It seems that button mashing is easier in the old style controllers, rather than using arm motions to achieve the same effect. Is this a lack of wii-muscles? Is it poor design?

We’ve suggested that our older son opt for the wiimote when playing his younger brother, who could use the old style controller. This effectively provides a handicap to even out the two boys, who are about 6 years apart in age.

The camera angles in Dragonball Z – Budokai Tenkaichi 2 – are well done and really do have the feel of being in the cartoon. The fighting effects are rather nice, and it’s captivating the fellas for a surprising amount of game time.

Lesson learned, don’t be ashamed to use the old school controllers on the new Wii!

On occassion, they can get really terse with one another. The oldest of the bunch, my son, is showing that ‘oldest child attitude’ and barking orders at the others. I listened from another room, until I went in to make a cup of tea.

I called him over, and pointed out how from the other room, he was barking almost as much as our Great Pyrenees. (Any Pyr owners out there will understand, but they can be quite the barkers when they’ve decided they have something to say.)

My kid looks at me, a bit hestitant as if he’s in trouble. He is not. Kids squabbling is part of working out dynmics of kid-dom, a place where Mom’s have little domain. But, he understood, and said “Oh, I didn’t realize that…ok.”

The last hour has been just as loud, but filled with more random singing and w00ts and hollars.

I won’t be around for most of the times when the kids have opportunities to interact with others their age. From the moment they are on the bus, I lose sight of how they treat others. As they get older, that is just more pronounced. So why not take a moment here, and now, to address it? Not in a confrontational way – the idea is not to model barking – but in a sensible “hey, I noticed this…” kind of way.

This isn’t solely a gamer mom tactic. You’ll have this opportunity with other things certainly. But games provide a unique cause for everyone to work together towards a goal. In multiplayer games, someone is likely to take on leadership and forge a strategy. Is a 12 year old too young to learn to be a strong leader that people like working with? Nah, the timing is perfect.

Now, if only the dog would stop barking…

Anticipation for the Christmas pup rises, and I’ve been watching Amazon and Froogle for prices on Nintendogs Bundles. There was a limited release of bundles – one in Pink sold through Target and ToysRUs, and another in teal pearl blue that could be found in most stores. Not that I’m going to buy one, mind you, Santa had the elves take care of that. But if you need to buy a bundle now, it wouldn’t be cheap. Last I saw them, you could get them for about $129. Now, Amazon has sellers that will give you the blue one for a cool $250, and the Pink for $365.
Hachi machi! It’s sold out in the UK, and very nearly sold out here. It’ll be curious to see after Christmas sales numbers.

Woof!

A nice primer on Nintendogs:

Nintendogs – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bill Harris talks about an XBox theory where Microsoft uses the XBox currency and it’s online marketplace to address hacks of Xbox systems….

It’s not a bad dialogue to have with your older gaming kid. If you collected points in game, and the marketplace for spending your points existed online – in an enviroment controled by the creator of the game itself – why couldn’t they enforce software rules to enforce obedience?

“Thou shall not hack thy system, or thy reputation and wealth is lost. LOST, I Say!”

What a great talking point to discuss how software and systems can be used to encourage or discourage user behavior!

And why talk about that with your kid?

1. Get them to THINK and not simply be passive players being entertained by the game.

2. This is a great little example, but history is full of governments using economics to encourage or discourage behavior. Just look at interest rates over the past few years….

One of the best stocking stuffers this year has to be the collectable card game, Pirates of the Spanish Main. I supposed ‘constructable card game’ applies too; you actually build a little ship out of each card. They are made of a nice plastic stock and are very well produced. Upon creating your little armada, the game begins.

We’ve only got a few decks, and currently play the intro rules – but the advanced rules look very good and I expect that post-Christmas will bring a large enough navy to properly play.

Your local comic or game store likely has tournaments, but we’ve bought ours at Target.
They followed up the Spanish Main collection with “Pirates of the Crimson Coast” and “Pirates of the Revolution”

WizKids – Pirates of the Spanish Main

or more immediate shopping at
Amazon

Animal Crossing is the single best gift that Dubious Quality blogger Bill Harris gave us (and we are looking forward to the release of Eli 4.0!)

Animal Crossing is the game that has attracted and held the interest of my daughter – stay tuned for a series of articles regarding that!

Animal Crossing is:

$20 at Amazon nowdays

Only available on the Gamecube

Rated E by the ESRB

An intelligent, and terribly cute in a Hello Kitty kind of way, persistant world game. You meet the folks in town, plant trees that bear fruit, find fossils you can send off to the museum, fish, make lovely parasols and dresses, and assemble fantastic collections for your home. It’s full of hidden surprises and clever details. It’s got a sense of time, so if you log in at nite, it’s dark, if you log in the fall, the leaves have changed color. Just brilliantly thought out and well worth it.

Stay tuned for future blogs regarding lessons learned in Animal Crossing, but for the moment, if you can find it on sale at Fry’s or Best Buy, get it!

But if your a kid, or mom, for that matter, and the group just can’t seem to get organized until 8:30, you’re in trouble.
Folks will travel for the next 20 minutes to gather, someone will have to stop for game administrivia (I ‘have’ to check my auctions!) and by the time you are ready to launch, it’s 9:00pm.

Clouds gather on the horizon, and those first warning signs appear:
– Loud, exagerated yawns from the eager young stealther who dares not admit exhaustion
– Peevish commentary regarding that one player who’s addiction to the in game auction holds up the show an extra 20 minutes
– Requests for ‘stamina potions’ (I need a COKE) will start pouring in, or worse yet…the dreaded ‘coke, coke coke coke’ mantra that evades the potential parental NO but aims to force the issue

By 10:30 your mount will turn into a pumpkin, and all that coordination and mad dash of tells is for naught…

It’s summer – but don’t be fooled. It’s still not wise to start a raid at 9:00pm.