MMO Family: Podcasts for gaming kids

by Lisa Poisso on Jun 29th 2010 3:00PM

MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family. From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family.

Here's an offbeat idea for the kids on one of those endless hot summer days: Track down -- or better yet, try your hand at creating -- a podcast for their favorite MMO. Kids love to hear what other kids are playing, yet there aren't many kid-friendly gaming podcasts out there. "The thing about podcasts for kid's MMOs is that most kids don't really know much about what a podcast is," says Leesha Darkheart of Ravenwood Radio, a podcast about Wizard101.

Do we smell a hero's title for the mom or dad who comes up with an idea for creating some of the coolest summer fun on the block? We just might -- plus a seal of approval for discovering yet another way to enjoy gaming as a family.
Podcasts for kids and families appears to be a vast untapped market. Webkinz Webcast, a now-retired podcast created by two Minnesota girls and their dad, cracked iTunes' Kids and Family category top 10 back in the day and attracted listeners from as far as China, Korea, Greece, Japan, Spain and Brazil. Today, the Webkinz Webcast has evolved into Kid Friday, a "techie kid" podcast that touches on kid-friendly websites, games and apps plus gadgets, iPods, computers and anything else that matters to tech-savvy kids.

Kids' continually evolving interests seem to be the monkey wrench in most game-specific podcasts. Sure, you can Google up several podcasts for mega-hit MMOs like Free Realms -- but the shows are all defunct now, their creators having grown up and moved on to other games and other interests.

Cornering the market currently in the kids' gaming area are two podcasts for Wizard101, Ravenwood Radio and SpiralCast. Ravenwood Radio, in particular, seems especially welcoming to kids who are listening in along with their parents. Both podcasts are energetic, family-friendly -- and most important, active and regular.

We couldn't find any active podcasts for Free Realms, Pixie Hollow, Toontown Online or Ether Saga Online (creator Perfect World has a regular podcast, but it's neither game-specific nor aimed at kids and families). Google easily uncovers podcasts a-plenty for games frequented by teens, such as World of Warcraft and Runescape. Many of these drift into more mature humor and subject matter, so screen these before suggesting them to your own teens.

Anybody for creating a kids' gaming podcast? It's a door that's wide open to energetic, creative kids and families with free summer hours to burn. Google and YouTube are your friends. Your family will find easy-to-follow resources to help you get started chatting about the games you love most.

Let's throw out the Massively nets and see if readers can't help us catch a few more podcasts for gaming families. Can you recommend any family-friendly gaming podcasts? Let us know in the comments.

In the news at Massively for kids and families

MMO Family offers advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family. Send us your questions and observations about gaming and parenting to lisa@massively.com.

Tags: child, children, family-friendly, family-gaming, free-realms, free-realms-soe, hello-kitty-online, kid-friday, kid-friendly, lego-universe, podcast, ravenwood-radio, spiralcast, video-games-for-kids, webcast, webkinz-webcast, wizard101

Reader Comments (3)

I have to agree that Ravenwood Radio and Spiral Cast are two excellent podcasts for a very family oriented game. I highly encourage any fans of Wizard 101 or gaming podcasts to check these two shows out. You will not be disappointed.

As far as other family type gaming podcasts, I have not seen many. There was the FreeRealms podcast but it died quickly. There was also a Youtube series called "Questing" but it shut down in the past year. Other than that most are podcasts I know of are geared for the late-teen/adult audience.

It's frustrating, isn't it? Ravenwood Radio and SpiralCast do such a great job, and for other games ... Nothing. I do hope a few families will take the opportunity to seize some slow summer days and launch something for other families to enjoy!

I think as time goes on - and podcasts grow in popularity - we're going to see more and more kid friendly casts. Right now, even though there are a lot of kids who play these games, there aren't a lot of podcasters who do. I do truly believe this will change over the next few years, especially as the concept of family MMO playing expands.