So, I was pretty much going to get Critter Crunch all along. I'm ready for a new puzzle game. It looks cute. It has received good reviews. It's made by a Canadian company (woot!). I tried the demo and liked it. I even beat a couple of people online. So, yeah, I was going to get the game anyway. But, if there had been any doubt left in my mind, a single, ridiculously silly detail closed the deal. Among Critter Crunch's trophies is a silver trophy called: World's Greatest Dad. When I saw that, I was sold.

Now, I know that unlocking that trophy has absolutely no bearing on what kind of real-life father I am to my son, and I make no claims to be the World's Greatest Dad (I'm happy enough to be an occasionally competent dad), but I think I was pleased by this connector, tiny as it is, between my identity as a gamer and my identity as a father.

Now that my little guy is almost 10 months old, and I have confirmed that I do not have to abandon gaming just because I'm suddenly responsible for the health and upbringing of an entire other human being, I have been thinking about how to bring him up in a gaming household. What kind of structure will/should I provide for him? (I am assuming, of course, that he will be a gamer too. There is a chance that he has inherited the genes from his mom that leave her wholly unimpressed by video games… she doesn't even play casual games! [I'm not complaining though—I have her full blessing to indulge my own gaming habit.])

I wonder: when (if?) he starts gaming, should I limit how much he plays? Or when he plays? Should I hide the T for Teen and M for Mature games? Should I set the parental control lock on my PS3? Or will these measures simply pique his interest and encourage him to find sneaky workarounds, like playing at friends' houses or cracking the parental control? Should I just leave the M for Mature games lying around, but make it clear that they aren't for him to play? Should I only play these games after he's in bed? Should I go a step further and not bring these games into the house to begin with? (Can I survive the next 10 years playing only E for Everyone games? Sounds like a mild form of hell.) Or should I be entirely laissez-faire and just trust him, in his defenseless and premature state, to do/know what's right for himself, knowing that games like GTAIV and Manhunt are just lying in wait to fall into his impressionable hands to be completely misunderstood by him?

I'm torn.

I mean, my parents were pretty liberal with me (I was the youngest of three after all) and I turned out just fine… arguably. I was watching movies like Conan the Barbarian and Porky's when I was seven. I was playing Mortal Kombat and Doom every chance I had when I was 15. I've pretty much played what I wanted, when I wanted, and I do not believe myself to be either a) sociopathic or b) addicted to video games in any socially-debilitating sense. Nor do I think that all that movie watching and video game playing damaged any of my imaginative capacity growing up. (I did, however, suffer from nightmares steadily for several years when I was young, but I think that had more to do with an unfortunate incident involving a Kermit the Frog puppet than any movies I watched or video games I played.)

On the other hand, I feel it's my responsibility as a father to control, to whatever degree I can, what my child experiences. I mean, I just can't imagine letting little dude, when he's four years old, play God of War or Bioshock and just be all meh about it.

Where is the line? Where lies the balance? I guess this is just something that I will have to play by ear as I go along. If dude seems fine making wise decisions on his own, I should just leave him to it. If it's clear that he needs boundaries and guidance, I will have to be there to give him those things. (And if I screw it up… I can just have another kid and try again! [Ha ha?])

Seriously, though. Part of me is concerned about these things… but another part of me is excited. Excited to have a live-in gaming buddy. To play Critter Crunch with. And LittleBigPlanet. Heck, even Street Fighter. And WipEout. And…