QUOTE(SurveyTech @ Oct 11 2007, 11:10 PM)
Hi!
Is there a way in XBMC to control which games are played (maybe by rating) and/or to limit the amount of time playing? I have children that have Xbox's in their rooms with XBMC on them. I want to limit the amount of time they play games and control which games they play.
They have been playing too much lately - I may have to take the Xbox away...
Thanks in advance.
So far as I know, there is no way to limit the time played, and no built-in ratings system. However, there is a way to control which games they can play from the installed games on the hard disk (won't control the disks they put in, but if you have the HDD space, put them all on the HDD and lock up the disks...).
First, seperate the games you don't want the kids to play into another set of directories (in my case, game that anyone can play go in
E:\Games,
F:\Games, and
G:\Games, games that the kids should not play go in
E:\xGames,
F:\xGames, and
G:\xGames). Set a Master Lock code (don't forget it), and put a check on
Lock filemanager and
Lock settings. Create a profile for your kids, setting
Media Sources to
Separate (locked). I would also suggest going to
Lock preferences and checking
Lock filemanager (safe to leave the others unchecked, even settings); don't set a lock code. When you're finished, if it asks, let it copy the settings and sources from the current settings and sources. Put a check on
Login screen.
Now, go to the Games... If needed, hit
B to back up a level to see the sources, highlight the
Games source, hit the
White button, and
Edit Source. Add the new folders where you put the non-kidsafe games (
E:\xGames,
F:\xGames, and
G:\xGames in my case). Go back to the Games, and verify all the games show up.
Log off, or restart, and you should get a login screen. Try to login as Master User, verify that it asks for and accepts the lock code. Log off, or restart. Try to log in using the kid's account, should not need a password. Go to the Games, verify that NOT all the games are showing. Verify that the kids can't edit the source on Games, and that they can't go to the File Manager. If you need to edit their sources, you'll need to be logged in to their profile, and enter
Master Mode (click the
Right Thumbstick, select
Enter Master Mode, enter the
Lock Code).
Oh, and if the kids get in trouble... log in to the Master User profile, go to
Settings/System/Master Lock, and put a check on
Ask for Master Lock Code on startup; it will then ask for the Master Lock code before getting to the login screen, affectively locking them out until you go in and uncheck the option from the Master User profile.
BTW, if you have any applications installed, I would suggest editing the
Programs source on the kids' profile to point to the same folders used for Games. Otherwise, they will figure out that they can just go to another application, and use the file manager in that to run any game they want; not to mention, some applications can format the HDD, flash the EEPROM, etc.
Also, to make updating to the next release of XBMC easier, when you make a copy of
UserData, also copy
system\profiles.xml, otherwise you'll need to redo your profiles each time (took me a while to figure out where it was stored). You can also FTP in and edit out the lock code in this file if you ever lock yourself out (hope your kids aren't reading this
).
Edit:
I just realized that these are Xboxs in your kids rooms, so no real need for separate folders for non-kidsafe games (more for a family room setting)... But again, if you have the HDD space on the Xboxs, only put on games you want them playing, and lock up the originals.
Still a good idea to set up a separate profile for the kids and lock them out of the Master User profile, to make it less likely they screw anything up. I have a profile for each member of the family, so we can each have the skin and colors we like, and I set
Media Info to
Separate on each one so the Usage counts for each profile are counted separately... Sort the game by Usage, and the games we each play most migrate to the top of the list. I also transfered pictures of each of us from the computer to use on the Login screen (I put them in
E:\Pictures\Logon Photos, but they just have to be somewhere on the Xbox HDD). I rarely log in to the Master User profile (I think of it as an Administrator account).
BTW, sorry spiff for contributing the this thread hijack. I was editing this before you posted.
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Topic: Xboxmediacenter - October 7th 2007 Svn Rev10457 Build (Read 450 times)