Posts tagged kids-games 
MMO Family: The state of the game (at school)
When you think of kids and video games, the question that always comes up is this: What are they getting out of playing them? Usually, MMOs, even MMOs aimed at kids, are big on fun but light on learning. So it was refreshing to see teacher Ben Bertoli launch a Kickstarter project to promote ...
MMO Family: How helpful are those ESRB ratings?
Quick, what's the ESRB rating symbol of your favorite MMO of choice? And if you know that, what are the content descriptors that account for your game's rating? If you got them right, bravo! According to the ESRB's official poll, 85% of parents with children who play video games are aware of the ...
MMO Family: Mind your massively multiplayer manners revisited
In this week's MMO Family column, I want to dig deeper into something that came up as a result of the last edition, and that's the perception of younger gamers as generally being too immature, being too flighty, and lacking the social skills to be fun groupmates and guildmates in our MMOs. There ...
MMO Family: Do kids belong in guilds?
In my regular columns at Massively, I enjoy taking a look at various topics surrounding family-friendly MMOs and common issues in guild management. So it seemed natural to take the two subjects and combine them for this week's MMO Family. Gamers are growing older, and we're seeing an increasing ...
MMO Family: Is free-to-play bad for kid-friendly MMOs?
If you've ever gone shopping with kids, you know how much of a nightmare-inducing proposition it can be. Everywhere from toy stores to department stores to seemingly innocuous grocery stores, there's a battle raging between parents and their children, which usually ends with tears, grey hairs, ...
MMO Family: Kid-friendly MMO roundup, part 1
With all of the buzz centered around "grown-up" MMO titles like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2, it's easy for the kid-friendly games to get lost in the shuffle. There may not be as many kid titles on the horizon, but for the games that are currently out there, there's been an ...
MMO Family: What kids MMOs can learn from markers, Jackpot, and Chutes and Ladders
Play is important. Whether you're a kid or a grown-up, play has an important role in our lives, and video games are taking an increasingly large percentage of our playtime these days. But for kids' play in particular, there's always a question about the quality of video game time and whether or ...
MMO Family: LEGO Universe, autism, and heartbreak
Often when the topic of video games comes up, it's followed by comments about the negatives, such as violence, antisocial behavior, or inappropriate content. But if they do have harmful effects (and it's arguable how many players really are affected in a negative way), they can also be helpful as ...
Gazillion Entertainment's Jason Robar speaks on making MMOs for kids
We all know that creating an MMORPG is a daunting task. But what is it like trying to create an MMORPG for kids? Jason Robar, vice president and general manager of Gazillion Entertainment, sat down with Gamasutra recently to answer that very question. Robar states that the principal priority ...
MMO Family: First impressions of Little Space Heroes
In this week's MMO Family, I took a look at an adorable new game from Bubble Gum Interactive called Little Space Heroes. It's a free-to-play, animated, space-themed game aimed at children ages 6 to 12. The game is still in beta, but players can register and get a glimpse of this virtual universe ...
