'Baby and Me' Uses Wiimote to Create a Burping, Crying Baby

by Leila Brillson on November 2, 2009 at 02:10 PM

The Wii's motion-based gameplay is wonderful, having opened the door to imaginative uses never before possible in video games. While the Wiimote is rugged, that doesn't mean it can handle the sheer abuse of being tossed around, pitched at pets, and rolled haphazardly. Maybe, then, it's fitting that the controller is now being turned into a baby.

The special edition of 'Baby and Me' comes with a doll attachment, meaning that the Wiimote will churn out baby noises while little girls and boys (we hope they're little... ) interact with the toy tot's onscreen counterpart. The fun includes feeding the baby, rocking the baby to sleep, and compatibility with the balance board, which allows, well, rocking the baby to sleep.

Child-rearing sims are simply creepy. Video games are supposed to allow us entrance to fantastical worlds, where we become Navy SEALS or get to raise an army of flying armadillos, not make us tend to a screaming, needy infant.[From: Ubergizmo and Aussie-Nintendo]

Tags: baby and me, BabyAndMe, top, videogames, wii, wii games, WiiGames, wiimote

Comments

ColinNov 2nd 2009 3:22PM

Neutral

Can I ask you why "[you] hope they're little girls?"

This casual homophobia and knee-jerk gender role reinforcement is exactly what I don't need to see in a politic-neutral technology blog - which, if anything, I mistakenly expect to be more progressive because of the futurism of the subject matter.

I'd like to politely request a response or retraction, and apology to your readers. I'll be pulling Switched and it's family from my RSS in the meantime. Sacrificing journalistic credibility for snark is something the blog community does well, but I won't continue to support the AOL news network with my pageviews and clickthroughs as long as it is at the forefront of this trend.

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trademarkableNov 2nd 2009 3:30PM

Neutral

Amen. Though I wouldn't ever believe technology advances are politically neutral. It's the personal, retrograde politics I wouldn't want to read. But even if I were in agreement with these noxious "knee-jerk" gender roles don't give up on Switched. Hold their feet to the fire!

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trademarkableNov 2nd 2009 3:24PM

Neutral

You "hope they're little girls?" As in, boys shouldn't play with dolls? Are you serious? Plenty of boys play with dolls and fantasize about being a parent. Why wouldn't we want to encourage nurturing behavior in our future fathers? Are you saying video games should remain the province of (hopefully fantastical) warmongering? I can't believe I'm reading this in 2009. How disappointing.

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Leila BrillsonNov 2nd 2009 3:29PM

Neutral

I agree with your statement about little girls and boys. The snark we meant to make was adults playing with a baby doll, not any particular gender statements. I've added 'boys', and kept the sass towards anyone over the age of 12 who is spending their time nursing an inanimate object. That isn't a Ropid.

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trademarkableNov 2nd 2009 3:33PM

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But that's not acceptable either. Why wouldn't some adults want to play with this? There are lots of empty nesters, elderly, parents who've lost their children, etc., who might find it quite therapeutic to play this sort of game. And what if an adult isn't that good at caring for a baby? Why would it be anything but positive to have a game which develops parenting skills? Even if I believed you that the original text wasn't meant to be sexist (how could anyone miss that?) why denigrate adults who want to care for children? So sad.

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Leila BrillsonNov 2nd 2009 3:44PM

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I'm not denigrating any adults who are trying to hone a nesting instinct, but I think I would be one of the first people to point out that child-rearing sims ALWAYS ALWAYS reinforce the gender stereotypes you are riling against and have virtually no education value. They ARE creepy, they refer to you as the "mother", pink is for girls who get to wear bows and dresses and blue is for boys who like fire trucks. If you are taking child rearing tips from a Wiimote attachment and a game that asks players to play create-an-outfit and something called "Balloons" , then you should probably put down a controller and pick up, I don't know, Erik Erickson.

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ChrisNov 2nd 2009 4:10PM

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REMEMBER HOW FUN TAMAGOTCHI WAS? ENDLESS HOURS OF ENTERTAINMENT!

I hope this developer makes a sequel where you take care of old elderly people next. WHY ARE THESE GAMES ALWAYS AGEIST AND HAVE TO DO WITH TAKING CARE OF THE YOUNG? My grandparents need their bed-pans changed. Imagine the fun of pouring it out with the Wiimote; or scrubbing their dentures! Oh no! They've fallen! Help them up!

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