Irony of ironies, here as we are celebrating the 10 years of Grand Theft Auto III terrorising parents everywhere, IGN has shuttered What They Play which analysed video games from the perspective of parents concerned about violent and sexual content. More »
Sarah over at Lifehacker has pointed us in the direction of a freshly launched gaming news and reviews site aimed at parents, called What They Play. Intermingled with your standard reviews are articles such as “Wii Found One: The Parents Guide To Finding A Wii” (not such a bad idea considering how hard the damn things were to find last Christmas).
Reviews don’t appear to be scored by quality, rather users can rate them based on minimum age. According to the site, Assassin’s Creed is appropriate for kids 11 and over.
Okay, it might need a little work.
It wasn’t long ago that Oz gaming site PALGN launched GamerKids, its own attempt at such a portal. For now, What They Play looks like the better effort, as long as you don’t mind the international feel, particularly the use of ESRB ratings.
I think it’s going to take a while for sites like GamerKids and What They Play to find the right formula, but what we’ve seen so far is definitely a solid start.
What They Play [Official site, via Lifehacker via CNET, thanks Sarah] More »
John Davison, the former editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly, has started What They Play, a website that bills itself as “the videogames guide for parents.” Reading a few of the reviews already up, it seems that the site focuses on short, fairly traditional reviews with a final “moral warning” for parents. For example, on Guitar Hero III:
However, be aware that the ESRB’s “T” rating for “Lyrics” and “Mild Suggestive Themes” is no joke. The songs in the game deal with traditionally edgy themes of rock music, ranging from the sexually suggestive … to the occult
