35% Of Parents Game

Next Generation is reporting on an ESA study indicating that something like 35% of parents play games. Most of them play with their kids, and a large percentage say that gaming together knits their family closer together. From the article: "'The data provides further evidence dispelling the myth that game playing is dominated by teens and single twenty-somethings,' said Doug Lowenstein, ESA president. 'It tells us that parents see games both as an enjoyable activity on their own, and one that allows them to engage with their children as well.'"

Goes beyond just gaming

[mendaliv]

Some of their other statistics caught my eye:
Gamer parents are also likely to be voters, according to the study, with 73 percent of those surveyed claiming to visit the polls regularly. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 85 percent think that monitoring the appropriateness of what kids play should be the job of the parents, not the government or game publishers. Similarly, parents believe by a two-to-one margin that it isn't the government's job to regulate games at all.

Now, at first I thought that this was great; maybe all the anti-gaming regs will fall through after all. But then of course, nobody is going to vote for somebody because they are against gamers' rights. At least not in this day and age. Ah well.

The family that games together...

[jaredbpd]

My two year old daughter loves playing "the falldown game" (NFL 2k5), "the car game" (Project Gotham Racing 2), and "the pirate game" (Sid Meier's Pirates!) with me on the XBox. However, I show the tiniest amount of parental sensibility and wait until after she's asleep to play San Andreas. With her being at the critical stage for copying language, I don't need her walking around talking like CJ!