Hey everybody! If you’ve got retro gaming gear, GameStop now has a trading program for you. If you’re in Birmingham or New York, anyway. The pilot program means you can sell back your retro stuff, and they’ll refurbish it and put it up for resale in the online store. EBay might give you better profits, but nothing really beats dropping your stuff off and saying goodbye.
The 2015 Games for Change Conference happened this week. It’s all about the ways that games can make the world a better place, and it unites game developers, academics, and more to exchange ideas. One of the important takeaways from the keynote was that the fear and mistrust around games is harmful to their potential success as an educational tool. Kids are fascinated by games and leveraging that fascination into learning is a tool that parents and educators can really take advantage of. Check out more about that talk at Pixelkin.org.
You know I adore the Skylanders games, but…they’re not for everyone. This week we challenged a mom to have her kids teach her how to play Skylanders. Meredith Bland’s retelling of this harrowing 30 minutes is hilarious, and you can read it at Pixelkin.
Meanwhile, I tried my hand at playing Angry Birds. I mean, real Angry Birds. I got handy with a saw and some cardboard, built a slingshot, and fired some ball projectiles in a grassy field. If you’d like to learn how to make your own live-action Angry Birds, you can find the instructions linked here. And check out my video of the full construction and bird-flinging experiment on YouTube. This was really fun and I think it’s a great way to get kids engaged and playing games away from screens.
That’s all for this week! Thanks for joining us and have a great weekend.
