Every week we do a quick wrap-up of some news items that may have slipped through the cracks. The wrap-ups will be shorter versions of our articles, lumped together to give you an idea of things you may have missed.

Parents Playing Games With Their Kids – Dogs and Cats Living Together!

With a promise that I will chill out with the survey information in the news in the future, a recent survey suggests that most parents are actually playing games with their children. A whole six out of ten reported that they found time to enjoy a game with the rest of the family, with games like Guitar Hero and Wii Sports coming up as a frequent draw to bring families together. There was no real report on awareness of ratings, or anything of the like that seems to come up whenever there are parents involved, but it did show that interest is growing in getting full families involved in the activities.

One of things to note out of the numbers is that lots of parents are even admitting to playing games at all, with 70% reporting that they had played within the last year. It’s a pretty big leap from information in the years past, and while PC still seemed to be the gaming console of choice for many parents (likely attributing Solitaire to the gaming landscape) it’s still showing that more and more of the older generation are showing signs of the population that has embraced gaming as a culture.

Nintendo Battles Used Gaming Market

Last week we ran a quick story about how developers are coming up with ways to combat pre-owned gaming sales in order to encourage more new games being sold. Well, Nintendo has certainly presented an interesting method with their newest peripheral, Wii Speak, which will only allow you to download the Wii Speak Channel once per item. For those keen on ditching their old hardware once they stop using it, perhaps it won’t have such a broad appeal if you are not able to use the microphone to its full potential. Users won’t have the ability to download the channel separately, and without it you are not able to create or join chatrooms with friends online.

It’s not unusual to use hardware as a way to push software. Rock Band has obviously been successful with this so far, and all its predecessors, and the fact that Wii Play continues to sell demonstrates the power of a good deal. However, it seems a bit unprecedented that the functionality of your hardware would be so limited on the used market. It’s smart, and perhaps a little bit of a harsh move from the eyes of those keen to grab games or hardware for a few dollars off. More incentive to grab a freshly minted one, which is kind of the point.

LittleBigUproar – Sony Deleting User Levels Without Warning

While Sony isn’t exactly picking random levels and purging them from the servers, it seems that quite a bit of controversy is starting to build around the fact that some pretty popular levels are disappearing without so much as a warning. While it was reported early on that these deleted levels violated the online agreement, displaying IP from other companies like Mario or God of War, with a highly touted level like the Azure Palace being torn down it seems that Sony has some explaining to do.

It wasn’t a huge surprise to me to see some levels get the axe. I mean, yes Super Mario Bros. is almost part of the gamer creative commons, and when you give anyone tools to build something in a game, very likely other games will get the nod as fast as anything else. However, with Sony holding all the cards, having World 1-1 may have turned a few heads, and they need to cover themselves or remain liable for the ire of any other companies. When seemingly original content gets brought down, and from what I can see with very little reason since the level didn’t seem to mimic any other property, it’s a cause for concern. This game is meant to be built on the backs of the community, and as soon as you give them reason not to trust you it will send them away and the game sales are going to go with them. It’ll be harder for Friend X to recommend the game to Friend Y if his favourite levels have been gobbled up by the great machine, and it’s something they need to address and quick.