Best Virtual Games for Children

It seems adults are just beginning to catch up with children on the fun of virtual gaming. Children have been playing these games for years, going back to the Neopets. The games run the gamut from pet games to card trading games to educational games. It is important to be able to know what our kids are up to on the computer and what their virtual gaming world may entail.

Neopets and Other Pet Games

One of the first virtual games, for either adults or children, was Neopets. Neopets has been around since November of 1995. With Neopets, a child can adopt a unique Neopet animal, feed them, clothe them, and earn Neopoints through games and contests. If not fed and played with, the pet gets hungry, sick, and bored. However, the animal will never die, but will simply sit in cyperspace hungry, sick or bored until its virtual owner shows up again. Other such virtual games are Virtual Pets, and the Webkinz. With Webkinz, the parents first purchase the child a Webkinz stuffed animal which comes with a code that allows the child to enter Webkinz world on the internet.

Educational Virtual Games

Many of these virtual games are tailored around TV characters that a child is already familiar with. Disney provides virtual games based on "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Tink's Lost Treasure". Nick Jr's choices include "Blues Clues Ghost Hunt" and "Dora the Explorer." Pirates of the Caribbean includes some fighting bewteen pirates and those being plundered. However children learn about history through the game. Tinkerbell involves looking for lost treasures and is sort of like a child's matching game. The child clicks squares looking for the object at the top of the page. The treasures are lost among a sunken ship. Nick Jr's Blues Clues takes the famous Blues Clue's characters and involves children in finding missing virutal friends lost in a mansion by following clues left by Blue. Dora's job is to save the Crystal Kingdom from invaders such as her enemy, Swiper the fox. Along the way, children play games learning about numbers, shapes, colors, alphabet sounds, and they even learn a bit of spanish.

Active Participation Virtual World Games

While some games fall into the Virtual Gaming concept, others actually put the child in the game itself as a character or active participant. A few of these games are Club Penguin,Whyville, and a game called Secret Builders. Rather than merely playing a virtual game with moving characters, you become one of the charcacters. In Club Penguin, the child becomes a penguin, enters a chat room with his character, and decorates their igloos. While the game is entertaining, there is very little educational value with merely decorating an igloo or chatting in a chat room. In Whyville, a child creates an avatar or character and actively participates in the game. The child can enter the Whyville Square and chat with other users there. The game is very educational, and their motto is "learning by doing". Children actively partcipate in Whyville fun education projects such as doing virtual science experiements.The negative thing about Whyville is the fact that it is not monitored constantly and violations of language can occur. With Secret Builders, the game combines education and history. The child becomes a character in the game and his character or avatar communicates with historical figures such as Shakespere. The game includes historical quests, as well as building a home.

Caution for Parents

A word of caution to parents would be to closely monitor your child's computer time. Many virtual games add a social level where children can interact with online players, play games with others online, and email them or even talk to them in real time. This requires close monitoring from parents.

1) http://kids.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Virtual_Games_for_Kids_Under_11_Years_of_Age
2) http://www.littlekidsgamesonline.com/kid-virtual-world.html