This is part of a series of posts looking at virtual worlds targeted toward kids.

Following my recent post here on the virtual world of Webkinz, there seemed to be some interest in taking a look at other virtual worlds targeted toward children. These are more often 2.5D, rather than true 3D, environments. At last year’s SXSW Interactive conference I heard one venture capitalist say they were the only virtual worlds she was investing in due to their strong growth.

And grow, they have. I’m on an airplane now heading to the Virtual Worlds Conference in L.A. which has an entire track just on kid’s worlds. With new virtual worlds popping up every day, this could become a never-ending series. I’m just going to start with those I have personal experience with and see where it takes me from there.

Handipoints Chore Charts
This is actually a review of a new world that I had not heard of until it was mentioned by someone in a comment on ThisMommyGig! The Handipoints Chore Chartssite seems to be an interesting new angle on a virtual world because it is fronted by a more “virtuous” goal of getting children to do their chores. Always a fan of hiding learning in fun, I thought this might be a great opportunity to encourage good work by using the online hook.

The Good
It certainly appealed to my daughter who seems to spend more time on the computer lately than on that other vice of television. I was embarrassed to answer during her recent kindergarten orientation that what my child liked to do at home was play Webkinz.

But, the promise of possible bathtimes without nagging or yelling appealed to me, so my girl and I sat down together to chose a variety of tasks and chores for her to keep track of to earn Handipoints. Even new things that had not previously been her responsibility (i.e. water the plants) grading system went into the list. See lessons learned below for more on that.

Allowing the child to input what they’ve done encourages more responsibility, and the grading system allows parent to come behind and not only verify that the tasks were completed, but also grade them on how well they were done. For example, when my daughter turns off her nightlight without any reminder, she gets an A.  When I have to prompt her, she gets a B.

The actual virtual world component, Handiland, has a user interface that is very similar to other such worlds, so my daughter was able to navigate it easily right away.  The number of locations you can go are fairly limited and nicely illustrated through an island map. Your child chooses a cat character that they can dress up and a room to decorate. They can interact with other Handiland cats in environments such as a playground or school.

The Bad
This interaction with the others is the part that still has me a bit nervous. Handiland’s chat is not as restricted as conversation in Webkinz. While not open for free-form chat, there are more choices in the pre-programed conversation than we’ve encountered in Webkinz. While it still prevents children from sharing such detail as their exact address, it does get into more personal information such as the state in which your child lives.

The only other not so great thing we’ve discovered is that the fun of the virtual world can overshadow the task manager - which led to another lesson learned. Sometimes pop-ups even surface while you are in the task reporting area that entice the child away from there for stamp-hunting expeditions and such.

The Lessons Learned

The first lesson I learned was to be sure to set the target high for rewards, or limit the number of tasks.  There were so many behaviors I hoped to improve that I loaded several in there. Then, my girl wanted to add some new chores to the list, which all sounded helpful, so why not?  Well, with all of those options for earning points, what I thought would take a month to do was completed in a week. Now I’ve got to go buy another Webkinz.

The other lesson we’ve learned was to drive home the importance of inputing their task updates before heading into Handiland. Time will get away from them and the next thing you know they’re not meeting their requirement to go to bed on time, which leads to fewer points (and in my household, much whining, crying and begging for a do-over)

[UPDATE 9/19/08: At the request(s) of Mary at Handipoints, I've changed the title in the links above from "Handipoints" to "Handipoints Chore Charts". Whatever the name, after cashing in on her first goal, my girl's interest in the site has dropped dramatically. We set a new, higher goal, but it's been a week since she's bothered to visit the site and input any tasks she has completed.]

Laura P. Thomas is the wife of a former rocker and mother of one 5-year-old girl that’s already waaay too interested in The Jonas Brothers. (the apple didn’t fall far) She works in the Global Online team at Dell, evangelizes virtual worlds, and twitters too much as LPT.