The High-Tech Zone: Making Video Games Part of Your Home Games Room

Then your kids ask for video games. It’s their room, too, after all, and they want to be able to invite their friends over. Plus, wouldn’t you rather have them at home than shuttling back and forth to the arcade?

Where do you start? Well, if you’re part of the Pong or Pac-Man generation—and that’s pretty much where your video game experience began and ended—brace yourself. The world of video gaming has changed drastically since Pong started the revolution in 1972, with video games now taking over the entertainment industry. And while the virtual reality feel of today’s games may be intimidating to those of us who remember slamming a joystick around to make PacMan chomp more dots, one thing remains the same: Video games are still fun to play, and they’re more addictive than ever.

They’re not just for kids

Keeping gaming safe In Canada and the U.S., video games are rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to guide buying decisions and ensure that games with mature content aren’t sold to children. Games are rated under the following headings: EC (Early Childhood; ages 3 and older) E (Everyone; ages 6 and older) E10+ (Everyone ages 10 and older) T (Teen; ages 13 and older) M (Mature; ages 17 and older) AO (Adults Only; ages 18 and older) RP (Rating Pending; awaiting rating from ESRB) For more information, log on to www.esrb.org. Microsoft’s XBox 360 also offers “family settings”—parental controls that allow parents to set permission levels for all users, both in terms of games to play on the home system and online access to (and from) the gaming community.

You might be doing this for the kids, but you’ll probably be surprised to discover (or rediscover) your own interest in today’s video games. In fact, many parents classify video games as “family friendly” entertainment. According to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC), 49 per cent of parents game with their kids on a regular basis.

A game for every player

Video games have traditionally been viewed as the territory of twenty-something males, but that demographic is starting to shift, due in part to the efforts of game developers to appeal to a wider audience.

Women of all ages represent a significant, mostly untapped market for the video game industry, and recognizing that the majority of females aren’t that interested in car chases or explosions, developers have introduced social simulation games like “The Sims,” which has sold more than 60 million copies since its introduction in 2000.

Hoping to capture some of the particularly elusive 40+ female market, game makers at this spring’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles unveiled a collection of titles based on popular TV shows, including “Desperate Housewives.” The game will allow players to become the newest housewife on Wisteria Lane, and the game’s outcomes will be determined by the player’s interaction with the show’s characters.

And for those of us who haven’t gamed since our PacMan days, the old classics are again available—in new, improved form or exactly as we remember them. Microsoft’s LiveArcade service offers downloadable versions of Frogger, PacMan, Pong and other classics at a minimal charge for XBox 360 owners.

PC or video game console?

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When it comes to playing video games, there are two distinct options: Play them on your personal computer or play them on your television using a video game console. Which option you choose has everything to do with how—and where—you intend to play the games.

If you’re a die-hard video gamer who plays frequently and who likes to play alone or against other gamers online, PC gaming is the way to go. The advantages to PC gaming include a much wider range of games and virtually unlimited possibilities when it comes to graphics quality (it all depends on how much you’re willing to invest in your computer system and its “graphics cards”).

For most games rooms and the average family user, however, video game consoles offer a number of distinct advantages:

• They’re more affordable than PC systems and games;
• They allow multiple users to play at the same time on the same console;
• Console games are typically easier to rent than PC games;
• Console games have a much smaller learning curve than PC games; and
• They connect to your television or your home theatre system, allowing you to play from the comfort of your rec room.

So unless you want to set up a PC in your games room and have players take turns playing, a console is likely to be your preferred option for home video gaming for the whole family.