Welcome to KidGamers.org
Let me be the first to welcome you to KidGamers.org. KidGamers.org is a video game review site for parents and by parents. While there are plenty of video game sites out there, few of them cater to parents who wish to help their kids find fun and challenging video games. As we all know, the ESRB's rating system is a blunt instrument. It tells you the basics of what is "bad" about a game, but nothing about what is good for a game from a child's perspective. Here is what our reviews will focus on:
- What skills do kids need to play the game? Some games require fast reflexes, some require logic skills, and some require reading. All skills that may be problematic for your child. These may be games to avoid, or games to pick up to help your children grow.
- Is the ESRB rating accurate? As I said above, the ESRB ratings just give the basics about what content is in the game. Our reviews will go into more detail. Maybe the rating was too low. Maybe it was too high. Our reviews will discuss what we think the rating really should be. Every parent is different of course, so help us to provide more information. If a game had foul language that we missed, point it out. If we make a mistake about the level of violence, let us know. We want the reviews here to help all parents, so the more information the better.
- What did our kids really think? Every game here will be played by one of the authors' kids. Real kids are playing these games and our reviews will reflect that.
- Our reviews will focus on the pre-teen and younger audience. Our reviews will primary cover video games for consoles and handhelds, but PC/Mac games may be covered as well.
- Lastly, most parents don't want to just let their kids play games by themselves. Our reviewers will also play the games and tell if they enjoyed playing it as well.
Who are our authors? First we have Raymond Camden (that's me!). I'm the Vice President of Technology for roundpeg, Inc and the proud father of three kids. (Two are currently playing video games.)
Next we have Ben Forta. Ben Forta is a Senior Technical Evangelist for Adobe Systems, the author of more than 20 books on computer programming, and the father of seven kids/gamers.
Emmet McGovern is reining Gunbound champion of Full City Inc. When not behind a keyboard he can be found teaching the finer points of the Dark Side to his 5 Year old son.
Scott Stroz is a Senior Web Developer for, AboutWeb, LLC, an IT staffing and solutions firm. He is an avid golfer and self-proclaimed vid-iot. He enjoys sharing both of these hobbies with his 2 children.
Keep up the good work!
It was not my intention to knock innocent puzzle games. The point I was trying to make was that they are so innocent that I don't need to worry about violence or any other unsuitable content, and thereby worry about incorect ratings etc.
Also, so far all games are in Norwegian (and a few in Russian), so I doubt that you guys will review them anyway ;)
But now they start learning English in 1st grade (shich my oldest daughter starts in a couple of weeks), as opposed to 5th grade when I was growing up, so your site might be very usefull before long.
It's great to see a site that not only had kid reviews, but actually dialogue with the parents too. Look forward to your fall reviews and thoughts on kid games for the Nintendo Wii.
Kudos!
Donna