AOL's PlaySavvy speaks to game-shy parental units

By Angela Gunn | Published December 1, 2008, 4:55 PM

PlaySavvy attempts to talk to parents -- or is it grandparents? -- about smart videogame shopping. It's a nice effort with some nifty features, but it's hard to see the need for PlaySavvy from here.

To its credit, AOL has a history of attempting to engage non-tech-ish parents in the process of vetting their kids' online activities. Those efforts include the company's free parental control software offering and the recently launched SafetyClicks site.

PlaySavvy attempts to build on that reputation, and on AOL's high profile, by offering parent-oriented recommendations by age group, game system, and interest category. It has some basic but nice-looking image galleries, and the "Parents Q&A" section promises answers from a panel of actual game-aware parents, though we saw very little in that section on a visit there Monday afternoon. That's all fine, and one supposes that if there are buyers out there who really aren't capable of reading and comprehending the ESRB ratings on game packages, the "Gaming 101" section of the site could be of use.

But a look through the site's news archives reveals that about once a week, the site feels compelled to post an article along the lines of "Grand Theft Childhood," "Eight Real Video Game Dangers For Kids," and the like -- game-bashing of the tiresome type.

Spreading FUD is a venerable way to get nervous readers clicking, but the frequency of scare pieces relegates PlaySavvy to the list of sites that, in the main, confirm the prejudices of adults who don't have much first-hand experience with games. There's nothing terribly wrong with that, but it seems unlikely that most parents -- particularly those of younger children -- don't have at least some gaming experience.

Older adults, in other words, may find PlaySavvy a comforting site -- a bit of consumer advice, combined with a bit of "confirmation" that videogames are strange and scary enough to merit the FUD. But with its arm's-length attitude toward an activity that many parents have long embraced, PlaySavvy is no GamerDad or GAMEparents.