Xbox Dad:

What I'm Doing Here on Xbox.com

You know, I don't think it's ever been easy to be a dad. (Well, at least it's not easy to be a good dad.) We live in challenging times, but I don't think it's a whole lot different than what my parents had to go through with their parents. My grandparents probably worried about the movies and television shows that my parents watched. My great grand parents probably worried about the movies that my grandparents went out to see.

They probably all worried about the books that their children read and whether they were doing the right thing when deciding on the appropriate time to allow the kids a certain level of freedom in their entertainment and reading.

Introducing Xbox Dad
In the Xbox Dad column, I'm going to explore the issues around kids and gaming that can make it hard to know if you're doing the right thing. This column is written both for parents and kids. I want to make gaming understandable for parents who might not be gamers. I would also like to provide the older kids with a parent's take on the concerns that we have around kids and gaming. This column will hopefully help parents make good, informed decisions about control and provide the kids with a way to understand those decisions.

I have kids that play video games, and I feel
like it's important to share the actual experience.

It's not all about control though, it's also about fun. What games are fun to play together? How can we use the Xbox 360 as a tool to communicate and play with family members across the country? Can the Xbox be used as an educational tool? Can we use the console as a way to spend more time together talking, playing, and having fun?

I've got three kids: Will, Hunter, and Buffy. Will is a pre-teen who has been gaming pretty much all of his life. Hunter is a nine-year old who's a master of handheld game devices. And Buffy is a seven-year old who doesn't play too many video games at all. In this column, I'll try to share my experience with my kids and I'll let you know what seems to be working and what isn't.

We all have different limits and opinions about what the kids are ready for and what we want them exposed to in gaming. My goal isn't to tell you what's appropriate for your child, rather I would like to make it easy for you to set the limits that you want to set and to help you communicate with the kids so that the limits are understood by everyone. These are some of the topics that I'll cover over the coming months.

Playing Together
Playing together as a group is one of the most rewarding things you can do with the kids. You get to teach lessons about sportsmanship and you get to have a ton of fun. Kids are good at video games, they can beat you fair and square and that can be a great boost to their self confidence.

Family Settings
Understanding ESRB ratings and how to set up your console to control what games get played on it. I'll also cover how to set up kid's accounts on Xbox 360™, and other console-specific issues.

Game Time
How much is too much? Where is your Xbox 360? Who owns it? How can you make sure that the Xbox is a healthy experience for the kids?

Game School
This one is for the parent who just doesn't know that much about games. Occasionally, I'll cover game genres and I'll let you know what games fall into those categories. Hopefully, this will be useful for the kids also—the more a parent knows about a game or a genre of games, the more likely that parent can make an informed decision about whether that game is appropriate for the kids. If it's not appropriate, a conversation about why it's inappropriate is almost always preferable to a straight up "no."

Game Reviews
I'm not planning on doing these very frequently, but I want to cover the games that are fun for the kids to play and especially the games that are fun for everyone to play together.

It's all About Me!
Okay, I don't really mean it that way, but TriXie asked me to do this column because I have kids that play video games, and I feel like it's important to share the actual experience. So, I'm going to tell you about the questions, discussions, and the disagreements (almost said fights!) that we have about gaming in our house and what we think is appropriate and what's not. I'll try not to turn this into a reality column, but it's a lot more interesting to hear about what actually happens when you try to enforce a decision rather than just describe what's supposed to happen.

I should share a little information about myself. Last year Duncan FestiveTurkey Mackenzie and I wrote a book called Xbox 360 for Dummies. One of the major audiences we considered for that book was parents who don't know much about games. Duncan and I both think that gaming is good for kids in general and we thought it would be easier on parents if they had a guide they could go to to help them understand the Xbox 360, the games you can play on it, and how set it all up. (One business associate told me they should have titled it Xbox 360 for Parents.)

I mention this because I really want to stress how much fun it can be to play games together as a family. My mom and dad bought me a Magnavox entertainment system when I was a kid. When I opened the box, I didn't even know what a game console was. The console had ping pong, hockey, and handball, all rendered as big white lines on a black screen. My whole family played on that console together and we ended up spending hours and hours interacting, rather than just watching TV. I'll never forget that.

Until next time, play hard and play together!

Article by Brian Brize Johnson