Chillin' at Club Penguin

Out-of-School Texts in Club Peguin

liam — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:50:23 +0000

Critical Literacies: Language Practices for Social Justice

EDUC 5598H F

Critical Multicultural Analysis of Out-of-School Text

Liam O’Donnell

Virtual Worlds for Kids 101

liam — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:08:52 +0000

Virtual Worlds for kids are more than just websites. They are destinations, places to play, to meet friends, hang out and participate in a community.

Some Definitions:

Virtual Worlds: a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. (wikipedia)

Avatar: is an Internet user’s representation of himself or herself. (wikipedia)

MMO: Massively Multiplayer Online Game, a computer game capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. (wikipedia)

Who’s Visiting Virtual Worlds?

liam — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:08:37 +0000

The number of kids entering virtual worlds is growing every day. Here’s a quick look at some of the most popular virtual worlds for kids:

Kids Virtual Worlds by the Numbers
Company	World Name	Number of Players
Disney	Toon Town	1.165 million
Mattel	Barbie Girls	4 million (yet to be launched)
Viacom	Neopets	4.8 million (unique visitors in June 2007)
Disney	Club Penguin	700K current subscribers, 12M activated accounts (August 2007), 2.9 million unique visitors Jan 2007
Numedeon	Whyville	1.7M registered citizens (Sept 2007)
Ganz	Webkinz World	1.9 million unique visitors (Dec 2006

source: Virtual World News

What is Club Penguin? Why study it?

liam — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:08:03 +0000

What is it?

3-D web-based Arctic-themed virtual world specifically aimed at kids age 6 - 14 years.

Why study it?

easy to access - requires no download
has a sophisticated, but easy-to-use interface
can be played for free, with limitations
allows chatting, messaging and other text-based communications
ad-free
very safe for kids to play - has parent controls
just bought by Disney for $350 million (we’ll be seeing a lot more of it in the future)

Icons & Chat - Navigating Club Penguin

liam — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:24:37 +0000

Club Penguin uses a combination of colourful 3-D graphics, fun fonts and animated icons to create an inviting world for kids to play in.

The annotated screen grab below highlights the key features in the Club Penguin navigation.

1. Newspaper Icon - Appears on every page to give updates on the latest games, happenings or item catalogues. The use of a newspaper icon taps into the player’s prior knowledge of real world texts to allow for easy comprehension.

2. Nightclubs, Coffee Houses and Gift Shops - These are the first three locations a player sees when they log in. Why the need to have adult themed locations? Perhaps to cater to that universal desire of kids to appear older?

3. Moderator’s Badge - The moderator’s badge appears on every screen and links players to a real life person who is watching the behaviour and chat of other players. While moderation is necessary for a safe environment, the idea that someone is “always watching” reinforces the acceptance of a surveillance society, while at the same time creating a panopticon where players check their behaviour for fear of being reported.

4. Speech Bubble Text - These appear above the head of a player’s avatar when they type a text message or “speak” in the world. This method is common in mmos and carries over from comics. Another example of using prior knowledge to convey meaning in a new medium.

5. Map Icon - Appearing on every screen, the map icon allows players to move rapidly through the world of Club Penguin. Clicking on a location will take players to the location. Once again, prior knowledge of a real world text is used to convey meaning.

6. Chat & Emote Bar - This is where text messages are typed to communicate to other players in the world. It works very much like instant messaging, with many of the associated shortcuts and abbreviations making their way seamlessly into the chat between penguin avatars. For safety, there are pre-scripted sentences and emoticons that allow parents to limit their child’s range of communication to other players.

Literacy of Status in Club Penguin

liam — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:07:45 +0000

Club Penguin uses a simple user interface that combines colourful graphics, a variety of text fonts and animations. But even without typing a single letter, there are literacies of status at play with in the world.

Tale of Two Avatars

Every player creates a penguin avatar. A player’s penguin is his or her “face” to the world of Club Penguin. Players can buy clothes, hats, toys, pets and more for their penguins. These accessories serve little purpose other than being “cool” or fun and displaying your commitment to the world.

Flappy Fry is my avatar. As you can see he is very plain. I have not bought him any clothes, toys or pets, because I am not a “paid” member of Club Penguin. I can spend my coins only on a very limited number of items, until I subscribe to the world using real world cash.

Although this doesn’t seem to directly impact how Flappy is viewed or treated by other penguins, there is no hiding of status in these worlds.

Brandaozinha, on the other hand is a very affluent penguin. She (or he) is clearly a paid member of the world. Every item in her profile from her crown to her lollypop - even the spooky background - was paid for using coins earned by playing games in the world.

Although Club Penguin is ad-free, it is not free from reinforcing the framework of consumerism to its players. See Consumerism in Penguinland for more.

Consumerism in Penguinland

liam — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:06:54 +0000

“My 10-year-old is more competitive, and her main objective is to earn coins and buy furniture and fancier igloos.”
Beth Irwin, a mother of three kids who play on Club Penguin

Shop Til You Drop

Currently, the two biggest activities in virtual worlds like Club Penguins are playing games and acquiring “stuff”.

In Club Penguin, players play casual games to earn coins. They then can spend those coins on a wide variety of items from clothing, to surfboards, to pets and more. Every few weeks, a catalogue of new items is released to the world, giving players more “stuff” to acquire and show off.

The dominating theme in Club Penguin as with other mmos is consumerism. Playing games is fun but the real purpose is to earn coins and then use the coins to buy stuff.

Given the potential for what these online spaces can teach young players, it is disappointing the mantra of “he/she who has the most wins” becoming the norm.

Pimp Your Igloo

In addition getting stuff for your penguin, players can also pack their own igloos full of items that serve no other purpose than to impress others.

Once again, this idea of status and stuff permeates throughout Club Penguin, separating the “haves” from from the “have nots.”

Literacies Outside Club Penguin

liam — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:06:35 +0000

As with many virtual worlds and mmos, literacy practices can continue long after the player has logged off and extend beyond the borders of the virtual world itself.

Since Club Penguin first launch in 2005, dozens of websites, blogs and message boards have been created to give players a place to discuss their virtual world at length.

Secrets, Cheats and Codes

While it’s not possible to verify the ages of the creators or users of these sites, it’s safe to say that many are within upper reaches of the Club Penguin’s 6 - 14 years old target market.

Content and conversations at these sites usually revolve around the release of new catalogues, “cheats” that will reveal secret content hidden within the game or mini-game walkthroughs explaining how to complete challenging games.

All this social interaction occurs as a dialogue through forum posts, blog posts and comments, that requires a high level of digital literacy in both parties - the person hosting the site and the visitors who comment.

While some site builders make money from ads on their sites, an underlying motivation that cannot be discounted is once again that of status through social currency. Being the first to post about “uncovering” a secret, finishing a new mini-game or finding a cheat brings with it a level of clout that lifts penguins above all others and makes their player the “expert” to his peers. A motivation that is regularly harnessed by educators often with positive results.

Messing Around and Mashing Up

Some players take their literacy engagement with Club Penguin even further, by using the virtual world’s tools to create their own jokes and narrative. For example:

Using Club Penguin in the Classroom

liam — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:06:20 +0000

Direct classroom applications for Club Penguin are extremely limited, due to:

monthly subscriber model, costing around $60 per child per year
problematic reinforcement of consumerism that places an emphasis on status
simple, click and point, mini-games that teach nothing beyond how to win the game
current “digital divide”, disparity between tech-rich and tech-poor schools, makes computer-based learning limited

However, creating classroom applications that tap into the elements of Club Penguin and other virtual worlds is possible. For example:

have students design and draw their own avatars, or representation of themselves - either in animal form, from a time period in history, or any other theme - award the avatar with a title or badge when the student completes a task or does something of merit (ie “Master of Sharing”, “Plant Waterer Extraordinaire”
challenge students to design their own virtual world that doesn’t rely on acquiring stuff. What would the goals be? What would it teach? Who could visit your world?