GD Keynote November 4th GLLS08
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Posted on November 4th, 2008 by
We’re back! 4 surprisingly warm days in Chicago in an executive suite (got a deal, yay Orbitz), a couples massage, several fine bottles of wine accompanying several excellent meals and we saw a Second City show (that’s the improv troop that most of the classic SNL stars came from). Ah, what a great 10th anniversary with the woman I’m still mad for. Then it was off to Oak Brook to talk to some librarians. How’d it go? Fantastic. Libraries aren’t fond of censorship and they’ve been lending movies and music for long enough that they don’t fear games.
GamerDad Votes ’08
Posted on November 3rd, 2008 by
Politics at GamerDad are never simple. On the Right, you have the Cultural Conservatives, the “Moral Majority” (evangelicals and other people who want to impose “morality” on a society they see as slipping downward). While on the Left we have the “It takes a village” and the “protect the children” crowd (the people who attempt to ban all “play” violence). Both ban videogames for the same reason – violence – differing only in how much language doesn’t bother one side and how much sex does the other. Because of this, I serve both sides and don’t want to alienate either. But Tuesday is important and I have something to say about Barack Obama.
It’s a-me! Trick or Treat!
Posted on October 31st, 2008 by
View from the Vault Part 2: How I stopped worrying and learned to love the game
Posted on October 31st, 2008 by
Wow … my first entry got a lot of attention. While there were only a few comments here, on two different sites the post sprang forth into 4+ page threads. One site is more biased towards ‘next gen’ consoles (i.e. X360 and PS3) and the other one is more biased towards PC gaming. Each one took something different and ran with it … but in neither case was much time spent talking about the actual game. So let’s fix that this time ’round.
Super Smash Brothers: Brawl … with Children
Posted on October 30th, 2008 by
Super Smash Brothers for the Wii is rated E-10 for its cartoon violence but exactly because of that cartoon violence I grabbed it off the shelf. It was a special night last Friday. Maggie and her mom were at the premiere of High School Musical 3 so it was just Henry and I. Oh, and my buddy Zane. Zane’s my gaming friend and he’s stood by me through two hospital emergencies. A good friend. We test split-screen multiplayer on M games for this site, we play Madden, and we rock. Henry usually doesn’t get to play with Zane, so to the boy, this was a special treat. Oh yes, Super Smash Bros. was the perfect choice!
View from the Vault Part: Fallout 3 Impressions Part 1
Posted on October 29th, 2008 by
I think I have already sufficiently established myself as a curmudgeon on many topics but certainly regarding PC gaming: I have railed for years about the impact of consoles on PC gaming (Deus Ex: Invisible War), complain about the state of games that are obvious ports when they do arrive (Oblivion), complain about the generification of genres that has occurred as consoles have led the charge to mainstreaming (again Oblivion), and so on. So I am a perfect candidate for someone to come out and rant about how the newly released Fallout 3 is nothing but ‘Oblivion with guns’ and rant and froth about the history of the franchise and the purity of the RPG genre and … well, just come on in and see … more…
GamerDad Keynote & the ALA
Posted on October 28th, 2008 by
GamerDad (me) will be delivering a keynote address at the 2nd Annual “Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium” in Chicago, run by the American Library Association. I’ll be speaking on November 4th (remember to vote) at 9am and will talk for about an hour or so about videogames and this whole Gamerparenting thing I do. Joining me (at their own speaking times) are Dr. Lawrence Kutner (co-author of “Grand Theft Childhood” and Marc Prensky (author of “Don’t Bother Me Mom … I’m Learning!”).
Oh no! Cary played Dead or Alive Xtreme 2?!?
Posted on October 26th, 2008 by
When Halloween approaches, people tend to start talking about scary video games. So I’m going to talk about a video game that has the scariest creatures on Earth! Women! Just joking! Just joking! Women aren’t scary! Some of the nicest people I know are women. But the real scary question is “WHY on Earth would Cary play such a game?” That’s not normally the kind of games I usually play. So read on to find out why, and stick around for a silly review of it, plus a TRULY scary game!
Ask GamerDad 10/24/08
Posted on October 24th, 2008 by
Halloween is coming so GamerDad takes on a few tricks as well as treats this week! What’s the best console on which to do the Transylvania Twist? Is six-years-old too young to decapitate the Boy Wonder? Should we go to Ravenholm? In Dead Space can anyone hear you scream? GamerDad knows these answers, boys and ghouls. Read on!
My Week in Games
Posted on October 24th, 2008 by
It was a busy week. I’m still gearing up for the ALA Conference and Trick or Treating is this Saturday – which is irksome on one hand because it’s not ON Halloween. One the other hand though, it clears Trick or Treating duties from Sunday Afternoon and during a Packer game (a Wisconsin tradition that’s broken in my neighborhood) and because Halloween is my ten year anniversary and that means that we can go do something fun. Like Chicago. And then on the THIRD scary mutant hand … it means everyone is getting sick.
