Crossplay Mailbag: "Are Pokémon Cards the Secret to Good Behavior?"

A week into Crossplay, we mull the best way to extract good behavior from children using incentives like video games.

My oldest often tells me the older kids say the cards are “bad” and I’ve just told her that older kid are mean sometimes. Credit: The Pokémon Company

Welcome back to the Crossplay mailbag!

This is also the first time I'm publishing a post exclusive to Crossplay subscribers. (Articles during the launch were for everyone. As a reminder, reported pieces will remain free for everyone. Personal pieces, access to the Discord, etc. needs a sub.)

As of this writing, Crossplay has been around for an entire week. I've got so many ideas for the future of this newsletter, and have been doing reporting leading up to the launch so I can hit the ground running. You'll have a better sense of what I mean next week, and especially in the weeks beyond. But I'm excited about the stories we can tell.

But that's not why you're here! It's time to answer questions, and this week we've got a few doozies, including how to handle screen time when you haven't been given instructions by parents, how to use games to incentivize good behavior, and more.