The Family That Plays Together: Pixelkin.org Takes The Mystery Out of Gaming With Your Kids (or Parents!)

 
Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Pixelkin, an organisation focused on family gaming, recently launched to the public with a slew of reviews and resources for parents with gaming on their mind. This isn't a site where you'll find statistics about the number of spree killers that brushed up against a Grand Theft Auto game at some point in their lives, nor is it a site loaded up with nothing but edu-tainment titles. Pixelkin's purpose is to get families playing together, plain and simple.

In addition to regular posts and articles, the Pixelkin site also has quite a few specialized sections worth investigating:

• The Research page is full of crisp infographics based on (you guessed it) research. Can gaming help your marriage? Is gaming better or worse than watching television? And of course, what about violence in video games? The best part is that Pixelkin cites their sources, so if you're skeptical of their conclusions you can check it out for yourself.
• The Library offers quick descriptions and videos of a growing list of games so you can understand what a family member is playing without having to slog through forum chatter and reviews for an hour.
• The Dictionary is a glossary of gaming and geek terms, perfect for anyone needing a crash-course in anything from aggro to zerg rushes.
• The Gamer Files are an ever-expanding series of profiles of gamers, perfect to get a good idea of how other families have worked gaming into their habits. You can even submit your own profile to help expand society's narrow definition of "gamer" as it stands now.

If you'd like to see more from Pixelkin, don't miss their guide to playing World of Warcraft with your family, and be sure to follow them on Twitter.

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times, and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Ms. CC Creeggan (CronoCloud Creeggan)]

Oh, nice site. Their start page:

http://www.pixelkin.org/start

Is a great resource to point non-gamers to.