Fellow gamers and readers, another week, another blog post. 

Today, we are going to talk about Taming Gaming, an initiative started by a small, enthusiastic team of parents and carers in the UK.  Their goal is to provide accurate and hand-crafted information for a whole range of games available on the market through their video gaming database. 

Video games are a sensitive subject for parents sometimes, as some of them are afraid of the potential negative impact it could have on their children’s life. Besides regular reviews on video games, Taming Gaming also features a brand new book that provides educations on this matter for parents. But more on that, in just a few minutes. 

Let’s dive in. 

Are video games actually important for our children? 

Yes, they are, especially during these times. 

You see, video games can teach our children a whole range of useful skills in life: perseverance, patience, compassion, critical or lateral thinking and much more. But more importantly today, we personally feel that games, in general, can be a useful tool to cope with stress, having in mind the pandemic we are going through and its impact on their mental health.

And not just them, to be honest. Although I am not a child anymore, I find myself many times playing a few of my favourite video games and when I do that, I am just able to disconnect from stress and day to day life. Which itself is very relaxing, it gives my mind a short time to relax, take the pressure off and immerse myself into the fantasy world of the Elder Scrolls. 

That is why we need to learn how to tame video games. There is no need to be afraid of them and the benefits can be surprisingly pleasant for both parents and children.

More precisely, what is the family video game database?

Good question and we might have the answer for it. 

The platform itself aims to help you find games for every age, children, teenagers or adults. At the same time, every game is presented in such a way that it can be understood, therefore putting the parents or carers in the driver seat. They now have the ability to make informed decisions on what games to play based on a wide understanding of the specific game. 

The platform has a very user-friendly interface, it’s comprehensive and it provides the so much needed education on the topic.

But from my point of view, one of the best things about this database is the way it is organized. 

Navigating on their homepage, you are able to search by specific criteria (more on that in just a minute), see what are some new games added today, what is popular amongst the parents or games on sale. If this becomes a priority for you, you can even subscribe to the newsletter and stay informed about video games. 

Pretty extensive, right? 

How to search for games 

Besides the features mentioned above (new, popular or games on sale) parents also have the ability to search by different criteria, simple but yet very effective. I was able to find my favourite games in a matter of clicks. 

You can search games by their name or by theme, and theme has two different options: the type of experience you are looking for (e.g. develop critical thinking), or the game genre (e.g. action).

These two mentioned above are indeed effective, but pretty standard.

What I do like the most are these two features: refine for my family and accessibility functions.  

Let’s say I want to play a new game with my family, but we are all different ages, there are 4 of us and I only want to play for one hour. I can filter all the games by these needs, or whatever my family wants at the specific time: maximum age rating, how many players, how long I want to play, device and much more. 

Every family is covered on the family video gaming database, no matter what. 

On top of this, we can plug in the accessibility filters as well. Technology, at its finest. 

With them plugged in, we can filter by difficulty, reading, audio, image or communication. If we know what we are looking for, we think it is impossible not to find it. Unless the game is not listed on the database, which again, is pretty hard to believe considering they get updates on a daily basis. 

The structure of a game presentation 

So far, so good. 

Let’s say we’re searching for a specific game, we filtered accordingly and now we ended up on the actual game page. 

The game page presentation, in my opinion, is sweet, sharp and informative. But even more important, for me personally the game presentation is neutral. Is made by parents for parents, not paid by anyone, not sponsored by any gaming company or whatsoever. An honest review, just what I need. 

On this page I can find: 

• ➼ a general overview of the game
• ➼ game details and tips 
• ➼ commitment (duration and players)
• ➼ age ratings 
• ➼ costs 
• ➼ accessibility

On top of this, another nice feature here is the suggestion tab, where I can see similar games to this one if I don’t fancy this for some reason. This is a smart feature, to be honest, most of the times, I want to play something similar to a game that I already like, but I am not in the mood to do the research. So suggestions are welcomed and the platform does just that. 

Thumbs up, team!

The book 

We hope you have a good understanding of the Taming Gaming video game database by now. But this is not all. 

You see, the database itself is meant to complement this book: Taming Gaming: Guide your child to healthy video game habits,

written by Andy Robertson, the person behind this initiative and a gaming journalist with 15 years of experience in the branch. 

As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, video games are a sensitive subject for parents in general. They feel worried about them in general, but as with anything in life, I think we feel worried about the things we do not understand, yet. Well, through his book, Andy aims to shed light on gaming, its benefits, how can you bond with your children through gaming and in general how to tame them and bring the positive out. 

Our personal and honest opinion: the Taming Gaming initiative provides the so much needed education on video gaming, it can create a strong bond between family members and it opens up a communication channel with our children, a channel which sometimes is difficult to find but necessary. 

HAVE a look at the family video gaming database here, and if you want to know more about this topic, simply follow this link. 

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