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In these instances, however, the popularity of gaming is irrelevant: if half-truths and misconceptions are lobbed at games, they should be debunked. If anything, the widespread availability of video games and its presence in pop culture is a good reason to defend them, as playing a game can be relaxing, enriching, and (of course) fun. That’s why it’s important for people to know that:

Playing video games do not make you more aggressive in the “real world” — By far, video games are criticized for supposedly making players (especially kids) aggressive and more prone than non-gamers to projecting that aggression into the real world once the game has been turned off.

Every human being in every age group has some aggressive tendencies, and those instincts are not automatically negative–they helped us survive when we were hunter-gatherers, and they still help us ward off threats in the modern world, even if going bare-fisted for ten rounds with a Porsche for ten rounds won’t work out in any human’s favor. We all keep varying degrees of aggression inside us, and that aggression has to be re-directed to proper outlets. A competitive sport is one outlet; video games are another.

Is an avid gamer capable of picking up a gun in real life and going on a shooting rampage? About as much as any human being who is afflicted by severe behavioral troubles that are typically at the core of such (thankfully rare) incidents. Millions of men, women, boys and girls have no trouble putting down a video game and resuming their daily lives, much the way that an athlete who is in good mental health usually doesn’t feel compelled to bodycheck random people at the grocery store once the uniform is off.

And then there’s the simple fact that games with violent content are a tiny sliver of what’s available at retail and on the digital marketplace.

Video games don’t promote isolation or chip away at social skills — Video games have an unfortunate association with shut-ins and awkward nerds who’d rather hunch down in front of their Xbox rather than go on dates, or out with friends. Truthfully, while some video games provide a rich and immersive single-player experience (the role-playing game Skyrim, for instance), the pastime is generally very social. In fact, game developers are on a massive kick to get people playing together, whether it be through online multiplayer matches, Facebook games, or titles with simultaneous four-player options, like Rayman Origins for the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3, New Super Mario Bros. Wii for the Wii, or Kirby: Return to Dream Land, also for the Wii.

Gaming is actually one of the most fun and affordable ways that families and couples can spend time together, to say nothing of a great way for parents to get involved in gaming.

As for the frightening documentaries about players who get too deep into online worlds like World of Warcraft and lose their jobs and families–indeed, it happens, but much like acts of real-world violence that are carried out by a gamer, a person who loses him or herself in a video game to such a dire degree typically has an underlying psychological issue that should be addressed by professionals.

Video games aren’t just for kids — Kids love games, but adults don’t readily outgrow them either, regardless of what society expects. According to a survey published in 2008 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than half of America’s adults play video games, and one in every five of those adults play every day. The survey also stated that seniors don’t play video games as frequently as younger adults, but that’s to be expected: most of the grown-ups who play video games today grew up with Atari, Nintendo, and the PC, and once a love for electronic games is engraved in your heart, it’s hard to erase.

Girls play games, too–all kinds of games — The same Pew Internet & American Life Project survey published another interesting result: the gender gap between gamers is closing quickly. According to the published results, “Fifty percent of women and 55 percent of men play video games.”

Video games are not a creative dead end — Video games often take blame for stifling creativity, but the opposite is actually true. Games can encourage the player to read, write, make music, and research into the myths and legends that make up some games’ back stories. Consider, for instance, OverClocked Remix, a website that challenges musicians to remix popular game music. The best pieces are published on the site, and are available for anyone to download. On occasion, remix artists are called in by game companies to assist with the soundtracks for remakes of classic games.

There are also thousands of video game fans who publish webcomics based on their favorite game characters, draw fan art of iconic game scenes, and write stories centered around certain video game universes.

It’s an interesting debate to be sure, and here’s another angle that’ll keep us conversing for some time to come: what about video game marketing? Can game commercials be considered gender-neutral?

Obviously, marketing a digital experience is a little different from marketing a toy. For one thing, the toy market as we know it is oriented at kids aged 3 through 15 or so. Game ads, on the other hand, need to appeal to kids as well as adults. That said, going by North American TV ads, we can see that advertisers generally do a good job selling modern games to both males and females–though there’s still room for improvement.

Boys and their Games — Commercials of the Past

The interesting thing about televised game ads is that some of the earliest fare was engineered to appeal to families and girls. The North American commercial advertising Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 starred a little girl (and Mr. Hooper from Sesame Street in one of his final roles). Another TV ad for Atari in general depicts a family having a good time with Space Invaders and other games.

As games became more complex with the NES, so did the commercials advertising them. It was also around this time that video games gained infamy as a “pastime for boys,” and the ads seemed to reflect that. Girls and families became a rarity on-screen (though the fewer human beings who contaminated themselves by associating with the original commercial for The Legend of Zelda, the better). There is one notable exception, and that’s the famous and still-excellent commercial for Super Mario Bros. 3, which shows an equal number of girls and boys cheering for the arrival this epic Mario title.

The 16-bit era of game commercials continued its all-boy bender, which isn’t surprising given that it was also the era of “attitude.” Nintendo and Sega fought for the hearts and minds of teenage boys with ample use of the “Sega Scream” and (sigh) Nintendo’s “Play It Loud” campaign.

Gaining Neutral Ground

The shift in game advertising to more neutral ground was gradual, and we can’t even say for sure that it occurred because console manufacturers and game developers smartened up and began to realize that there has always been a female player base. In fact, early print ads for the Sony PlayStation were undeniably male-oriented and made references to sexy leather-clad babes, wet dreams, and the like. Nevertheless, the shift from 16- to- 32 bits also marked the shift from 2D to 3D graphics, and commercials were more inclined to show the new feats that games were capable of in lieu of showing the enjoyment of the people playing them. Since anyone can be impressed by the cinemas in Final Fantasy VII (or could be impressed, at the time), there’s nothing decidedly “male” or “female” about these ads–for the most part. The ad for Battlefield 3 shows off lots of in-game explosions, which is fine; men and women are equally capable of getting a kick out of watching stuff blow up. But the choice of the commercial’s background music is questionable, namely Jay-Z’s “99 Problems [But a Bitch Ain't One].” 99 Problems, when taken as a whole, is a song about America’s divisions between class and race. When its chorus is repeated over and over in the Battlefield 3 commercial, however, it’s easy to take out of context, and feels weirdly out-of-place and aggressive. Even if you’re a female who’s into war games and first-person shooters, watching the commercial makes you feel like the game is simply not interested in including you.

By contrast, some of the most successful commercials in modern game history have combined game footage (or cinemas rendered in the game’s art style) and licensed music in context. This method intrigues everyone about a title’s story, setting, characters, and concept, including men, women, boys, girls, gamers, and non-gamers. The commercial for Borderlands is a good example, as is the commercial for Gears of War, and BioShock. One game ad that really grabbed an audience without trying to appeal to one gender or another was the “Believe” series of ads for Halo 3.

A Regression? Hopefully Not

In 2011, Ubisoft continued the practice of combining game footage with licensed music to produce a commercial for Just Dance 3, and the spot’s widespread appeal was heightened by the inclusion of clips of all types of people playing together. Nintendo’s holiday showing, however, was a tiny bit disappointing. Its commercials for Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword are all wonderfully done; who doesn’t fantasize about jumping on Mario-style platforms, holding the Master Sword aloft, or creating Mario-style mayhem with a go-kart (hey, wait, someone has already lived the dream)? But each adventurer who steps up to the challenge of exploring Hyrule or the Mushroom Kingdom is male–with the exception of the girl who’s posing as Princess Peach in the Mario Kart 7 commercial.

To Nintendo’s credit, though, its secondary Zelda-related ad campaign that garners insight on the Zelda series from one Zelda Williams and her father, Robin Williams, is pretty awesome.

Though game ads aren’t always perfect demonstrations of what needs to be done to appeal to both men and women, maybe the toy industry could take a peek at how games are sold. It’s a matter of taking your audience as a whole and trying to ignore gender divisions. On the other hand, we advise the toy industry against becoming so ambiguous about their ads that they produce another PlayStation 3 baby ad. We’ve already had our minds melted down to slag by a commercial once; we don’t need it to happen again.

Interestingly, smart developers and publishers are taking advantage of the current “divided” game market by catering to very select audiences. In other words, any gamer who’s into a niche genre can find plenty of ripe, imaginative offerings if they do a little searching.

Rob Fahey of Gamesindustry.biz recently wrote an interesting feature that outlines the reasons why Dark Souls, Software’s merciless but masterful role-playing game, has found an impressive audience in an age wherein we wake up every day to news of more game studio layoffs. Simply, Dark Souls zeroes in on a small audience and offers the very best of a merciless, gritty fantasy world. The result is 1.5 million very happy players as opposed to a larger but apathetic audience that’s dissatisfied with a game that tries too hard to be all things to all people.

“What Dark Souls does, rather than spanning niches, is laser-focus on a few niche areas,” wrote Fahey. “Dark Souls isn’t a success because it wants to be loved by everyone; it’s a success because it’s absolutely untroubled by the idea that most people will hate it.”

Indeed, it’s far better for a game developer to focus on putting a few polished features into a game versus trying to make sure there’s “something for everyone.” It’s good advice for a project of any size (and small businesses for that matter) but it especially applies to titles that are sold at retail. What good is having a huge development team and eye-popping cinematics if the final product spreads itself too thin and impresses no-one? That’s one reason why developers have realized that serving up their best possible product to a niche isn’t simply a smart way to survive in a tough industry–it’s the path to healthy profits.

A common complaint we hear about today’s games industry is, “It’s all about grey-and-brown first-person shooters, now. There’s nothing out there for me.” Nothing’s further from the truth. There has never been a time in video games’ history that’s been so fertile, and brimming with choices. Dark Souls is just one example. The past few months alone has also brought us Atlus’s unusually dark puzzle-platformer, Catherine for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, XSeed’s playful action-RPG Solatorobo for the Nintendo DS, and NIS America’s 3D realization of Cave Story for the Nintendo 3DS.

Hopefully, game developers of all sorts – console, mobile, social, etc. – will continue to do their very best for players with specific tastes.

Lyle Hall and Matthew Seymour at Heavy Iron Studios (the studio behind UFC Personal Trainer) told Gamesindustry.biz that the upcoming launch of the PlayStation Vita may prove to be “a car wreck,” as the Nintendo 3DS’s slow start indicates trouble for the handheld market.

“If people aren’t willing to pay $249 for a Nintendo 3DS why would they pay $299 for Vita?” asked Hall. “People don’t want to carry more than one thing in their pocket, that’s why Android and iPhone have done so well, they are the devices of choice, they offers multiple functions outside of gaming.”

“With all due respects to Sony and Vita, it’s a car wreck,” added Seymour. “And how about Xperia Play? I’d love to pull up the numbers on that.”

When you take a quick glance at current game sales, Seymour and Hall’s predictions for the Vita hold some weight: It’s easy enough to assume that people have decided they’re happy enough to turn to their iPhones for portable gaming.

However, a deeper look reveals a market that can’t be summed up by declaring a flawless victory for smartphones. The Nintendo 3DS’s problems can be arguably linked back to issues that go beyond competition from iPhone and Android: After all, Nintendo’s recent price cut has definitely re-kindled some interest in the system.

In the same vein, the PS Vita will undoubtedly get elbowed in the ribs a few times by Apple, but it probably won’t be enough to make the system lie down. The Vita, for instance, isn’t a “single-function system.” From what we know about it, it boasts 3G capability (which buyers can opt out of), it’s capable of going online with Skype, Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare, and, of course, it will play games–downloadable games, primarily, and it will presumably play them well thanks to those two sexy analogue sticks. In other words, the PS Vita is a social media powerhouse in addition to a game machine. It lacks a phone, sure, but Skype might prove a reasonable substitute for some people.

There’s also Japan to take into account. The PSP was more popular in Sony’s home country than it was in North America. The nation has its eye on the Vita–and that interest will double when the Monster Hunter franchise inevitably gets involved.

It wouldn’t hurt the PlayStation Vita to have a little luck on its side through this upcoming handheld generation (especially with the Nintendo 3DS price cut in full swing, plus head start Nintendo’s system will receive this holiday season), but its doom is certainly not written in stone, nor can its potential failure be summed up with, “Nobody wants handheld gaming systems anymore.” That’s simply not true. Smartphones and handheld gaming systems may be at war, but there won’t be a clear victor for a long time, if ever.

A veteran expert witness, software publisher and the head of technology consulting firm TechSavvy Global, he’s a frequent on-air analyst for ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CNN. A consultant to the consumer electronics industry’s top manufacturers and agencies, and insider for 400+ media outlets from New York Times to Playboy and Rolling Stone, Steinberg has been cited as a top authority by the Associated Press, USA Today, NPR and dozens of leading publications.

Beyond aiding computer, electronics and software industry leaders, attorneys and investors with expert witness testimony, business strategy consulting and market analysis, he’s also the author of several books, including Video Game Marketing and PR, and host of industry video series Game Theory. A frequent public speaker at events like the CEA Line Show, Startup 101 and Game Developers Conference, areas of expertise include:

• Market Research and Analysis
• Technology/Software Design and Development
• Product Design and Development
• High-Tech and IT Industry Business Issues
  • Consumer Products Evaluations
  • Intellectual Property (IP) Disputes
  • Distribution, Licensing, Marketing and Sales
• Hardware and Software Testing and Evaluation
  • Cell Phones and Smartphones
  • Computers, Laptops and Tablet PCs
  • Digital Cameras, Video Cameras and Photography
  • Digital Movies and Music
  • Televisions (HDTV and 3DTV)
  • Apps, Widgets and Online Services
  • Home Audio and Video
  • Printers
  • Video Games

A veteran expert witness, software publisher and the head of technology consulting firm TechSavvy Global, he’s a frequent on-air analyst for ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CNN. A consultant to the consumer electronics industry’s top manufacturers and agencies, and insider for 400+ media outlets from New York Times to Playboy and Rolling Stone, Steinberg has been cited as a top authority by the Associated Press, USA Today, NPR and dozens of leading publications.

Beyond aiding computer, electronics and software industry leaders, attorneys and investors with expert witness testimony, business strategy consulting and market analysis, he’s also the author of several books, including Video Game Marketing and PR, and host of industry video series Game Theory. A frequent public speaker at events like the CEA Line Show, Startup 101 and Game Developers Conference, areas of expertise include:

• Market Research and Analysis
• Technology/Software Design and Development
• Product Design and Development
• High-Tech and IT Industry Business Issues
  • Consumer Products Evaluations
  • Intellectual Property (IP) Disputes
  • Distribution, Licensing, Marketing and Sales
• Hardware and Software Testing and Evaluation
  • Cell Phones and Smartphones
  • Computers, Laptops and Tablet PCs
  • Digital Cameras, Video Cameras and Photography
  • Digital Movies and Music
  • Televisions (HDTV and 3DTV)
  • Apps, Widgets and Online Services
  • Home Audio and Video
  • Printers
  • Video Games

A veteran expert witness, software publisher and the head of technology consulting firm TechSavvy Global, he’s a frequent on-air analyst for ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CNN. A consultant to the consumer electronics industry’s top manufacturers and agencies, and insider for 400+ media outlets from New York Times to Playboy and Rolling Stone, Steinberg has been cited as a top authority by the Associated Press, USA Today, NPR and dozens of leading publications.

Beyond aiding computer, electronics and software industry leaders, attorneys and investors with expert witness testimony, business strategy consulting and market analysis, he’s also the author of several books, including Video Game Marketing and PR, and host of industry video series Game Theory. A frequent public speaker at events like the CEA Line Show, Startup 101 and Game Developers Conference, areas of expertise include:

• Market Research and Analysis
• Technology/Software Design and Development
• Product Design and Development
• High-Tech and IT Industry Business Issues
  • Consumer Products Evaluations
  • Intellectual Property (IP) Disputes
  • Distribution, Licensing, Marketing and Sales
• Hardware and Software Testing and Evaluation
  • Cell Phones and Smartphones
  • Computers, Laptops and Tablet PCs
  • Digital Cameras, Video Cameras and Photography
  • Digital Movies and Music
  • Televisions (HDTV and 3DTV)
  • Apps, Widgets and Online Services
  • Home Audio and Video
  • Printers
  • Video Games

A veteran expert witness, software publisher and the head of technology consulting firm TechSavvy Global, he’s a frequent on-air analyst for ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CNN. A consultant to the consumer electronics industry’s top manufacturers and agencies, and insider for 400+ media outlets from New York Times to Playboy and Rolling Stone, Steinberg has been cited as a top authority by the Associated Press, USA Today, NPR and dozens of leading publications.

Beyond aiding computer, electronics and software industry leaders, attorneys and investors with expert witness testimony, business strategy consulting and market analysis, he’s also the author of several books, including Video Game Marketing and PR, and host of industry video series Game Theory. A frequent public speaker at events like the CEA Line Show, Startup 101 and Game Developers Conference, areas of expertise include:

• Market Research and Analysis
• Technology/Software Design and Development
• Product Design and Development
• High-Tech and IT Industry Business Issues
  • Consumer Products Evaluations
  • Intellectual Property (IP) Disputes
  • Distribution, Licensing, Marketing and Sales
• Hardware and Software Testing and Evaluation
  • Cell Phones and Smartphones
  • Computers, Laptops and Tablet PCs
  • Digital Cameras, Video Cameras and Photography
  • Digital Movies and Music
  • Televisions (HDTV and 3DTV)
  • Apps, Widgets and Online Services
  • Home Audio and Video
  • Printers
  • Video Games

I’d be at a party or other social setting with my wife, an attorney who advocates for the rights of foster youth, and the conversation inevitably would turn to our careers.

And what do you, Johner?

“I work in the video game industry.”

I would always get one of two reactions to the v-word. Every so often I’d see a twinkle in the husband’s eye (or sometimes the wife’s), and they’d immediately want to know if I could tell them more about their favorite game, or discuss the news of the next big upcoming title.

But more often than not, my work was dismissed as unimportant and trivial. Videogames, in the eyes of many parents, seem to be at the forefront of many of the negative issues plaguing society today, and the word itself may as well have four letters as far as many families are concerned. But my work on videogames isn’t as insignificant in comparison to my wife’s work as many might think.

Parents and families need to open their minds and rethink what they know about videogames, because they’re now firmly entrenched in everyday life and have been shown to have many positive impacts on society and the families that play them.

Maybe 15 years ago you could have dismissed videogames as a passing fad, but these days it’s hard to imagine a world without them.  Whether it’s home systems from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, portable options like iPads and mobile phones or even online computer and Facebook games, at least two-thirds of American households play some sort of videogame.

And videogames aren’t just for kids. The average game player is 34 years old and has been playing for 12 years. The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years old, showing that many parents are engaged in their family’s videogame purchases.

The truth is many parents these days grew up with videogames and are now sharing their hobby with their kids. But there are still older parents and grandparents who did not, and there remains a persistent notion that all videogames are geared and marketed towards minors, and today’s youth must be protected from the evils of videogames at all costs.

A lot of the negative discussion of games stems from the fact that often when videogames are discussed in a mainstream media environment, it’s the most violent, sensational and shocking games that are highlighted.  Much of the research and focus of debate is on the negative impact of games, and much time and energy is also spent rebutting and debunking outrageous findings, such as an allegation in February 2011 on Fox News by an expert who said that sexual innuendos in videogames like Bulletstorm caused players to perform real-life sexual crimes.

While this debate was quickly quelled since the research cited didn’t actually exist, critics of videogames often point out that exposure to violent videogames has a negative impact on today’s youth.  But there are a few reasons to be leery of these findings.

The biggest problem with research of this type is the correlational nature of the results. For example, are people who play violent videogames more likely to commit violent acts, or are people who commit violent acts more likely to play violent videogames?  It’s a classic problem of erroneously determining causation from correlation.

Additionally, many of the negative results that are so strongly associated with videogames can also be correlated to exposure to other violent forms of media, like music and movies. But most reasonable parents understand that just because a movie like Saw III is violent, it doesn’t mean kids shouldn’t be allowed to see Toy Story 3.  Unfortunately, the same common sense doesn’t always translate to videogames.

Ironically, chances are it’s easier for kids to get their hands on inappropriate music or movies then it is videogames. A 2011 report by the Federal Trade Commission showed that the videogame industry was doing a better job than music and movie industries at regulating the sale of age-inappropriate games to minors.

Many parents would also be surprised to learn that the vast majority of games published are approved for most ages. In 2010, 73% of all videogames rated by the ESRB carried a rating of E or E10+. Only 5% were rated M for Mature (17+).  But even though the number of family-appropriate videogames far outweighs the number of intended-for-mature-audiences-only violent games, many parents want to focus on the small number of extremely violent games, and use their feelings about those to dismiss all videogames as negative influences.

“As parents, we need to ask what we are rejecting before we simply write it off as a waste of time,” says Dr. Yvonne Fournier, an education and child advocate. “Just because today’s parents either did not have a videogame system as we were growing up, or grew up with many of these systems in their infancy does not mean that the boom in gaming we see today is worthless or bad for our children. After all, each generation had a unique set of toys to reflect the times.”

Fournier thinks parents need to realize that their children’s workplace will be different from theirs, and playing videogames can help teach many important skills.

“They can learn to think in terms of goals and strategies; to take risks without fear of attempting; and – perhaps most important for the workforce of 2020 – to expect and accept failure without paralysis and know that success may take weeks or months.”

Degrees and careers in gaming and game development already are in high demand as part of the multibillion-dollar videogame industry. Even The Princeton Review ranks the top 10 undergraduate and graduate programs for videogame design. And there are a number of job functions possible in the industry that don’t require programming skills. Kids interested in games can aspire to work for videogame companies in the fields of marketing, accounting, graphic design and more.

According to the ESA, in 2009 the entertainment software industry’s value added to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $4.9 billion. In 2010, computer and videogame companies directly and indirectly employed more than 120,000 people in 34 states. The average salary for direct employees is $90,000, resulting in total national compensation of $2.9 billion.

Videogame concepts are also being brought into today’s education system, as school programs are being created to make curriculums more participatory, immersive and fun – with videogames as the model and inspiration.

In fact, one program in New York called Quest To Learn utilizes “games-based learning” which, according to their website, emphasizes active participation, strategic thinking, constant feedback and creativity, all skills found in successful videogames. While the school emphasizes that they are not a place where children spend their day playing only commercial videogames, they do embrace “the principles of game design to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences in the classroom.”

Perhaps more importantly than the increasingly ubiquitous role of videogames in nation’s economy and educational system are the many positive physical and emotional impacts games can have for families.

Research cited by game designer and author Jane McGonigal highlights benefits for kids who play the right kinds of games, and notes that those are amplified when these games are played together with family.  According to McGonigal, kids who spend just 30 minutes playing a “pro-social” game like Super Mario Sunshine (in which you clean up pollution and graffiti around an island) are more likely to help friends, family and neighbors in real-life for a full week after playing the game.

The new breed of active games made possible by the motion controls of the Wii, Kinect and PlayStation Move have led to a new type of videogame that requires players to move around, and these games can have a great effect on the fitness of today’s children. Studies have found that kids who play these “exergames” as part of their daily activities burned significantly more calories at their resting metabolic rate than those who played more sedentary games.

For many parents, the concern isn’t that their kids are playing videogames, it’s that their kids are playing too many videogames. Experts agree that the amount of time kids spend playing needs to be regulated, and there are a number of tools parents can use to help keep track of the time.

Even with monitoring, though, many parents still fear their kids will become addicted to videogames.  But one of the key recommendations for parents who are worried their kids are playing too many videogames isn’t to ban them entirely.  It’s to embrace them and participate.  Many experts recommend that parents who are concerned their kids play too much should spend time playing videogames with their children.  This is counter to many parents’ instinct, but it makes sense that parents who will not only be more knowledgeable about the games their kids are playing, but will also be able to form a new connection because they are meeting their child on their turf.

Slowly but surely, parents are embracing the positive financial, emotional and physical impacts of videogames.  I’m more than confident that the work I do to highlight positive videogames for families is just as important to society as my wife’s work with foster youth.  And hopefully more and more parents will start understanding that videogames can, and should, be a positive part of their family’s daily routine.

But parents need to take an active role in the videogame purchase process to help better monitor the games that their families are playing.  Families must take steps to become educated and informed about the many different types of games available today, and decide which ones are right for them.

Keep in mind, it’s not just enough to find out more information about the games your kids playing – parents need to work to find games the whole family can enjoy.  Surveys show parents who play videogames with their kids report that playing videogames has helped bring their families closer together. That kind of benefit should be more than enough to persuade any concerned parent that they need to invest the time to learn more about videogames.

So the next time you’re in a social setting, and someone mentions the v-word, take the opportunity to talk about the positive impacts videogames can have on families. And make sure you’ve got a twinkle in your eye, because ‘videogame’ is not a bad word.

In new running series The Family Perspective, FamilyFriendlyVideoGames.com founder Johner Riehl takes a closer look at important and noteworthy issues that relate to families and video games. Over the coming weeks, we’ll examine research and topics from a family gaming point-of-view to dig deeper into issues and research that parents should be aware of, promote healthy gaming habits and highlight positive impacts of video games as part of family life.