The real solution is parenting.

Isn't this "parenting", though? I mean, I realize its not quite the same as sitting down and talking to your kids, or taking out the belt or whatever, but kids are pains in the asses. You can talk to them all you want and try to be a "good parent" but that has its limits.

If you care enough to get a GameDr, then you're clearly not cool with the idea of your kid getting home at 2:30 from school and playing Halo for the next 6 hours. Which is a step above most, I'd say.

Please note, I don't have kids, nor do I really want them, thanks to the above mentioned pain in the ass thing.

Is there one of these for the liquor cabinet, to stop the parents from getting blasted after a set amount of time?

For another (more-Wii-like) take on the same idea, see here: http://www.windowmagazine.org/window/index.php?section=Stories&id=20

Parents will love it, kid gamers won't, it's always something, huh gamers?

As a parent I keep track of how much time my kids play games. It really is not that difficult to do. I think the timer is a way for parents that are not around to keep track. In the end it is all about parenting.

It's especially sweet that their aim is to take out the stress for the parents and not to help kids or anything.

This is really a joke in many ways. For one thing all a kid needs is a pair of scissors to disable this device.

I'm not a parent either but I do feel there are better solutions out there than this.

This is a parenting tool just like baby monitors, portable DVD players, and... yes... videogames. My kids like videogames, x minutes is a reasonable amount, and if I need to do my taxes/make dinner/wash the baby then having a timer is one less thing to worry about. Parenting is all about juggling time and you just don't appreciate that until you get kids of your own.

Norikue: Yes, my kid could just disable this device. And he'd know that would bring down the mother of all groundings. That's parenting too.

@Joshua: "Isn't this "parenting", though?"

No. It's buying a device to do your parenting for you.

"Please note, I don't have kids..."

No. Really?

@Anonymous: "Yes, my kid could just disable this device. And he'd know that would bring down the mother of all groundings. That's parenting too."

Then why not just make this the step before you buy the device?

This is not a parenting tool like baby monitors, dvd players and videogames. Those things provide, well, monitoring and respite. This is a controlling tool for kids who do not have self-control and for parents who don't know how to teach that.

Controlling and parenting are not the same thing.

Gee, I hope my wife doesn't find out about this!! :P

Scenario 1:

Wii: "Saving to memory card. Please do not turn of the device."
GameDr: "Harr. Harr. I think not! Harr. Harr."

Scenario 2:

Mom: "Little Tommy, have you finished your homework yet?
Little Tommy: "Sorry Mom, but Uncle GameDr turned of the power on our family PC"

This thing bothers me;

1) As a gamer, one would assume that this thing would just cut power from your system, just turning it off point blank. Part of me feels nervous that this would end up frying the system because someone felt like they had to monitor how much time I was putting in to any one game.

2) I'm working on becoming a teacher; I don't have kids, seeing as though I'm still in college, but I can see both the up-side and down side to this. I know my parents, had this thing-a-ma-jig been around way back when, might have considered using this because from what I understand, as a parent, as anonymous stated, you have to juggle. Which is true; my mother had to watch my brother and I, work, take us to sports things, do dinner, ect ect ect, as would my father. They were, and still are very busy people. This...thing,I can see helping parents in a way to make sure their children stay balanced, not to mention can force them outside considering that happens to be a problem now-a-days. And before you jump down my throat, I'm not saying that video games are the cause for anything, I'm just saying that they don't always help.

However, I can also see how this can help out a parent who has no desire to take an active role in their children's life, and those are the kids that are going to disable the obnoxious contraption, and proceed to play said games.

I mean, you can argue it either way; it's really a case by case sort of thing dependent on the lifestyle of the family that chooses to use it.

But like I stated before, my main concern is the system frying :c. If that happened to my ps3, I would NOT be a happy panda. (Oh man, bookworm has a point too. But honestly, what idiot would hook that thing up to a pc? Don't answer that.)

I should sue! I built this very thing as my senior project in college back in 1992. However, I didn't bring it to market simply because it was so easy to circumvent once the kid had an ounce of inventiveness.

At least mine didn't rely on a freaking zip tie. Duh.

I ended up deciding a better system would have been to lock my kids up to a timed cage if I had to resort to this kind of parenting, anyhow.

As a parent who is also self employed the advantage I see if it enforces the limits I set even if I get busy on a call or project. Why kids occasionally get "bonus" time because circumstances prevent me from kicking them off.

this tool is for parents who have things to do while one kid is on the console. ie bath the baby, cook the dinner.
it is not a replacement for absentee parents who leave there kids to look after themselves while they work, thats called a babysitter or if your lucky trust.
i know my parents wouldn't have bothered with it because by the time i was looking after myself i had the fear of punishment to control me just like adults do in the big world.

As an educator I find the number one problem among young males and their studies is the time they spend on video games. Knowing that parents lack the will power to say no to the children. This device will at least make the issue inconvenient.

The guy who invented this better hope he never runs into me. I'd destroy my games before I ever let anyone try to limit my game time.

You knew it would come to this. Too many kids playing their video games for too long. Actually, I've seen even a better tool than this! It's called Pass2Play.com and it makes kids earn their playtime by doing academic exercises, or even potentially homework. Once completed, the kids can then play online and socialize with their friends. Once their playtime is exhausted, thay get "pulled back" out of their online game and need to completed additional exercises to earn more playtime.