Late October, I got my Nintendo Wii. Since then, my whole family is enjoying it. Even my 2 year old is swinging away the Wiimote, pretending she’s a baseball player. The Wii is definitely a family friendly game console.
I am keeping an eye on several other Wii games like Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Medal Of Honor: Heroes 2 , that may or may not be toddler friendly. Are they even kid friendly? The Mario series might be ok. But what if they come up with Half Life 2 or even Gears of War for the Wii? Will I also get those games as well? First of all, my wife would disagree with me spending $50 to get these games. Then she’ll scold me for playing with these games too long. Finally she’ll say these non-kid-friendly games are bad influence to my young daughter. Right now we wouldn’t even play Wii Sport’s Boxing in front of her.
But is this self censorship justifiable? Tim has a blog entry that covers this topic. Tim is a youth pastor, so he has a feel on the video games effect on today’s young generation. The funny part about the analysis is the survey that shows an average video game user is 38 years old. Hello! Video games are not for kids, anymore! This whole thing was probably sparked by the GTA and a slew of other controversies. There’s even a video game violence investigation started in the UK. People are worried with the violence and realistic graphics of these games (which are intended for adults) will fall into kids’ hands. Now parents are more sensitive to what their kids play, especially when it is without adult supervision.
Like anything else in this world, too much of something will become a bad thing. My pastor said we have to be “insulated”, not “isolated”. We have to be informed, not ignorant. If video games are starting to take away family time and responsibilities, then they must be curbed. If video games encourages family time, like Wii Sports, then I really think it should be a part of our routine.
Responsible gaming — it’s not just a Vegas warning label, anymore!
Building IT
Jot It Down
Don’t kid yourself. You don’t have to worry about Gears of War coming to the Wii. Not gonna happen. You’ll have to play it on the PC or get a real gaming console (*cough* … XBOX 360 … *cough*) to play Gears of War.
/lrn2ply
Looks like the MS Fanbois are out in full force. 🙂