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Disney Launches Online Game For Kids
from the get-'em-hooked-early dept
I’ve been seeing plenty of stories lately about how people are getting increasingly addicted to online gaming. So I guess it’s no surprise that Disney has jumped up with their own online game specifically targeted at kids. The early reviews seem to be on the “glowing” side of things, so I imagine it might catch on with kids, and present an early training ground for later life addictions to other online games.
Comments on “Disney Launches Online Game For Kids”
Toontown
several of my coworkers started playing this and now have spouses who play more then themselves. i tried it and found it to be a waste of time.
Re: Toontown
I think you should think over what you are saying! Kids love this game. It gives them a chance for adventure, fun, and online friends to chat with. So look, you are an adult! Kids will think differently than you. So let the kids have what they want. And they want toontown!
The human factor
People play online games in order to compete with human players instead of computer simulated opponents. This article makes it sound like every kid will be on the same team, against a computer simulated opponent. What’s the point? You might as well play a PS2 or Xbox game.
Aside from that, there is no way that Disney will be able to keep the unscrupulous people out. I wonder what kind of liabilities this will open up for Disney if any incidents occur.
Re: The human factor
Some people play in order to compete with others, and that’s why the multiplayer first person shooters are so populer.
But when it comes to the Massively Multiplayer games like Toontown, there’s evidence that many people play online games for other reasons, including socializing and exploring. Such people have been finding Toontown to be a tremendous amount of fun over the course of several public beta test cycles. Even when people are playing cooperatively against their environment they seem to be deriving a fair amount of satisfaction because of those interactions with other players that don’t involve attempted murder. Some games don’t even feature combat at all and remain popular with a large-enough audience to support the development team.