The GamerDad Holiday Guide ’07
Posted on December 9th, 2007 by
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Good Gaming with Children to you all. If your kids haven’t made their lists and checked them twice yet it’s time for you to check out the GamerDad Holiday Guide this year. Basically it’s EVERY single game to get a 4.0 or better on every platform and all handily seperated by age group. From All Ages to 14+! Happy gift hunting from GamerDad.com. Click for the GameGuide!
December 11th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Forza for my 6 yr old? I have the same complaint as last year. 🙂 Many of the games in your 6 & up guide are too difficult for the lower half of that age range imo. Yeah there’s no blood and beheadings and carjackings, but for most youngins a lot of those games are going to be too difficult.
Even SuperPaperMario would be hard because of the amount of the reading involved.
December 11th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Those are tough calls – sure. See when I go the other way, I get a lot of “My 5-year old beat Madden on All-Madden” style letters. GamerDad.com assumes some thought and reading on the part of parents – that’s why there’s a link to the review and so many words in the Kid Factor.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
I hear ya, but would you presonally recommend Forza2 to the parents of a 6 yr old?
December 11th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
It depends on the 6 year old. Just as some shooters are OK below 13, and so on. The ESRB rates on content, not difficulty – and the same is true for GamerDad. If a game is grueling or frustrating we will typically note that in a review.
Think of it this way – “this is a high quality game with content appropriate for kids 6 and up”.
December 11th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I hear ya. I understand how you all created your Game Guides.
I guess I don’t think it makes much sense to mention it’s probably too hard for kids in the kid factor and yet include it in the 6-9 yr old game guide. 🙂
I guess I think you should do like board game makers do and rate according to difficulty too.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:32 am
The problem with that Freakhead is that it’s a pure judgement call and I figure it’s safe to assume the average parent of a 6-year old is going to know if Forza is right simply by looking at the box. You raise an excellent point but I figure that it’s arbitrary enough to assign a content-appropriateness age without adding in another judgement call based on ability.
The only way I’d feel safe doing that was if we had a bunch of kids of different ages to show the game to. See how they play. In this instance you’re right that it probably would fit better in the 10+ guide – I’ll see about moving it. Lemme know if you find others like this. I’m sure they’re there.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Yeah Forza2 just stood out to me.
I know tough call. I can say the sports games, Zelda, Super Paper Mario, Pirates and a few others aren’t games that I’d recommend for the average 6 yr old because of reading or difficulty. I can’t say the same thing for 9 yr olds. 🙂
I guess I wouldn’t lump all the content-appropriate 4 star games into the 6-9 Game Guide without some mention of difficulty up front and/or an extra column in the spreadsheet that rates difficulty. A simple 6-7/8-9 maybe would help or MD for more difficult or LD for less difficult. Maybe add a R for requires lots of reading.
i guess I just picture Mom buying Forza2 for her 6 yr old because she thinks he’ll like a racing game. And then the son turns it on and wipes out 10 times in a row without getting anywhere. The Mom tries to help, but she doesn’t play game and can’t figure out that game. The same thing would probably happen with Madden and other EA sports games for most 6 yr olds.
Another observation is that for young kids rating matters less. I rented Carnival Games and although I wouldn’t give it even 4 stars it might as well have been a 5 star game to my son. So I’d recommend that game for a 6 or 7 yr old over Madden and Tiger Woods and all those types of games. In other words I probably would have a different criteria for recommending games for young kids.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I actually think that is a good idea – I personally use my kids all the time, but generally only move the guidance down based on content, never up based on difficulty.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
I guess I’d put EA sports games 10 and up. The sweet spot for those games seem more that age group and up rather than the 6-9 crowd. Am I off on that? Maybe a ton of 6-9yr olds play Madden. I guess I kind of figured that would be the exception rather than the rule.