Webkinz & Club Penguin: Evil? Or Good Financial Teachers?

Recently the debate over the benefit or detriment of MMOGs aimed specifically at children has heated up again. Specifically, these debates center around Club Penguin and Webkinz. The current debate was kickstarted in a New York Times article last week entitled, “Pay Up, Kid, or Your Igloo Melts,” by Mireya Navarro.

Navarro notes that several opportunities in the games require additional purchases, much to many parents’ chagrin. One thing that has alarmists concerned is the fantastic growth the two largest sites, CP and Webkinz, have seen recently. CP has almost 5 million unique monthly visitors, while Webkinz has around 6 million.

While there is some free content, attractive add-ons require additional payments. Anyone can register in CP for free, but to keep virtual items in the game, a monthly pay account is needed. People purchasing plush toy Webkinz in the real world get free access to the virtual Webkinz world for a year. Buying more plush toys leads to more benefits online.

Navarro notes that the idea of selling to tots in the digital realm is raising concerns:

Consumer Reports WebWatch started a study this summer to evaluate the commercial content of online games for 3- to 7-year-olds.

“Every interface is becoming an opportunity to sell children something, either brand awareness or real things,” said Liz Perle, the editor in chief of Common Sense Media. “That’s the end game.”

Other profit concerns exist, Navarro says, including the fact Disney bought out CP for $350 million, with an option to double that amount if growth targets are met. We’re used to hearing folks fuss about profits generated by “Big Oil” and “Big Pharma.” Now, perhaps we’ll hear talk about “Big Gaming.”

On the other end of the spectrum, some parents actually like these virtual worlds for tweens and kiddos. Brian B., a fellow technology director from Texas, and blogger, notes that his daughters have been captivated by Webkinz. After some scaffolding, his 4 year old twins took to the game like the proverbial duck to water:

At first, they were satisfied with watching mommy and daddy play the games, buy things, and arrange furniture, etc., but eventually they wanted to take control of their own private virtual living space themselves. My wife came up with the idea of putting a heart sticker on the left button of a little USB travel mouse I carry in my bag so they could remember which button to push (laptop tracks pads are difficult for 4-year-old fingers apparently), then a little instruction on drag-and-drop and they were off. They only thing that my wife or I do now is to log them in (while they can type their own names, the extra long/unique user names for the site give them a little trouble).

Brian is a little worried about the financial aspect, namely that it may use up a lot of his money like so many other things for your children have a tendency to do. But, he also likes what he sees in Webkinz:

Many of the games are educational – one of my personal favorites is one where you take random letters and try to put them together to spell words. Depending on how you put them together you get more points – don’t get enough points and you don’t advance another level. Another game teaches spatial placement by setting up pathways to get the “pets” on one side of the screen to their “homes” on the other. You have to click on each piece of the pathway to make them flip until the pathway is complete – and the possibilities are endless (no two game boards are the same) … BTW – My wife and I find several of the games as good methods of winding down at the end of the day…now who’s WebKinz are they again?

So, the jury is out as to whether these for-profit virtual worlds aimed at kids are evil capitalist “first hits” to the addictive world of Internet playgrounds … or fun sites where kids can learn a thing or two about money management and home décor. It will be interesting to see what Consumer Reports’ WebWatch report says, and hopefully we’ll see some academic research as well.

References:
Navarro, M. (2007, October 28). Pay up, kid, or your igloo melts. Newyorktimes.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/fashion/28virtual.html

Halo 3 and OLPC

Two articles are of interest today. One, from the New York Times, reports on the slam dunk that Halo 3 is for Microsoft. Over a million people have already pre-ordered a copy of Halo 3 at one of three price levels: $60, $70, or the $130 version complete with game helmet. Author Seth Schiesel sums up the money involved this way:

The Halo series, set in a future when humanity is battling a hostile alien race, has sold more than 14.8 million copies since its debut in 2001, making it one of the most successful game franchises. The last major game in the series, Halo 2, set a record in 2004 for first-day sales of any entertainment product, generating more than $125 million in the United States in its first 24 hours.

Halo 3 is expected to rake in around $150 million on its first day, a sum surpassing comparable products in other media such as books and movies.

The other big article deals with videogames only in passing, but it also focuses on the polar opposite of big game development, and big money. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal ran a give and take between the One Laptop Per Child organization’s Walter Bender and the co-founder of eMachines, Stephen Dukker. Mr. Dukker also leads a start-up company called NComputing that offers software for inexpensive computer labs. Although few details are revealed in the dialogue, it appears NComputing can offer software for virtual workstations running in the neighborhood of $11/terminal. Mr. Dukker says, “The NComputing solution essentially taps the unused power of a regular desktop PC and enables seven students to use it simultaneously.”

The OLPC has caught my interest here before due to the fact some of the software programs in the distributed prototypes are game-oriented, thus maximizing learning potential. No indication is given if NComputing also offers gaming software in its product. Interestingly, Mr. Dukker brings up several of the oft-heard criticisms of the OLPC project (the money could be better spent elsewhere; it’s not really a $100 laptop; the countries involved have to order huge bulk quantities, etc.), giving the dialogue a tone of debate at times.

It’s an interesting exchange because wherever low cost computing goes, so too will the need for affordable pedagogical software (aka, instructional videogames). OLPC and NComputing are both worth watching from this perspective. I’ll be intrigued to read the research on new software developed for developing world platforms. And I’ll also be interested if any educational efforts come out of Halo 3. Certainly Halo 3 won’t be played on the OLPC product anytime soon (nor was this ever intended). But, perhaps the new game’s capabilities can be put to good use in a future educational product someday.

References:
Schiesel, S. (2007, September 24). Gamers, on your marks: Halo 3 arrives. The New York Times. [Online.] Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/arts/24halo.html?ref=business

Will low-cost laptops help kids in developing countries? (2007, September 5). The Wall Street Journal. [Online.] Available: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118892795619917030.html

Two Major Articles on Second Life

The dead tree media have been paying attention to SL for a while now, but last week brought major articles from arguably the two most important East Coast papers. The first was in The New York Times. Reporter Seth Kugel offered readers an inside look at SL, introducing the uninitiated to such things as avatars, virtual architecture, and Linden dollars.

The second article dealt with the more salacious aspects of SL. It was published in The Wall Street Journal, and focused on the sexual content available in this most popular of virtual worlds. I, along with others, have long maintained the main portion of SL is inappropriate for K-12 educational use due to the unregulated “anything goes” atmosphere. Author Alexandra Alter focused on a married man who engaged in an affair of the heart (and avatar) with another person in the virtual world. Edward Castronova over at U. Indiana, Bloomington, gets a prominent mention as does Nick Yee from Stanford.

Wrapping up the article, and summing up the virtual affair, Alter keys in on the RL wife:

Sitting alone in the living room in front of the television, Mrs. Hoogestraat says she worries it will be years before her husband realizes that he’s traded his real life for a pixilated fantasy existence, one that doesn’t include her.

“Basically, the other person is widowed,” she says. “This other life is so wonderful; it’s better than real life. Nobody gets fat, nobody gets gray. The person that’s left can’t compete with that.”

I sympathize with the SL widow, Mrs. Hoogestraat. But, I must say, nothing is better than RL. Hopefully her hubby will figure that out soon.

References

Kugel, S. (2007, August 9). A house that’s just unreal. The New York Times. [Online]. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/garden/09second.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin

Alter, A. (2007, August 10). Is this man cheating on his wife? The Wall Street Journal, (pp. W1).