As a new parent eight years ago, I swore never to buy a video game system, certain that my child would spend her leisure time reading and playing outside.

I recently remembered this vow while waiting in line for two hours outside the Nintendo store in Manhattan. Like hundreds of other parents, I was trying to get my hands on the Nintendo Wii, a popular video game system and one of the season’s hottest toys.

My conversion from video game critic to buyer is due in large part to some recent research showing that so-called active video games, like those played on the Wii, aren’t like the sedentary games played by the Atari generation. Far from creating couch potatoes, these games compel players to dance, jump and sweat.

While the active video games are clearly an improvement, excessive video game playing by kids is still cause for concern. Exposure to violent video game content is linked with aggression and antisocial behavior, and game playing has been shown to have a small but still measurable impact on time spent reading and doing homework for certain children.