My Single Mom Life

On our way to Publix, we noticed that the new video game store, or what I thought was a video game store, had it's open sign on, so we stopped in to check it out.

We opened the door and walked in, and were surprised to see that it's a game playing place.
For $6.75 per hour, you can go in and play xbox 360, PS3, or a Wii, or pool.
They had giant flat screen tvs up on the black painted walls, leather recliners for the people to sit in, 2 pool tables, and not much else.
The guy said that in a few weeks he'll start buying, selling, and trading new and used games, but for now, if you want your kids to come play, they have to read all the rules, (1 page, single spaced) and the parents have to sign a contract, and leave their CC number.

The contract basically states that if your kid breaks a controller, a recliner, a pool stick, or whatever, the parents are legally responsible for full price repayment.
The games are not worth full price because so many people would be using them all the time, same with the controllers and other items, so no way should the parents have to pay full price for them, they would be used price at that point.

It was dead quiet in there too, because all the kids are required to use the full ear covering headsets, there is no jukebox or soda machines, no food is allowed to be eaten while there, it's strictly for game playing.
While the concept is ok, there is no way my teens will be going there to play.
Let's say some kid breaks a Wii controller, doesn't say anything when their hour is up, Mark rents an hour and tells the guy the controller doesn't work.
Guess who has to buy a new controller?
Mommy, and mommy ain't paying for that.
There are no security cameras to verify what kid is doing what in there, so it would all come down to whichever kid is the last kid to sign the contract for a particular game system.
No thanks.

But in other cool video game news, I just saw the Xbox 360 Text Messaging Kit.
It plugs into the headset port, and allows you to text message people in game, or with people using Windows based pc messenger systems. One review I read said it can be used to send text messages back and forth to cell phones as well.
If you watch the demo video on Circuit City's website, you can see it works with cell phones. Not sure how that works because I don't have this text pad yet, but if it can do all that stuff, and even comes with a special headset that works with it, it might be a kick ass add-on for the xbox360.
A lot of the video games make heavy use of texting like Phantasy Star Universe does, so this would be a very nice addition so you don't have to leave your game screen to send messages back and forth, you could just do it in game from the chat pad.
I may have to check one of these out.