PRP - Eighth artefact, Poptropica

I came across funbrain.com however registration was required but, I noticed a tab that sent the user to a place called Poptropica. With the target audience aimed towards 6-15 year olds and the game designed by the 'Family education network' I assumed that this game was an educational piece, although I'm not too sure that I was right.

The game is free for all users to play with no sign-up required. The game has been pre-scripted so communication is free from profanity, making the environment fairly safe. The main aim of the game is to travel to the different islands and complete
the missions on each island by solving clues. The character has the choice to battle against other characters.


Although I only played on the game for a short amount of time I found myself wanting to solve a mission. Even though there was not actually any games to help learn I found myself having to work out the puzzles, could this be a learning source? In my research document I spoke about how games could be a good learning source not just for school subjects but social skills and generally training your brain. This is what I feel the aim behind this game is. When children play this game they have to put find links in the clues to complete missions, you are constantly thinking about how to solve the mystery.

The design adapts well to the idea of a child's virtual world, and with the added animation makes it more than a game. The avatars are small characters not looking like any real person (again good for safety) but the player has the option to dress the character up how they like. The option is given to save the stages you are at, giving freedom to come and go to play the game as you please.

I will not be using this game as there is no actually educational learning outcomes however it is a good example of a virtual world for children, if more learning games were added then this would be ideal.