Nicole, Linda, and Simone are joined this week by funny writer and mom Meredith Bland. She has 7-year-old twins who teach her how to play video games so she can write her regular column for Pixelkin, The Tech-Less Mom. You can also find her hilarious writing on Pile of Babies, The Football Girl, The Stir, She Knows, Parent Map, and more. We have a lot of fun this week!
You can download the mp3 directly here, listen to the podcast in the player above, or…
News & Views
- The International Dota 2 tournaments took place this week. Prizes, the winners, and the glory of it all is explained by Linda here:
- The portable Steam Machine is not an appliance for getting wrinkles out of clothes. It is a handheld video-gaming device. We go back to basics: What is Steam? What is the Steam Machine? What is Steam OS? What is the portable Steam Machine (called not “Steam-boy,” but “Smach Zero”)?
- There’s a lawsuit going forward between Zenimax and Oculus Rift over who owns the tech. (Check out the meme created around Oculus Rift’s Palmer Luckey on a recent Time Magazine cover.) We discuss the whole issue of non-disclosure agreements and trade secrets. Linda has opinions.
The meme-worthy Time Magazine cover.
- Halo 5 will have a T rating instead of an M rating. Less blood splatter and gore may be a factor.
- Extra Credits EDU, the curation page on Steam for games in education, was launched this week. So cool!
Learning Gaming Can Be Fun If Your Kids Teach You
Meredith regales us with tales of playing (or trying to play) Skylanders: Swap Force, Super Smash Bros., and Plants Vs. Zombies with her 7-year-old twins. Great things happen when you jump into playing game with your kids, like:
- Your kids feel empowered because they’re so much better than you are.
- You get to model persistence and patience for them (a lot).
- Your kids get the brain exercise involved in figuring out the best way to teach something they think is incredibly obvious—like using a controller.
Other games we talk about: Skylanders SuperChargers and The Sims. Next up for Meredith’s gaming-with-kids education? LittleBigPlanet 3, which is on the PlayStation 4!
What We Played
- Nicole played Heroes of Might and Magic III (loves it!) and Hearthstone.
- Simone played Zoombinis.
Mushroom Zoombini
- Linda played a bunch of Alphabear, a word game, and Crusaders of the Lost Idols, a clicker game—also called an idle game or an incremental game (a game that plays itself, like Cookie Clicker.)
- Meredith has been watching “Hard Knocks” on HBO. It’s a show about football.
Credits
This podcast was recorded in the studios of the Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle. The music is by Pat Goodwin at Novelty Shop Creative. Nicole Tanner, Linda Breneman, Simone de Rochefort, and Meredith Bland (@pileofbabies on Twitter) participated in this podcast. Thanks for listening and if you liked this episode, please rate us on iTunes and find us on BlogTalkRadio!
