[Podcast] Gaming With the Moms #2: Q&A & Free-To-Play

Welcome to episode #2 of the Gaming With the Moms podcast, where we goof around and talk about family-gaming news and issues. Nicole Tanner, our host and Pixelkin’s managing editor, leads the conversation. This week Curtis Vredenburg, a dad of avid gamers,  joins us as our guest and asks for advice on a bunch of gaming-with-kids topics.

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In this episode:

• Nicole talks about Superhero Girls, a new product line of comics, books, and toys that will put characters that look like Disney princesses in superhero costumes. Their waists may be wasp-like and their eyes may be too big, but at least they’re wearing pants!
  

  Source: DC Comics

• Curtis, who doesn’t game much himself but has two boys who do, asks the Pixelkin staff for advice. We cover games to help kids learn foreign languages and games to learn typing. We also cover games for keeping gamer kids active with summer coming, like Kinect games, Geocaching, game-themed parties and scavenger hunts, live-action reenactments of video games, and games and apps that encourage running (like Zombies Run). Also—games that encourage kids to learn about different cultures, like Never Alone. Curtis wants a list of games to play over the summer, and we promise a post on that will be on Pixelkin soon.
  

  Geocaching: the video game of the outdoors.

• We explore the whole issue of free-to-play games that aren’t necessarily free, microtransactions, and how parents can help their kids stay out of trouble when it comes to paying too much for in-game merchandise. If it’s hard for adults to resist the allure of free-to-play and microtransactions, think about how hard it is for kids.
  

  Free-to-play games aren’t free if you buy stuff in them.

• We argue about the hard-core vs. casual gamer controversy. Is it over, and if not, should it be?

This podcast was recorded in the studios of the Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle. Music by Pat Goodwin at Novelty Shop Creative. Nicole Tanner, Linda Breneman, Simone de Rochefort, and Curtis Vredenburg participated in this podcast. Thanks for listening!

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