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Dead Ends in Webkinz?

April 9th, 2007 · 8 Comments

clipped from www.postbulletin.com
“The Web site is very focused on money and getting more money, and learning how to buy, buy, buy,” Levin said. “It feeds into ‘you can never have enough, and the more you have the better it is.”‘

Webkinz run loose in schools, on computers
Webkinz also do little to foster creativity or problem-solving abilities, Levin said. “My worry is that you don’t just sit down and read a book. You don’t make your own thing out of Play Doh,” she said. “Kids aren’t involved in having to imagine and create for themselves.”

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Yes, this is my worry as well… and so I ask, why can’t Webkinz rise above this? Bring in more challenging material? They need to “pump it up” soon, or kids will tire of rearranging their virtual rooms, and hopefully, also tire of endless, mindless buying.

Or maybe this will serve as a “vaccine” and they’ll move all the way through the consumerism-dark-side, and come out on top, realizing that all this junk doesn’t make their stuffed animal (or themselves) any happier.

Tags: Thoughts

8 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Dean // Apr 20, 2007 at 8:53 am

    I agree Bob. My daughter has been into webkinz for 6 months, but the extreme consumerism has left her wanting. As a parent / teacher I really enjoyed the quizzes, and the reward for continual effort leading to successful answers was nice. Here comes the but, but as noted, they need to continually update content and challenges, otherwise new wallpapers, holiday themed items and games quickly lose children’s interest. As a parent of a 3rd grade daughter & 4th grade son, they have much more interest in World of Warcraft due to the interactivity, social networking (guilds and vent (think skype), and long / short term goals (quests). It has the same “addictiveness” of more / bigger / better, but the social content is what really drives the game. They often are excited to log on and team up with their grandfather (60 year old) on quests. An interesting point you brought up on a prior BYB podcast, was the social network content is what drives kids. My own two children now rarely touch the playstation or gameboy because they are stand alone UN-connected games. It provides an interesting idea of being social to another level. Great podcasts, keep up the good work!

  • 2 Violet // May 6, 2007 at 8:48 am

    I have to say that I disagree with your opinion about Webkinz. I am a teacher of gifted students and like what they have on the site.

    First of all, the idea of earning and saving money in order to buy what your pet wants and needs is an important economic lesson. The theory of supply and demand is evident in the “rare” items at the Curio Shop, as well as in the “Gem Hunts” where players earn more money for finding rarer gems.

    Also, the games are filled with strategy and build logic skills in order to solve them. The trivia questions are, first of all, differentiated for different ability levels, but also challenge the kids with using the context of the question to problem solve to find the correct answer. The vocabulary is challenging, which I find that schools do not emphasize as often as they used to do.

    I will admit that the site does not give a lot of opportunity for creative and divergent thinking, but that is the nature of computer-type games. There is some room for creativity, but within a limited scope, like when allowing the children to decorate the rooms where their pets live.

    All in all, I find the Webkinz site to be an excellent educational site for kids from elementary to middle school ages.

  • 3 Bob Sprankle // May 8, 2007 at 4:51 am

    Violet,

    I also find Webkinz to be an excellent site and have so enjoyed watching my daughter delight in it. When I first examined my concern that maybe the site was too focused on making money, my wife set me straight by pointing out that most games offer some type of points or rewards… why was this any different? (Smart woman… and she’s not even a gamer.)

    “There is some room for creativity, but within a limited scope, like when allowing the children to decorate the rooms where their pets live.”

    I guess that’s what I see as what will have to evolve. Games are becoming much more open, losing almost all limitations. Kids are able to “mash ‘em up” and take them into their own directions. WebKinz isn’t really a game, but has games within it. The creativity that is allowed is to design what already exists (i.e., the rooms). What will be exciting is when the users will be able to create/modify/invent the content. We’ve seen this already with a “movie” kit that my daughter bought and made her own movies with! She can share these with other people.

    With the opening of WebChat (or is it called Club?), my daughter’s enthusiasm has increased (even though we restrict her to the same KinzChat that she’s been using… i.e., not going into the other section that allows users to type their own words rather than the “pre-canned” comments). It is absolutely amazing (startling) to watch her and her friends embrace this new technology at such a young age, and see how important these social networking experiences are for them. I really see things “click” when my daughter is on Webkinz and the phone with her friend at the same time and they are exploring the world together. When she’s on without her friends, she has a great time with the games, but it does resemble “parallel play” when she takes on a real-life opponent, since their interactions are limited (which is what my wife and I are comfortable with for now… i.e.: “pre-canned chat”).

    I also see WebKinz as an excellent opportunity for some economic lessons, and have thought for a while that it would be great for an entire class to “own” one or two Webkinz, in order to work as a team regarding its care and financial decisions. I’ve already heard of one class doing this.

    My hope for my own daughter is that the “KinzWorld” keeps growing with her interests. Since this is her first experience with social networking, I want it to be positive and engaging. I don’t think she will, but I don’t want her to become bored. She’s already learned some great lessons about saving her KinzCash and I believe these will transfer to real life skills. The discussions with her about her Kinz experience, and having the opportunity to work on 21st Century skills while she is at an age where she still wants her parents involved, are invaluable (well worth the price of admission!).

  • 4 mack // Jul 7, 2007 at 8:00 pm

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