Spawnpoint is excited to welcome actor Abubakar Salim (Raised By Wolves, House of the Dragon, Assassin’s Creed Origins) for a touching conversation about Tales of Kenzera: Zau, a video game about processing the grief associated with the death of Abubakar’s father. A little more than a decade ago, Patrick Klepek’s own father died of a heart attack, and the two find common ground on the often lonely path to understanding what to make of such sadness.

Timestamps:

* 00:00:43 - What is Tales of Kenzera: Zau?

* 00:03:57 - Fathers and Video Games

* 00:08:75 - Why a Video Game?

* 00:16:45 - Grief as Game Design

* 00:22:30 - What Would Father Think?

Crossplay subscribers get access to episodes early at https://crossplay.news

Welcome to another episode of Spawnpoint, a podcast hosted by Patrick Klepek and Keza MacDonald, two parents trying to navigate the increasingly complex world of raising children and gaming. On this episode, we unpack navigating theme parks with children, after Patrick’s trip to Disneyland and Super Nintendo World, while Keza recounts visiting the Pokémon International Championships with her family and uncovers an old Pokémon childhood trauma. Lastly, we chat through our collective experiences dealing with the world of parental controls.

Crossplay subscribers get access to episodes early at https://crossplay.news

Timestamps:

* 00:01:03 — British Accents

* 00:09:20 — Kids and Theme Parks (Disney/Nintendo)

* 00:27:23 — Pokémon International Championship

* 00:36:36 — Parental Controls

* 00:51:34 — Dragon’s Dogma 2

* 01:01:45 — More Spawnpoint?

Spawnpoint is thrilled to be joined by Andy Robertson, editor of Family Gaming Database, a wonderful website to sort through the thousands of video games released each year and figure out which ones are best for you and the kiddos in your life. Patrick and Andy chat about how their experiences as parents led them to creating Crossplay and Family Gaming Database, and how it’s had them confronting the many ways the video game industry doesn’t help parents.

Crossplay subscribers get access to episodes early at https://crossplay.news, and you can visit the Family Gaming Database at https://www.familygamingdatabase.com

Timestamps:

* 00:01:00 - What Is the Family Gaming Database?

* 00:10:54 - Saying Yes (or no) to Roblox

* 00:20:27 - Playing Games With Older Children

* 00:29:25 - On Writing the book “Taming Gaming”

* 00:36:14 - Children Feeling Validated by Games

* 00:43:35 - The YouTube’ing of Children’s Entertainment

* 00:50:45 - The Future of the Family Gaming Database