Something for the family this week – Moshi Monsters:
Moshi Monsters is a free online game for kids, in which they adopt a monster and look after it. Kids whose parents give us their approval can become members on our site, and can adopt a Moshi Monster. Kids care for their monster by solving puzzle games, which earn their monster virtual rewards called Rox. Kids can spend Rox on virtual items like food, furniture and other treats and toys for their monster. Over time their monster will increase in level, be able to visit new locations in Monstro City, and earn all kinds of in-game rewards for playing. Monster owners will also be able to make friends with other owners and leave messages on their pages.
(For more details, there’s an “in-depth tour” of the game on the Game, Set, Watch blog: Exploring Online Worlds: Mind Candy’s ‘Moshi Monsters’.)
It’s claimed that the ‘solve-to-earn Rox’ puzzles make the game “educational” – do you agree?
To provide a faintly serious side to this post(?!), how does Moshi Monsters address issues of child safety and parental control? What is the Moshi Monsters line on advertising on the site, compared to its ‘thematic rival’, Neopets? To what extent do you think Moshi Monsters is simply providing a vehicle for selling Moshi Monsters branded goods?
How does the parental advice offered by Moshi Monsters compare with information for parents provided on other child-friendly social networking sites such as Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin or Barbie Girls?
If you’re after 5 minutes of *really* educational fun (?!), why not have a go at Typeracer…
The game it to type a quote out from a book, movie or song lyric faster than the people you are competing against…
Digital Worlds - Distorted Reality 
40 wpm
:-)
In one of those strange synchronicity things, the BBC technology site has just posted a story about “Boom times for virtual playgrounds” [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7390218.stm ], which describes the growth of online virtual worlds aimed at children (how many accounts do you think have been created on Club penguin, for example?), and reviews some of the commercial circumstances surrounding them.
It’s worth a read…
Looking more seriously, these games are interesting – I like the parental bit on Moshi Monsters better than Neopets. I’m not sure how their moderation would work though and how do they know if the parent’s email address is the parent’s?
I’m also wondering about the impact of these sites in the longer term. They seem to be introducing quite young children to the idea of social networking and I wonder where they will go after playing with these for a couple of years. They are still officially too young for the main sites such as Bebo, though the recent Ofcom report(http://tinyurl.com/2ep47b) seems to indicate a large proportion of the 8-11s are in there.
Is there a gap in the market there?
Can you tell I should be script marking?? ;-)
Jacob (8) has just been trying out Moshi Monsters. He comments:
‘I liked Moshi Monsters. I like it better than Club Penguin because it has a Quiz Time. I like Club Penguin better because it has its own blog and you are allowed some pets. I like the activities, downloads and drawings on the Club Penguin blog. In both of the games you get friends. At school, I know 11 people who go on Club Penguin. I don’t know any who go on Moshi Monsters – I only found out about it today.
If you want to go on Club Penguin, type http://www.clubpenguin.com and there’s a film you can also watch about it. Club Penguin is a website that you create your own penguin, its colour and its name. You can go to shops, buy things, do games, get pets and, mostly, have fun. Club Penguin is also a fundraising company, so when you pay money it goes to a kids’ charity [really? query parents]. Also when you are a member you can get more stuff, get more food, upgrade your igloo, buy new igloos – like the castle version – show yourself off to your mates, enter spy missions, have secret gadgets and make your mates laugh.’
Hi Rebecca –
Thanks for posting that – and thanks for commenting back, Jacob:-) Do you like the Moshi Monsters quizzes? :-)
I didn’t know that Club Penguin made donations to charity? I did see that that they let players give some of the money they had earned in the game to charity just before Christmas last year ( http://www.massively.com/2008/02/10/club-penguin-kids-turn-mmo-fun-into-1-million-for-charities/) )
Jacob replies:
I think the quizzes are very easy. They’re simple. For one of the questions: ‘How many cubes is this shape’ That’s a times-table things. So I think the quizzes are mostly about knowing your times table. I think the quizzes are nowhere near hard.
Do you know Neverwinter Nights? It’s on this disc where you create your own game. You create your own mystical creatures and demons and name them, control what they say and control your game. If you burn it onto a disc you can really play it – but you can also just play it on Play mode. If you want to find its website, type in “Neverwinter Nights’ on Google and click the top one. It costs about £30.
Hi Jacob –
Thanks for filling me in about the quizzes – it seems like they weren’t clever enough to hide the fact it was times-table practise?:-)
I didn’t know about Never Winter Nights – thanks for mentioning it:-)
I found a link to the game (using Google:-) at http://nwn.bioware.com/
I also found this video that shows how to create characters in the game:
I’ve still got my old (Advanced) Dungeons and Dragons books somewhere, as well as my d4, d6, d8, d10, and d20 sided dice…(was there one more?). I wonder how much like those games Never Winter Nights is?
Jacob has been investigating whether Club Penguin gives money to charity, and has found this page which suggests that the December fundraiser resulted in over a million dollars being given to charity.
http://www.clubpenguin.com/parents/kids-helping-kids.htm
A new link today about children and web worlds and the benefits they can bring: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7415442.stm
Is anyone else having problems adopting a moshi monster? have tried a bout 6 times ansd never receieve an activation email. have even tried emailing moshi monster company direct with no reply. can anyone help???