Thomas and Cola are on-site at the 2008 Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco this week. This is a special year for us at the GDC, because KidConfidence is getting access to a lot of larger media companies than we’ve had in the past.

In fact, with all the video interviews and special events that Thomas and Cola are covering, they are starting at 7:00am and wrapping up around 11:00pm every night! I talked with Thomas last night and he said he doesn’t even have time to download all the video he’s shooting before starting the next day.

We’ve got some great interviews coming with executives and designers from: Nickelodeon, Neopets, Sony, Electronic Arts and many more.

Stay tuned!

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Mario and Sonic At the Olympic Games is a collection of 24 minigames and is licensed by the Olympic Committee as official merchandise for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China. The videogame lets your family play as 16 different Sega and Nintendo videogame characters, while competing in Track, Field, Aquatics, Gymnastics and other Olympic disciplines. The game also supports the use of Mii’s. (more…)

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I am sure many parents may have (half-jokingly) considered their kids being “addicted” to video games. We certainly do from time to time in our household.

All jokes aside:
Addiction experts strongly opposed the idea of video games being addictive at the American Medical Association’s annual meeting.

“There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn’t get to have the word addiction attached to it,” said Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

A committee of the influential physicians’ group had proposed video game addiction be listed as a mental disorder in the American Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, a guide used by the American Psychiatric Association in diagnosing mental illness. Such a move would ease the path for insurance coverage of video game addiction. However, even before debate on the subject began, the committee that made the proposal backed away from its position, and instead recommended that the American Psychiatric Association consider the change when it revises its next diagnostic manual in 5 years.

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GameDailyBiz reports that awareness and use of the ESRB ratings on video games is increasing. Some interesting statistics that came out of the study performed by Peter D. Hart Research Associates:

• 87% of parents find it “very important” to be able to monitor and regulate what their children watch, read and play.
• Other than ESRB ratings, parents turn to packaging, other parents, or their children as the top three sources of information about games.

We think ESRB ratings are important here at Kid Confidence. We also think that a community of parents sharing experiences and learning from each other can provide an even better view of what games our children should be playing.

What do YOU think?

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As most parents struggle to control the time children spend playing video games and watching TV, the Hasch family has found success by putting their children in-charge, allowing them to “buy” videogame-playing time and television time by competing educational exercises.

For parents Thomas and Cola, this “system” provides them with the peace of mind that comes from knowing they are rewarding their children for good, productive behavior, meanwhile 8-year-old son Chase increases his knowledge in science, math, spelling and other important areas, and only after doing so, enjoys the “earned” fun by playing age-appropriate video games or watching age-appropriate TV programs.

Cola says this allows her household to go back to the very roots of video gaming, where games are paid for and not accessed for free.

Children In-Charge
“Chase buys his game and viewing time, paying for playing, by completing worksheets that cover math, spelling, mazes, dot-to-dot types of activities and more,” she explains. “The educational benefits are obvious, but the other benefits, which include giving Chase control, serve to empower him and give him the confidence to believe in himself simply because we are showing that, as his parents, we believe in him.”

Additionally, Chase learns how to set limits for himself.

Depending on the degree of difficulty, Thomas says Chase usually completes a single worksheet in about 10 minutes. The Hasch household rule: Chase completes four worksheets for every hour of videogame playing time or television viewing.

It’s the perfect trade-off, or, as the Hasch’s refer to it, the perfect “payment” plan.

“We compare our worksheet system to an Arcade. Instead of coins, Chase ‘enters’ worksheets,” Thomas adds. “Now, we don’t need to do this if the videogame offers some educational content.”

Educational Video Games
(more…)

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