New Online Game Focuses On Christian Community
New Online Game Focuses On Christian Community
Third Day Games Announces Launch of BIG Bible Town Online Game for K-6 Kids
Parents
now have the opportunity to channel their kids’ love of video games
into a fun Bible learning and Christian living experience. BIG Bible
Town is the first online game that teaches God’s Word and builds
Christian character as K-6 kids practice putting their faith into
action. Families can start playing for free at http://www.bigbibletown.com/.
Designed To Connect With Kids.
BIG Bible Town is designed to capitalize on the most popular styles of
online gameplay that are helping to propel the video games market to
over $90B by 2015.** Proof that the online games revolution has reached
kids’ games is demonstrated by the tens of millions of kids that are
playing Club Penguin and several other successful online games.
According to Bobby Wells, CEO of Third Day Games, “We developed BIG
Bible Town to leverage the revolution in online games to benefit
millions of families looking for Christian alternatives in today’s
mostly secular games market.” Brian Mitchell, company president and
executive producer adds that, “Our focus groups have verified that BIG
Bible Town is a cool and fun combination of the online and social game
features that are the most popular with young kids.” Plus, according to
Wells, the growth of broadband Internet allows the company to bypass
traditional big box retailers, who have been resistant to Christian game
titles in the past.
How Does It Work?
BIG Bible Town is a multi-player online game set in a 1st century
virtual world. The objective of the game is to create your own unique
BIG Bible Town homestead, while also building a vibrant, church-centric
BIG Bible Town. With their parent’s permission, kids first sign up for a
free account, where they can customize their game character and begin
earning game coins by playing the two Bible adventures that come with
their free account - Noah’s Ark and Zacchaeus the Tax Collector. Kids
can then use their game coins to purchase virtual items for their
homestead. The game trailer at http://www.bigbibletown.com/ shows how the game works.
A
$5.99 monthly subscription to BIG Bible Town allows kids to unlock
three new Bible adventures each month. Playing these additional games
strengthens kids’ Bible knowledge and earns additional game coins for
upgrading their homestead with such designs as the Roman Villa, the Ark
House, and the Pyramid House. Additional member privileges help kids
build a bigger BIG Bible Town. For example, members can donate a portion
of their game coins as virtual tithes and offerings to their BIG Bible
Town church and then use them to build the downtown, school, and park
areas of their town. Members can also invite their friends to join their
town. As citizens of each other’s towns, they can work together to help
each other grow their church and build their BIG Bible Town.
What Will Kids Learn?
BIG Bible Town is a fun, game-based learning experience that promotes a
high degree of Biblical literacy and a love of the scriptures. The game
is scripturally accurate and does not promote a particular
denominational viewpoint. Third Day Games has developed over 90 Bible
adventures and will be adding several to BIG Bible Town each month.
As
kids play BIG Bible Town, they will explore dozens of Bible stories and
learn by seeing and hearing each story, and then by doing tasks related
to its Biblical truths. They also learn about missions and tithing and
about working together as a church to accomplish great things for their
community. The game’s virtual economy also encourages kids to play each
of the Bible adventures several times to earn more game coins, add to
their homestead, help more people in need, and give more to their town’s
church in order to grow their BIG Bible Town. The result is a
repetitive learning experience that strengthens scriptural knowledge,
reinforces Christian principles, and helps build Christian character.
But Aren’t Games Bad for Kids?
Third Day Games believes it’s not about the media, it’s about the
content. Wells offers this perspective, “Many books have horrible
content, but obviously, books in general aren’t bad. The same is true
with games. The key to BIG Bible Town is that it is based on the Holy
Scriptures and offers kids a fun game experience that leverages their
love of video games to keep them connected to God’s Word.” Plus, BIG
Bible Town is a child-safe zone. No personal information is present in
the game and all communication among children is limited to predefined,
safe and appropriate messages that they can exchange to express
themselves and have fun.
About the Company. Third Day Games was formed in 2004 for the purpose of building Bible Champions, a series of 95 action adventure Bible story games sequenced with popular Sunday School curricula. Approximately two thousand churches from most major denominations have purchased portions of these games for use in their children’s ministries, equating to over 100,000 children playing these games. Realizing that this is just the tip of the iceberg compared to millions of children worldwide, the company is now boldly moving to use BIG Bible Town as the platform for bringing these Bible adventure games to every family with a broadband Internet connection.
Posted by Administration at 11/30/2010 1:01 PM 
Categories: Community, Religion, Video Games
Tags: Games
Categories: Community, Religion, Video Games
Tags: Games
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