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Posts with tag what-they-play

What They Play tours parents through Liberty City


Two weeks later and it seems Grand Theft Auto IV has yet to lose its luster.

What They Play has become a well known source of information for parents that strive to involve themselves in their children's favorite hobby. While the site has been an important voice against gaming detractors for some time, its cause has become even more relevant since the release of Rockstar's epic journey and subsequent tar & feathering.

In a continuing series of written facts and video examples, What They Play has compiled everything parents will need to examine before they allow their children near GTA IV. Videos outlining the extent of gunplay, language and sexual content found in the game are a handful of examples that can be found on the parent focused website.

While the feature and site has proven to be an important source of information, we hope the future of What They Play includes expanding into other languages to keep the parental knowledge base on an even "playing field" across the globe.

What They Play is holding a giveaway

In an effort to bridge the gap between hardcore gamers, casual gamers and the adults who are responsible for said gamers but aren't in touch with the gaming culture, Microsoft partnered with the family gaming program called What They Play. A program that promotes family gaming, safe gaming, care, understanding, love, blah, blah, blah. All you really need to know is that they're giving away Xbox 360 hardware, an HDTV, a couple copies of Scene It? and a few t-shirts. So, make your way over to What They Play, enter the giveaway by June 10th and as an added bonus, they'll even send you a Family Gaming Starter Kit if you wish. We know we'd be more inclined to invite our parents into our GTAIV game session if Microsoft were to give us a new HDTV and 360 Elite. Wouldn't you?

Ten Things parents need to know about Xbox Live


The argument that video games are destroying today's youth reminds us of the movie Footloose. In the Kevin Bacon defining role, a few teenagers are tragically killed when their speeding car crashes. Since the teens were listening to rock 'n' roll music during the accident the town blames the event on rock and bans it. When the gaming industry is blamed for all the tragedy that happens today, someone needed to step up and help educate parents on the content of games. Enter, What They Like Inc. and their first venture, WhatTheyPlay.com. Spearheaded by former 1UP editorial director John Davison, WTP attempts to educate parents on the industry, the ratings system and what games are appropriate for their kids.

In a recent feature, WTP lists the ten things parents should know about Xbox Live, the online gaming service for the Xbox 360. Some telling points made include:
  • Restricting voice chat to avoid hearing uncensored language
  • Using the Family Timer feature to restrict play times
  • Using Xbox.com to customize account settings and check what games are being played
This is an incredible tool for parents to use and while much of this information is obvious to our well informed readers we'd urge anyone looking for more details on the service to read the feature. The saddest part about this is the voice chat restriction. We constantly fight other industries that degrade our own and while we'll defend gaming till the day we die, we have a hard time arguing that we're all just fun-loving normal people when nonsense is constantly happening. But hey, maybe we're just a a bunch of hippies.

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