The Web Authority

My kids who are 11 have found this game and are loving it, but from a parent’s point of view is it a good game for kids? If you click my post title you will go to the Outspark game page. My kids like the game called Fiesta.

One thing that you should be aware of is that you will need to help them download it as they will be asked if they are above 13 years old. Hmm, well you’ll have to decide if you can handle that issue or not yourself. My kids equate it with Runescape but with hugely better graphics.

The game is actually quite entertaining and the graphics are really quite advanced. I find that this game will be best for 11 to 15 year olds and may bore older children or be too advanced and complex for younger children.

In Fiesta you can do quests, can fight mushrooms, get pets like dragons, the graphics are manga-like and so very cool. There is chat available and bad words are blocked out with stars - Thanks Outspark. Fiesta has new features added all the time. When you first log in, the control panel shows you what is new so you can know what to check out each time you log in. The kids have not seen any special events like on Runescape, but that doesn’t mean that come a holiday they won’t be there.

The very best thing is that you can go to different worlds and fight different creatures. From a parent’s viewpoint the kids cannot fight people just funny creature-like things such as slime, blue crabs and mushrooms. There is fighting, but no graphic people oriented violence.

The ability to travel worlds, earn experience points from doing quests and fighting creatures, and you can buy things. My kids have not learned to buy things yet, but they love the quests.

There are four levels of cash; bronze silver, gold and gem. You get money from selling things that you have made as an artisan or from killing a creature and taking their holdings. If you have a younger child or one who has not played before on Runescape, you may want to check it our for yourself first, but if your child is already playing Runescape this is another game clone and you should be fine allowing its use. As always, download a game or watch the play for the first 30 minutes before you decide to let it stay in your house.

If you are a parent of elementary school aged children then you know what a Webkinz is - a stroke of marketing genius to help separate us and our kids from our money.

These fuzzy stuffed animal pets, that aren’t really even pretty, have become the rage with the elementary school set. Buy a Webkinz animal and get a code to logon to Webkinz world online. Although I think that the push of the website is to encourage our kids to buy more and more, that is your decision as a parent to feed that or not, but what about the website, is it safe and fun?

The online games are fun for kids and very easy even for the youngest Webkinz fan. As bad as the Webkinz animals look in real life online they are adorable and their actions and movements are cute in the online world. One of the big features of the site is the addictive and fun games. The Webkinz dollars you win are used to purchase items for your Webkinz house and garden. I found the house stuff to load slowly and be annoying as a parent to watch load, but my two girls age 11, are absolutely ga-ga over them. Webkinz encourages kids to log on every day to search for gems, that you install in your Webkinz crown.

I took a look at the games and for kids, they are fun and creative. There is a chat area, but you must select the sentences and cannot write your own text guaranteeing a safe environment for all. The kids love this site and I think that it is nice, fun, and safe.

My one big issue is the focus on consumerism. Some parents may be sensitive to this and others not care at all. The site features a pet of the month, encouraging kids to buy it each month so that they will have greater access to unique items and games if they have the pet. Encouraging kids to log on every day to get the gem of the day is another ploy. Oh and how about the discount and extra perks to own three, ten, and twenty Webkinz. Each Webkinz costs between $13.99 to $16.99 so the dollars start to add up fast!

If your kids have just told you they don’t care about all of that, the least expensive place we’ve found to buy them is at Hallmark. There we paid $13.99 versus $17.50 at Limited Too. So Webkinz can be fun, is surely safe, but you may be spending more than you want for the stuffed animals to feed your kid’s desire for more. For us, I have now limited the animals to three each!

Elementary girls and tweens love this game called Club Penguin. Boys like it too, but typically want more action and prefer Runescape, Silk Road or Voyage Century.

At Club Penguin your kids can dress up like Penguins and waddle around and collect pins, play games like Bean Counter and party at the dance room. They can buy items, go sledding on the mountain and play “rock the ice”. Also the kids can participate in holiday events, gather unique once offered items, become an agent and solve mysteries, and much more.

My two girls like Club Penguin and want to login every day to collect their pins. Here’s where having a computer time monitor is a good idea, we use ComputerTime. As with all online games, kids can easily lose control of the amount of time that they are online and as Club Penguin is fun and can be addictive.

I think Club Penguin is great. It may be too tame for older teens, seventh graders and up, but is wildly popular with the elementary school set. You can click our post title to visit Club Penguin for yourself to see why you too should be waddling around collecting pins!

Continuing our review of online games for parents, today I am reviewing Silk Road. This is a great game for fifth graders and up. It has much of the same charisma that Runescape has but the graphics will really WOW you. This is a 3-D game and is very advanced in appearance.

Kids can go on quests, link to other guests and talk and barter with them, visit new towns, ride horses and other animals including elephants, and join guilds. As the game is more advanced, so are the players. I would not recommend the game for kids under fifth grade, they should stick with Runescape. You will find many teens, high schoolers, and even some adults playing Silk Road.

The time to download the game is steep, typically several hours over DSL, so save it to a network and then install it on multiple computers if you have more that one child who is interested in playing.

Very similar to Silk Road is Voyage Century which I will review later this week but is about boating, maritime trade, and pirates.

In Silk Road, if you abhor violence, you’d better stay away from this game. The violence is not terrible, but kids can battle others and particularly kill monsters and bears. They wield swords and shields and daggers. I have carefully reviewed the amount of violence and I have a low tolerance when it comes to gore and I have approved this game for play by my kids. However, I have found that my kids still gravitate to Runescape based on their age. If you have older kids, you should check out Silk Road but you may want to set time limits for the amount of play. Using a product like ComputerTime (which is what I have installed) will allow you to control the amount of play time that your kids can have on this great online game.

As a parent, you should really know what your kids are playing. In an effort to help you know which online games may be suitable for your kids, I will be reviewing several of the most popular. The first online game I’ll be reviewing is Runescape.

First, this game is popular with the elementary and middle school set. I have seen some high schoolers play, but typically it is popular with the younger set.

I think that Runescape is great! have played with my kids and it can be quite complicated but is easy to get started on right away. First you can customize your person. At start up the tutorials will show you how to play the game, you select hair color, clothing, and physical attributes for your person.

Once in the game, it is a virtual world. You work, earn money, barter and sell items, store things in a bank, get attacked by robbers, and can even die and lose your stuff. If you die, you lose the things you were wearing or carrying, but do come back to life to start out again. If you had stored items in your bank, you can get them and be back in business quickly.

Runescape does teach kids that you have to work to earn things, now that is a real world lesson. The group that hangs out on Runescape is friendly. Others will chat, share tips and how to catch fish for example, let you know where to find the best food and other helpful tips.

I have never seen or heard foul language, sexual conversations, or for that matter any other things that would raise my concern to keep my kids off of Runescape. One thing that my kids really like is at Easter, Christmas, and other holidays, Runescape will offer special events. If you complete a mission, you will get a ring that allows you to turn into a bunny, for example, with a ring, on demand. These special items are coveted, not able to be traded, and once lost can never be regained. My kids also love the rainbow socks and special hats and clothes you can buy.

For a special treat, you may want to consider giving your kids a million Runescape dollars for about $7 real dollars on PayPal you can hook up with a person on Runescape and get a million or two dollars and let the kids knock themselves out buying cool stuff.

Should you become a member? I have not allowed my kids to do this, but if you are a member, you can do more and buy more. One of my kids recently told me that many of the things that used to be available only to members are now becoming available to non-member - oh the glory of competition between online games.

I would definitely recommend Runescape to you. If you see McMom there, you’ll know that it is me being lead around by my pack of kids.