Gaming the Time Away

Since my children discovered Famicon and Gameboys way back when, game machines have been a part of our life, particularly, the Nintendo game machines.

Although you could say I started the game obsession with the first Atari when I was 15, my kids have never even touched an Atari, so we shall start the obsession with my brothers who bought the Nintendo64 and introduced it to my son when he was 2. Of course, Dear Son was too young to know what the heck he was doing, so we just handed him an unplugged controller, giving him the joy of being part of the game without actually losing for us.

As he got older he figured it out, and we had to relent, so my husband and I bought him a used (cheap) Famicon (and 8 years later it’s still working!) We then splurged on the Nintendo68, and progressed to the Game Cube, finally ending with the Wii. Side by side with this has been the step from Gameboy to Gameboy Advance, and now the DS—what’s a parent to do (Yes, I know, I could just say ‘NO!’, but where’s the fun in that??)

I’ve made various attempts to balance the games with other activities including limiting game time to 1 hour/day on school days, requiring certain grades made to get game time, banning games on days we plan family activities, no games after a certain time in the day. What has worked the best so far is to not allow games after 6pm on school days and Sunday. And if grades drop too low, there is a general ban on games for awhile until I relent.

For summer this year though I decided to buy the kids (besides Mario Party8) a great educational game—Motto Eigo Zuke—Increased English Training! This DS game is to help increase your English listening/reading/writing skills. You listen to a conversation then write the conversation out, and by passing levels you gain new mini-games to play later. But this game is just one in a series of educational style games, mostly for adults. We have also gotten the Kanji Kakitori game for kanji study, and the Brain Power game, also a lot of fun.

I’m lucky that my kids are pretty much into the Nintendo Mario series, so none of our games have much violence in them. My only wish is that Nintendo would expand on the types of games they have—Sony seems to have done better with the Playstation in that there are many accessories to go with it, but with Nintendo so far there is pretty much the game console and controllers, and a few accessories for some of the games (Donkey Kong Conga with the bongos, Mario Dance Revolution with the dance pad). I would like to see games that teach typing, or use a piano keyboard to introduce music, things along those lines.

And finally, an article I came across about Nintendo’s push to get games into the hands of players who wouldn’t normally make the time for a game.

Japan Times
Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007

WOMEN, SENIORS EXPAND LUCRATIVE MARKET
Nintendo scores with brain-training, etiquette games

By SHINICHI TERADA
Since March, Natsumi Takita has spent 10 minutes daily on a Nintendo DS hand-held game machine, undergoing daily quizzes using "Otona-no Joshikiryoku Training DS" ("Common Sense Training for Adults").
"It teaches me what I thought were good manners were actually bad, how to taste wine, or what the proper seating position in business is," the 26-year-old Tokyo office worker said. "Even if I make mistakes, I see the same questions one month or so later, so I can learn from (my) mistakes."

The "Common Sense" game is one of a flurry of hit titles for Nintendo's DS, including its "Brain Age" calculation drill game and "Face Training," which gives instructions on how to exercise facial muscles for better smiles and expressions. "Dream Skincare," which demonstrates facial massage, will hit the market in October.

The new titles, strikingly different from conventional action games, represent how Nintendo and other game machine makers are trying to appeal to a new group of customers, including young women and "gray gamers," industry officials and analysts say.

According to Enterbrain Inc., a Tokyo-based market-research firm, more than 60 percent of people who bought the DS units don't think of themselves as regular game players.

Nintendo DS, the all-time biggest-selling portable game machine in Japan, is now even used as a study tool for school English classes, or as a reference guide in museums.
With game machines encroaching more and more on people's daily lives, manufacturers are trying to figure out how to best serve the growing number of new users, as well as existing core game fans.

"There is a huge gap between conventional gamers and new users who are more into learning, and the challenge is how to fill the gap," said Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Enterbrain. "Nintendo surely wants to sell games to the new users."
Nintendo spokesman Ken Toyada said the firm plans to provide games and entertainment software that 5-year-old to 95-year-old people can enjoy together.

Masashi Morita, a games analyst at Okasan Securities Co., said core game users have so far been satisfied with challenging games that allow them to shoot enemies and see up-close action scenes.
But as demand diversifies, Morita said game makers must come up with software that lets users clearly know what kind of benefits they can get.

One good example, he said, is Nintendo's Wii Fit, which enables users to track their health conditions or how much weight they lose after doing aerobics, yoga and stretching.
"Nintendo is very good at showing benefits and results from playing such games," Morita said.

"Nintendo has explored a nontraditional game market," Tanaka said. To keep up with new demand, the company has released new titles, including the "Phoenix Wright" series of a courtroom story game.
Takita, a young office worker is preparing to become a housewife soon, and has just bought DS software for household accounting and another for cooking that gives over 200 recipes and step-by-step instructions read out to users by a narrator.
"I just like self-improvement programs," she said. "I don't think I'll be a core game user."