Something for the WHOLE Family

So having a boyfriend who lives and breathes technology has its ups and downs as you can imagine.  Sure there are times when he prefers to stay inside and play XBox rather than lay at the pool with me, but those are few and far between so it's okay.  I recently encountered one of those up's and boy was it a BIG up.


For months now I have been hearing about this new XBox Kinect coming out.  About how it really puts Wii to shame in some respects.  Of course I own no gaming console, so to me it was just the newest gadget on the market.  At the Atlanta Arts Festival last month, they actually had a demo.  It caught my attention for all of 5 seconds and I was on to something else.  Then we happened to run upon a live demo in Toys-r-Us about 2 weeks ago, where I actually got to try it out.  It was definitely better than I expected and that day Alex signed up for the pre-order, claiming that we would have so much fun playing games against each other and doing the Dance Central.


Two weeks ago, I found myself at Best Buy at 11:55 pm waiting to get this new Kinect with Alex.  I didn't play it until this past weekend and I have to say it is pretty stinkin fun.  And yes he was right I love the Dance Central game.


Now point of this whole post .... We were at Best Buy again this weekend looking for more games for it.  They happened to have a demo in-store.  I walk over to watch the group of kids playing on it and one of the kids happened to be autistic and I believe had cerebral palsy.  Now to those of you who know me, this really hit home.  My nephew Jacob is both autistic and has cerebral palsy.  What literally brought me to tears in Best Buy was watching this kid play with the other kids and having such a great time.  He actually beat the other kids on the bowling game. That's when I had to walk off and start fanning my face so I wouldn't lose it.

Seth, Jacob and Me from 2004

If you aren't familiar with either of those conditions you probably don't get what it means for a kid to be "accepted" into the masses in a game situation and definitely to beat the others.  When I saw this kid, I saw my nephew, who I know nothing more in the world excites him than when another kid wants to play with him.  His eyes light up and even though his arms start flapping, it's not out of frustration, its out of utter excitement.  He can barely contain himself.  So when I see this kid at Best Buy, I see Jacob being in a room of other kids being able to play just as if he were "normal."


This brings up a point that Alex actually said.  We all have seen the iPhone ad's.  Heck, I admit I cried at a couple.  Now picture Microsoft doing an ad with a kid just like my nephew playing with a group of other kids and having the time of their life.  No one is laughing at him, they are laughing with him.  No one is looking at him funny, they are looking at him with envious eyes because he just beat them in bowling.  He isn't the kid all alone, he is the kid everyone wants to be around because he has the time of his life playing this game.  How powerful would that commercial be?


So if you haven't had the chance to check it out, I highly recommend it.  For those of you who work with, live with or know kids with disabilities - this is a game for the WHOLE family.  And if you work for Microsoft, tell them to give me a call :)