Parents don't read Joystiq

That's what I thought too, lol. But then if you think about it, for those kids to think that hand-based games were for babies, they would need to have been playing controller free for a few years.

We're on the right track though, if Natal comes along and takes over for all other console, handheld, and phone games. And if all retro and current gen games on PC and other consoles are retrofitted to be Natal-ish as well. If ALL of that happens within a year, we're right on schedule.

This is exactly the point I was going to make, and I think it's one that will begin to solve itself as more gamers become parents. However, just like many parents let their 6 year olds watch R rated movies, the problem won't go away entirely. It will get a lot better, though.

i don't know. when i'm a parent, i don't know if i would mind my kids playing M-rated games (depending on what it is of course). my mom used to not let me play games that were talked about in the news like GTA III for example when i was in middle school. but even though she wouldn't buy it, i just ended up borrowing it from friend and playing it late at night. i think the main point is teaching your kids what's reality and what's not. i played all those violent games back in the day and i'm not a violent person at all. plus i anticipate still being a gamer when i'm parent so i'll probably have the M-rated games at my house already anyway.

I'm a parent as well, but I don't want to see kids games on joystiq anyway. Thats what other crappier sites are for. Joystiq is for my games ;)

That's what the Nintendo section is for. Kids and Parents.

Except Yahtzee of course. Then again, if it were up to Yahtzee, we'd only ever have like 5 games in our collections...

And they'd all be prince of persia.

And Psychonauts. And Fallout 3. (His Fallout 3 review was pretty much, "Ehh, it's alright", then he cut to credits and then cut back to the real review.)

and Fantasy World Dizzy and Portal and Bioshock and Spiderman 2

Not forgetting portal, his review of that was basically "it's perfect"

Damn, Girugamuk (Moptimus Slimed) beat me to it

Amazing how you all forgot to mention that he loved the PS3 exclusive inFAMOUS.

Oh, there's still fanboyism (and fangirlism) aplenty on Amazon, but thankfully, those reviews are generally less likely to be voted up by users as "helpful" (and thank goodness for that).

Yeah, there are still the jokes on Amazon and the likes who will vote a console down to 1 star because they hold a grudge to it, similar to a lot of iTunes reviews that basically say "It isn't [genre] so therefore it is turd."

'We?' Anyway, 'we' don't have to. People are free to avoid any review of Catz by not clicking the link, turning the page, switching off the TV, etc. That was a lazy complaint, kid.

Because that would then confirm the fact that "we" are hopelessly biased and out of touch with reality. At least by still covering them "we" can still make some sort of claim to objectivity.

Exactly right. I'm a father of two (9 and nearly 12) and the dearth of good family-based reviews is annoying. There are dozens of review sites, but only gamerdad and the now defunct gamefam (the writer now posts at What They Play) actually did reviews for younger players.

The problem isn't that Joystiq should do those reviews...as the article states, the problem is that NO ONE is doing those reviews...and that because of the combination of a lack of perspective and the scarcity of said reviews make aggregate sites like gamerankings and metacritic useless for this purpose. A 23 year-old single male isn't going to have the foggiest idea of what is appealing to a 5 year-old girl or a 9 year-old boy. Likewise, he won't have any idea of their skill set. The one reviewer complaining that a kid's game aimed a preschoolers spoke all the dialog (not understanding when kids gain full literacy) is the perfect example.

Reviewers are SCANDALIZED when a game like Cars sells as many copies as Gears of War...little realizing WHY and TO WHOM it is selling. They see a game that is unchallenging, repetitive and derivative of other 'better' games. What they don't see is that a six year-old isn't playing GT5 or Motorstorm or Fuel or Burnout Paradise. They're playing CARS....because Cars is WRITTEN FOR THEM.

Gamer parents and casual parents WANT reviews. They don't go to Joystiq because they just want something like Fandango or even their local newspaper's website or E! online. They don't want to have to read dozens of entries...they just want an answer to the question "Is it good?" and "did it contain questionable content?" And yes, the ESRB ratings are HELPFUL, but they don't tell the whole story. Halo is an 'M' rated game, though honestly I'm not sure why. You kill aliens, sure, but there's virtually no cursing, no nudity and the plot is fairly upbeat. Compare that with a game like Uncharted, where you kill actual human beings, the characters swear from time to time, there is sexual tension and even the implied threat of sexual predation and the main characters are motivated at least partially by greed (not to mention they smoke and drink). And that gets a 'T' rating. And I don't disagree with that, especially as it's one of my favorite games of this generation....but my point is that there is a LOT of disparity....and that's something decent reviews could address.