My head hurts

a million years ago I worked a snack Kiosk at Sea World. Even now the song to the pioneer ski show is stuck in my head to pop up at random moments...

Where are we going?
I don't know.
When will we get there?
I ain't certain.
All that I know is we are on our way...

A year ago I have no idea what the hell I was doing. Seriously, I barely remember yesterday's dinner. What I do remember is that I was gaming, and my kids were gaming and my ex-husband was gaming and in its way everything was cool and I was cool.

My then 10yr old daughter who is the least gaming inclined would sit around with her DS, playing anything with animals, and trivia and if it was animal trivia that was even better.

My 7yr old son would call me excitedly from the other room to look at his cool new weapon or the  awesome shotgun he was storing at Moxxi's in Borderlands for me to claim next time we played together. Because while I played as Lilith or Mordecai, who specialized in SMGs and Sniper Rifles respectively, I have a weakness for explosive shotguns in Borderlands. That and a nice Pestilent Defiler pistol with a scope.

My 12yr old daughter asking for her own copies of Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, starting Mass Effect and Dragon Age, not so much for herself I think, but for me. Because I liked them and she wanted to be cool like mom. Well that goes for the latter 2. She loves the hell out of Fallout all on her own lol.

My then husband was either putting more hours into Borderlands with me or in the living room on the PS3 playing Yakuza 3. I remember one night doing Knoxx's DLC, in the "Circle of Duty" an arena type mission...we breezed through most of it and then the assholes with jetpacks appeared. Death after death and a constant "one more try" every single time. By the time the last damn Elite Crimson Guard was dead it was 7am and we hadn't even noticed we had been up all night playing.

But it wasn't always that way, One big gaming family. It wouldn't stay that way either.

I won't bore you yet again with my "history of gaming" I'll just take it back a bit...

I had established over the past few years that I liked gaming and I had a decent little collection going when Oblivion came out. Til that moment I had played games sporadically and my husband would argue that I was spending too much money on games I wasn't playing (nice to see things haven't changed lol). He would encourage me to play more, so that it wasn't a waste of money.

Then I got Oblivion and suddenly the opposite was true. The argument became that I gamed too much, that I should put the controller down. Eventually I did put it down, after 250 hours. I continued to play games but not as much as I had played Oblivion. I encouraged my children to game often, eventually convincing my husband to buy everyone their own DSLite. I played hours of Style Savvy with the girls and Pokemon with all the kids. I took a lot of flak and a lot of strange looks for being an "old woman" who gamed like a child, and for encouraging my children to play those "awful video games" from other parents.

When Scribblenauts was released I was vindicated. My son went from worst student to best student in his class over the span of winter break. I had my husband print out a file someone posted online with every word in Scribblenauts.That led to  this blog and to me feeling pretty good about gaming. Getting to talk to the Dev. and being a featured commentor on Kotaku for writing a post about it made me even cooler to my kids and my husband said he was proud of me. Yep, I was feeling pretty awesome. I started spending more time reading up on games, more time playing games, more time and money buying games. My son graduated to more difficult console games, my kids friends thought I was cool and it was pretty great.

Since then I've been writing on and off, trying to just, get anyone to read what i write. Why? I don't know. Mostly its just me ranting about stuff but I've enjoyed it and I've gotten a few people to read regularly and some became good friends.

Then this year everything changed, and it changed fast.

I sit here now and I don't even know what I'm saying or why. Its like I just kinda gotta let it all out. Maybe I'll understand it better.

I find myself divorced now. My children a year older and completely changed.
For Christmas I got my kids their own PC and my son is slowly migrating from console to PC. Currently he's playing Skyrim and knows 1 console command, how to increase his carry weight haha.
My daughter now 11 finds herself playing Minecraft with her friend on xbox more often.
But my oldest, now 13, sh'es changed the most. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing her a disservice for being who I am, what I am.
On one hand it was she who created the Facebook page for this blog, she encouraged me to create a youtube channel and she sits in for some of my videos. On the other, I think sometimes she wishes I was more..conventional. She gets annoyed that I tend to hang out with her friends when they come by. The other night while she and a friend giggled the night away on Facebook I was playing Gears 3 with her other friend. We had a blast but I don't think my daughter was so amused.
Maybe its just part of being a teenager now? No matter what kind of parent you have you find them embarrassing and annoying? But its gotten me thinking...maybe I am being some silly middle-aged woman trying too hard to be young, on the other hand, this is who I am and I can't change that.

So a year later, gaming is still cool but maybe i'm not as cool as I used to be.

Getting in the right mindset again

Ok so I know I've been doing the whole video thing but, I feel that that doesn't mean I should neglect the writing thing. honestly I dont even know if I'll stick with the video thing. So far I've been feeling a bit awkward doing it. But that might have to do with the fact I'm just babbling and don't actually plan anything out.
At the same time, that's just kinda how I am. I blurt out shit as it comes to mind, my thoughts go all over the place and sometimes its hard to follow where I jump to next but its just me.

I've been thinking about what to talk about, write about, how to be more interesting or funny and I realized that's never gonna work. When i started writing I was just myself, no one read it and I kept writing it. Not that my readership is big but its gone up from like my one friend who doesn't game beyond FB and Sims who would comment just cause she's my friend (Hi Michelle!)
I know that I should feel very good to know that the people who do read this have stuck with it through all my tantrums, rage quits and life altering dramas. Ya'll are always patient and you kindly return when I say something new. Thanks guys.

So this is going to probably be long and probably ramble on a bit. There might also be a quiz later, so you know (totally not making that up lol).

Throughout all my recent personal issues and dramas I made it a point to still find a few spare moments to just fire up a game and give it a 5 minute test drive at least. I think it helped me in some small way to get through stuff.
As a result I dabbled in a few games even if I didnt get far or even finish most of them. Last one I finished was Binary Domain and i did manage to review it too.

I've been focusing more on PC games lately just because its the one thing I neglect almost as badly as I do my PS3. and its also something I'm not very good at, the greatest words i can read on a Steam Game page is "Controller enabled"
I've also been focusing more on PC games because through my drama, and my birthday and more drama a lot of people have taken money out of their pockets to gift me games I wanted but couldnt afford at the moment and I want them to know I appreciate it and they aren't gifting me the equivalent of a scented candle I toss in a closet. I never buy or wishlist a game I don't want or don't intend to play. However, I have no idea when I'll get to things, though I've at least started all the games I've been gifted.

What I need currently is feedback. Let me know what it is you would like me to talk about more. I've been thinking that, given the name of this blog I'd like to get my kids more involved in it with me. I recently did a Video with my daughter as you know cause its like right under this post. It was kind of a mishmash because it was utterly spur of the moment but, I felt more comfortable with her there and it was fun to do. So maybe having them join in once in a while would be something that might get me back to the original intent of this blog. The fact that I'm a raving nutjob mother of 3 who games.

I've started a poll over on the OMG FB page just really a simple yes-no type deal with a request for comments, suggestions, whatever, so if you have FB head over there and give me your thoughts, if not, well you can always leave a comment here or reach me pretty much anywhere online. I swear i'm all over the damn place.

Life Happens- this is totally not game related

Yesterday I woke up to my family in a hysterical panic, our dog, Luke had been hit by a car one street over.
We rushed him to the vet and thankfully, he's ok aside from a bit of road rash on his jaw a broken tooth and cuts on his tongue. He did have to spend most of the day at the Vet for tests and observation though.
His Xrays also revealed that at some point in his previous home, he was shot. He has a bullet lodged in his back. :( poor puppy.
He came back home yesterday afternoon and is on a slew of meds, mostly to prevent his body from trying to reject the bullet as it tries to heal his new injuries. He is expected to make a full recovery, except for the broken tooth of course.

Meanwhile, Frog seems to have suddenly come down with a severe cold/flu last night. one minute he was fine, the next he was miserably sick. Odder still is that it seems to be happening to other people I know in different parts of the world. Synchronized Flu FTL :(

For the record, Froggy drank some of my soda last night, so, I'm 99.9% sure, I've got whatever the hell he has now. Good times!

So, yeah, delays, delays, delays.....

This weekend...ZOMBIES!!!!

I like to do random stuff with the kids sometimes and this week was one of those times.
A while back we bought my son a little SWAT team set. Gun, vest, helmet etc. he loved that thing, but yesterday he comes to me sadly clutching his vest and telling me that somehow it ripped. He looked so sad about it and suddenly inspiration struck. I suggested that we tear it up a bit more, add some paint and zombify him. He instantly lit up, but his sisters had overheard and they wanted in on the action too.
So today, i slashed fabric, used red, yellow and green pain to paint blood and rot and bile and my husband put make-up on them and glue to make peeling skin.
Then we took pictures.

There was no real rhyme or reason. Halloween is long gone, but you don't really need an occasion to dress as a zombie.

Eventually they got me

It seemed hopeless

Then I was able to grab the now zombified cop's gun. Sadly it was futile, i'd already been bit.

Codex is in the building

So this is it. Me in all my wigged, make-uped glory. I look nothing like me, or like Codex. I love the wig though. Those leg straps and knee pads were a nightmare. They kept sliding down and coming out. Grrr!
No ones knew who the Hell I was, but I got compliments on my looks.
I also had plenty of people ask me where my cans bucket was. That's it, next year I'm bringing a bucket and trick or treating too Dammit!
I am utterrly exhausted now. My shoes, while cute were hell in my feet. Ow. Blister city here I come.

The kids were totally adorable this year:

This has not a Damn thing to do with gaming

Who has 2 thumbs, is adorably evil, will kill me if I stop blogging, wants to steal my closet and got massively photo bombed by Luke?

THIS GIRL!!

aka Ghanima, my spunky sidekick

Sorry, I've been killing lots of things lately

Yeah, I've kinda forgotten to update this place, I've been busy listening to Baird's smart mouth and shooting many many Locust. I've also been fighting a cold...yes, the same one I've had for 2 weeks.
While I've been fighting this cold my kids keep passing it around to each other. Today my daughter went back to school after missing 3 days and before that it was my son who was home with it.
This is going somewhere, really.
While home sick, my son wanted me to play a game with him and his game of choice is ALWAYS Borderlands.

How can I refuse a sniffling anime bobblehead with big puppy eyes? (yeah, that sounds kinda scary..but its actually really really cute) We fired up the game and within minutes I remembered why I both love and hate playing Borderlands with my son.

First he has demands. We MUST have separate cars and he gets dibs on any weapon we find, actually he has dibs on any weapon, whether its in my inventory, on the ground or I'm currently using it.

Second, He likes to go to T-Bone Junction (General Knoxx's secret Armory) as soon as we start a new game even though the Crimson Lance ninja bitches will eviscerate us as soon as we get there.

But its all good because what he really likes to do is find glitches and tricks.

Example: While it is true that the Crimson Lance chicks will destroy you in T-Bone Junction if you are under level 25, there's easy money to be made and experience if you survive a quick run there when you start the game.
Goes like this...
first go get all the weapons and cash you can from the area near your teleport, then go see Scooter who will give you a mission to find parts for the Monster. (my preferred method of trasnportation). Now it gets a little dodgy. the first few parts are right near there so you're safe but once you cross a certain point the Crimson chicks will appear and slaughter you.
Get the easy parts first then one person run and stand by the teleporter, menu open, place to go to chosen, the other person haul ass and get the last 2 pieces of the monster, the minute you grab the last piece, first person teleports you outta there. Recoup your health, teleport back to T-bone and turn in the parts to Scooter, put the Monster together, then leave and continue your low level adventures in Fyrestone with cash in your pocket and experience piling up.

My 7 year old son taught me that....I felt very proud he had discovered this and very pathetic that I never thought of it.

Not everything he discovers in Borderlands is as lucrative however. As I said, its not just tricks..its glitches too. Like this one:





I did not get lucky enough to Teleport us out. He demanded I follow him into the dead zone...where this happened:

So there I was, sitting in the Gunner's seat in a car, in mid-air. So I ask him "How do I get out of here?" and he replies, "jump out of the car" I ask, "what will happen?" he shrugs and says "you die, thats the only way out, but you dont lose any money if you die here, so its ok."

Well, at least my cash didnt take a knock...

After this little adventure he took most of my weapons, got a Racer and sped off while I got blown up in my Monster by all the enemies he left behind as he raced off....Good times.

Pull over Ma'am!

"I'm going to have to give you a ticket for doing 30 in a 12."

Confused? Yeah, me too.

So, you know, this blog is called "our mom games" but I don't talk all that much about the kids or how my gaming affects them. I mean, I do, but not often. Probably because its just something that is. Its just normal life here.
Every so often though, it makes life a little...weird. Like this week.
A few days ago my daughter wanted to know how many games I own, I asked her why and she replied that her friend said he had more games than me. I said, "tell him I have almost 5,000 (which is true)" She gleefully replied "he definitely wont have more than that." Great, I win the bragging contest between 10yr olds.

Last week both my daughters borrowed some of my clothes and my 7th graders "clique clout" went up. Great, my clothes are in style for 12yr olds....Might have to rethink my wardrobe....but it gets better.

For those that don't know, cause you aren't on my Facebook, I recently dyed my hair, this is normally not earth shattering news. But it gets a little more attention when you are in your mid 30s and go for colors outside the normal spectrum. This is me now:

Ignore the evil yet goofy look on my face and check out my ultra bright hair. It was originally a very bright deep red and its faded to a weird pinkish orange. So its bad enough to be in your 30s and have anime hair (also, imagine the awkwardness of going to a funeral looking this....festive), But it appears I am indeed the unwitting Fashionista of the 7th grade.

Last night my daughter tells me that tons of girls came to school with their bangs bleached blonde one day and the next day hot pink. Why? Because they saw me during school registration and my hair was so cool.

Now, I'm glad my daughter is enjoying a popularity surge at school, but I feel kinda weird that its because her mom has Peter Pan syndrome. 

Now, as this school year starts I find myself doubting myself.  Maybe its just that whole weird mood swing thing that comes with another birthday (in 2 days btw). But, I find myself feeling very insecure and unsure. I think back to my youth. My parents were much like everyone elses parents...Kinda lame, dressed like old people and didn't know an NES from a Playstation. My friends and I would complain and wish our parents were "cool" though no one had a definition to what a "cool parent" would be. We all knew though that we'd be "cool" parents when we had kids.

Since I blocked out high school the minute I touched my diploma I can't speak for any of my old friends and how "cool" they became. I know that I've tried to be a good parent, and most importantly to always be true to myself and teach my kids to be true to themselves as well. Now I'm wondering if "myself" is something I should have shelved when I had kids.

I remember one night a few years back I was at Wal-Mart with my family and this woman passed by, 4 inch patent leather heels, leopard print pencil skirt with a black lacy top, platinum blonde hair flowing over her shoulders and when she turned around...She couldn't have been a day under 60. OMG woman...could you please dress more age appropriately??? You know, you don't have to wear a mumu or polyester elastic waistband pants but...you know, put down the hooker shoes and animal prints.
That's who I don't want to be and who I'm afraid I'll become.

My kids assure me that I am awesome and the coolest mom on the planet, but, you know, they haven't hit the teenage "I hate everything" stage just yet, besides cool can turn on a dime. Currently I'm fashion queen, next week my kids could be asking me to park at the end of the block an hour after school ends so none of their friends will see them with me.

I can't imagine not being me. I love clothes and high heels and boots, I have an awesome collection of boots. I play games constantly, there isn't a day when I'm not gaming on some sort of device. I like my hair the way it is though now that its faded I'm thinking of going blue or purple. Hell, I'm considering getting a tattoo of the Fable Guild Seal.  I'm just being me. But I wonder if that's good or bad. Would my kids be happier if I were the cookie baking, PTA joining kinda mom. They say no of course, they think mom having pink hair and owning more games than all the boys in their class combined is the awesomest thing ever, and my 12yr old also throws in the bonus of a closet that is the envy of all her little friends. But, what do they know? They've never had a "normal" mom. I own a minivan, that's as close as I get to traditional mom. For the record, I love my Hunter Green Caravan Sport. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I've taken a lot of flak from other parents for being the laid back, non-traditional gamer parent that I am. But, kids have always liked me, my kids and other people's kids. I  guess I'm afraid of the day I stop being cool and just start being pathetic. I mean, don't get me wrong, it is my mission in life to embarrass my kids every so often, just, not by my presence.

Well, at least my husband is a normal, boring (yeah, I said it...I know you're reading this) dad.Maybe that will balance things out. I don't know.

I HAVE THE POWER!!!!!

Yesterday, somewhere around the part of my post where I make sense and get to some sort of lucid point I totally lost my mojo, Seriously, One minute I'm typing away furiously and I have this brilliant and hilarious thought in my mind and the next minute I'm like a deer in the headlights. Mind utterly blank. I was already having doubts about the quality of what I was writing and losing the "punch" i had prepared made me feel even worse. But, I carried on anyway and while its not my best work, it let me rant about something I really hated. During this mind wiping block I talked to my husband and while he didnt get my mojo back, he did give me another idea to write about, Achievements, Trophies and Avatar Awards.

There was a time when the only reward you got for playing  game was finishing it, finally getting to that last castle where the princess was located, maybe racking up a high score and putting your initials in (and be honest, how many of you were as mature as me and always entered the initials A.S.S?).
Those times are come and gone and the stakes are higher, yet equally meaningless. These days your worth as a gamer is measured in achievements, trophies and ugly T-shirts and hats for your avatar.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on achievements, I love hearing the little achievement unlocked sound while playing a 360 game, however I don't actively go out of my way to get them. I've played tons of games and own even more and I can't say that I have come close to getting all of the achievements on any of them. PS3 trophies mean even less to me. Even Steam has achievements sometimes numbering in the hundreds for games, I have even less of those.

I'm a firm believer that games should be played for fun and relaxation. If it feels like work, then your doing it wrong and putting myself through the paces of trying to play a game on its highest difficulty with my mediocre skills in the hopes of getting that elusive ding! seems like too much work and not much fun, so I dont bother.

I bought my 360 in late 2007 and by virtue of just playing a lot of different games I've managed to get my gamerscore somewhere around 14,000. This isn't particularly impressive I'm told, but, I wasnt exactly trying to impress anyone.
My kids game quite a bit and my husband is slowly jumping onto the bandwagon of regular gameplay and all of them seem to be a bit too involved with their gamerscores. My daughter brags about having more achievements than me in Fallout 3, My husband would not rest until he could brag to her that he had more achievements than her in general. I just laugh at them and shake my head and say, "yeah well, I have more than both of you combined so STFU. Its not like I can do anything with it."
But what about the other 2 kids? I mean, I mentioned one of them but everyone here games.

The younger two are the reason I'm writing this. For various reasons they both have pretty low gamerscores. My daughter because she doesnt play much and my son because he isnt skilled enough in most games to get achievements.
To me, I don't see the big deal, but to them, they've got this...thing...that he with the highest gamerscore kicks the most ass. Not to mention they want those sweet sweet avatar awards, like the ridiculously  ugly "shades of infinity" from the game Lips that no one actually puts on their avatar....cause they're fugly:

So what's happening more and more often in my house is my kids asking me and on occasion my husband to play games under their profiles in order to get more achievements and avatar awards.
Now, understand, I don't mind helping them get through a tough boss or a hard section of a game, hell I don't even mind getting them avatar awards. (currently I'm playing Ilomilo for my son so he can get Ilo and Milo as props for his avatar.) But I do see a problem with them wanting us to get achievements for them. First of all, achievements aren't what playing games is about, at least that shouldnt be what its about. Its about the enjoyment and its also about the satisfaction of figuring out and getting past tougher areas on your own. That's why they are called "achievements" because you achieved these goals. Getting someone else to achieve them for you diminishes both the spirit of the game and the spirit of achievements. My kids along with countless others have fallen into this obsession with watching that number go up and this is a bad trend.
Instead of putting a game in the console and jumping into the action the first thing they do is go check out the list of achievements.

Our Wii gets the least amount of playtime, as it does apparently in most people's houses. Sometimes I wonder, is it because everyone is too lazy to move around while playing? Or is it because there are no achievements.
Yesterday my son was playing his DS and he comes running up to me to show me all the "medals" he had gotten so far in a game and to tell me all about the ones he was missing and how hard they were to get. I ask him what the game was about and he mumbled something about "penguins...do stuff...and...YOU GET MEDALS!!!"
The night before last everyone was playing DJ Hero 2, except me, cause I had a migraine and I was also busy  sucking at being stealthy in Deus Ex. For simplicity's sake everyone was playing under my husband's profile. My son was NOT happy with this at all, because he didn't get any achievements or unlock anything. He gave me his wide eyed sad puppy dog face and asked me if I would play under his profile the next day and unlock stuff for him...maybe get him an achievement or two. I can't resist the puppy dog look. He's like a walking Chibi, how can I say no to that mammoth head with big ole brown eyes and skinny little body. I just wanna squish him til he pops. So of course I said, "yeah, I'll do that."
The next day its 2 hours before he comes home from school and I still havent' gotten around to the game, so I drop what I'm doing and log in as him and start scratchin'.
I started playing, things in the game started unlocking, every so often that ding! went off and by the time I left to pick him up he had 6 achievements and I dont know what all unlocked in the game.
He gets in the car and I say "I played for you, got some stuff." His reply "How many achievements did you get? what did you unlock?" Both my daughters turned to him and said "uh, how about a thanks mom?" I said nothing and he says quietly "thanks mom." then adds "what did you get?" I told him I didn't know, I wasnt paying attention, I was just playing. And that's when it hit me, "Why am I encouraging and enabling this?" Of course hypocritical me immediately added "dammit, I got him all this stuff and achievements and I still haven't played under my name and so I have no achievements"
OH MY GOD! I think the achievement whoring is contagious and spreading fast!

Playing the PS3 everyone in my family, myself included has complained about the fact that in co-op games the second player can't sign in and therefore gets no trophies and how unfair that is. But should it really matter? I mean, what do I get besides a whole bunch of electronic trophies? Does it make the game any less fun because I dont get them? Or better because I do?
I remember reading an article long ago about a woman who had an insanely high gamerscore, and she described how she got to that score. Through legitimate gameplay, yes but also by buying and playing games like "High School Musical Sing It" and then holding the mic up to the radio. By buying and playing mediocre games just to get the achievements, and then trading them for other mediocre games with other gamerscore padding people. I can't help but think this incredibly pathetic and also...a little disturbing. Is having a high gamerscore worth all this effort?  And how can you be proud of something you didnt even achieve?
Achievements were put into games to encourage gamers to stick it out til the end, to be that motivational sticker you got in grade school. You know, the little foil stars the teachers would put on your test paper when you got an A. A small ego boost, maybe even some bragging rights but, not the end all, be all of gaming.

Achievements fall into that place, the one where competitive sports and activities fall into. That place where you wanna win and you want to point out you won, but you have to be careful not to end up more obsessed with the winning than the doing. Its that bad cliche "its not whether you win or lose its how you play the game".
So how do you counter achievement obsessing?  Because lets be honest...How many people that say it, truly believe it isnt about whether you win or lose and who doesn't feel a little superior when they have a higher gamerscore than their friend or sibling? Competition is good, it motivates...Taken too far though, it divides.

Short and sweet--never the case.

Ever notice that whenever I say I'm gonna be brief I end up writing an essay? Why is that? I usually set out with some sort of point to make, but I'm like a 3 year old, shiny things distract me. Even with my insanely verbose posts I usually notice after the fact things that I've forgotten to say that I had planned to-*ooh pretty butterfly*
...
...
Where was I?
Right, things i forget to say. What did I forget this time? Not much really, I mean I could talk more about Deus Ex, gameplay, dialogue, story, whatever, but, no, can't say I had anything planned that I didnt cover. I just feel chatty, that's all.

Life is somewhat quiet now with the kids back at school and I can focus on my stuff for a change, well somewhat. First week of school is always a little hectic.

my *tentative* plan is to play more games, attempt to go back to my drawing and painting a bit and write more often. But how many times have I made that plan..The best laid plans...and all that rot.

So, lets just say that I'll be randomly popping in here and randomly writing random things.

Since i'm here, what the hell, I might as well write about what this blog was originally named for. Being a mom gamer and trying to raise a gaming family.

Over the summer I've bought many games, Lord I dont think I could list them all if I tried. Those damn Steam sales get me every time. I've expanded my tiny PS3 collection a bit as well. I think I'm at about 20 PS3 games or so.
I've probably mentioned my console collection before but who knows where in this unorganized mess of a blog that info is, so I'll run through the console collection really quick here.

So I'll try to put them in age order as best as I can recall.

Atari 2600
(1)Colecovision
NES
Sega MasterSystem
Sega Genesis
N64
Playstation 1
Gamecube
Playstation 2 (x2 one slim, one original)
Xbox360 (x2)
Playstation 3
Wii

and also a healthy amount of handhelds

Gamboy (can't seem to recall where it is)
Gameboy color (still works but I lost the battery cover)
GBA (x2)
DSLite (x6, 2 of them broken and I've never gotten around to fixing them)
PSP (my pride and joy a GOW edition)

And of course my PC and Droid phone

I don't include the kiddie consoles because those are pretty much nothing but dust gatherers now that my kids are older.

Long ago I bought a Sega Dreamcast at launch but someone sold it. My goal is to buy a Dreamcast and an original Xbox. Why? just because, and there are some games I'd like to play on both.

As far as owning games, I own a decent amount for each of the above mentioned consoles and if you include emulator roms, my game collection is probably somewhere above the 5k mark.

This might sound "braggy" but that wasnt my  intent, my point is to emphasis the importance of gaming in my life and my family's.
We have...options, many many options. something for everyone. As my kids get a little older, their skills and taste both keep evolving and its interesting to watch them come into their own in gaming.

My oldest daughter, (2)Ghanima1999 (To protect the innocent I refer to them by their gamertags) started her gaming life with a (3)V-smile, It was a good little starter console, lots of game choices, and they were cute, fun and educational. When a handheld V-smile was released, we purchased one as well, sadly it did not live long. Electronics and juice dont mix.
As she got older it was passed down to her sister and then her little brother but by then, it was about to give up the ghost so we upgraded to the (4)V-Flash for her, it was supposed to be the "middle child of sorts. It was designed for kids a little older than the V-smile but not ready for a "big" console. For her siblings we purchased a (5)V-motion, an even kiddier than the Wii motion controlled console. Neither of these lasted long, She had discovered the joys of the DS, PSP and Xbox360.
She started off with the requisite "girly" games, the Imagine series, Hannah Montana, the usual fluff. But gradually she started to branch out to games Like Soul Calibur and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and the like.
She's 12 now, in that nightmare tween stage (buts thats a whole 'nuther game) and her game choices have grown with her. Recently we started a Co-op game of Sacred 2 and as she likes to rub in my face, she has more achievements than me in Fallout 3. She leans towards WRPGs and shooters these days.

Her sister, Waterfalls2001, is a more complex gaming animal to describe. After running the kiddie console gauntlet she too graduated to the "big" consoles. At the start she was big on playing DS games, mostly games based on animals, not so much the Nintendogs type but more the Animal Genius games (animal genius is a trivia game of sorts, you play minigames and answer questions about animals to unlock new animals and locations). Her second main game type were platformers, Mario, Donkey Kong and such. Being the tomboy type I fully expected her to soon become as big a gamer as me, but I was wrong. One day, she just stopped playing. She'd occasionally bring out the DS and play a little Pokemon and such but she never touched any other console and never expressed much of an interest in gaming.
Curious as to why she suddenly just quit gaming, I asked her one day. before I share my findings, I want to say that growing up an only child I can't say I understand sibling rivalry all that well. Her main reason for not playing games was her sister. Both my girls are extremely competitive, especially with each other and Ghani being the older one, she usually has the upper hand in games as far as skills and hand-eye coordination. This wouldnt be a big deal if she weren't a hyper-critical sore winner. With her little sister's hot temper and impatience, their game playing session always became a civil war.
Rather than deal with her sister's taunts and ridicule and never being that into games to begin with, she just stopped playing.
She's 10yrs old now and she's starting to experiment with different game genres to see what suits her. Always the animal games but also a lot of music and action games. She enjoyed playing Vanquish quite a bit and she plays Audiosurf and Toki tori every so often among others.
These days she's tentatively approached gaming again. Just like her sister I have begun co-op game of Sacred 2 with her and she plays LBP, Modnation Racers and Mortal Kombat every so often. She's rediscovering gaming and finding that, as long as she isnt playing with Ghani, she likes it.

My son, He's a typical boy, loves cars and racing games. Flatout, Burnout, Need for Speed, Blur, that's his bread and butter. He's also the only person in this house who seems to be able to play through a Lego game.
Being only 7 he's just now branching out to more complex games, such as Fallout 3 and New Vegas (he blew up Megaton and sided with Caesar...evil little monkey lol).
I wont go through it again,since I have talked about it many times  but Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts are his staple games. Scribblenauts helped him improve his spelling and reading immensely (if you'd like to read about Scribblenauts and Sapito2004 just hit up the Scribblenauts tag on the side yonder -->) and they've kept him out of my hair for many hours (kidding, he's a good kid).
Games like Fallout are still a bit challenging for him due to the amount of reading and to some degree gaming skills needed to get through much of the game. I think he picked up playing "older" games not only because he loves games but because he didnt want to be left behind by his sisters. He's getting pretty good though he can't beat me at Mortal Kombat, hehe.

One thing all my children share is a love of music. To that end we play many many music games. Mostly Lips and Singstar (I think I own like 6 or 7 Singstar games) but the family has been known to come together and rock out a bit with Guitar Hero, Band Hero and Rockband. We make my husband play drums because we all suck at them, lol.
Recently, ok this weekend, DJ Hero 2 was on sale for $20 and I asked my husband if he'd pick it up for me since he was out. He didnt understand why I would want the game but, he got it anyway. When he brought it home no one seemed remotely interested in unboxing the damn thing, let alone play it. But, I set it up and gave Sapito first crack sat it. As soon as he saw his avatar spinning he loved it, but he was dead set on playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance and so he didnt spin much. Everyone took their turns and no one wanted to stop. I discovered I'm an idiot savant of DJ Hero, no one has been able to beat my score on Bad Romance, though my husband is making it his personal mission.

My kids, like my husband know that gaming is my hobby and my passion and they take it in stride. The kids tend to tease me when a week or two go by and I haven't bought another game to add to the collection. We game together,we game solo and I encourage them to try out new games often. We talk a lot about games and gaming news. I keep them up to date on what's coming out and when etc. We play games and we discuss them .As I've said in the past, I'm pretty laid back about what games they play. I take the same approach to gaming as I do anything else related to my kids. I believe that knowing your kids, and encouraging dialogue ranks a lot higher than a games ESRB rating. Yes, I let my kids play Mature games and we talk about them. I know many would disagree with me but, that's my own personal stand on kids and M rated games, at least my stand on my kids and M rated games.

While my kids take my gaming in stride, to them I'm "mom", not "gamer mom". However, to their friends I'm the "gamer mom" and Its something that my kids are proud of (after all, you dont want your parents to be embarassing dorks, right?) but at the same time, its something that sometimes causes, not so much drama, as much as a little annoyance and sometimes embarassment. One such moment occured with Ghani's best friend. upon getting to know me, she would hang out with me more than Ghani and when her mom came to get her she asked her mom why she couldnt be as cool as Ghani's mom, because Ghani's mom games and hangs out with them.
Being a parent and a gamer also leads to a lot of other parents looking down at me, or being critical of how I'm raising my children. The stigma attached to video games is definitely a problem. Some people can't reconcile that I can be both a gamer and a good parent. But luckily being a basement dwelling, Dorito and Coke snacking gamer I dont have much interaction with other parents and that suits me and my family just fine.


(1)for those that don't remember this console or have never heard of it,this is what it looks like:

(2)Ghanima was a name I used often on gaming sites long long ago, I have since hen switched to Sihaya. My daughter has somehow inherited the name as she follows in my footsteps. Its fitting, after all Sihaya was Ghanima's mother in the Dune series.

(3)V-smile:

(4)V-Flash:

(5)V-Motion:

All nighters and dammit give me my smurfin' phone back!

   So as usual. I forget to update this damn thing. Its not that I don't want to, its not that I don't have stuff to write about, its that I'm a lazy procrastinator. Not only that but, for some reason no one needs me until I either sit down to write or decide to draw.
  So lets see...where to start..its been a while and there's so much....

  Ok, well lets start with games I've been playing.
  When last I posted I was playing Gears 2 and had started Bulletstorm among other games. Well I did manage to complete both of those. YAY! I actually finished Bulletstorm in one sitting on a Saturday. Man I laughed so damn hard I almost cried. Definitely a game worth renting. I still stand by my conclusion that it isnt worth $60 but, from the bargain bin? or a rental? Hell yeah. "Sushi Dick" is actually one of my favorite sayings now, its even better than "Dick Tits". You know, for all the hype about the games language...it was really not all that bad. Honestly, there was only one part of the dialog that bothered me...at one point Grayson says "Super Duper. Color me Jubilant" and I couldn't help but wonder... "Jubilant? really? Scuzzy drunk space pirate...Jubilant?"  Yes, of all the offensive dialog, that was what bugged the hell out of me. Aside from that the game was pretty amusing, good for killing 6-8 hours.

  But, 6-8 hours, thats not exactly an all-nighter is it? No, that honor was reserved for Dragon Age: Origins. Coming off my victorious high from finishing Gears 1 & 2 and Bulletstorm, I decided I would make some progress in DA:O. What started as a little evening drooling over how dreamy Alistair is, became some driving need to get through the damn game already. Took me 20 hours straight, but I finished it. I killed that damn Archdemon. I felt triumphant joy for about 30 seconds, then I realized, "now I need to get through the DLC and the Expansion" I started the first DLC and realized I was all Dragon Age-ed out. Still havent gone back to it, though I need to because I am dying to play DA2. Maybe this week...maybe.
  Another game that keeps on racking the hours is Borderlands. According to Raptr I've put 353 hours into it so far, though I dont think thats exactly right since for a while I was playing  every night for hours and it didn't moved from 295. I'm not sure why I play so much Borderlands, it doesn't exactly have a riveting story. But damn if I'm not addicted to Mordecai's maniacal laugh.

   It hasn't all been game playing on my consoles. I've gone on many little shopping sprees as well. Recent additions to my library include God of War 3, Uncharted 2, Folklore, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Dynasty Warriors 7, Brotherhood of Steel, 123...kick it, Hoard, and plenty more that have completely slipped my mind. But much like an infomercial announcer...thats not all!
   Recently we have acquired an iPad. At first, it sat there in its box, looking pathetic and lonely. I tried to like it, but I couldn't, it seemed so pointless to me. I found some use for it looking up game guides while outside smoking, but, really, that wasn't exactly a good reason to fire up the iPad. (honestly, there really is no real reason to own one of these things). So i started messing around and downloaded a few games. Yes, Angry Birds was one of the first games I downloaded, followed by Fruit Ninja and...dare i admit it....Smurf Village. Suddenly I couldn't put the damn thing down. I quickly accepted that I sucked at Angry Birds, but I make a kick ass Fruit Ninja. The Smurfs are my gaming shame. I find it idiotic and dull. Its ridiculous that you either have to drop a wad of cash or wait an eternity for everything to finish, reset, be available for use. However, I can't help myself. I'm now at level 13 of this asinine game. I think I need professional help.

  Another recent acquisition was a new phone.
  Tired of my POS LG Neon turning itself off randomly and annoyingly. Especially mid text message. I decided it was time for an upgrade. I felt out of the technology loop so, I got an HTC Inspire. I love my phone...so...very...much.  I'm not sure how well it does with phone calls, but damn if I don't love playing with the thing. Sadly, my kids have realized that mommy has all sorts of games on her phone and if left unguarded, my phone will be found in tiny hands.

  So now I can expand my obsession with acquiring games to encompass the iPad and my Droid phone...But just to feel like I'm not just pointlessly wasting time slicing fruit every chance I get...I have books on them too...Currently I'm reading Tuck on the iPad. Its the final book in a trilogy about Robin Hood by Stephen Lawhead.(years ago he wrote a fabulous series of books about King Arthur called The Pendragon Cycle. I highly recommend it) and I'm about to start Journey to the West on my phone. Also, to live up to my name and as further proof of my obsession, I have the full collection of Dune books on both my phone and iPad. Along with the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. If you haven't read any of these books, read them! They are amazing.
  While the ipad has just become my pointless game timewaster, my phone has proven to be much more useful (still havent used it for calls much). I've started working out and watching my calories in an attempt to get myself in Bikini shape by this summer. Let me tell ya, I laughed when I first got my 5 minute ab workout app. I wasn't laughing so much afterward. I was too out of breath and aching to laugh. BRUTAL.
 
   Meanwhile my kids continue to make me proud of their gaming ways.

Sapito has an addiction to Borderlands almost as big as mine. He also has much love for Lego games. I swear, I suck at all those Lego games. Not him. He's finished Lego Star Wars on the PS2, PSP and DS more times than I can count. Same with Lego Indiana Jones 1 and 2 and Lego Batman. I recently bought him Lego Indy 1&2 and Batman for the 360. Also got him Lego Star Wars 3 on the PC. I thought he would explode from glee. He's anxiously awaiting the release of Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, and I must admit...I kinda am too. I love me some Jack Sparrow, even if he's in Lego form. He gave Vanquish a good try and lately he's been going around kicking all our asses at Marvel Vs Capcom 3 and Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe. (he loves rubbing it in that he beat me with my favorite character every time he wins with Wesker)

Ghani, is more quirky in her gaming choices.She has the Borderlands bug as well, but she also loves to rack up hours in Fallout New Vegas. We both share much love for Boone. Though I admit, I might love him just a tad more. She's played a bit of Bulletstorm and Call of Duty Black Ops but her real love is The Sims 3. I am not a Sims person but, whatever floats her boat.

Falls, is the least gaming oriented one. She can go weeks without touching a single game. She gave Vanquish a try and liked it ok, but it didnt really grab her. She likes playing Fruit Ninja a lot and something called Pocket Frogs on the ipad. (they all love that frog game).

I could write so much more but the natives are restless and I cant concentrate anymore. I'll try to be a little more regular is my updates.

Games are making me a hypocrite

So, I've been thinking about all the stuff I want to write about and all the things I could write about and realized...I still love the name of my blog, but I don't talk about the kids all that much, do I? I decided that I'd look at whats going on between our family and games.

How my opinions and viewpoints and feelings on certain points have been utterly knocked on their ass by my opinions and views on games and game content. I'm actually sorta amazed at how well my kids have managed to make sense of all of my contradictory statements and I have to blush at my inconsistencies. Yet another instance where I underestimate the tiny humans' ability to comprehend and catalog.

Right now I'm working on lining up some of the games that my family not only play often but that REALLY show the confused mentality that goes on in my tiny head.
Honestly, if a game loving person like me that plays a wide range of games on multiple platforms and that takes pride in teaching the next generation of gamers has a hard time reconciling some of the actions and concepts I condone in games that I condemn in reality and wonder how my children are going to "get" what I'm saying, its no wonder that people outside of gaming have a hard time with the little bits of information on gaming out there, and are quick to raise an outcry of "Obscene" "Violent" and "think of the children!".

I'm gonna be a busy girl for a while...so much back-logged work and ideas...and so much stuff lying around I can't actually see my desk..but give me time, I'll sort it all out.

Gaming Paralysis

I play in bursts, at least I do on consoles.
   My handhelds are never too far away from my hands with hundreds of games ready and waiting. Whether its a bit of Sudoku while I wait for my kids to get out of school or go out for a smoke, or a little Force choking of Wookies between commercials. I can't really think of a single day that I haven't turned on either my DS, GBA or PSP.

However, when it comes to consoles, its a totally different story.
   I always blamed it on a variation of the common female illness "Too many clothes in the closet and nothing to wear."  If you're female, this illness has struck you many times, its a quiet and sneaky illness that does not discriminate against age. My daughters have been struck with this illness often, particularly when there's a party to go to and they are not even in their teens yet. 
   I'm still trying to find a way to nicely throw away my husbands clothing so I can fit all of mine in the closet. (If you're reading this honey...I'm just kidding!!! but could we knock down a wall or 2?) From evening gowns to bedazzled Yoga pants, I have clothes for every occasion...but I never have anything to wear.
   So, when I would find myself staring at my xbox or ps2 forelornly for 15 minutes and then finally sighing and walking away. I just figured that my female illness extended to gaming as well. I mean, if you've been keeping up with my posts (and if you haven't I'll cry and demand you do) you've seen my massive To-do List of games. (oh and just to throw in a little more for you to mock...I still haven't finished Castlevania64) A list like that is enough to make anyone indecisive. But  as I sat here rereading my posts I realized something, something I mentioned at the beginning of this post....
     What was this glorious Epiphany?

My handhelds are never too far away from my hands with hundreds of games ready and waiting. Whether its a bit of Sudoku while I wait for my kids to get out of school or go out for a smoke, or a little Force choking of Wookies between commercials. I can't really think of a single day that I haven't turned on either my DS, GBA or PSP.
 
 With that small paragraph I just beat down my own explanation of console neglect. If I have all these games for my handhelds and I play at least one of my handhelds everyday, obviously I have no problem choosing a game, right?
  So what is it that causes me to neglect my consoles? What makes me break out in cold sweat when I reach out to press that big button? (aside from the obvious fear that my console will Red Ring....yeah, I went there.)

Fear of  commitment and a little laziness.
    
   I know, laziness , that makes sense, that's believable, but fear of commitment? I mean, their games, not a date. Though I've read about people marrying their games. I'm not into bigamy, especially with inanimate objects.
  But really, if you stop and think about it and give me a minute to explain, it will make perfect sense.

   Games these days, they are HUGE. Granted that back in the days when I played Donkey Kong games never ended, however, they were just the same 3 levels over and over and over again til it became so fast you spazzed out and died. GAME OVER. No deep story, no playing for 10 hours before you know what the hell is going on. Just jump in with your  3 lives and see how long you last.  Not these days, when even a handheld game can last 20 hours.

  I have 3 kids, a husband and a lot of reruns to watch on TNT. Not to mention all the internet surfing I need to get done. I am also  predisposed to play games full of emo girly-men wearing lots of zippers and belts. This means that any game I choose to play will take more time to finish than the average work week. It also means that when I'm not playing it, my little brain will be smoking as it tries to make sense of the jibberish the emo boys spouted the last time I played and I try to calculate how many hours I have left til the end where hopefully it will all make sense, if I'm lucky AND I still remember what they said 25 hours ago.
  With all this in mind, I know any game I choose will take up a WHOLE LOTTA TIME. Not only time, but also thought, oh, and a very comfortable place for me to park my ass during those neverending, un-pausable, un-skippable cutscenes.
  Now think back...3 kids...3 kids...they must be fed, they must be nursed when sick, helped with homework, and taken to separate corners when they decide to have a battle royale. Don't misunderstand....I LOVE doing all that. Which is why I find myself hesitating most of the time when I decide to fire up a game.
   It wasn't always this way. When I first started gaming I stuck to smack talking pretty boys with reasonably short cutscenes and adventures, such as the Prince of Persia and Dante son of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda (sorry felt the need to throw that in..also, you think Sparda got tired of explaining to people that he wasn't THAT Dark Knight?).
  Then I discovered Oblivion (what an apt name). I sank HOURS into that game, I spent more time on that game than I think I had collectively spent on all the games I had played since I got my Colecovision in the very early 80's. I never did finish the game, I was having too much fun running around looking at the scenery and commiting suicide off the top of my Wizard Tower.
   When I came out of my Oblivion Fugue I felt really guilty for getting so engrossed in the game for so long. Which I think has led to my gaming paralysis.
  Its a combination of the fear of getting sucked into a game for untold hours and another fear that makes me feel even more guilty....fear of interruption.
  I don't want to be distracted in the middle of an endless boss fight where if I die I'll have to go through another 15 minute cutscene before I try again. I don't want to miss a cutscene of emo boys ranting because if I do, I might miss the one sentence of coherent sense in the whole damn game.
   So there you have it. I fear the distraction of gaming that pulls me away from my family and a fear of my family distracting me from my gaming. Total Impasse.
    Now, I could play during the day when I'm home alone but I usually end up wasting my day on the pc, or reading or watching reruns. Next thing I know, its time to pick up the kids. Not to mention that I encourage them to play as well and a lot of times I defer my consoles to them.
    
   Eventually, I know, I'll get over it and finally finish a game, but, probably no time soon. In the meantime, I keep buying games I never play and watching my kids get better and better at gaming. I can live with that. 

We interrupt you're regularly scheduled program....

in order to post about the cuteness that is my son...

   So everyone thinks their kids are the cutest and the smartest, I know this, however, my kids are the cutest and the weirdest.

   I was playing Fallout 3 while my son watched and advised me last night. NO, really, he was explaining things to me and telling me what I should do next. As if I didn't say this enough, I just want t0 say he's 5, 5 almost 6 acts like he's 3 most of the time, except when it comes to video games. 

  He likes Fallout but due to the fact he can't read (well he can read like kindergarten books but that doesn't really count) he can't play so he is forced to just watch and play vicariously through his sisters and me.  

   Last night I fast traveled to, oh I don't even remember where, point is I had been there before. When I got there I got manhandled by some raiders. I yell at the TV (I do this A LOT) "WTF, didn't I kill you A-holes before?! My son doesn't miss a beat and says to me (in a tone of voice suggesting I'm a moron and a noob) "Mom, maybe the level reset, so now you have to kill them again." How very perceptive of him.

  Later I'm out collecting loot for profit and fun and I comment "I've gotta go to megaton soon." He replies, "yeah or you're going to get over encumbered."  The boy used the word "Froken" for "Broken" til last year and he still refers to cars as "car cars" most of the time, however he can say "over encumbered" AND knows what it means?

  After telling him he's adorable and poking him in the tummy to make him giggle for a while I continue onward in my adventures through the wasteland. As I hung out somewhere south of Raven Rock I apparently was wearing Scorpion pheremones because every damn Radscorpion in the game seems to have decided to come give me some luvin'.  As I spazz out and try to run and gun and stimpak myself as fast as possible my son says to me "use the Flamer you need to Flamer them, they don't like fire" I ignored him because he has a bizarre obsession with the flamethrower, but as I continue to get scorpion-handled I decide, "well, can't hurt" and started spraying fire like a madwoman. Wasn't I surprised when they dropped dead after a few seconds. My son of course looked over at me again, completely exasperated and at the same time smug and says "See mom, I told you to use the flamer. I was right."
  Yeah yeah you little smart ass...

   So, instead of  a strategy guide or a wiki, I will have my son sit with me and walk me through games because apparently, he is smarter than me and an idiot savant at fallout 3.
   

Bayonetta- The hair that launched 3 Xbox Profiles

   As I'm sitting here at my desk watching Supernatural reruns and perusing my favorite sites my son is in my bedroom playing Bayonetta.
    So, I guess the first question to come to mind is, "Why is my son home from school?" He's got a cold. Second question. "How old is he?" He's 5 1/2. I guess that brings another question on, "Why is he playing Bayonetta!?" Because in this house we prefer discussion, education and interaction to prohibitions and dances around subjects. Make of that what you will.
    But I digress, this is not intended to be another of my super long rants but a medium length commentary on the game Bayonetta. Not a review, mind you but a sort of Impressions/Reactions type thing.
     The firs time I heard of Bayonetta was in an issue of "EGM". The thought of heel guns and hair attacks made me giddy and I waited anxiously for the game. I knew it would be a total day 1 purchase for me, just as I knew DMC4 would be a day one purchase.
     I did get DMC4 on day one and truly regret spending the $60 on it. You would think that disappointment in one over the top stylized free for all with a smack talkin' main character would cure my enthusiasm for another. Instead, just the opposite happened, I clung to the hopes of awesomeness to get over the let down of DMC4.
    As we all know gaming is an expensive hobby. consoles, accessories, games, DLC it adds up and these days times are pretty hard. Sadly, we've felt the financial hits as well so I've had to seriously scale back my game buying. One of the things this means is that I wait for price drops or buy games used, its gotta be a  really fabulous game to get me to pay full price. Hell I just got Fallout 3 for Christmas this year because I couldn't bring myself to buy it full price.
   So, unfortunately, on day one, I was not able to buy Bayonetta. Two days later, post-payday I was able to buy it, brand spankin' new, all covered in shrink rap and hug it all the way home.
  
   Normally, whenever I buy a game one of a few things happens:

• I read the manual and then put the game away for later.
• I pop it in to make sure the disk works (if I bought it used) and then put it away
• I decide to actually play it and everyone leaves the room. They might pop in for a few minutes just to see, but no one stays.
• my  husband stays to make fun of the game and then fall asleep 15 minutes into it. 9Oh the memories of Oblivion...)
  

    This time it was none of the above. I did read the manual but then I put the game in and started playing, everyone stopped to check it out and an hour later were still there.
     My husband not only managed to stay awake the whole time, he was actually disappointed when I decided to quit for the night. (He even finished a boss for me when my hand cramped so bad I couldn't press the buttons)
    My daughters were enthralled with Bayonetta. They think she's beautiful and graceful, they love the hair, the clothes...ok, I guess that falls under hair..the guns, the ass kickings and the attitude. Oh yeah and the break dancing. Everyone loves the break dancing.
     My son, well he likes Bayonetta for the obvious reasons, she's hot and she loses most of her clothes  quite often. Oh yeah and the hair dragon thingie, he loves that hair dragon a lot.
      While I played, my oldest daughter asked me shyly..."Mom, do you think we could play this some time?" 
        A couple of days after that I made my daughters' their own profiles and my oldest started playing Bayonetta. sure she's playing on Easy but she's gotten farther in than I have. Her sister hasn't had a chance to play yet but she's got her profile ready to play this weekend, and my son has his own profile which he's using to play right now. Granted none of their profiles are connected to Live, nor will they be, but aside from that they are "official" on my 360. They really like the fact that they now have their own profiles and that when they unlock achievements their score goes up, plus they don'thaveto worry about messing up my save.
        I'm actually surprised at how well both my daughter and my son play. Of course my son calls me to fight the bosses for him but even still, he does pretty well. He even figured out how to go to the shop and bought himself lollipops and techniques. and my daugher? forget about it, she's better at stringing combos than I am.
         My husband is even considering playing Bayonetta after seeing how much fun we are all having, not to mention the awesomely gorgeous graphics and the crazy combos and moves.
           I really can't find a single flaw in this game, except maybe the fat that Jeanne has a hideous outfit.
       Wow, I did not intend to make this so long. Well that's it for now.

Disco a go go Baby!

Video Games | Bayonetta | Accolades Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Kids and Gaming Part 2

My Kids are Game Addicts and I'm ok with that.

Perhaps I never should have been a parent because I'm the kind of parent most parents HATE.
When my kids were 2 months old I started putting a little cereal in their bottle at night so they would sleep through the night (and they did). At 3 months old I fed them baby food. As soon as they got their first teeth I was feeding them Rice and Beans. I think my oldest had her first slice of Pizza before she turned 1.

This attitude spread to other things as they got older. I actively encouraged my kids to watch TV. Barney, The Rugrats, Dora the Explorer, and everything in between on PBS and Nickelodeon as they got older then they added Cartoon Network.
I always heard people saying you shouldn't let your kids watch TV when they are little, and you should read to them every night and blah blah blah. But me, I don't listen, I let them watch TV, LOTS of TV.

My oldest daughter is now 10. When she was 1 she would talk your ear off telling you stories. When she was 2 she would tell EVERYONE she ran into stories (including embarrassing ones about grandma needing to go potty, but that’s a story for later). One day I was in a a waiting room and my daughter was walking around yapping to anyone and another mom leans over and asks me how old she is. I tell her a little over 2. She looks at me with surprise and says, "My goodness, she speaks so well and in full sentences! My daughter is the same age and only says a few basic words like 'ball' 'mama' and 'cookie'. I don't know what the problem is I NEVER let her watch TV and I read to her all the time. How did you teach your daughter so much so fast”?
I looked at her and said "TV. She watches LOTS of TV." The mom gave me a tight smile and and then turned away and didn't speak to me again.

What does this have to do with games? I'm getting there.

When I was a kid my dad got me a Colecovision followed by an Atari 2600. I played a little here and there but I was more into books and Barbie dolls. Eventually my dad bought me an NES and a Sega master System. I still didn't really care; I was still into Barbies and books.

When I was 17 I bought myself a gameboy, mostly out of curiosity. I fell in love with Link's Awakening and Stargate. But it was something I played once in a blue moon, and then I forgot about it.

When I was 20 I played the N64 for the first time and I finished Mario64 and bought Ocarina of Time when it came out. I tore through Ocarina of Time and bought Majora's Mask. I hated it and as quickly as I had started playing I stopped.

Life went on, Games came and went, and I didn't care. Then the gamecube came out and new Zelda games. I remembered how much I loved my GB and N64 Zelda games and asked my husband for a Gamecube for Christmas. He had asked me for a PS2 for Christmas. Before meeting me my husband was into playing Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat and football games.

So that Christmas He got his PS2 and I got my Gamecube, I was happy with my gamecube and he was happy with his PS2 and neither one touched the others console. Then I saw Prince of Persia Sands of Time. I bought it for the PS2 and the first time I put it in the console, that console became mine...all mine.

Games became a huge part of my life, I fell in love and I started collecting and playing A LOT.
Being a hoarder I still had every console I had ever owned and their games so I went back and played some old stuff as well.

Now I'm 32, I own tons of consoles and handhelds. I collect games and action figures, I write game reviews for the library system's Teen Blog in my town. And I encourage game play in my family.

A few years back Vtech came out with a console for kids, the V-Smile. Gaming and education, sounded good to me. I bought my kids one for Christmas and they loved it, they would play for hours. The next Christmas, I got them the V-Flash; it was another learning console, a step up from the V-smile, a sort of educational starter Playstation. By the time I got it though my girls had moved on to PS2 and Gamecube, but my son Loved playing the V-Tech consoles.

By the time birthdays rolled around they all wanted GBAs. And there we go. I had turned my kids into gamers. I was so proud! My husband was sort of amused by my glee. I swore up and down that gaming was good for them; he just smiled at me and shook his head slowly.
From Gameboys they graduated to DSs and borrowing my PSP. Each one has a clear gaming identity as well.

My oldest daughter likes Girly games. Makeups, animals, dress up and she also likes JRPGs.
My middle child, an 8-year-old girl is a bit harder to place. She can play the dress up thing and she loves cooking mama and animal games but she's not above a little Zombie shooting in House of the Dead.
My son...My son... Before I talk about him let me just throw in that I even got my mom into games. She loves Wii sports and good lord you should hear her smack talk while playing Soul Calibur. (Her favorite is SC 3 because she likes the character creation. She has a shirtless Ninja she named Jackie Chan)
Ok back to my son.

My son is a 5-year-old MAN. The boy LOVES girls and cars. So I started him with racing games. (By the way he is quite proficient at Midnight Club 3, except he needs a stack of books to reach the pedals.)
From racing games he moved on to Mario games and His favorite "Drawn to Life Spongebob edition".

Recently Scribblenauts came out and I got it for the girls and myself. I didn't bother getting it for my son because at 5 he really can't read very well...actually he's having a lot of trouble at school.
I got their progress reports right before thanksgiving and besides having a fan club of girls, he also likes to throw things at people who annoy him and ignore the teacher, and he also has trouble with reading and writing. I have been stressed and worried about it for days. Then it happened....
We were watching TV and he was a scribblenauts commercial. He said, "I wanna play that" I said, "but sweetie you can't read" He looked so dejected so I figured what the heck, let him try and I'll help him along.

It’s been 2 days since he started playing; He's already learned to spell about 10 words. The first night we sat together and he would tell me what he wanted, I would spell it for him, he'd type it and then he would squeal with glee when his items appeared on screen.
Of course, as much as I enjoyed playing it with him, I can't sit all day doing it so I decided to make him a "cheat sheet" I wrote out in all caps the things he had asked to make the most and I gave it to him. I read each word to him and told him if he needed more words then he could come to me and I'd add them to the list.
I started with about 10 words and now I'm on page 2 and he's spelling words on his own! He doesn't actually play the game he just stays at the beginning screen making things and seeing what happens when they interact.

Brain Age, Style Savvy, Scribblenauts and so many other games are teaching my kids so many things, helping them learn without them even realizing it. Heck even the JRPGs have helped my daughter immensely. Unlike me, my daughter has never cared for reading, what she doesn't realize is that while playing JRPGs she's reading so much text her reading has improved immensely and she's enjoying it.

Like me, my kids carry their DSs wherever they go; they play every chance they get. When they aren't playing DS they're playing any of the other consoles we own. We play Guitar Hero together and Singstar. We play Champions of Norrath and we teach them how to cooperate, how to share the spoils they pick up, how much money they need for an item, and which weapon is better between the weapon with a high attack and one with a lower attack but +20 Lightning Damage.
I encourage their game play, I buy them as many games as I can afford. I teach them how to play mine or sit in and watch.

Recently my 10yr old started to play Oblivion...I'm so proud.

I don't know if I'm a good parent or not. I know a lot of people wouldn't approve of how much TV they watch and Games they play. Maybe they're right, I don't know. All I know is that my daughters are both straight A/B students. They have a huge vocabulary, and know Cloud is overrated as a Hero. All three of them also know all the words to "Still Alive"
Oh and in the time it took me to type this, I'm on page 3 of words for my son.

I think any game can be educational to a certain extent if you talk about it to your kids and encourage them to ask questions (and you answer them honestly).
Perceptions and Misconceptions about games runs rampant but slowly people are realizing the good they can do.

East Side High in New York has discovered that Beaterator is a wonderful digital music tool and will be implementing it in their music program. The Japanese already use DSs in the classroom and my son is learning to read and spell thanks to Scribblenauts and learning faster than he has learned anything since school started.

So my kids game A LOT and I am damn proud of that.

The media and people at large attack gaming constantly. It teaches Violence, it makes kids lazy and unhealthy, it causes addiction.

I say it teaches hand eye coordination, cooperation, sometimes a touch of history, math, reading, encourages artistic expression, relieves stress and is just plain fun.

By the textbook definition I guess they are addicts, sometimes gaming for most of the day. However, I have yet to find how this has impacted them negatively.


Oh yeah, You can hear my ridiculous voice below. I sound like I'm 12 and have laryngitis lol