[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape. Part 1 of our investigation into Moshi Monsters can be found here.]
Moshi Monsters is a educational, social MMO aimed at "little kids and big kids alike" that allows users to adopt and raise their own monster, and today we've taken on that very task to see what features are on offer for budding foster parents!
The Moshi Monsters experience begins by "adopting" your monster from a selection of six species on the website. Players have a limited number of color schemes with which to personalize their monster (one of eight main colors and one of eight secondary colors) and apart from that (and choosing the monster's name) there are no other options to personalize the "base" monster that you create. But with six monsters on offer there is a nice range to suit different tastes -- from the "ninja kitty" Katsuma to the Yeti-esque Furi -- and Mind Candy have hinted that clothes will soon be available for monsters to purchase.
Each created monster has his own room visible on the web by anyone, though visitors this way have no way of contacting the user (or even interacting with the monster or room) in any way unless they sign in. The pages clearly indicate the user's age and location. You can view Worlds in Motion's Moshi Monster, Shibito (a "Zommer") here!
Shibito already has a personalized room, but when you begin playing Moshi Monsters your room is empty and basic -- plain wallpaper and carpet plus ordinary windows and door.
With your monster you have only two real forms of interaction directly -- you can either click on it (to "pet" it), which usually results in your monster saying something (generally mildly amusing), or you can tickle it by dragging your mouse across it holding down the mouse button.
After I adopted Shibito (and after briefly tickling and petting him) I began what is arguably the main point of the world -- playing the educational puzzles. These puzzles are selected by pressing the puzzle button in the monster's room, and can be played once a day to receive Rox, which are Moshi Monster's currency, and to raise the monster's level (which has no immediately obvious meaning.)
Players must raise Rox in order to pay for food (to keep up their monster's health) and decorations for the monster's room (to keep up the monster's happiness) which both maintain the monster's mood.
The puzzles take the format of simple Brain Age tests, such as counting the number of blocks in a cube or finding the missing letter. Though they're initially very easy, they automatically calibrate their difficultly to how well the player is doing, and after only a week of maintain Shibito and playing puzzles each day they're already a real test of my arithmetic and ability to search for letters and numbers.
After my first set of puzzles I instantly set off down the shops, easily reachable just by clicking on the monster's door. There is a selection of three -- the gross-ery store (food), Yukea (furniture) and Bizarre Bazaar (decorations) and I quickly purchased some new wallpaper, a new floor, a dartboard and a cabinet for my monster, before placing them in his room -- much to his approval.
When it comes to the "single-player" game, there's not much more to it than that. In town, there are two games which can be played (Flutterby Field and En-gen) both of which are fun mini-games, but there isn't as much impetus to play them as there could be, as you can't gain Rox from successful play -- though Mind Candy promise that this will soon change.
Yet Moshi Monsters is intended as a social game, and it's here that it's different take on things is obvious. Moshi Monsters has been built as a sort of equivalent, or companion to, social networks such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. You can, for example, embed a Moshi Monsters widget into your MySpace page, which doesn't offer full functionality but is an easy way for your MySpace friends to find your monster.
This kind of thing is particularly important as within Moshi Monsters there is no way to interact with other players without already knowing their username. You may notice that poor old Shibito has no friends! Well, if he did, he'd be able to receive messages on his pinboard (from friends) and in turn, leave messages on his friend's pinboards. Any logged in player can view another player's pinboard or room (as long as they know their username) but the only initial interaction with another player is to ask them to be friends.
This limited social interaction is part of Moshi Monster's core philosophy to allow the worlds to be safe and enjoyable for the intended audience of children, and the website has a good deal of information for parents who may worry about the possibilities.
After taking care of Shibito for only a week, I'm already quite attached to him. I'm able to stop by for mere minutes each day to make sure he's happy and play through my daily puzzles, and can't help myself from eyeing the more expensive items for sale in the shops with the aim of decorating his home as well as possible. In its current beta stage I do have some misgivings about the title's continuing interest, however, and I'll talk about these in the upcoming conclusion.
