and pursuing it relentlessly. Her entire life she has been limited to one hour a day of "media time." That means she can spend that time playing a computer game or watching PBS (never commercial television which constantly pushes useless products on her... and us) or a DVD or occasionally a Gamecube game, primarily Animal Crossing (which she usually plays with us, so it's a social activity). One hour. That's it.

Now, I know for a fact that she would love to play Animal Crossing on the DS. But whether or not she will love it is not the point. She would love to eat potato chips and ice cream for every meal, but being a responsible parent is not about giving your kid what makes them happy moment to moment. A parent needs to plan for the ongoing long-term happiness and health of their child. Being fit and creative makes her happy. And it takes work. It takes her parents saying no when she asks for candy. Or other crap food. And it takes work when she asks for crap entertainment (maybe "crap" is too strong a word. Better to call it "high calorie/high fat/low nutrition" entertainment).

I have volunteered in my daughter's classrooms consistently since she was in pre-school and I have had a chance to watch she and her classmates change over time. I have noticed that the children who have spent the most time with television often think and create narratives or artwork using cartoon, game, or comic book characters. They don't create their own characters or stories. They simply relate an episode or game experience. It wasn't always that way. At their earliest ages they would create wild epics with wonderfully imaginative original characters. As they grew older, the stories would inevitably become a retelling of Scooby Doo or Spiderman. It saddens me to see them begin so creatively and slowly evolve into mere consumers.

In addition, excessive television watching or playing, especially late at night disrupts sleep patterns. And unless you are locking up your 3 year-olds Game Boy or DS each night, you can bet they are playing it when they need to be sleeping. For young children sleeping is not just about being groggy in the morning like adults. It's about cognitive development. I see kids in the classroom who don't get a proper breakfast or who didn't get enough sleep and they simply cannot focus on their work. Their entire day is a haze. When your kid is playing DS and is not getting the absolutely mandatory sleep their brains need to properly develop you are seriously hampering the health and growth of your child.

Seeing their smiles on Christmas morning or their (and your) joy when you play multi-player Mario Kart is a poor substitute.

It is increasingly becoming clear that Internet and gaming are as addictive and debilitating as any other obsession. And to put that kind of crack into the hands of a 2 year-old does not speak well to the discretion of that child's guardian, who themselves likely suffers from a dysfunctional attachment to electronic media.

And to say "well, gaming didn't harm ME" is a weak defense. Gaming in 2005 is PROFOUNDLY and completely different from gaming even five or ten years ago. With WiFi and MMOGs and Xbox Live and portable game systems which offer endless hours of always-on diversion in addition to 500 channels of cable and broadband Internet is nothing like the Pong of my youth or even the Game Boy Color of some of your youth. We don't have any idea how this will affect our children. To just say "it's fun. Here. Knock yourself out" is slapdash and irresponsible.

For me, I love to game. But I also think of the things I give up when I go on a gaming binge. I give up the face-to-face company of other humans. I give up exercise. I give up BEING creative instead of just enjoying the creativity of others. I've had to ask myself how much of my gaming is healthy pastime and how much of it is unhealthy obsession.

And I don't want my kid to lose hours and days in front of a video screen like I have. I want her to enjoy gaming as any other pastime, but I want it placed in its proper context.

My suggestion to you is that after you've run this "first console" thing, you might want to have a poll which asks who, if anyone (and you might be depressed at the results), has decided to severely limit their child's gaming time based on their own experiences as a gamer. Or as a sometimes-gamer. Or as a non-gamer.

Finally, your invite system for comments may cut down on spam or poorly crafted remarks, but this thread illustrates how a homogenaeity of pre-selected posters tends to skew the remarks heavily in one direction (i.e. hardcore gamers and their hardcore habits).

I love to game and I would like to spend time (and I have) with my daughter gaming, but I am having some serious doubts whether I should accelerate her access to videogames. Actually, reading the remarks on this thread and the completely uncritical acceptance of the necessity of getting your kids hooked onto a gaming console ASAP has made the decision for me. I was thinking of getting my daughter a DS for Christmas, but that won't be happening this year. I think I'll give her rollerskates instead.

By the way, even though this seems highly critical (and it is), I still love your blog and its intelligent treatment of the rapidly maturing medium of video games. Thanks.

Good stuff and an issue I'm often left pondering myself. The winner of the poll, by the way, was the SNES followed by the NES and the GameCube. Damn Nintendo, you've got some hardcore fans.

So, the last poll and the above letter beg the question, which portable console is best for kids? I'll start a poll a bit later today, so make some suggestions now.

And by "experts" we mean Crecente. He was interviewed for an article on the Xbox 360 shortages. One of the things Crecente pointed out? Some stories from you, the readers, speculating that game store employees were snatching up replenished units and selling them on eBay. ABC also looked into the 360 technical issues that seemed to plague launch systems, but in the last week or so, reports have died down considerably (the red phone at Kotaku HQ isn't lightning up with Xbox 360 complaints, of late).

Xbox 360s in Short Supply [ABC News]

The first half (the second focuses on NiWiFi, which we'll get to shortly) of the most recent DFC Intelligence brief looks at the implementation of the Xbox 360's Live Marketplace. The Marketplace, as envisioned, is a hub of potential commerce.

In some ways, the DFC thinks the Marketplace outshines the actual console. Essentially, they wonder if after all of this advancement in technology with the Xbox 360, its most advanced feature is actually its forward-thinking Marketplace? Strangely enough, it could be. At least conceptually, the Marketplace is offering something radical and different to gaming in the home. Will it catch on? Will Microsoft supplement the Marketplace with content people actually want to pay for? Admittedly, the prospect of episodic content in video game distribution is pretty enticing to me, at least.

What about you, 360 owners? Are you guys finding use for the Marketplace? Is there stuff you want to grab for your 360?

The complete DFC Xbox 360 report is after the jump [Warning: It's long.]

Xbox 360

DFC Intelligence has long believed that Xbox Live has come the closest to approximating what mass market online gaming will look like. It is simple, fairly clean, and allows rich(er) media interaction than most computer online games through the extensive use of headsets. It is easily the most successful cohesive online gaming service ever offered on a console.

With the Xbox 360, Xbox Live is about more than just playing online games. Digital distribution is now a key focus through what is called the Xbox Live Marketplace. Live Marketplace enables, through the purchase of prepaid cards or the use of a credit card, the purchase of all types of content including whole games right through the Xbox Live interface. In short, it creates a digital distribution outlet for smaller game developers as well as for other types of media producers. The service could even be used to download digital music and movies.

The basic concept is not a revolution by any stretch of the imagination. iTunes has been making a go at digital distribution for some time. Casual games, like those offered on the Marketplace, have been offered in downloadable form for years. What makes the Microsoft offering different is the integration between the various components of the package to form a platform for digitally distributed content: microtransaction ecosystem, hardware, and digital distribution delivery network.

Microsoft is releasing prepaid "point" cards for use with Marketplace at all its normal retail locations. While you'll be able to buy any number of points with a credit card, the retail point cards will initially only be offered in one denomination, 1600 points for $20, in other words, $1 = 80 points. Casual games will be offered from around 400 points ($5) to 1,200 points ($15), with most popular games like Bejewled at 800 points ($10). Pictures, logos and screen saver backgrounds are available in a wide range of prices, from 20 points ($0.25) to around 200 points ($2.50). There will also be downloadable demos, trailers and music videos, many of which are free. The prepaid cards have the key advantage of not requiring a credit card and can make a good gift purchase. While we might associate prepaid cards with limited functions like international phone calls, this is a true retail-based online payment offering. Of course, how fast consumers will take to this new game concept remains to be seen.

In North America, the challenge has been building a microtransaction system to handle payments under $5. To some extent, Xbox Live Marketplace overcomes some of that challenge. If Microsoft is successful is gaining traction with its payment platform, it could really change the way people think about purchasing game, add-on, and other content. Instead of buying games in large $50 chunks, other types of purchase options become available. While this might seem far-fetched, when iTunes enabled consumers to purchase single songs instead of whole albums, it changed a 50 year old established pattern of production and consumption. In comparison, interactive entertainment seems like an adolescent industry. In Korea, consumers were used to paying-to-play MMORPG like Lineage. Then Kart Rider came along with a revenue model based on microtransactions. The game quickly became one of the most popular in Korea, helping Nexon to projected revenue of $250 million in 2005.

The Live Marketplace features are very tightly integrated into the Xbox 360 hardware and interface. For one looking to purchase a casual game, Microsoft offers a clean and simple alternative to the bewildering array of game portals and aggregators in the PC world. Sure buying downloadable casual games online is not new, but the slick virtual retail store that Microsoft has created with Live Marketplace integrates demoing games with downloading and purchasing games elegantly into its hardware package.

This isn't the first time that a company has tried to use a game machine as a Trojan horse for new technology. Sony has made a habit of it by including DVD functionality in the PS2, UMD in the PSP, and Blu-Ray in the upcoming PS3. But Microsoft's inclusion of Xbox Live Marketplace is not exactly akin to Sony's media-disc shoehorning strategy. Sony is trying to promote new delivery forms for all media, while the Xbox 360 focuses on changing the way that people use their gaming hardware by streamlining the process. In this, it is more like the Nintendo DS's ability to use WiFi to connect to other users over the Internet.

No, it's not too soon to make light of the 360's overheating issues. So a t-shirt maker already did. I am embarassed to say, however, when I think of the shirt's slogan "Cool It Down," the only thing I hear in my head is New Edition singing "Cool It, Now."

Thanks Gaelec!

Xbox 360 T-shirt [Spreadshirt]

When a bunch of adults pull out fake guns, chaos ensues. Watch it on the internet, because it won't make it to television.

Microsoft's Banned 360 Ad [Good Morning Silicon Valley]
The Banned Ad [You Tube]