I grew up with videogames. I’m now a father of two. My kids are now the ones growing up with videogames. When I was growing up, you could scan the entire selection of videogames available by looking at a shelf at Sears, but now, it’s like trying to learn about an entire video store’s library.

I’m on a quest for age appropriate (and more importantly, skill appropriate) games for my kids. My daughter is six and that is the problem. There seems to be some sort of void of quality games for that age group. There are crap licensed games, there are decent “younger” games, and there are great “older” games, but it’s really hard to find something special a six year old girl can look at as a game for her. It can have some reading required, but nothing too complicated or too text focused. I’m determined to find something, but I’ve learned a thing or two in my quest.

The first thing I learned (or more accurately, “had reinforced”) is that Gamestop clerks are largely useless wastes of space that seem to be inconvenienced by your very existence… and that’s before you ask them a gaming question they don’t have a canned “I’ve answered this question for 50 morons today alone) answer for.

Haven’t I been told that we’re supposed to value them for their gaming expertise? Aren’t they supposed to know about the product they sell? Aren’t they supposed to be somewhat familiar with review scores and sales numbers for their products? When then why in the hell do they look at me like I’m retarded when I ask what a good game for a six year old would be and then ask any sort of follow up question when they hand me <insert licensed title with a pink box here>?

Am I supposed to blindly believe their advice that it’s a good choice for my daughter when they recommend it but are unable to answer how much reading is required or what the gameplay style is? One guy even grabbed the box out of my hand to read it (like I was incapable of such “edumicated” feats). I left the store feeling once again like I should never return. I truly feel worse about that store every time I visit it.

Okay, okay, I know… I should try to support the independent gaming stores, right? The ones that do it because they want to. Well, when I went to a local shop, they were closed. What kind of gaming store isn’t open on Sundays… in December? Fine, I’ll go check Game Crazy… I’m usually less miffed about going there.

As luck would have it, I was helped by the “Holiday Help”. I’d never seen the guy before when I was in. I asked where the used Wii games were and after he surveyed the walls, we both found them at the same time. I asked if Wii Play came with a controller or just the disc… you’d think I just asked the guy to explain Einstein’s theory of relativity. I told him not to worry about it, that I was pretty sure it didn’t (he explained to me that Wii Play came with every Wii and he didn’t see how the Wii remote would’ve come with it since the box was “normal size”). Rather than correct him, I mentally wrote him off as useless and moved on (it wasn’t worth my time to try to help him learn, he was helping other folks almost immediately).

While perusing the used DS games, I heard him call to the (actually useful) clerk helping us asking if they had any used copies of DiRT for the 360. DiRT for the 360 was LITERALLY right behind him. It was almost comical that he was asking. Under my breath I told the guy helping me that they had a real winner on their hands and I got an eye-roll and an “I know…” In the end, nobody at Game Crazy could tell me anything specific about any games that might be appropriate for a 6 yr old girl other than to point at the “pink boxes” or animal games that ended with a “z”.

So last night I tried the independent game shop again and wouldn’t you know, they were actually open. The selection in the store was pretty sweet in terms of “hard to find” stuff. They didn’t have much in the way of used DS games, which really surprised me. As I expected, the clerk was rather useless. He finally recommended Animal Crossing Wild World since “you can really play it without reading a whole lot”. His coworker heard this and said “isn’t that game FULL of reading?!” *sigh* I left empty handed… again.

A few days ago I happened across an intriguing headline on the Slashdot Games feed asking about DS games for pre-readers. A parent of a six year old daughter was fielding Nintendo DS game suggestions that didn’t focus too heavily on reading. He was summarily crucified for trying to find a video-babysitter and chastised for not “spending time with his daughter” or “teaching her to read”. I got a little worked up over the treatment that guy got because I’m in an identical situation. Leave it to (primarily teen-to-twenties aged) single males to offer parenting advice.

So I ask you, the readers, have you ever had a specific game type or age/gender group you were trying to buy for but couldn’t find anything to satisfy your requirements? Do you have any DS/GBA suggestions for a six year old budding reader?

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