Yepp. And the research is done by Cpt. Rockhopper...
Explanation: The social network of 6 to 14 year olds is owned by
Disney: Club Penguin. A complete safe environment, where you waddle
around being a penguin. You get virtual money by playing games, buy
lots of stuff with it. Addiction is constructed by adopting puffles
i.e. fluffy pets, that have to be fed and walked at least once a
while.
I use the system regularly to stay in contact with my 10 y.o.
godchild in china, so I know a bit what's going on - from her.
The secret spy penguin missions are the favorite ones - to get
children to buy music seems to be not successful yet. But Disney
makes the money by selling premium accounts to the parents. Children
can adopt special puffles then - and they can turn their igloo into
a real pirates nest. And they try to build up star cult. From time
to time Captain Rockhopper, the master pinguin, sails by and gives
away free virtual crap.
fra
link:
http://www.clubpenguin.com/
>Casino capitalism may be getting a bad rap in the mainstream media,
>but the values that nourish it are alive and well in the world of
>Disney. As reported recently in a front-page article in The New York
>Times, Disney is in the forefront of finding ways to capitalize on
>the $50 billion dollars spent worldwide by young boys between the
>ages of 6 and 14. As part of such efforts, Disney has enlisted the
>help of educators, anthropologists and a former researcher with "a
>background in the casino industry" to not only study all aspects of
>the culture and intimate lives of young boys, but to do so in a way
>that allows Disney to produce "emotional hooks" that lure young boys
>into the wonderful world of corporate Disney in order to turn them
>into enthusiastic consumers.
