Dear Gaming Grandma/Grandpa,

Welcome to gaming! We’re glad to have you here. This is a wide open world, and you’ve just taken your first step into it. We hope you’ll be here for years to come. That said, with the holidays coming up, we know you want to share your new-found love of gaming with the grandkids. This is expected and encouraged. However, we have just a few suggestion for you when you’re at the store picking out that gem of a game for us.

1. Ask us what we want

We know you want that perfect holiday gift to be a big surprise, but there are good surprises and bad surprises. Add in to that fact, that there are a whole lot of games out there. Hundreds of new video games are released every month, and more often than not there are some that we miss out on that we’d be more than happy to let you know about. Be sure to ask the grandkids what we want. If nothing else, it will help you figure out what kinds of games we like.

2. Know what systems we play

Ok, so you have that Nintendo Wii that you use to play Wii Sports and Wii Fit Plus on everyday. That’s fantastic! But you might have heard that Sony (the people who made your TV) and Microsoft (the people that made your computer) also have their own Wiis. Well, actually they have the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, but they all play video games, so they’re all the same, right? Well, actually they’re very different. You see, games made to play on Wii wont work on PlayStation or Xbox. Knowing what systems we own will tell you exactly what games we’re able to play.

3. Find out what other people are saying about the game

There are a lot of people out there talking about video games now. There are magazines like Game Informer and Electronic Gaming Monthly, and there are Web sites like Nintendojo and Joystiq. With all of these people out there talking, it can be a little difficult to figure out which games are good because everyone has opinions. However, you’re in luck. There’s this wonderful Web site that you can go to called Metacritic. Metacritic takes what everyone is saying about video games and puts it all in one place while giving those games a “Metascore” to tell you what people think in general. It’s great if you want a lot of information at once. There are even snippets of the reviews right there that you can look at. It’s definitely worth the time if you’re looking for good gift ideas.

4. Save the receipt

We would never, ever, EVER be ungrateful for the game you got us, but sometimes, especially if it’s a really big game, we may ask everyone to get it for us. In this case, it’s good to be able to take it back to the store in order to get that other game we wanted since Mom, Aunt Effie, and Cousin Thomas also got us the game. You’re still getting us a game, it’s just a little bit of insurance, and we know we’ll love whatever you get us.

There you have it. Those are our requests this year. You know we love you very much, and we look forward to seeing you over the holidays. We’ll try to pull our attention away from our DS long enough to talk… as long as you can put down your Brain Age for a minute.

Love,
Your Gamer Grandkid