Cogs, trolleys and jellybeans: a 21st-century board game for ages 7 and up

You know, sometimes it’s important for parents to realize that times are a changing.

Take games for example.  When you and I were young–for those of us born before 1985–we played games on cardboard, with paper and pencil, with little pieces.

Those games still exist–thank goodness!–but most kids prefer the click of a mouse to a pencil.  In elementary classrooms, computer games are used to teach basic facts, and computer games offer a fun way to enhance reading skills, and basic scientific and geographic knowledge.

And of course, computer games are also for good of fashioned “lax time.”

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It started by word of mouth.

“Mom, the next time we go online, can we go to Toontown.com so that we could play Toontown?”

“What’s Toontown?”

“Sharon plays it at her house and we got to play when we went over there.  It was so fun!  You got to be an animal (Sharon was a rabbit), and you got a house, and you could make friends…”

Her description of the cartoon world would never end; the hubby and I heard about Toontown for two more weeks.  The girls already had their favorite websites: nickjr.com, noggin.com (which has now been taken over by the latter), disney fairies, and agame.com (this one requires monitoring/scanning of games).  From there you have the learning sites: starfall.com (for reading), funbrain.com (math, reading, and everything else), and spaceplace (NASA).  But every time the girls wanted to sit down at the computer, it was only Toontown they wanted to play.

But we simply didn’t have the time to check out the site, create profiles, set parental controls, etc; we were in the middle of buying a house!

But the children were relentless–not once did they let me forget that it had been 2 days, 5 days, a week and more since I agreed to go online and check it out with them.

When the time came, I could see no red flags: it was essentially a role-player game online, made by Disney.  The main goal of the game is to protect Toontown from the Cogs, the “evil robot businesspeople types that have invaded Toontown.”  To get rid of the Cogs, you have to make them happier.  You do this, oddly enough, by using gags, which you buy with jelly beans, the only currency used in Toontown.  You get jelly beans by riding the trolley, fishing, or playing other games in Toontown).

So I helped each kid set up their own (free) account, game time was monitored, and addicts they became!  They love Toontown—–

And for those of you RPG players, you know the addiction is real.  I’m in the middle of Dragon Age of Origins, and playing it is quite the ecstasy 🙂

To Pay or not to pay? (Membership in Toontown)

Of course Disney isn’t going to offer a full-fledged online multiplayer game for free without a few carrots to draw in a few bucks; enter the household debate: Can we have a membership to Toontown?

Membership in Toontown costs $4.95 for the first month, and $9.95 for each additional month.

I said no outright.  “You’ve been playing for six months without a membership, you’ve had a great time, and you’ve never been upset before.”

This was a condescending and disrespectful thing to say to them–in addition to being a logical fallacy.  Just because they were happy before playing the game without membership did not mean that their current unhappiness was invalid.

What I should have said to the girls was how can you come up with a way to get the money needed every month for the subscription?  This encourages critical thinking and forces them to realize the power of even a few dollars.

Now I know that  games such as these are designed to let you only go so high, only interact superficially with the online world–until you pay for full access.  I’ve had those same feelings of disappointment when I realized how the scope of my play was limited without membership.  But I chose to NOT get an online subscription because I didn’t think they’re  worth “my allowance”.

But the children did have this as an option.  My girls get an allowance: $10 every two weeks, $1 of which must be put into a savings account.  That leaves $18 left for them to spend anyway they want.  So, I presented the option to the girls.

They accepted instantly.

Since each subscription will be $9.95 (of course there are no family packages that I’ve been able to find), I told their girls that each allowance I will take $5 bucks from their net amount (after they put their savings in).  They can keep the subscription until they don’t want to spend THEIR money on it anymore.

Today is the first day they’ve been able to play the full game.  Since Kansas City is snowed in (and has been for the last week), this is a welcome addition to the cabin fever of the present.

At the hubby’s request, they’ve been given extra game time (a significant amount).  He says that since they’ve paid for a game, they should at least be able to make themselves  intoxicated with it the first day–then they can go back to their normal routine.

I agreed.

If you haven’t heard of Toontown, there’s a good chance your kid has.  I think its a good, safe interactive game for young minds, and kids think its fun!  No book learning, but making friends, collecting things for their home, buying pets–it’s a wonderful life on Toontown!  Every now and then, I’ll notice a toon named “Ben’s mommy” or something like that–even parents gravitate……

monitor, monitor, monitor—and let your kid have a little fun!

You can learn more about the game at the toontown FAQ website.

SIDENOTE:  Yes, I have my gripes with Disney.  I could do with less pretty, perfect, white princesses who hate their life.  And even though I adore the Mulan Series, and I certainly have my favorite Disney movies ( I can’t STAND Pocahontas!), this game I can tolerate because it has nothing to do with movies!