If you’re reading this, I finally published something on this site I bought last fall. I started Game Together for several reasons.

For one, after almost a decade of writing about games online, the last several of which I’ve spent writing 140+ reviews, I was no longer content with filling my schedule with thousands of words on the subject of games solely for other people, other outlets. I wanted to have my own treehouse to which I could escape and say whatever I wanted. To be fair, I’ve had great latitude in covering what I want to cover over the years, but Game Together aims to be just a bit more specific in a way that doesn’t suit my other bylines — and hopefully is even different from any other gaming site in general.

To have a gaming blog in 2019 is not enough. You have to find an angle. I thought about what my angle might be, where my niche could be in the crowded internet. Outlets better than me were already focusing on horror, on co-op, on achievement hunting, and even on Sea of Thieves — all things I’d feel very much at home writing about extensively, but those audiences continue to be served by enthusiastic writers. Where I felt I could separate myself and fill a gap in the gaming world is writing about gaming from a family perspective.

My son, wife, and I love playing games together, and we really play all sorts of games, not just those designed for kids. I feel there’s often a lot to extract as a games-playing family from games you wouldn’t expect, like how wingsuiting around in Just Cause and doing stunts is simple fun if you can shield your young ones from the rest of the mature-rated stuff the game offers. I think Sea of Thieves, a game rated for teens due to the alcohol use and cartoon violence, is one of the best family games in many years. I think these games and more are worth looking at through a parental lens, and most importantly I think few are doing this. As a parent myself, I grew annoyed that no one was there to talk me through games in this way.

It seems to me that so often a game like Cars 3: Driven to Win or Crayola Scoot, when they’re not outright ignored by the gaming media, are only assigned to reviewers so they can humorously trash them, like the roastmasters my fellow reviewers sometimes think they are. I can look at games targeted at kids, accept their sometimes glaring flaws, but still come away thankful and thinking about what they do well. These games, which may not rise above a meager 60 on aggregator sites, hold a lot more value to the niche audience of family gamers. I don’t really care if, for example, IGN hated the recent LEGO game because they felt it was too similar to the last ten in the long-running series. I can even agree with the sentiment to an extent, but the conversation for families looking to play together must go beyond that, and I think this is something I’m good at, and something no one else is really doing right now.

My mission is to grow Game Together to be a resource families can trust for honest reviews that answer the question “should I play this with my kids?” I’m not here to shill for publishers slinging licensed shovelware. I just want to exhaust the family-centric angle other sites tend to overlook. I’ll provide features and reviews about the latest games that fit this space on consoles, PC, and mobile platforms. I’ll introduce games you may not think would fit for families and explain why they actually may. I’ll reach all across the timeline to discuss some great family games from the past and promising family games coming soon. I’ve even carved out a special section of reviews where my son can have his say about the games we’re playing. We love games, and we love gaming together. If you and your family do too, I hope you’ll stick around.

You can follow this blog on Twitter @GameTogetherNet