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Denver, 2:54 AM
Wed Dec 2
62 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/21/09
It's a shame most gamers had to first hear of them over MadWorld, but then again that's probably as far as most went to know them. Maybe if people actually read the article and not the title, they'd see through Owen's words that NIMF was more reasonable than sensational.
11/21/09
11/21/09
Seriously, though, FotF is losing Dobson, so PluggedIn will eventually collapse, so might it be that, gasp, parents will actually have to read reviews or take a FUCKING INTEREST in their children's activities before they purchase and expose them to things willy-nilly?
Perish the thought!
11/21/09
11/21/09
In-fucking-deed!
Not that any of them listened.
#speakup
11/21/09
Blame the media
Blame Video games
Blame violent movies
But never blame us, we love our kids.
11/21/09
Wait.... doesn't FotF do reviews of games? So I'm not sure what your statement means....
I mean wouldn't it be the people reading those reviews that ARE taking interest? As opposed to the parents who go out and buy their 7 year old GTA, just because they want it?
Meh, I dunno just a thought....
11/21/09
11/21/09
I mean, of course retailers shouldn't be selling M-rated games to kids, but those kids' parents need to be active in the decision-making process of what kids get to play. Do the parents complaining about video game violence believe that they need to spend more time with their kids, or figure out how to control them to some degree? Of course not, and considering that it still happens with TV, movies, books and music, I don't think that these parents are ever going to own up to their shit.
11/21/09
[www.pluggedin.com]
11/21/09
Yeah, I'm not really sure what the problem with that review is?
So you are saying parents who read overly conservative reviews of video games don't care what their kids are doing?
I would think it is the opposite... Those parents are being overprotective if anything... which... is pretty much their right as a parent...
I think the ones who read reviews like that are well aware it is their responsibility to 'filter' what their kids are playing...
#speakup
11/21/09
Put it this way, like any policy wonk group, their report card is mostly agenda-shaping and it plays to a particular media landscape that can sell well. Like when you need to announce that someone or something is destroying the nation (e.g. family, civility, sex education). Just for a counter-example, look at your local library's seasonal recommendations for young adult & childrens reading. The quality of the reviews are substantively better, not because they're apolitical or objective, by being well-grounded in competing standards/ideas about what we do when we "read."
What's being sold here aren't reviews but a very specific filter, a packaged lense to make categorical distinctions based on the absurdist logics that image=action. So yeah, nothing wrong with it as a lifestyle service but hardly a site for gaming reviews. They're not very well informed by educational development sciences either--so most of the "reviews" come from grossly unnuanced views of how children do learn and develop. "Media is toxic" might sum their premise of gameplay. This isn't to say you can't find a decent or competent summary there, but Amazon.com can do that as well (often better considering the avid gamers who buy off it). I'd rather tell parents to skip the site and buy a forthcoming 4 inch screen DSi. Then, sit beside your kid and let them play. Watch/observe/interact/talk/laugh/ as they play.
So, if we're really going to suggest parents understand video games so they can create limits and help their child's play, shouldn't we also defend the simple idea of better subjective knowledge? Even if you're conservative, liberal, or nothing of the sort, shouldn't we want that? Even if you're not a parent or in the family, don't we need reviews that do more than issue report cards?
It's a parent's right to keep themselves ignorant or ill-informed by only using certain filters; until the kid loses it, until they're in the media & court.
P.S. telling parents to be better-informed isn't the point; as gamers, we want reviews to be more than just opinions or judgments or another advertisement.
11/21/09
Very nice, very eloquent, thank you.
11/21/09
That site's reviews, at one point, seemed like they were even more unreasonable than some of Plugged In's reviews may seem now, but Al Menconi's site had an overhaul at some point and became much more receptive to games, even the more violent ones, without compromising the overall point of the site (giving parents a reasonable assessment of a game's content without damning a game just because it's violent, necessarily).
That site quit reviewing games but moved some of them here:
[www.reviews4parents.com]
Another possible alternative is [www.whattheyplay.com] , which (if I'm not mistaken) was founded by two ex-1Up members and serves a similar purpose.
11/25/08
11/25/08