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.
In *MY* day …
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Posted on February 7th, 2008 by
This week marks 30 years since the ‘Blizzard of 78’, one of the greatest weather events to ever hit the northeastern US. This week every news organization in the area is falling over themselves putting out retrospectives and slide shows and so on. So I figured … why not?
Game of the Year?
Posted on February 6th, 2008 by
Hey GamerDad! Where’s your Game of the Year picks? Why does GamerDad.com still have last year’s GOTY article linked? Especially given that our GamerDads (and our MomGamer) have already published their picks for the best games of 2007. But what about me? The figurehead? The super hero? The man himself? Well, I’ve written the article and then I took the opportunity to sell it. It’ll be posted at CrispyGamer soon – along with another exciting announcement. I’ll keep you posted. Watch this space. I’ll have the article plus links to my crew’s thoughts, picks and opinions. It’ll be worth the wait!
GamerDad De-Wired
Posted on February 5th, 2008 by
Well, today (Feb 6th) is the day I finally get the staples, wires, or whatever they really are, out of my chest. Most people tolerate these just fine but for some reason my skeletal structure, my broad massive giant chest, my impressive physique, is rejecting the metal that held my ribcage together after doctors so expertly bust it open to quintuple my bypass… so, in the morning, I’ll go under the knife again to have a superficial incision and then I presume he’ll take wire-cutters and remove the remaining jabby things. I can’t wait! I’ve been in low-level pain for almost two months now. I should be home tonight, don’t wait up for me but I’ll fill you guys in on Thursday!
It’s Alive!
Posted on February 5th, 2008 by
I have an early memory of disagreeing with a movie reviewer. It might have been the first Star Wars movie (a film I still feel extremely strongly about) but that’d put me at 6-years old. I had to have been older. Regardless of when the feeling was that I wanted to be a movie reviewer and that I could do it better because I’d take into account the film’s intended audience. Look, for some segment of the population, Rambo is a 5 of 5. Since I’ve achieved some success as a video game expert and pundit, and since I’ve published a lot of movie and DVD reviews throughout my 10-year career as a critic and writer, I thought it was time to extend the “…with Children” brand a little further and grant my movie and DVD reviews a place – a blog – of their own. I just spent the past year working for Disney’s FamilyFun.com and Disney Family.com and I’ve written movie reviews at GamerDad, Daily Radar, Entertainment Today and other outlets. I’ll link what I can here. Lets talk about movies and the kids, shall we?
GamerDad in FamilyFun.com
Posted on February 5th, 2008 by
For the past year I’ve been honored to drive Disney’s video game, DVD, and Film criticism for FamilyFun.com (the website for the insanely popular parenting magazine) and the brand new to the web Disney Family.com. They trusted me to tell them what video games, DVDs and Movies were worth reviewing. I’ve been replaced in 2008 by CommonSense Media – a shame, but they do outproduce little old me) Here’s the initial article I did for them. It’s a Top 10 for 2006. And after you’re done reading that, here’s a bunch more! It is a shame the reviews aren’t linked (all these links are broken it seems). But they are all at GamerDad.com. Go there and do a search, click in here to find the list. Oh and since CommonSense Media sells my work to 3rd parties – I’m still in Disney’s magazines. Only I’m being paid a lot less. Such is the hard-scrabble life of the freelance writer!
Madden ’08 (Wii, 360, PS3, PC) – CrispyGamer
Posted on February 4th, 2008 by
CrispyGamer is a new hardcore gaming magazine on the web. (Yes, that’s my face on the cover. Wish the links all worked but I’m hoping they do well. Right now they’re my best way into the hardcore. My message is for both mainstream and “gamer” parents.) Bless them, they use freelancers for about 95% of their stuff and they pay well enough to have attracted the best in the business. The site’s still in BETA but I’ve done a lot of reviews for them. I thought this would be a good week to showcase my work with John Madden this year. At CrispyGamer I covered the game for the Wii, the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the PC. Here’s GamerDad’s official review (from USAToday’s Marc Saltzman) and here’s another one from me, covering the Wii exclusively, in more of a “mainstream friendly” style for Disney Family.com and Family Fun.com. Whew! That’s a lot of Madden! Fun fact, no more football but we’re now roughly half-way to 2009’s edition.
NFL Tour for 360/PS3 (CommonSense Media)
Posted on February 4th, 2008 by
My reactions and ruminations regarding EA Sports’ latest attempt to bring Midway’s NFL Blitz to home theaters – only without all that offensive and outrageous stuff that made NFL Blitz fun. Well, NFL Tour is here… does it improve on where NFL Street left off? In honor of last night’s boring but history making Superbowl I present to you my review and content overview of NFL Tour.
Get out and VOTE!!!
Posted on February 4th, 2008 by
This isn’t strictly game related, but neither can anyone who follows game news deny the amount of play video games get in political circles. Video games are huge money, and the content of those games – especially some of the mature games that we have discussed here – makes for easy political fodder. We have seen recently in the whole ‘Mass Effect’ controversy that facts are no deterrent for someone trying to score points. But while we might not be happy with the situation, we are not powerless.
Ask GamerDad!
Posted on February 4th, 2008 by
WhatTheyPlay.com, my new best friends, have commissioned and published a brand new Q&A column from the ME, the GamerDad. The first issue is up and it functions as an introduction of sorts. The only problem with this column is that WhatTheyPlay is such a young company. They’re reaching the mainstream in a way I could only dream of, but they’re new, so the column is going to live or die based on the amount of questions we get. This will be especially important in the beginning, for obvious reasons. Lets prime that
pump, but I want real questions. So, ask gramma, your spouse, or anyone generally clueless or suspicious about videogames. Lets set them straight! Check out Issue 1 of Ask GamerDad and then use their MB or email link to get some questions heading my way! Thanks in advance! PS: No, a lightsaber could not cut Superman. Believe me, I’d know. They do, however, sting. So, ask questions today, get answers at the end of the week. We thank WhatTheyPlay for recognizing and publishing GamerDad.com.
The Games of Atari Classics Evolved
Posted on February 1st, 2008 by
Since I love classic arcade collections, here’s a quick rundown of the games in Atari Classics Evolved for PSP. Since most people here know (or can easily find out) about the old classic arcade titles on this package, we’ll just go over the Evolved versions of these games.
