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15 Minutes of Fame: Road warrior dad keeps up with son via WoW
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. By now, most of us know somebody or have at least heard of somebody in an extended family that stays close by gaming together. Fact is, we can't really think of a better way to strengthen family ties across the miles. We all know that common interests are the mortar in a thriving relationship, and we know that kids open up with long-distance relatives most easily when the pressure's not on them to conversationally "perform." When you game with family across the miles, you share a real-time hobby with all the attendant chatter, enthusiasm and companionship that naturally comes along. Meet Golis, aka Blaine Sundrud. The 40-year-old traveling sales engineer spends a huge portion of his life on the road -- so he's turned to WoW to help keep in touch with his teenage son. "We have been able to use our time in game to eliminate the fact that I am in a hotel in Florida while he is still home in Utah," he explains. "We get on a phone call (hooray for free long-distance) and can just talk and fool around for the evening." The family connection doesn't end there. "Combine that with the fact that my parents (who live in Pennsylvania) play on the same server (both of them)," Golis continues. "While they are not the WoW addicts that my son and I are, we can usually count on a couple times a month conferencing them in on our call, and the four of us can go instancing, fishing, or just generally looking at the scenery. Due to the cost of travel, my son probably sees his grandparents in person once a year. Thanks to WoW, he has been able to get to know and play with them as if they just lived over the river and through the woods."
EA Family Play commercial is pretty funny
The latest commercial pushing the "Family Play" aspect of EA's sports titles is actually pretty good. Just the sight of an old lady screaming "This is my house!" is enough to send us into giggling fits. We don't know how family-friendly the games themselves are, but we can see this marketing campaign being pretty effective.
EA Sports introduces kid-friendly waggle with "Family Play"
Never let it be said that EA can't innovate! Whatever we usually think of EA Sports, their new Family Play control system is really cool. Madden '08, NBA Live '08, and FIFA Soccer '08 will all include Wiimote-and-Nunchuk-based control schemes that will allow players to "take full control of the game"-- running, passing, kicking (not so much in NBA Live) and such. But they'll also include simplified Wiimote-only control schemes that reduce the games to Wii Sports-level . The controls become fully gestural, and the AI takes over some of the gameplay tasks that were previously yours. The coolest part? You can switch back and forth on the fly, just by plugging in or unplugging the Nunchuk. Even the method of choosing controls is streamlined. We are quite impressed.
