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Your Family Games is RECRUITING!

YFG is recruiting! We're looking for writers to help write reviews, previews, news and articles about videogame culture. All you need is a passion for games.

To join please e-mail:
yourfamilygames -at- gmail -dot- com

Read the simple FAQ below to find out more about YFG!

Btw, WTF is YFG?
YFG is an online resource for parents to learn about their child's hobby of videogames. YFG promotes a health understanding of videogames with the goal of helping games from being misunderstood in the public eye and being bashed as brainless, overly-violent filth (because nothing could be farther from the truth).

Okay. What will I have to do?
Writing for YFG is a very minimal commitment. You could easily write for YFG and never ever ever have to meet me in real life. Just contribute what you can, when you can.

So.... do I get paid?
Aside from my undying appreciation for your hard work, no. Sorry.

Do I get free games for writing reviews?
Nope. I wouldn't be able to go to college if that were the case. Just use games from your personal collection (or a friends! :D).

Are you looking for a specific type of writer?
No. You just need to have an interest and appreciation for games. We need reviews for current generation and past generation systems. We could especially use some PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, PSP, and PS3 reviewers though. Any web designing help would also be very welcome.

Parents in a tizzy about Wii Zapper

Word of the Wii Zapper has been on the Internet for a while, the the mainstream media is just now picking up on the peripheral. Some responses, like the one in New Jersey's The Star Ledger's Parental Guidance blog, are not positive.

Great, this is what we need. Children with guns learning how to aim and shoot. Then we can sit back and wonder what is happening to our country with kids killing kids......what's next? Could we make it squirt blood, too" one reader commented

A "very concerned grandparent" wrote:
"....Why don't they enclose an application to the NRA in every box as well....the marketing person who came up with this brain child of an idea should be fired."

Another reader commented, "I think it's irresponsible for Wii to come out with a controller that looks like a gun so kids can play games simulating shooting. What kind of message are we sending as parents when we buy these things for our kids?"

According to these comments, I should be a gun-toting hillbilly, sitting in my creaky rocking chair with a toothless smile as I scare off squirrels from picking up the trash on my lawn. All because I played with this as a kid:



This is one of my most cherished videogame memories from when I was little--the NES Zapper to be used with Duck Hunt, a simulation of a duck-hunting excursion. We'd all crowd around the neighbor's NES and play Duck Hunt for 30-60 minutes and then go back to playing outside and drinking Aldi's brand Kool-Aid. If you mention Duck Hunt among the crowd who had an NES as a kid, the response is always: "Duck Hunt? Holy crap, I loved that game!"

And let's not forget about the gun accessories that have been in arcades for at least a decade (I can't speak accurately for before then). Ever seen the gun that comes with Time Crisis? Now that's a firearm to get all up in arms about.

The Zapper gun idea has been around since 1985. It's nothing new and it's nothing harmful.

Now if you don't mind, there are some squirrels that need some taking care of.

Schwarzenegger refuses to let game law be terminated

Okay, so I should be reading for my sociology class, but I can pass off writing this story as a speed-writing exercise for my news writing class (and I'll ignore that this is more of a rant than any form of writing that could be considered close to news writing). So I'll slog through some terminator puns and quickly write this up.

Earlier this summer, the California state law banning sales of violent videogames to minors was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. Schwarzenegger is now attempting to appeal this decision, which has already cost many taxpayers dollars (poor ole CA... it's expensive enough there as it is).

Quoting an article from Reuters:

Schwarzenegger, who acted in many violent movies, argued that violent video games should be for adults only.

And I agree with Schwarzenegger. Ultra-violent games shouldn't be easily available to young audiences (especially pre- and younger teens). But the unfortunate reality is, that even if you pass a law like this, kids will still be able to buy games. We have the same issue with under-age drinking. If minors want to obtain something they're not old enough for yet, they'll find a way to get it--whether it's a friend or their own parent who obtains the game for them.

And finally,

"Many studies show the link between playing ultra-violent video games and violent behavior. We have a responsibility to our kids and our communities to protect against the effects of games that depict ultra-violent actions," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

Show me the many studies!

this is ART-a!

[because '300' references never seem to go out of style]

Another one of the debates swirling around videogames is summed up in one question: are videogames art? I have yet to meet a gamer who says "no", and have found very few non-gamers who say "yes." Like Mr. Roger Ebert. Back in July, Ebert wrote a pretty pompous article about how games cannot be defined as art. He considers them a lesser medium, inferior to books and movies. Oh, you can bet the gaming community did not take kindly to that one. Clive Barker, an acclaimed British author, film director and artist, contested Ebert's comments, and Ebert replied to these comments in his July editorial.

Barker: "I'm not doing an evangelical job here. I'm just saying that gaming is a great way to do what we as human beings need to do all the time -- to take ourselves away from the oppressive facts of our lives and go somewhere where we have our own control."

Ebert: Spoken with the maturity of an honest and articulate 4-year old. I do not have a need "all the time" to take myself away from the oppressive facts of my life, however oppressive they may be, in order to go somewhere where I have control. I need to stay here and take control. Right now, for example, I cannot speak, but I am writing this. You lose some, you win some.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait. "Spoken with the maturity of an honest and articulate 4-year-old"? Up until that point, I had actually been listening to Ebert's opinion with some form of respect, and trying to understand the "bowel-moving" analogy/wordplay used in the article. But to be so condescending on someone who, in the world of critics and art, has just as much credo as you, is not right. Shame on you, Roger, shame on you.

And so, I, too, will jump into the fray. I, of course, as a gamer, think games are a very legitimate form of art.

Artists are very much a part of the game process. Even though art is involved in the game development process, does that mean the end result is necessarily art? The art these artists create is simply animated, put into motion with interactive elements.

But then, this logic would make every game a piece of art--from Spongebob to Barbie. And despite the flashy, cartoony depictions, I don't think many people would consider frying up Krabby patties or picking out dresses an artistic experience.

Does that mean the game has to present thought-provoking ideas along with stylized graphics to be art? If you take a look at any form of art, it generally has two stock elements that define it as art: great visual presentation and, usually, a message. When you look at it this way, there are plenty of games that can be considered art. Being a gamer myself, I can't help but side with the gamer's side of the debate. I've played through far too many wonderful, gripping stories, encountered an overabundance of captivating fictional characters, and witnessed countless super-stylized cutscenes, to say that games cannot be considered art, even high art, as Ebert argues. Ebert condescends that Barker's opinion has the mental maturity of a four-year-old. But that's the beauty of it! Younger audiences (maybe not as young as four-year-olds) can still understand what's going on in these more artistic games and begin to understand and appreciate the experience they provide. And so can the teenagers, the 20- and 30-somethings, 50-somethings like Barker, and everyone in between.

Games are strange and beautiful. Like art.