Director of NMSU's Learning Games Lab provides some holiday video game buying tips

As the holidays near, most parents have already begun shopping or are preparing to start, and for many parents, like myself, video games are number one on your children's list, which can cause anxiety if you are unaware of what type of game to give your kids. To help parents out, the director of our (New Mexico State University) Learning Games Lab, Barbara Chamberlin PhD, associate professor and extension instructional design and educational media specialist, wrote a simple guide, which offers parents tips on holiday shopping. One of her tips is to include active or “exergames” in holiday game purchases. Chamberlin said there are primarily two types of games to play: passive and active. Passive games involve the gamer playing the game solely with a controller, while active games require the gamer to stand, jump or move quickly and use controllers with their feet or hands. She suggested replacing some passive screen time with active screen time. She also recommends that parents use the Educational Software Review Board ratings printed on every game package as a guide. You can view Chamberlin's “Video Games Buying Guidelines”, as well as “Our Favorites Game Buying Guides”, which are a list of some of our favorite exergames and educational games for various consoles at our Learning Games Lab website www.learninggameslab.org.