My son is what I'd call a casual, semi-addicted, Xbox gamer. When he saved up enough birthday, holiday and grandpa money to afford half of an Xbox console, my wife and I kicked in the rest.
What we soon found out was that the console was just the beginning of a long line of purchases to fulfill the Xbox dream.
Each game cost from $40-60 dollars, depending on what your kid is into. Personally, I'm not willing to let him play war games in his spare time, so we keep it to the sports related games. (Madden NFL, NHL Hockey, NBA Basketball, to name a few).
The original console comes with one wireless controller – that's all well and good if your kid doesn't have any friends. So, the next trip to the game store was to pick up another wireless controller.
This all leads (and I have to admit, this is cool) to the online component of Xbox. By simply connecting the Xbox console to the Internet (via an Ethernet cable or through your wireless network) your kid can play games live, online, against their friends! Now, they can also play against total strangers, so rules have to be set upfront – but by turning on his controller, he can go to the friends setting, and see how many of his other friends are playing Xbox online at any given time, and which game their playing.
For example, my son Zach hopped online, and saw that his friend Corey (they have to know each other's screen names) was online, looking for someone to play NHL Hockey with. Zach strapped on his headset (which, thank goodness came in the box), put his own version of the game into the console, and was able to play his game against his friend, sitting three miles away in his own little Xbox world. (By the way, he could just as easily been sitting in France).
(By the way, the privilege of playing online will cost you around $7.95 per month, which is a lot cheaper than renting a movie, so I'm OK with that.)
They're talking to each other, and they're playing against each other as if they're sitting next to each other. After a tough fought 3-3 tie, they went into a shootout, and one of them ended up winning. After that, Zach went back online, found another friend playing NBA live, suited up, and became his beloved Toronto Raptors.
Is this OK? Well, I think it is, as long as there are rules. No playing against strangers – ever. No playing until homework is done. And I have a personal bias against blood, guts and gore, especially in high definition.
By the way, can Dad get involved? Depends on your manual dexterity, and the game itself. I can't score a point in NBA basketball, but throw Tiger Woods PGA golf into the machine, and my son has met his match.