What They Play: Evaluating Games People Play
What They Play Features
Popular features on What They Play include Top Games, Popular Games, and the all-important, "Things Parents Need to Know." Popular games evaluated on What They Playincludes Grand Theft Auto IV, Dance Dance Revolution, MySims, Halo 3 and Rock Band.
What They Play and Parental Challenges
While web sites like What They Play may give some initial insight into the video games kids play, the best way to evaluate a video game is examine it yourself.
1. Check the Ratings
Parents can pay attention to the ratings provided by the games, which can be an important way to filter out games before they come into your home.
2. Older Siblings and Game Play
One of the situations which make it difficult for parents of families to reel in video game play is when a young child is exposed to non-age appropriate games through an older sibling. This can be even more difficult when that older sibling is a half-sibling or step-sibling, where the rules may differ in the two homes. Young kids like to emulate their older siblings.
Older siblings should be limited to playing games that are not meant for their younger siblings when the younger siblings are in the room.
3. Play the Game
Ratings are and reviews are only starting point for evaluating game. When a child wants you to buy a game that their friend has, try to borrow the game or rent it. Try it out yourself to evaluate the difficulty level, the subject matter, the language, and look for any sexual or violent situations.
4. Play Together
Make game time family time by purchasing video games or playing online game which are multi-player games.
5. Pick Age Appropriate Games
Age-appropriate games can help alleviate the frustration a child finds when playing a game. A video game which requires a lot of reading for a child who cannot read will just cause angst.
Be sure the subject is age appropriate for what you think is right for your own child.
More Web Sites Evaluating Games
The concept of What They Play is not new, but they do seem to do it the best. Here are more web sites parents can use to evaluate games.
Common Sense Media
Another web site which evaluates video games, as well as children's TV show, movies and books is, Common Sense Media.
This web site holds up children's media to high standards, and evaluates the games and TV shows based on sexual content, violence, social behavior of the characters, commercialism, drug use (including alcohol and tobacco), and educational value.
The drawback of is that it is limited in scope. Often there where be no review for the media that you seek.
BoardGameRatings.com
The concept of BoardGameRatings.com seems on track. The problem is that there is very little rating going on, and there is a lot of selling. Each game has room to be evaluated on complexity, creativity, interaction, knowledge, luck and strategy.
Edutainingkids.com
Edutainingkids.com, similar to What They Play, evaluates software and games. This web site also offers parents reviews on books, DVD movies, music, toys.
Sources
BoardGameRatings.com, http://www.boardgameratings.com
Common Sense Media, http://www.commonsensemedia.org
Edutainingkids.com, http://www.edutainingkids.com
Entertainment Software Ratings Board, http://www.esrb.org/index-js.jsp
What They Play, http://www.whattheyplay.com/
Published by Pam Gaulin - Featured Contributor in Arts & Entertainment and Lifestyle
Pam Gaulin is a freelance writer, journalist (B.A., Journalism), new (and next!) media writer and artist. Associated Content named her 2007 Content Producer of the Year. "First for Women" magazine featured... View profile
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11 Comments
Post a Commentexcellent information...Thanks for sharing!
Pam - Thanks! I checked my son's usual games on this site and it was very helpful to see both player and parent perspectives. Very useful.
Interesting site. I hadn't heard of it.
I figured that someone would end up writing about this. I loved how you added it into an article.
I checked out this website and it can be helpful to many parents
Good overview.
Some computer games are so violent. All parents should be aware of what games their kids are playing.
Great information. I like to play with my children also
That's good information. Todays parents need all the help they can get to select good games
Great resources!
: - )