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Who runs this web site?
My name is David V, and I'm a happy Wii owner, a longtime gamer, and a parent of two children. I was in the first generation of gamers, growing up with an Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari 800XL computer. After leaving for college, I got into PC games for years and years. In 2005, when my son was five years old, I bought him a used Nintendo 64 console, and he was totally enraptured by it. He enjoyed it enough that I thought about getting him a new console, and the Wii had just been announced. After learning about what the Wii was about, I was enraptured by it. We failed to buy one for Christmas in 2006, but I finally got one in March 2007 after camping out on a Sunday morning by our local Target store. Of the 20 in stock that morning, I got number 17, in spite of arriving at 7:30 AM.
It's been downhill ever since. :-) Eric is 9 now, and glued to the Wii when he's not at school. I'm joined by my wife Ann and my daughter Maggie, who is 5. We all play it now.
Why does this web site exist?
It occurred to me that there might be many gamers of old who are parents now, with gamer kids of their own, and so the idea for this web site was born. I have a habit of developing my hobbies into web resources -- I've created a dozen e-mail lists for electronic musicians and parlayed my interests in electronic music and the theremin into Internet radio programs. Existing gaming web sites have their own focus and vested interests, and I thought people would be interested in a gaming site from a gamer parent's point of view.
Who is this web site for, then?
The short answer is gamer parents and parents of gamers. The Wii has the unique position of appealing to a wide variety of people -- lapsed gamers like myself, new and non-traditional gamers (I hate the term "casual"), female gamers, and anyone else who feels left out of the predominantly young male demographic that most gaming web sites aim for.
Do you have a secret anti-video-game agenda?
Are you kidding? I'm and old-school gamer and living out my midlife crisis through console gaming. :-) I'm not here to warn anyone away from video games. However, I do recognize that not all games are appropriate for all gamers at any given time. For example, I would not play Resident Evil 4 or No More Heroes or MadWorld with my kids around, and I would suggest that you don't either. That doesn't mean you shouldn't play them, but I encourage folks to exercise some discretion and encourage age-appropriate gaming.
What relationship do you have with IGN?
None whatsoever. I just love the site and use it for my primary source of gaming information.
What's with the autism references?
In 2003 my son Eric was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, a medium-severity type of autism. It greatly impairs his ability to speak and communicate, and he also has delayed social development and some sensory sensitivities. But he loves gaming, and it's one of the ways we can interact on an even level. By being open about Eric's condition, I hope to raise awareness of this mysterious disability. To that end, half of all proceeds from the FamilyWii Amazon Associate Store and GameFly referrals are donated electronically to the Autism Society of America via Eric's Gamers Fund.
So what are you all playing right now?
We have a page for that now, right here.
Will this web site work with a mobile browser such as the one on my cell phone?
Maybe. This site is designed to accomodate mobile browsers automatically (except for iPhone, which is exempted) according to the programming guidelines set down by dotMobi. Although this site does not have a .mobi domain name, it attempts to comply with the XHTML-MP (XML-based HTML Mobile Profile) using Cascading Style Sheets and occasionally programming exceptions for mobile layout directly into the PHP source code of the display pages.
I invite you to try out the site with your mobile device. If you encounter any problems, please report them to me using the Contact Page. Please be sure to specify what mobile device you are using, and the exact version of your web browser.
This site is tested on a Palm TX PDA with the Palm Blazer v4.3 web browser and should work with most XHTML-MP compliant browsers.
