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ToonTown Online: MMORPG "Training Wheels"

AdminAdmin Administrator RarePosts: 5,623
in News & Features Discussion

Dana Massey recently had a chance to interview the VP or VR Studio - Mike Goslin and Steve Parkis - the VP of Premium Products at Disney Online.  From this he has put together a nice read on this MMORPG targeted at younger players:


imageThe majority of MMORPG gamers are adults. The games are violent, they require a credit card and typically, the uncertainty of the content in an online world has parents keep their kids away. MMOs are a paradoxical genre in an industry that many perceive, however incorrectly, as being for kids. Enter Disney's Toontown Online, the only major MMORPG aimed at children. They face an odd challenge. They need to convince children to play their games, and parents to pay for it. The game does not have the advantage of a box on a store shelf to draw a kid's attention, and it requires a monthly fee from a credit card that no child has. How then does it succeed? It has been the support of hardcore MMORPG players who wish to show their friends, family and children what draws them in has made Toontown a modest success.

Recently, MMORPG.com had a chance to chat with Steve Parkis, the VP of Premium Products at Disney Online, and Mike Goslin, the VP of VR Studio who produces Toontown Online and the recently announced Pirates of the Caribbean Online which will be designed for a somewhat older demo, about the challenges of making an MMO for kids.

To read it all - click here.

- MMORPG.COM Staff -

The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.

Comments

  • ValeVale Member Posts: 3

    I played TT for about 2 or 3 months, and had a pretty good time too. It was such a nice, simple, refreshing change from all of the standard fare that is out there. I ended up getting 4 or 5 people at work hooked on it. The ones that had kids were always talking about how they had fun playing as a family activity at night after dinner. Their chat system is really great for kids. It covers pretty much all the bases, and doesn't allow players to talk with free text unless they both know a secret codeword. This goes a long way toward making the environment safer for the youngsters.

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