Video Game Pulse

The people who come to this blog often (you know who you are) will notice from time to time that I publish press releases that I receive from various companies, Most notably, I-Play’s Anna Brog, and SNK’s Michael Meyers. I have no bias however when I post press releases, as long as it is topical to gaming. So it seemed odd when I received an email from a learning software company by the name of Fogware. “Thank you for taking the time to review our press release.” says Mike Rothstein, Fogware’s co-founder and president.

I immediately started thinking, “hmm, well I’m glad that my PR work has been noticed”. I decided to hunt down the post where I talked about whatever product they e-mailed me about, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I looked through my email and still, I could not find any traces from Fogware. To suffice, I am either reading this wrong, or they are out and out lying to me. Either way, I have a few choice words about the product they are trying to push off onto me.

STUDENT HOME LEARNING SYSTEM is the newest from Fogware, set to release on February 27, 2006. The Student Home Learning System is comprised of 200 educational software titles, 20 hours of DVD video, over 200 hours of audio books, a total of over 20,000 lessons, activities and Q&As, as well as an array of top reference materials, all meant for grades 2-12 and at an affordable price of under $150, it is everything needed to provide a full range of educational materials.

Mike Rothstein, Fogware’s co-founder and president goes on to state that, “The Fogware Learning System contains everything the student will ever need, without having to go on-line at all.”. This is where I am a little biased in this area, I used the internet for everything when I was in grade school. Everything from Math to Science to Literature, the internet had the answers I was looking for. I’m not saying that this software is bad or anything, or isn’t very informative, But the reasoning why you should use it is illogical, there is no way that any piece of software can contain the expansive knowledge of the internet. Consider this, Fogware wants people to buy this product by having people advertise it on their websites and blogs, but you give the parents good enough reason not to have internet, and you just cut your self off from them.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it, the internet can be a wild and dangerous place, full of graphic images, violent depictions, and crude language. The same can be said about TV and Magazines and Video Games. That is why there is content blockers, be it the MPAA, ESRB, or AOL, or Parents themselves. I suggest that if you have children, you should buy them this software, because I believe that every child deserves the opportunity at learning all they can at a young age, but don’t buy it to replace the internet. Until next time, when I rip apart Game On, yet another piece of controversial software from Fogware.