Battlemouth

Poking around the internet I came across the latest tool in helping lazy parents keep their children from video gaming too much, the Game Dr. The premise of the Game Dr is simple, it encloses the power cord of the game system and puts it on a timer. Parents get to set the time limit, then when time is up the system powers off, letting the user know 10 minutes and 1 minute prior to power down.

If you’re that concerned about your child’s videogame habits you’d think someone would put more effort into it than just buying a power supply lock. From the looks of it the Game Dr is only held shut with zip tie, if my game shut off in the middle of the Sephiroth fight in FF7 you’re damn certain my nerd rage would quickly put an end to that measly security measure. In addition the truly desperate gamer could just get a 2nd power supply and continue gaming happily.

Parents, instead of supporting companies that are trying to exploit your insecurities in raising your child why dont you be a little more proactive on the parenting front. In fact I bet you could turn video games into a good thing, there are plenty of games out there that you could play with your child. The Game Dr is not the answer, nor will any power supply timer. There are always hand held games to resort to when they Dr was prescribed too much video game time anyways.