Tag Archives: video games

Technology is a Poor Substitute for Social Interaction

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Are your kids addicted to the internet? How much time do your kids spend looking at a screen instead of interacting with family? Parents might want to consider taking steps to limit the amount of “screen time” that their kids are getting. The New York Times has an article by Jane Brody in which she discusses the negative affects that countless hours of playing video games can have on children. It’s not just teenagers, either. Younger kids can also behave as if they are addicted to “the internet”. How does this happen? There is a Kaiser Family Foundation study that … Continue reading →

Disney Interactive Unveils New Game, Console Plans

Disney’s never been much of a name in gaming.  Disney Interactive is the only branch of the company that has reported consistent losses.  In the past few years, Disney hasn’t even put that much of an effort into console gaming, choosing to focus on simple games played on websites like Facebook or on mobile devices.  But that might be about to change. Gaming website CNET reports that Disney’s taken out a patent for a gaming console that employs augmented reality.  This isn’t the first of Disney’s augmented reality patents; late last year I blogged about one involving images projected over … Continue reading →

Bedtime for Devices

I was always one of those parents who had a bag full of “nevers.”  You know what I mean.  “I will never allow my child to…”  Fill in the blank. It’s so easy before you have children to say what you will never do.  And it’s just as easy when they are young to say what you will never do when they get older. Sure, some of my “nevers” I have stuck to.  But there have been a few I tossed to the side.  And in all honesty, at times it was a matter of not wanting to battle. One … Continue reading →

Five Ways to Afford Video Games

Are your kids asking for the $70 Skylanders game or a new video gaming device that costs more than your first car did? Video games can get expensive, and because new and hot games are constantly emerging, and the old technology can become obsolete in a year or two, many parents feel like they are spending quite a bit of their budgets keeping their kids up to speed with video games. To reduce the cost of video games, try the following options. Consider an Older System The newer the gaming system or computer, the more it will cost. Consider purchasing … Continue reading →

Your Kids, Video Games and Fruit

If you have a tough time getting your children to eat fruit, you might consider unplugging their video games. In what some may consider a complete waste of time and money, researchers in the Netherlands have unearthed a fact that most parents have known for a while:  Kids who play video games promoting fruit don’t crave apples, oranges, grapes, kiwi or any other type of fresh produce upon completing the online challenges. According to the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Dutch scientists expected their young research participants to crave more wholesome snacks after playing video … Continue reading →

5 Benefits of Video Games

My son’s favorite activity after playing basketball is playing video games.  If I allowed, he could play video games all day long.  He plays sports, Star Wars, Halo, and Sonic video games.  Like many moms, I assumed video games were a complete waste of time.  He was only allowed to play after I was certain there was nothing else he could possibly do with this time.   Then one day I overheard my brother saying how good my son was at playing the football video game.  Thinking that was strange, my husband explained that our son learned to make good … Continue reading →

Teaching Your Sons to Be Better Men

In a world where playing video games is more appealing than providing for a family or going to college it is especially important to teach our sons the value of working hard and growing up. While I intend to keep my son little forever, eventually the universe is going to combine against me and make him grow up. For some men, this doesn’t mean much. They are grown up but living in a child’s world. Believe it or not the number of men playing video games between the ages of 18 and 34 surpasses those between the ages of 13 … Continue reading →

Whew, I Almost Bought That! A Tip to Avoid Impulse Buying

I’ve got to stop checking my Facebook news feed, not because I have been spending too much time being distracted (although that is probably somewhat true), but because I keep seeing all of these special offers, such as the Amazon.com Lightening Deals (“liking” your favorite store pages is one way to see exclusive deals this holiday season). Yesterday I almost grabbed one. I actually added it to my cart. With one click, Amazon would have happily wrapped the thing up in the smiley box and send it straight to my door. It was a popular video game that I knew … Continue reading →

Explore the Disney Universe

One of my favorite party games is called “Smash Brothers.” It’s a Nintendo game wherein players control various famous characters from across the company’s franchises in a series of knock-down drag-out battles. I find getting to control Yoshi one minute and Link the next more enticing than Nintendo’s other common multi-player games, such as any of the sport or arcade games featured on Wii Play. Anyone who’s read my Disney blog for a while knows that my favorite video game is “Kingdom Hearts,” and no small part of that is because during it I get to play and interact with … Continue reading →

Disney at E3 and Other Video Games Update

A Kinect demo booth at this year’s E3 The E3 Video Game exhibition might be over now, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to stop talking about all we learned about upcoming video games. Put E3 up there for me with other conventions, like Comic Con and the D23 Expo, that I’d love to attend one day. Disney didn’t dominate E3, as the company isn’t really known for putting out much more than thrown-together movie tie-in games. Titles like “Epic Mickey” and “Kingdom Hearts” are the exceptions to the rule, though the latter doesn’t quite count because it was a … Continue reading →