PLAYBOOKS: FOR THE INTERNET

Toontown Online

Jump into the world of cartoons and help other players defeat the evil cogs that want to bring an end to the innocent toons’ fun. Play minigames, fight cogs, and complete toon tasks in this light-hearted MMORPG.

Game play alone results in modest improvements in real-world executive skills. Please refer to our Playbook Tutorial, general coaching and comprehensive guides to transfer game skills to sustainable real-life behaviors.

QUICK FACTS

Game Type: Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)
Platform/Console: PC
Operating Sytem: Windows 2K, Windows XP or Windows Vista (older versions might work but with lower performance)
Number of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: No ESRB rating, but this game contains very mild cartoon violence
LWK Recommended Age: 7+
Play Now : Toontown Online

This Game is Good for Kids Who Need Help With:

• Sticking with one continuous, sometimes boring, but rewarding task (goal-directed persistence)
• Completing goals set by other people, i.e. teachers or parents (goal-directed persistence)
• Seeing the consequences of their actions (planning)
• Developing a basic strategy to accomplish a goal (planning)
• Making basic conversation (social thinking)
• Money management (organization)
• Taking initiative on tasks to better their overall situation (task initiation)

What You Need to Know About the Game:

Toontown Online is a light-hearted MMORPG that centers on “toon tasks” (quests) and battling cogs (the bad guys). The game is very easy to pick up and play and acclimation is made even easier by a thorough tutorial.

Toontown Online is free to play, but by buying a membership the player can unlock more features. None of the members-only features are covered in this guide. Chatting on free accounts is strictly regulated by a speed chat system. Under this system, the player chooses what to say from a wide variety of pre-made bits of dialogue, so parents need not worry about their child being exposed to foul language or giving out personal information.

Controls, game basics, and instructions:
The controls in this game are very basic. The player moves with the arrow keys and runs into things to interact with them. For instance the player runs into a door to open it, or bumps into a cog to engage it in combat. Controls in the minigames, called “trolley games”, are also simple and any additional controls are explained along with the game objectives before the game begins. Some reading ability is required.

Solutions:

Due to the nature of MMORPG’s, there is no set strategy for completing the game. In fact, MMORPG’s like Toontown are ongoing experiences that never end until the player gets bored of them. A detailed player guide can be found here http://play.toontown.com/playersguide/PGPage.php?pg=0or.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Goal-Directed Persistence

This game is good for kids who need help with sticking to one continuous, sometimes boring, but rewarding task and completing goals set by other people, because they must:

• Continually fight cogs to increase their skill level with each type of “gag”. The player uses “gags” like squirt guns and pies to defeat the cogs. Each time the player hits the cog with a gag (thrown, quirt, etc); they get one point in that category. At different point milestones, the player can buy new, more powerful gags in that category. In order to accomplish this, the player must stay focused on the task of killing cogs, which sometimes becomes tedious. However, the player will not advance in the game unless they stay focused on this task.
  
  
• Complete toon tasks and collect useful rewards like beans (the game’s currency), extra gags and “laffboosts”. In Toontown Online, the player’s health meter is called the “laff meter”. In order to progress in the game, the player will need to periodically increase their laff meter or else attacks from strong cogs could possibly kill them in one shot.

Talking Points:

Sticking to one continuous, sometimes boring, but rewarding task:.

• When did you increase your skill level in a type of gag?
• How did staying on the task of killing cogs help you to increase your skill level?
• How is fighting cogs to increase your skill level like practicing a musical instrument or studying a school subject to increase your proficiency.

Completing goals set by other people:

• Did you complete any toon tasks yet?
  
• How does completing multiple toon tasks help you progress in the game?
• How is completing toon tasks like finishing homework assignments given by your teacher?
  

Making it Real:

Sticking to one continuous, sometimes boring, but rewarding task:

• Help children experience visible results of sticking to a task and its rewards. For example, children who are trying to save money to buy a particular toy or game are likely to benefit from a bit of help from their parents so that they can get it in a faster period. Point out and discuss how their persistence in “sticking to it” resulted in the reward from you.

Completing goals set by other people:

• For children who have difficulties with larger tasks, it will be important to start with small tasks that involve one or two steps for success. For example, children who are overwhelmed by a Legos project that has 600 pieces may do far better with a smaller Bionics set that involves 70 to 80 pieces. Similarly, it may be very helpful for children to read books with chapters so that they can develop a sense of accomplishment; build a model in which the task can be divided into steps such as assembling the model and then subsequently painting it; or divide an unattractive task such as cleaning one’s room into picking up one’s clothes, putting one’s books and papers away, and then vacuuming and dusting. Discuss how most great accomplishments, e.g., the Sistine Chapel, their favorite game, or getting a degree, require persistence and almost always face adversity.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Planning

This game is good for kids who display difficulty with seeing the consequences of their actions and developing a basic strategy to accomplish a goal, because they must:

• Create a basic strategy before they fight a cog. Players should ask themselves things like, “should I use the pie because it does more damage or the squirt gag because it is more accurate?” Players must be able to predict the consequences of their actions. For instance, a player might think, “this cog does a lot of damage, so if I miss with my next gag, the cog will get a free attack. I should use a gag that favors accuracy over damage?” A whole new strategic element comes into play when the battle involves multiple players.

Talking Points:

• When were you able to defeat a cog without taking very much damage?
• How did your use of planning and prediction help you to defeat the cog?
• How is planning before and during a fight with a cog like anticipating the difficulty of a test in school or choosing the right play in a football game?

Making It Real:

• Observe and comment on both successful and unsuccessful strategies at problem solving. This helps children’s awareness of the impact of their problem-solving approaches. For example, “I noticed that you wrote down your spelling words five times and said them out loud on Thursday, and you got 100% on the test on Friday” or “I noticed that you had a bunch of wrong answers and had to redo the math homework when you didn’t write out each step of your thinking.” Similarly, describe “out loud” commentary on your own problem solving successes and failures, always making note of what you have learned from the experience.