Gotta catch 'em... have we really?

My second post, ahead of the curve for the proposed 'add something to the blog every two weeks requirement', is thoughts about some of the ethical obstacles that the project faces.

The first is the (very heavily) franchised area that Mighty Minis is approaching. For me this is one of the big traps of the Mighty Minis project, and was definitely reflected in the '100 things we don't know' exercise that we did in the first workshop. How can we make, and use, a toy in a way that helps kids, rather than simply providing them with another piece of plastic to offload on parents when they are bored, or replicate one of the thousands of overly microtransactioned products currently on the market?

For me there are several aspects of this. I rather like Pokemon, but it and it's many clones are part of a huge corporate franchise machine that rolls on and on. Having also seen some of the design work for another major [REDACTED] franchise like this in action a couple of years ago, I'm also aware of just how cynically developed and designed it can be.

Firstly, I was shocked when we were told in the first workshop that less than 5% of children's toys are actully tested by children; and then it's in the latter stages, not right from the start. And yup, pretty much the first research I did about the design process in Pokemon came up with this. Rather like Nelson, I see no ships (or kids). And look at those starter Pokemon. They are HIDEOUS! 

Whilst I know that one of our workshops is going to be on character design and art, these guys are ugly, and they are ugly to me because I see them as commercialized. Granted, they are just about gender neutral, apart from the slightly weirdly feminized fox thing in the middle, but they just smack of a bunch of generic themes thrown together for maximum revenue and appeal. I'm not keen on this. They aren't very characterful - I wouldn't want to play with the oddly pally one on the left or the frankly miserable looking one on the right, and if the middle one was a cuddly toy, it's legs would fall over because it's head would be too heavy. Jus' saying. There's a reason that Pikachu is so beloved, but one of those reasons is that he's fairly original (i mean, how many other electric mice do you know?). Here, the Pokemon X & Y starter creatures are clearly just amalgams of successful parts of other Pokemon characters (the middle one is based on Vulpix, for example).

The second big worry I'm having at the moment is the proposed fitness aspect of the project. i have two issues with this. The first is that initial feedback from the kids has pointed out some interesting trends that we hadn't thought of. Team Cookie are active kids, but that doesn't mean they get out all the time. So, I cycle to work every day and go to the swimming pool and the gym and cycle to Bath with my mates every weekend. But the kids don't do that because they can't. They don't drive (obviously), and it's not safe for them to be out at night. Caitlin has a smartphone for the very reason she walks to school on her own, but they don't have the feeedom of movement that we as adults rather assume. However, it's a mistake to assume that these kids are sendentary; they aren't. They go to after school clubs and kung fu and swimming and 'places' at the weekend (and we rather need to find this out in more detail). They don't go to the park much - seeing themselves as a bit old for it, and again, not able to go on their own. I wonder if this is why Team Cookie are always asking about making Mighty Minis waterproof; do they all swim (I know i did when I was their age - I went to a club twice a week in the Stanley Deason and Prince Regent pools. Stanley Deason was really cold).

So, we need to find out how to cater the Mighty Minis 'tasks' to these activities (or not). Caitlin suggested quests - like running to a lampost or up the stairs five times. We need to think about this a lot when we design these elements.

The other fitness issue is the stillness. These kids are bouncing off the walls; they have huge amounts of energy, but they also recognise that they need to control it. Some of them really struggle with it, so for example Charley was a bit wary of the chocolate fingers in the last workshop. 'How many can we have?' is a question that relates to health, to self-awareness and also to the recongition that too much is nice to eat, but probably a bad thing. It's also about control - parental control that sensibly says 'Don't eat all the biscuits', but also Charley's own self control; 'If I eat all the biscuits I'll be full of energy / won't be able to eat my dinner / will feel ill'. Hannah told us in the prelim discussion that 'If you bring the energy, you have to be willing to deliver'; and again there's subtext there. Being still, thinking carefully about something and staying low and calm is also something kids need. 

So, we also need to find out how to not make the Mighty Mini a pest - a thing that makes a child charge madly about and lose control. For lots of children, stillness is as important as activity. I find chilling out at the end of the day hard to do sometimes, and although exercise helps, sometimes it just wakes me up more, or makes me tired at work the next day. So checks and balances are important, and at the moment I don't know what these might be or how to facilitate them.

My main problem, on the 100 things list, is that I'm not an expert in child health. So making a game about children's *fitness* is maybe the wrong approach. Maybe it needs to be about movement instead, but either way, it needs to think very carefully through the things that children actually can do, rather than an idealistic assumption of what they 'should' do, which in itself is riddled with social and class issues that might not be appropriate. 

My angle of the project is more about storytelling, and I can see this emerging as the project takes place. However, these issues trouble me. This project requires a conscience. 

So: tasks from this post.

Find a way to blend fitness or movement with the research that we/I am able to do. 

Action a workshop task where the kids write down all the physical activities they are able to do, and how often they do them.

Find research on kids' activity and movement (any suggestions?) without falling into the deep mine shaft of children's health (because I'm not an expert, and this isn't my main area of research as regards this project).

Think about ways to avoid the commercialism of the toy, or to provide value to it despite/because of this.

Think about storytelling again, and how 'quiet roleplay' can get back into the 'game' of Mighty Minis.