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Kaleidescape releases Cinema One DVD movie server, appeals to the toddler film buff set
Despite the legal hoopla related to its DVD ripping practices, Kaleidescape is still releasing high-end media servers designed to save the rich (and now their spawn) from the hassle of opening a movie box. The Cinema One is its latest and most affordable creation to date, but still costs a hefty $4,999. For the most part, the server is just a cheaper replacement to 2009's Mini System, that can store up to 225 DVDs or 2,500 CDs for instant access. It also sports the same hassle-free setup, but adds a new wrinkle in the form of kid-friendly features. Specifically, a junior remote is included in addition to the standard version, which triggers a simplified system UI anytime it's used. While we're all for toddlers being able to watch their favorite content too, at this price we'd have rather seen support for Blu-rays and dare we say Netflix streaming. Then again, we aren't in the best position to judge the value of a digital babysitter. For more shots of the kiddo UI and remote check out the gallery below, otherwise read the full PR after the break. %Gallery-109199%
MMO Family: A parent's look at World of Warcraft
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. World of Warcraft? Yeah, even folks who don't play video games at all have heard of this behemoth of MMO gaming. With 12 million subscribers worldwide, the WoW phenomenon has practically come to define an entire generation's worth of MMO gaming. While it's designed for teens and up, the game is so ubiquitous that you wouldn't have to dig far to find players of all ages, including many teens but also younger children as well. With a new expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, due for release on December 7th, plenty of kids (and grownups) will be angling for WoW in their holiday stockings. The question is: Is WoW a good fit for your kids? With good preparation and consistent parent moderation, it can be -- but if you don't play the game yourself or you take a more hands-off approach to gaming, you may want to wait until your little goblin- or worgen-to-be is well into the teen years. Join us after the break for an insider's look at WoW for younger children and teens.
MMO Family: A parent's look at LEGO Universe
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Most kids who play video games have at least seen one from the LEGO franchise. There are a ton of them -- enough, in fact, for a whole page listing them. They're fun games; I'll bet you've played at least one of them, at least in bits and pieces in a demo somewhere. After all, who doesn't love LEGOs? Still, there was a decided "ho-hum" reaction among my team of young playtesters when I announced we were going to test the ropes of the brand new LEGO Universe MMO. Oh sure, they were willing enough, but it seemed there was always something shinier and more appealing to play on any given day than the game about good ol' LEGOs. Until they played LEGO Universe -- and had a (brick-)smashing good time.%Gallery-105603%
MMO Family: A parent's look at Hello Kitty Online
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Hello Kitty Online is the first of our Parents Guide selections that's aimed squarely at teens and young adults rather than the kiddie set. Say what? We were surprised, too -- but given the mind-bogglingly persistent popularity of Hello Kitty among grownups with more discerning taste (and expansive wallets), it stands to reason that developer Sanrio would want HKO to reach as broad an audience as possible. What HKO brings to the keyboard, then, is less a kiddie game than a crafting-oriented, sunshiny, Hello-Kitty-themed version of an MMO. Sure, it's 2-D. Sure, it's free-to-play. But despite the precious proliferation of pink, you'll find gameplay that's more in line with traditional, fully developed MMOs -- a purrfectly friendly MMO choice for your teen daughter.
Breakfast Topic: Are children welcome in your guild?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to our pages. Children are so much fun and a joy to have around, right? Maybe that's true in real life (at least for a lot of people), but in a guild setting in World of Warcraft, children present some difficult situations. I've been the "guild mom" for two guilds with child members (one who is between the ages of 8 and 15), so I've had a lot of experience. We all have seen children in a guild. Many beg or ask for gold. They want to be run through instances or helped to level. They ask silly questions. And their reading levels may not be high enough for them to follow the quest text. Guild chat may be filled with: "Can someone help me level?" "Can I have some gold?" "Are we there yet?" And everyone has to watch what is said in guild chat. Helping children to become strong guild members requires a commitment of time from other members. Some guilds do not want to give that time, so they say "adults only." Other guilds welcome children and work through the problems. All this requires some planning, some commitment of time and lots of patience. The good news is that as time goes on, children mature, and they may become a core of solid members for the future who know how to pass on the lessons they learned to the next generation. Are children welcomed and helped in your guild? Does your guild restrict membership to adults only? Are children allowed, but everyone hates it when they are online?
MMO Family: A parent's look at World of Cars Online
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. How could you not fall in love with a Disney/Pixar movie? I'm not sure that's even possible. Cars revved up belly laughs in the theater back in 2006, earning two Oscar nominations and raking in more than a dozen other industry awards. Kids were captivated by the feisty little car characters, and grownups chuckled at voicing from such high-octane stars as Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and even Cheech Marin. The MMO version of the franchise, which officially launched last month, pulls away from the starting line without this full tank of charisma. World of Cars Online hits on all cylinders yet somehow fails to throttle up into the type of completely engaging world we've come to expect from a Disney/Pixar creation. It's a 2-D, minigame-centric experience with lots (and we do mean lots) of point-and-click racing. Still, if you've got a young boy around the house who's hankering to burn a little online rubber, World of Cars is an inexpensive, kid-friendly way to do it.
MMO Family: The 10-step back-to-school gaming tuneup
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. We're going to make this short and sweet, parents: You probably shouldn't try to dodge a back-to-school gaming tuneup. Sure, talking about responsibilities and setting screen time limits is no fun. Kids hate rules, and parents hate having to play traffic cop. But back-to-school time means rebalancing languid, lazy summer schedules -- and if you're going to help your kids develop time management skills and a head for how to balance their own activities and schedules, this is the perfect teaching moment. Before we go any further, let's make it clear that hard-and-fast time limits aren't the answer for all or even many gaming families. What's important is to help young gaming devotees step back periodically for a checkup of how this compelling, sometimes time-consuming hobby is balancing out against the rest of their lives. Your goal is not to legislate from above but rather to help your kids regulate from below -- so let's take a look at 10 steps that can help them do exactly that.
MMO Family: Long-distance gaming with Grandma and Grandpa
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Back in my day (eons before even that prehistoric era when we trudged five miles uphill through the lava to kill Lord Nagafen, after sitting in the server's text chat room so our buff timers wouldn't tick down while the rest of the group was getting prepped), kids wrote letters to keep in touch with long-distance grandparents. We struggled almost as hard to read our elders' spidery, old-fashioned cursive as we did to figure out something relevant to say to these relative strangers. Then once a month, we'd be herded into the kitchen or hall (where most people's phones were back then) for the Dreaded Phone Call of Doom, during which we'd self-consciously mumble responses to people who couldn't remember which grade we were in or which of us kids was the swimmer and which was the ballet dancer. Talk about awkward... Today, cell phones and email make it much easier to keep a family in touch when its members are separated by miles. Still, it's hard for kids to develop a relationship of any depth with people they meet infrequently at best and with whom they share nothing in common beyond a few genetic jots and tittles. Until gaming came along.
MMO Family: A parent's look at Fantage
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Now that we've established that kids aren't gaming snobs and will dig into a good Flash game with as much relish as we grownups attack any top-rung MMO title, let's look at another up-and-coming Flash title for kids. Fantage (short for "Fantastic Age") has attracted nearly 7 million users since April 2008 almost entirely by word of mouth -- how's that for kid power? I suspect the reason Fantage tickles my 9-year-old playtester's fancy is tied to the advancements she's been making with her real-life character this summer. The achievements are flowing: she's figured out how to use the Page Up and Page Down buttons to snag [Swimming in the Deep End], she's acquired her first epic mount [Big Brother's Hand-Me-Down Bike] and she's become fascinated with the possibilities of /dance... We're even breaking away from class-specific gear sets to farm all the mats for her [Tier 4 School Supplies] individually via hotly contested minigames all over town. So while she's still utterly captivated by the sparkling magic of a game like Pixie Hollow, this evolving little personality is hooked on Fantage's opportunities to show off her own style and personality via her avatar and accessories. Different game, different flavor -- so let's investigate the attractions.
A cautionary tale of account security in Club Penguin
Many MMO gamers have children who are eager to jump into the online world but are unaware of the dangers that lurk there. While many kid-friendly MMOs have systems to guard children from unwelcome contact and identity theft, they still require the assistance of parents to teach their kids how to be safe in games. The Ancient Gaming Noob's Wilhelm recently shared a cautionary tale involving his daughter, Club Penguin, and a breach of account security. Even though she was cautioned not to share a list of details with anyone in game, all it took was the offer of a special item to get her to give up her account name and password to a stranger. This resulted in a headache, as the account was banned, and Wilhelm went back and forth with Club Penguin to re-establish his daughter's account and security. In the end, he found that Club Penguin's security was just as questionable as his daughter's judgment, and passed this story along to the rest of us in an effort to guard our own young ones from this unfortunate event. Considering that account security, personal identity and privacy are hot topics these days, we feel that this story is an eye-opener as to how far both game companies and families have to go to protect our loved ones from being exploited. You can read Wilhelm's full account over at The Ancient Gaming Noob.
MMO Family: Podcasts for gaming kids
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family. From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. Here's an offbeat idea for the kids on one of those endless hot summer days: Track down -- or better yet, try your hand at creating -- a podcast for their favorite MMO. Kids love to hear what other kids are playing, yet there aren't many kid-friendly gaming podcasts out there. "The thing about podcasts for kid's MMOs is that most kids don't really know much about what a podcast is," says Leesha Darkheart of Ravenwood Radio, a podcast about Wizard101. Do we smell a hero's title for the mom or dad who comes up with an idea for creating some of the coolest summer fun on the block? We just might -- plus a seal of approval for discovering yet another way to enjoy gaming as a family.
MMO Family: Video game violence provokes aggression in some kids but not others
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family ... From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. Sensible parents have long recognized that the way kids react to video game violence varies according to their personalities. A recent post at Bitmob illustrated one parent's recognition of the innocence with which his four-year-old son approached an opportunity to play Grand Theft Auto. "I understand not every kid is like mine, so I wouldn't recommend that every parent allow their child to play Grand Theft Auto," he wrote. "But I would recommend that you listen and pay attention to your little ones to determine what they are capable of handling and what they are not ready for yet." Now, new research tells us how to determine exactly that. A report in the June issue of Review of General Psychology has pinpointed the factors that determine why violent video games provoke hostile behavior in some teens but not in others.
MMO Family: Screening "screen time"
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family ... From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. One of the first topics we tackled here at MMO Family is how to tell when kids have had enough gaming time. As parents who game, we should be in a unique position to appreciate, respect and guide our children's attraction to games. But in the crush of day-to-day living, it's all too easy to let a few extra gaming minutes slip into half an hour ... past an hour ... into the evening ... into a habit that's begun eating away at family balance. Some families keep a rein on gaming overdoses by instituting strict limits on screen time. What's considered part of the screen time quota varies from family to family; TV time is the bottom line, with movies, internet use and gaming time lumped in or added on top according to each family's habits and needs. We talked to Dr. Kourosh Dini, author of Video Game Play and Addiction: A Guide for Parents (now available completely online) and himself a gamer, for some professional perspectives on how to keep things in balance.
MMO Family: A parent's look at Pixie Hollow
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family ... From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. I wasn't planning to include a 2-D Flash game in MMO Family's initial sweep of children's games -- but then my daughter tried Disney's Pixie Hollow. Initially dismissive of the idea of slumming it in 2-D, she found herself utterly captivated by its magpie collection quests and friendly community of players. In the eyes of this 8-year-old road tester, Pixie Hollow delivers an enjoyable, social experience in an online world ... And I was forced to admit that this world suits her own interests as well as deeply immersive MMO worlds hold mine. We're not going to get into gender wars here. Obviously, some girls won't like the fairies theme, and we're sure grownups will continue their snarky debates over the game's recently added male characters ("sparrow men"). Beyond that, what's most apparent is that Pixie Hollow successfully snares both kids who are enthralled with the Disney Fairies franchise and those who simply enjoy a glittery, web-based spot to flutter and chatter.
MMO Family: A parent's look at Toontown Online
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family ... From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. Kids may not even realize they're playing an MMO (you know, one of those games that Mom and Dad talk about all the time and play after bedtime) when they log in to Toontown Online. All the traditional elements are there -- missions, combat, grouping, pets -- but they're all couched in the incomparable cartoon stylings of Disney. In fact, "couched" is probably the most apt descriptor possible, because Toontown is familiar and welcoming, just like that cozy couch you've been nestling into to watch Saturday morning cartoons for ... well, your whole life. That's not to say that the action in Toontown is laid back. It's anything but. Kids gobble up the zany, cartoon slapstick approach to "combat" (think cream pies and banana peels) and mini-games. In fact, they'll be so busy squirting the boss in the face with their lapel flowers that they won't even realize they're "working" on levels. This is kid-flavored MMO gaming at its candy-coated best.
PeeWee PC loses the stylus, gains average netbook status (update)
Previously on Computers Designed For Children, protagonist PeeWee PC introduced us to its creation, the Pivot Tablet Laptop, a cute little netvertible with childish specs -- but a $600 price that set it well out of reach of the average piggy bank. One year later, PeeWee has matured, but not necessarily for the better. For $100 less, the new PeeWee Power Laptop, which is actually just a rebranded Classmate PC, sports the same carry handle and kid-friendly construction as its the aforesaid Tablet (though with a faster 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor, 15 game titles and a security suite, mind you), but completely ditches the tablet PC functionality. Without a stylus or touchscreen for kids on which to express their creativity (read: color outside of the lines), we're not quite sure of the point. In truth, the Power Laptop is neither laptop nor powerful -- merely a rugged, kid-friendly netbook at an adult price point. But hey, it's got a carry handle! Update: PeeWee representatives tell us that the Power Laptop will not actually replace the Pivot Tablet -- a new version of that machine (perhaps a rebranded convertible Classmate?) is slated to appear around May. %Gallery-89438%
Wizard 101 announcement raises more questions
Wizard 101 players recently received a jolt of excitement as they were told to expect "a big announcement coming soon from Merle Ambrose." Soon enough, the rumors started to fly. Would it be the official announcement that outlined the new areas or new expansion? Would some new creatures be paraded around for all to see? Then, the announcement came: "Wizards from every school and many worlds of the Spiral are ready to set forth on grand new adventures with their loyal pets alongside them, with exciting new activities and fresh challenges soon to come. This spring, pets will be able to do more than you have ever dared hope! These fine creatures will serve alongside you in wonderful new ways, taking you to unseen parts of familiar worlds, worlds beyond those you know! When asked to elaborate, Ambrose replied cryptically, "The answer you seek may be in the stars... or it just might be there alongside you." But what did the announcement mean? While Kingsisle Entertainment hinted obviously at new pets that did more than ever before, how would players utilize them? How much would they cost? Would it be some new sort of Pokemon type arena fighting, or perhaps the pets would serve as a key to new lands? Players are all waiting for the next official announcement, hoping for something more to chew on. What do you think? Could this be a series of clues into the next expansion, or a glimpse into something much, much larger?
Wizard101 is no friend of cheaters
You might think that Wizard101 is just a kid's game, which wouldn't be totally incorrect. But if you thought that meant they would just let you do whatever you want... well, nope, not in this playground. KingsIsle Entertainment is demonstrating that they are more than willing to step in and take the reigns when they're aware of an exploit. In this instance, it looks as if an exploit was found regarding the new wings available in the game's cash shop that work as a mount. Players had found a way to purchase their wings via gold alone, getting an unfair advantage on those buying them legitimately. So the game is clipping their wings -- clipping them off entirely, as it were. The wings will be removed from the player's account, all gold spent will be refunded to the player, and they will be reminded that exploiting the game client will lead to a permanent ban from the game. It's not the harshest penalty, but it comes as a stern reminder that no matter how fluffy the exterior might be, Wizard101 still takes cheating very seriously. So it's a bit more like school than you might have thought.
MMO Family: A parent's look at Wizard101
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family ... From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. Wizard101 is the game your youngest gamers have been begging for. With stringent chat filters atop relaxed, turn-based game play, Wizard101 looks almost unbeatable for young players seeking an MMO with traditional fantasy appeal. It plays like a collectible card game with all the MMO trimmings: housing, armor and clothing, player houses, pets, mini-games ... Family subscription plans plus the most complete, well presented web documentation that we've found keep parents as happy as the kids. (And they just might find themselves tempted to start a character and build their own spell decks, too!)
MMO Family: A parent's look at Ether Saga Online
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family ... From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. Next in our look at kids' MMOs is Ether Saga Online, winner of a 2009 National Parenting Publications Award for tweens and teens video games. Compared with the freewheeling, open-ended approach of Free Realms, ESO presents a more traditional MMO face. Even so, you probably weren't expecting a work of classic literature -- but that's in fact what you'll get. ESO, which was first developed for Chinese players, is based on Journey to the West (often known in the West as Monkey), considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. All that, and it's free to play, too.
