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 Games of Touchmaster
1 Comment
Posted on December 8th, 2007 by
Welcome to the Touchmaster Tavern, where everyone knows your name…provided your name is PLAYER 1.
Tap into GameTap!
Posted on December 6th, 2007 by
Despite ranting about not even having time to play current releases, I have been sneaking in little bits of various old and new games on GameTap on both the Mac & PC recently. This week they have also updated the client software – this isn’t such a huge deal on the PC, but on the Mac it is like an entirely new experience! Either way, if you haven’t tried the free version, it is time to crawl out from under that rock and tap into the classic fun!
Ask GamerDad: Kid Factor vs. Age Seal
Posted on December 6th, 2007 by
(EMAIL GamerDad your own GamerParent Questions!)
Reader RJerog Asks: “Dear GamerDad – My 14-year old son wants to buy Star Wars Renegade Squadron for the PSP. You rated it 14+ but the last line of your review is: ‘This would not likely be a problem for most kids 10+, but as always, use your judgement and knowledge of your child.” Can you explain a little more? Thank you and thank you for your site. It has been extremely helpful to us (one gamer man, 3 gamer children (10,12,14) and 1 non-gamer mom).”
… and these guys want us to trust them to run the country?
Posted on December 5th, 2007 by
Last week following the latest Republican Debate (#435 if my count is correct) the airwaves in the Boston area were buzzing because of Mitt Romney. Now here is someone who had run for Senator previously, claimed Massachusetts as his home state, and even been Governor for four years which included 2004 – and yet he failed to identify the most commonly used number in the state back in ’04 : 86 years.
Are Game Reviewers Biased?
Posted on December 5th, 2007 by
Last week the Editor-in-Chief of GameSpot (probably the biggest game reviewing fish on the Internet – DISCLOSURE: I worked for parent-company CNet about 8 years ago, but never for GameSpot.com), Jeff Gerstmann was abruptly fired. This had the bad timing to coincide with Gerstmann penning a brutal review of a bad game called “Kane & Lynch: Dead Men” and rumors that Eidos, the game’s distributor, was threatening to pull a giant ad campaign as a result. (Here’s more for the curious.)
I understand the outrage that’s reared its head on the Internet over Gerstmann’s firing. But we’re not really privy to enough real info to say anything other than that whomever fired him probably should be fired for being an idiot. I can only say that after 11 years now working for EVERYBODY (except the console mags)….
more…
ENOUGH ALREADY!!!
Posted on December 4th, 2007 by
OK, that is *IT*!!! Stop with the ‘cram everything into the fall’ release mode already! All I want to do is savor some of the cool games … play some more little multiplayer Call of Duty 4 or Hellgate or Crysis or Painkiller or … oh, just enough already!!!
Family Timer – But Mom! I didn’t save!
Posted on December 4th, 2007 by
Microsoft releases it’s free “Family Timer” over Xbox Live and parent groups praise Microsoft for it – they should, it’s a decent idea with one major flaw obvious to anyone who loves video games. Think about it and the way video games play. Often games require players to either manually save their game or to find elusive save points. Time lost when that “Family Timer” goes off could range from 5 minutes of play to an hour. GamerDad has a better suggestion: WHY NOT BE INVOLVED AND ENFORCE TIME LIMITS PERSONALLY? (Exception: Parents stuck at work – but for them GamerDad doesn’t recommend access to video games when you’re not “in the vicinity”.) And Media Wise cites “parent/child conflict over video games” to be a “growing concern.” Sheesh! Click here for the full Microsoft press release:
MediaWise Isn’t ’07
Posted on December 4th, 2007 by
2007
Parental Involvement: C
Ratings Education: B-
Retailers’ Policies: C-
National Retailers: D
Game Specialty Stores: B
Game Rental Shops: F
Video Game Industry: C
ESRB Ratings: C+
Commentary begins here:
Cary’s GamerDad Review Previews Take Flight!
Posted on December 1st, 2007 by
Just another one of those blogs where I do brief snippets of the GamerDad.com games I’ve been reviewing lately. Prepare for takeoff.
Dumby Pants
Posted on November 30th, 2007 by
Had the folks over for Thanksgiving last week – perfect opportunity to check out some of these game show games that have been coming out. Specifically: Smarty Pants for Wii, Buzz: The Ultimate Quiz for PlayStation 2 & Scene It! for Xbox 360. Here’s how they family-fared:
