Actually, the opposite is true. Research shows that learning and retention is best achieved through interaction (doing, not just reading). In such a game the child is reading, interacting, and doing so with NPCs (non-player characters) and real people.

Strong words about charity when you have no idea what amount will be donated or what the executives get paid.

There are tons of absoultly safe online environments for children, and they achive this in many and various ways. My son plays several, what are you basing your wild theories on?

Kiwi Heroes is stating that it is an MMOG for children online, this makes it unique and unlike Club Penguin or Webkinz as they are simply virtual worlds.

That’s what we have schools, libraries, and parents for. Research shows that staring at a screen with moving images does not provide the same type of brain stimulation that reading or interacting with a person does.

“Kiwi Heroes will give money to local charities”
Oh get real. I’ll take a portion of one of the non profit charitable organization’s exec salaries and feed millions of starving kids in Ethiopia.

“The game will teach kids the value of protecting our environment and the various endangered animals we share the planet with”
No it won’t. It will teach them how kill time when their parent’s are too busy to pay attention to them.

“The game will provide a safe place for kids to play while on the computer”
Social networks for kids are not safe. They have no secure way of verifying the age of the users and therefore are opening a door to pedophiles and other sickos.

“There are no advergames”
In version 1.0

That doesn’t sound like a terrible place to me.

Falafulu Fisi, I have a question for you. Wouldn’t it be better to have your children acquainted with a computer in this manner, rather than with a game that’s selling them something, or even worse a game that has content in it that is inappropriate? You keep mentioning is that it will make the kids lazy and kill their creativity, but those comments assume that you are letting the computer function as a parent. You would have to agree that most parents will encourage a balance of indoor and outdoor activities for their children. You also say that we should give our kids math problems instead. You’re assuming that there won’t be any in the game.

I plan on having kids soon, and I would like them to learn about animals and the environment while having fun at the same time. If a game can help support what I will be teaching them myself, then this sounds like a game I would want them to play. Falafulu Fisi on the other hand will be teaching his 4 year old long division, and encouraging them to chat on science forums. That type of education takes time. Let kids be kids, and let them learn at a pace and manner that will make sense to them.

Yes, it makes kids lazy. Their creativity is being killed. Kids with no creative ability will always rely on adults to guide them or show them things or do things on their behalf most of the time because they get used to be someone is always serving them. Such children tend not take personal responsibility.

Nicole Whittle said…
They are learning a skill that’s different than their outdoor or imaginary play and it will help them since computers are required at schools.

Anyone can learn a computer at any time and there has never been any evidence at all to show that kids who learn to use computers earlier are more successful than those who don’t.

Nicole Whittle said…
If there is a higher reason in that there is strong social and environmental reasons to play a game such as this-how can we complain?

The reason is simply that kids are wasting their useful time in something so useless. Outdoor activity is always encouraged and when they’re not doing that, then readings, numeracy games, science stories and many other activities should be encouraged. This stimulates their brain. Playing games doesn’t.

Nicole Whittle said…
As parents we are striving to teach our kids about optimism, respect for the environment and looking out for others less fortunate, so having something interactive that assists us (without our nagging of “eat this-do know how many kids don’t have food in the world? comments) is great.

This shows that you have no confidence in your ability to guide and teach your kids. Do you think that someone else (game vendor) knows better than you of how to raise or teach your kids? C’mon, stop being naive.

Nicole Whittle said…
it teaches my kids respect for their global world and uses a fun character (regardless of whatever silly comments were above), then I think someone has done a good job. Let’s see how it unfolds-perhaps without the self serving competitor comments.

No, it teaches them to be lazy which affects their creativity.

Look, you’re in IT as you said. Give your kids some math programs, science programs. There are even math games available out there with the aim of stimulating kids in their understanding of numeracy and such. These are useful activities, playing games and social networkings is useless and time-wasting.

I coached children of relatives and some children of family friends in the evening twice a week in maths. These kids are 7, 8 and 9. These kids know algebra the level of a 15 years old. They can plot linear graphs such as : y = 3*x - 2 , they can solve for solution of ‘x’ from the linear equation just quoted. Their parents bought copies of the student version of the popular Maple symbolic math software on my advise. The kids love exploring the Maple software for things I never taught them. They’re creating and they love it. These are the important things that kids should be doing and don’t allow them to participate in useless/time-wasting social networking sites or gaming sites.

It’s actually fully 3D with a camera so you can spin it around and get a 360 degree view of your avatar.

All we need is to get our kids hooked to the virtual game worlds now so that the few hours of break they get from playing WII or PS is filled with more brain damaging activities.

By the way, are there any serious business models out there or are they all hoping for the same luck Club Penguin had? Can you even imagine ads targeted at kids? “Trade your piggy bank if you want to access the park scene”

I was surfing through the techcrunch site and came upon this page. While I have not seen the KiwiHeros game (although I did visit the site because of all the comments), I think I “get” what it is about. I’m a mum and work in the tech industry and I can tell you, my 4 year old girls play interactive games (although not skilled enough to play MMOG’s yet) and there is nothing wrong with that. They are learning a skill that’s different than their outdoor or imaginary play and it will help them since computers are required at schools. If there is a higher reason in that there is strong social and environmental reasons to play a game such as this-how can we complain? As parents we are striving to teach our kids about optimism, respect for the environment and looking out for others less fortunate, so having something interactive that assists us (without our nagging of “eat this-do know how many kids don’t have food in the world? comments) is great. Again, I haven’t even tried the game out, but if there is no advertising, it teaches my kids respect for their global world and uses a fun character (regardless of whatever silly comments were above), then I think someone has done a good job. Let’s see how it unfolds-perhaps without the self serving competitor comments.

We’ve been getting a lot of questions as to why we chose a Kiwi, so I thought I’d set the record straight.

We chose the Kiwi as the main character because it is somewhat obscure to most kids in Canada (and many other countries) and education is as important to Kiwi Heroes as is its entertainment value.

We also chose the Kiwi because it is an endangered bird that can’t fly; this makes it appear as an unlikely candidate to be a hero. However, as kids play Kiwi Heroes, they will discover that their kiwis can be empowered (and super-powered!) to make a real difference. We hope to teach kids that they too can make a difference in the world and that big or small, true heroes are defined by their actions.

Having pride in your national symbol is a fantastic thing, and we are definitely aware of how important the Kiwi is to New Zealand and its culture. That’s why we’ll be working closely with different New Zealand based organizations to bring quality educational material to kids across the globe. And while New Zealand is certainly the undisputed home of the Kiwi, this planet is home to us all. We believe that teaching children to have a global awareness (instead of being solely concerned with their own back-yards) is incredibly important to foster an attitude that we’re all in this together.

As I’ve said before, fun and games are one thing, but the world could really use a few more heroes.

Thanks again for the feedback and keep those questions coming.

http://www.PLANETCAZMO.com has been live since Dec 07 in beta, has 1000’s of users and is growing everyday. Its in a partnership with AOL and has a lot more in the works. This site should cover virtual worlds with traction and real users - enough hype please!

Actually, kiwi bird is flightless, almost blind and is lacking intelligence. Not much of a hero.

Beeh-beeh-baah-bah-baaaaaaaaah

Kiwi Heroes will promote laziness in children. It kills their creativity in joining Kiwi Heroes since their purpose for them in joining is to explore (perhaps for curiosity), rather than for educational. Another useless/time-wasting application for the naives/suckers out there. Kids should better use their valuable time in joining educational discussion forums which there are many that are available on the net (high school science forums, maths forums, etc…). Kids will learn real knowledge rather than wasting their time in useless social networking sites.