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growing up is hard to do
Posts Tagged “Kids”
growing up is hard to do
nice hook there
Another Day, Another 'Adult Crime Game Kids Love'
It's not just writers like us who can't get enough of GTA IV, oh no — what would a GTA release date be without people from all over weighing in? Mike Musgrove over at the Washington Post gives his opinion on the 'adult crime game kids love,' which turns into looking at some of the latest studies on the relationship between violence, video games and kids. Included is an interesting little tidbit about the Grand Theft Childhood:
Funny thing about "Grand Theft Childhood." I had picked up the book expecting that a tome with such a provocative title would take a dimmer view of the influence games have on kids.Olson said she and her husband wanted the title to be phrased as a question ("Grand Theft Childhood?"), but "publishers don't like question marks."
She said she hopes that folks who want to think there's a link between violence and video games read the book — if the title hooks them in, so much the better.
"We didn't want to preach to the choir," she said.
I guess that's one of the things about GTA — so much stuff written in the wake of a new release has precious little to do with the game itself. At least this one is a reasonably positive look at the beloved media topic of violent games and violent (or not) kids.
The Adult Crime Game Kids Love [The Washington Post]
when we were young
One Kotaku Editor's Introduction to Gaming
While going through a stack of family photos last night, I hit upon one of what must have been my first encounter with video games - - Chuncheon, South Korea in 1983, at the age of six or seven months.
Unlike Mini Bash or Tristan, I didn't have particularly cool or hip parents, thus my video game education was more or less self-directed. My mom still doesn't really get the whole gaming thing, but thinks it's pretty cool I write for a big gaming blog. So, Kotakuites, what was your introduction to gaming? Were you lucky enough to have parents who encouraged it? If you've got kids, do you game with them? When and how did you introduce them to gaming?
free-to-play
Manga Fighter is an excellent way to introduce your children to the world of third-person shooters without having to worry about them being 'desensitized to violence'. Unless of course you're a cartoon cat, in which case you're screwed. OnNet USA is celebrating the Grand Opening of Manga Fighter, a free to play MMO shooter with cutesy characters and anime sensibilities. They'll be holding several in-game events with prizes they assure us are "great". Great!
Manga Fighter Celebrates Grand Opening
Manga Fighter is an excellent way to introduce your children to the world of third-person shooters without having to worry about them being 'desensitized to violence'. Unless of course you're a cartoon cat, in which case you're screwed. OnNet USA is celebrating the Grand Opening of Manga Fighter, a free to play MMO shooter with cutesy characters and anime sensibilities. They'll be holding several in-game events with prizes they assure us are "great". Great! "We are huge fans of other MMO shooter games," said YJ Jin, Producer of Manga Fighter. "But we're tired of gory, violent and gruesome games. With Manga Fighter, we've created something fun - yet non-violent - so that gamers of all ages can jump in and have a great time."To give the game a try, head over to mangafighter.gamescampus.com and sign up for a free account. More »
charity
Games For Heroes Collects Games For Heroes
It's no secret at this point that there are a ton of gamers in the armed forces over in Iraq and Afghanistan. Handheld video games are among the most requested items from our troops stationed in the Middle East, right up there with a home cooked meal and possibly going home sometime soon. There have been games for troops movements in the past, notably Fun For Our Troops and Cheap Ass Gamer's efforts, but this one's from the kids. Peter Gallagher and Jack Wilson created Games For Heroes after organizing a letter writing game to help cheer up the troops. Realizing that letters are nice, but video games are better, the two teens created Games For Heroes, now working in conjunction with MarineParents.com to gather 10,000 new and used handheld systems and games and ship them to the fighting men and women abroad. It's amazing what teens can do when they aren't busy playing video games all day, isn't it? Hit the link below for details on how you can help!
Games For Heroes [Official Site]
timewaster
Juvenile Timewaster of the Day: Questionaut
I don't remember learning modules being this good when I was a munchkin: Samorost creators Amanita have put together a lovely game for the BBC, designed for 11 year olds. Questionaut is point and click, very pretty, and is tripping up adults left and right (that's what happens when you get far removed from your junior high school years and the concepts contained within, I guess). It's short and worth taking for a spin for the lovely environment alone, even if finding 20% of 140 is a bit below your intellectual level.
Questionaut [BBC via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
kids
New Kiddy MMO Gets $3.2 Mil In Funding
As if MMOs for teens and adults aren't bad enough, Fluid Entertainment (Disney Princess Castle Party, Disney Mix, Pokémon Play It!) has decided that children need a Warcrack of their own. They've secured $3.2 million in backing for the development of a new MMO aimed at children. With only a few entries in this genre so far, Fluid is going after a relatively untapped market. The game will have an environmental theme, and according to the press release, boast "unprecedented levels of engaging gameplay for children's MMOs, while infusing the compelling narrative with a meaningful purpose." The MMO will be an original title, meaning it's not likely to be based off any of Fluid's previous partnerships with Hasbro, Disney, or Mattel. We can all rest easy that it won't be World of Hannah Montana. Thank goodness.
More »
study
Kids Can Burn Calories While Gaming
There's yet another study on obesity, children, and video games. Y'know, just for a change of pace. But wait! This one was done by The Mayo Clinic, making it somewhat reputable! And what makes this study different from all the others? Instead of looking at, "Do video games make kids fat? Y/N," the study looked at just how much energy kids used while playing traditional games, watching TV, playing virtual camera games placing the child on the screen, watching TV while walking on a treadmill, and playing a dancing game. The study had a small sample group, with 15 children considered in the "normal" weight range for their age and height, and 10 children considered mildly obese.
The most interesting result of the study? The dancing game actually expended more energy than walking on the treadmill. Hit the jump for exactly what those results were.
kids
British Gov Doesn't Want Fat Kids Anymore
Sick of being fat? Well, the British government is sick of you being fat too, and they're not gonna take it anymore! British citizens could soon see incentives for putting down the controller and getting fit. In a report made by the Department of Health called Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives, the government makes recommendations to try and help Britain get fit, including getting the number of obese kids down by 2020 to the levels seen in 2000.
The £372 million anti-obesity initiative doesn't overlook video games, and encourages parents to regulate the amount of time kids spend playing online, using some of the available family timers for consoles. The report also says the Department of Health will research the "impact of this 'screen time' on children's outcomes", observing how playing video games affects kids' physical fitness and overall health.
Industry professionals in Britain say that they support the decision and are willing to collaborate:
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disney
Graham Hopper on Disney, Squeenix, Turok, and Kids' Games
Graham Hopper, Disney Interactive's general manager, sat down with Gamasutra to discuss the Wii, kids games, grown up games, movies, Squeenix, Kingdom Hearts, and all sorts of other stuff in an interesting mishmash of grown up gaming concerns and child's play. Disney's had a hand in the gaming world for quite some time, though they've shifted from licensing to producing, and have been beefing up their portfolio with studio acquisitions and new relationships. Will this spell a real shift in the future? More »
game design
'Play Like a 3 Year Old' - One Take on Game Design Woes
There's a fun and interesting little article over at the Escapist by Wendy Despain, on what she's learned about game design thanks to the opinions of her youngest nephews. Her conclusions after presenting some munchkins with games like Star Wars: Battlefront and Jak and Daxter? Game designers could probably learn something from the bitter disappointments of toddlers when faced with game mechanics and features that most of us just take for granted as, well, what games do: More »
education
Making Video Games With 5th Graders
Giancarlos Alvarado is an elementary school teacher in Trenton, NJ and he let us know that he's written a piece on the unique approach he's been taking in his fifth grade classroom - designing a video game called Earthquake Terror: After Shock with his students. There's been a lot of attention given to the use of games in an educational setting, and it's great to read about the success of one teacher-designed plan of action - kids love it and parents and other teachers are equally as enthusiastic. But Alvarado is also honest with the problems and limitations of implementing such a program: More »
nintendo
Library Tricks Kids Into Reading By Promising Wiis
In an effort to get the kids to read books, Cape Coral, Florida libraries are bringing in Wiis, in a classic bait and switch scam that will get the youth hooked on "learning." The lure of Nintendo software will probably be more successful than clubbing them on the head and transporting them to the library via gunny sack, think local parents. "If each kid plays for 15 minutes, the rest of the kids are going to be waiting and they're going be talking. They're going to be picking up books," said a concerned parent of a four-hour-a-day gamer. These poor kids. They'll be choosing their own adventures in no time, enjoying the works of R.L. Stein and J.K. Rowling and dozens of other child-friendly, initials-only authors like a bunch of book addicts.
Library Wii's [WRCB TV]
kids
Online Worlds Do It For The Kids
Second Life may pull in big numbers, attracting furries, virtual real estate moguls, corporations desperately attempting to appear "hip" and Something Awful forum goons raining penises down upon the unsuspecting, but it's online worlds targeted at kids that are drawing attention from executives. Take Webkinz, for example, the online world that sees wee lads and lasses logging on to the tune of six million uniques per month. That's three times the amount who logged on a year ago. Similarly, according to the New York Times, Club Penguin, which involves dressing up penguins platonically, has seven times the traffic of Second Life.
Everyone's getting into it, for those of you not aged in the single digits, including Disney, Lego, and Mattel. The goal? Shill wares to kids while they play free games, establish brand recognition, then help them "graduate" to the next-generation of online worlds, whether it's Pirates of the Caribbean Online, World of Warcraft or simply fantasy baseball. Oh yes, it's quite dastardly. Good thing I'll be raising my kids with good Quaker morals and no electricity.
Web Playgrounds of the Very Young [New York Times - thanks, Duane!]
game design
'Gaming Across the Generation Gap'
There have always been classic examples of children's entertainment that have also been watchable or readable for adults - Sesame Street reigned supreme in this category when I was a youngster, and there's plenty of classic kid lit that you'll find lurking on thoroughly adult bookshelves everywhere. Scott Nixon tackles the issue of 'piggybacking' in games in an interesting Gamasutra piece - what does it take to make a game that kids can get but adults aren't going to find eye rollingly bad? More »
best of 2007
USA Today Picks 2007's Best Games (For Kids)
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who may be on the lookout for something appropriate for the kids this holiday—strike Manhunt 2 from your lists, first of all—may want to refer themselves to USA Today's picks for the best kid fare of 2007. Sure, it may be easy to tick off things like Super Mario Galaxy and Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, but what about the littlest tykes? And what about those who will go Wii-less this year?
USA Today points to a couple of titles that fell under our radar, including DVD games and PC titles such as Guess How Much I Love You and JumpStart World Kindergarten. Of course, the editor must be commended for her choice of Rock Band, which is just about perfect for the kids. Sure, there will be some snarls of anarchy from the pre-teen crowd this Xmas, but it's, like, educational and stuff.
Best 2007 video games for kids [USA Today]
rock out
The Shredmaster Jr
D'awwwwwww. Ain't that just the cutest thing you ever did see? From our dreamGear via our sister site Gizmodo, comes the Shredmaster JR Micro Plug N Play Guitar perfectly sized for the wee wailers in your life. The Shredmaster JR is a plug and play Guitar Hero like game that comes pre-loaded with ten songs including Smoke on the Water, I Love Rock and Roll, Iron Man, You Give Love a Bad Name, Billion Dollar Babies, Hotel California, Paradise City, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Paranoid, and Master of Puppets. More »
live arcade
THQ Brings Four To XBLA
THQ is gearing up for a big push onto Xbox Live Arcade. SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam!, which sounds like the worst Denny's meal ever, is expected to hit Xbox Live sometime in November, along with a new original title called Screwjumper, which is almost as suggestive. These two releases will be followed by another two THQ originals, Elements of Destruction and Rocket Riot. The SpongeBob title marks Nickelodeon's debut on the Live service."We're excited to add one of our hottest properties to the Xbox LIVE Arcade line up of games," said Steve Youngwood, executive vice president of digital media, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group. "SpongeBob has been a top kids' video game franchise worldwide, making it the perfect property for Nickelodeon and THQ to bring to this downloadable platform."A downloadable SpongeBob title will be a boon to parents everywhere, saving them the time and humiliation involved with having to go pick one up at the store. More »
