Welcome to GamerDad: Gaming with Children. My name is Andrew S. Bub - the GamerDad - and I've been writing about videogames, movies, and children for over 15 years now. After working as a magazine journalist, I switched gears to write about how media violence affects children, educating parents about them, and working closely with magazines, newspapers, major retailers and even politicians. GamerDad is an internationally recognized expert in this field. Games, movies and media are fun, kids and families love them, they aren't going away. So join me in cutting through the hype and lets have a real conversation about the things that matter: Video Games, Violent Media, and their supposed effect on children and families.
Welcome to GamerDad: Gaming with Children. My name is Andrew S. Bub - the GamerDad - and I've been writing about videogames, movies, and children for over 15 years now. After working as a magazine journalist, I switched gears to write about how media violence affects children, educating parents about them, and working closely with magazines, newspapers, major retailers and even politicians. GamerDad is an internationally recognized expert in this field. Games, movies and media are fun, kids and families love them, they aren't going away. So join me in cutting through the hype and lets have a real conversation about the things that matter: Video Games, Violent Media, and their supposed effect on children and families.
The 411 on 420
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Posted on April 20th, 2009 by
4/20 has a very special significance here in GamerDad land. Very special indeed, and for many reasons. And not the one you might be thinking about. You’ll have to go to CrispyGamer to find out more. It’s worth the trip. Ladies and Gentlemen: The 411 on 420 in this issue of GamerParenting! (This column actually ran last year at CrispyGamer.com)
This Week in Games: April 19 – 25
Posted on April 19th, 2009 by
We have seen a winter and spring release season that has been unrelenting – perhaps not like the Fall season, but much busier than usual. However, recent weeks have shown signs that it was slowing – two weeks agi we just had DS and PC, and last week the same. This week, not too much at all. The big release is the multi-platform Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 on X360, PS3 and PS2, and the early looks for that one are pretty awful according to a couple of ‘official’ XBOX magazine reviews. Aside from that, we have little other than the over-the-top Stalin vs. Martians for the PC. There isn’t much more this week, so check out the list! more…
Game Review: Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity (Wii, DS)
Posted on April 18th, 2009 by
Professor Heinz Wolff is an accomplished scientist who was one the head of the European unmanned Space Commission and inventor of the term Bioengineering. And now he’s got his own puzzle game named after him. I’m not sure why his name is tacked onto this physics based puzzler (plus I’ve never heard of the guy before), but at least his game is pretty entertaining.
The Ridge Racer Blog
Posted on April 16th, 2009 by
I have a good friend who is doing a bunch of articles about racing video games right now. But there’s only one problem. You see, he’s doing all these writeups, and then he told me he’s NOT going to an article about Ridge Racer! How dare he! I should just…just…well, do what he told me to do! Write my own blog about Ridge Racer! And that’s what I’m going to do! Only problem is that my Ridge Racer blog won’t be near as insightful as it would be if he wrote it! It’s just going to be silly stuff floating around in my head as usual. But hey, he’s not going to write about Ridge Racer so you’ll just have to settle for me!
Ask GamerDad 4/10/09
Posted on April 15th, 2009 by
So what if I turned this in over a month ago. So what if there’s still a couple more in the backlog, it’s not my fault, What They Play seems a little shaken up lately. Hope that’s not the case but it’s not my business really. With this one I decided to use one coherant and well-reasoned (if not well-written) essay a 15-year old sent me and then worked through the essay addressing his points. I think it’s a great read.
Game Review: Mario Power Tennis (Wii Controls)
Posted on April 15th, 2009 by
Nintendo has taken going green to new heights. No, I don’t mean Luigi is now the company spokesperson, they’re now recycling games! They’ve taken the old GameCube game, Mario Power Tennis, and reprogrammed it to work with the Wii controllers. How well does it work? Pretty darn well. Read on for more details.
Dave Arneson D&D’s Other Founder
Posted on April 13th, 2009 by
Dave Arneson is “The Father of Role-Playing” – it says so on his business card (which I still have). He’s famous but kind of got a raw deal. He was part of the original group who created Dungeons & Dragons. He created the first supplement (Blackmoor – I have an original copy) and the combat board game, Chainmail. Unfortunately he got squeezed out (that’s Gygax’s term), Arneson said “forced otut” to me and there was a decade or two of rivalry and bitterness. I first met Dave Arneson at Gen Con in 2002, . .
This Week in Games: April 12 – 18
Posted on April 12th, 2009 by
Wasn’t it just last week I was saying that the releases were all about the DS & PC? Well, that continues to be true this week! The DS has some solid releases for everyone to play on their new DSi such as Dark Spire and C.O.R.E. while the PC has some interesting stuff such as Demigod from Gas Powered Games, whose previous works include Dungeon Siege I & II and Supreme Commander and the unfortunate Space Siege … so we hope this is much better. There isn’t much more this week, so check out the list! more…
We Love Wario Ware!
Posted on April 11th, 2009 by
Well I got a DSi last weekend, and as a big fan of the WarioWare series, one of the first things I did was use my free points to download WarioWare Snapped. So in honor of this occasion, here’s a tribute blog of all things WarioWare. I think I probably did this kind of blog before when the Wii WarioWare game was released, but that was more than two years ago so we’ll revisit this again.
Club Penguin Elite Penguin Force (DS) with GamerGirl
Posted on April 9th, 2009 by
In an effort to save $5 a month yet still quell my daughter’s growing obsession with these colorful seabirds, I bought her the Club Penguin DS game. Lets hear what she thinks of it. Double-Click to watch it bigger at YouTube
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