Not All Games Are Bad

Let's be clear--this website isn't a black-and-white statement that all video games are horrible things and should be avoided at all costs. Yahoo just put out an article detailing how parents can find "family time" with digitally-inclined kids by playing arcade-style, fun games. Having played my share share of Diego Rescue and Sesame Street Alphabet before, I can get on board with the idea that video games can serve as one vehicle to bring together parents and children. The difference, though, is that like Spaghetti Night or Sunday church or watching "Heroes" is that it's a schedule, special thing that might only occur once a week (okay, maybe two or three times, but the point is that it's not an ongoing, non-stop thing). If it remains special, it's about quality time, not quantity of play time. For an MMO player, it gets to be about quantity all too fast. And it almost never includes family members. Once you sign up for Teamspeak or Ventrilo and put on those noise-cancelling headphones, it's all over.