But it’s good in that they’re games kids already like to play. It’s bad because you can find those games on almost any site, often for free. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. SuperSecret cuts deals with third-party game publishers and developers to include their games on the site. On average, they play 55 minutes a session. There are now 150,000 registered users, all from word of mouth. The idea is to giveġ0-year-olds, who aspire to be older than they are, a taste of what it’s like to be older.ĭoes it work? So far, the San Francisco company has had great success since its quiet beta launch in January. At 16, you can drive around the virtual world in a car. At 15, for instance, you can get a bank account. And you can use spenders to decorate your avatar or room. You can get a couple of “age points” as well as “spenders” each time you play a game, for instance. I wonder where it exists already.You start at age 10 and can grow to age 18 by achieving things in the various games. It's that middle-ground sweet spot between levelling-for-the-hell-of-it (or mindless fun), and something-genuinely-useful (or purely educational), that's probably a winner in my book. And who says WoW is more than A Game To Buy Hair with, anyway? Maybe Supersecret has more depth than I'm giving it credit for after such a cursory glance - they reference World of Warcraft as a competitor in the Virtual Worlds News piece, so they're aware of the alternatives 12 year olds have, after all - but I couldn't see it immediately. My newest mission - no offense to SuperSecret - is to seek out virtual worlds for kids and teens that have a deeper and more intellectual raison d'etre than Play Games To Buy Hair With. It earned me some "Spenders" and some "Age Points". Quite mindlessly fun, in that passing-time kind of way. I popped ballons for a bit, Peggle-style. The starter games themselves are pretty simple - and classically "addictive".
Eminently crackable, this, so I suppose it's a cultural rule - and a carrot to get kids to play to virtual age 12 quickly - rather than any kind of actual safety mechanism.
Even though I signed up as a 12 year old, I'm playing as a 10 year old - the starting age - and I can't free chat until I'm "12". The age restriction stuff is curious: on signup, you're asked for your real age (I lied) and a parent's email (I put mine in).
I'm wandering around, and it's initially fairly normal otherwise: 2.5d flash-based fantasy world, with the standard "beach" and "dorm" type zones to hang out in. That's pretty unusual and probably very appealing to tweens desperate to get on with being teens. Supersecret is a new virtual world for tweens in which you play games for points and bling - blah blah - but you also "age up": from 10 to 16 virtual years old.
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