Choosing a Video Game for Your Family

With so much choice, even video game fans can struggle to pick out a game that will be good for them to play. In families it is often left to the children to make these choices because parents aren't interested or find the whole thing a little bewildering. But that doesn't have to be the case.

We talked to Mum of three, Mary Emmens, in the park this week and as you can see in the video she was keen to get some help to find games for her family. Her initial instinct was to talk to someone who had kids of a similar age for a recommendation, and this is a really good first step.

Not only will other families have asked the same questions as you at some point or other, but they may have done some of the leg work to track down games that work really well for their age group. As Mary admits, she's really not that interested in video games, so won't naturally follow what's good and what's not.

Introducing Mary to askaboutgames.com we outlined how this is a place for parents to start to understand games and share their stories. The hope is that for families who don't have someone they can ask for advice from, the site will fill that gap. It was good to hear Mary sounding interested in this discussion.

This got us on to talking about the PEGI ratings, which Mary had heard of but not used very often. Asking her how they might be improved. She asked about whether the PEGI age rating would be on the disc and cartridge as well as the box, a very good question if you loose the packaging.

With the PEGI ratings now legally enforced the PEGI age mark will also start to appear on the media as well as the box, something that Mary seemed to think we a step in the right direction.

We'll talk more with Mary and her family in the coming weeks to see how they get on with video games and PEGI ratings as they journey into the world of gaming.