How to avoid unpleasant surprises

Adults who are not familiar with video and computer games should be cautious about what they buy children this holiday season, says a video game specialist from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. "in a perfect world, video games would be rated in terms of content and complexity," maintains Samantha Blackmon, an assistant professor of English who studies representations of race and gender in video games.

"But the content of video games can be surprising. I recently played a football video game that was rated mature, which is similar to an R rating for a movie, and I never thought a football game would receive that kind of rating, but it did because of the foul language used by the commentator."

Blackmon points out that young children often will imitate the language they hear, while drawing conclusions about how they should see women and minorities represented in the games. "That's why it is important for adults to take an interest in the games children play," emphasizes Blackmon. "Plus, video games can be used as a teaching tool. In my house, we play games with closed captioning and turn the sound off. The subtitles not only improve reading comprehension, but also help with reading speed."

Here are some other buying tips:

* Visit the developer's website to view trailers for specific games. These trailers, just like for movies, will give you a good feel about the game.

* When at a gaming store, see if you can play the game or ask someone who works there to demonstrate it for you.

* Unless a child is going to be supervised, avoid role-playing games utilizing the Internet. You do not know what the other players are going to do, which can change the content very quickly.

* Even if buying a game for a specific teenager, be aware if there are other children in the house. Something may be suitable for a 17-year-old, but chances are the eight-year-old will be playing it, too.

* Pay attention to the video game rating system. It is more complicated than the motion picture code.

* Look for video games that involve puzzles or quests. These teach and offer logic challenges rather than just entertain.

* Before buying the latest system, make sure age-appropriate games are available for that console.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning