Toontown releases Doodles
by Kit

Monday, September 20 2004

Family friendly MMORPG now has pet raising as gameplay element.

Disney Online, part of the Walt Disney Internet Group, has unleashed pets called Doodles in Toontown (http://www.toontown.com), a massively multiplayer 3D online game for kids and families. With this latest extension of the game, members of Toontown can adopt a variety of outrageous creatures to play with and raise as pets of their very own.

Doodles are available now for adoption in exchange for jellybeans, the currency of Toontown online. They can be found at newly unveiled Pet Shops located in each of the Toontown neighborhood playgrounds.

Doodles’ role in Toontown mirrors that of real-life pets. They live at their Toon’s (players) home and, as with real pets, players need to care for their Doodles to ensure they don’t get sad, lonely or hungry. Once trained, Doodles are capable of doing tricks that improve players’ in-game health by making them laugh. Players communicate with their Doodles using phrases in the games’ kid-friendly SpeedChat function, a menu-based tool which gives players several layers of pre-written phrases.

There are thousands of varieties of Doodles to choose from with different combinations of physical characteristics and personality traits, and new Doodles arrive at Pet Shops daily. Players both choose their favorite Doodle and give it a name.

“One of the benefits of online games is that we can continually create new features to keep game play fresh and exciting for our players,” said Steve Parkis, vice president of premium products for Disney Online. “The addition of pets brings several new dimensions to the game including: nurturing, training and a new kind of socialization.”

In Toontown, players create their own character and join together with other players to help save Toontown from the humorless Cogs, a band of bungling business robots attempting to turn the Toons’ colorful world into a bleak metropolis. Because the Cogs can’t take a joke, Toons can diminish the Cogs’ power by choosing from fun gags and jokes to play on them, such as smashing a pie in their face, or squirting them with seltzer water.

Toontown allows thousands of participants to play together online, communicate in a safe environment and undertake challenging quests. The game has continued to gain marketplace momentum since launch in June 2003. It has attracted gamers of all ages and levels and has received critical acclaim in the media. Gannet News Service touted that “Kid-testers of all ages consistently gave this game an enthusiastic thumbs up." Toontown also has been recognized with numerous industry awards including: the 2004 Game Industry News Family Game of the Year; 2003 MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) Game of the Year by Computer Gaming World; 2003 Webby Awards People’s Voice Award, Kid’s Category; 2003 Parent’s Choice Silver Honor; and, it was named on of the Top 10 Games of the Year 2003 by the New York Times.

Toontown is available for download at www.toontown.com for $9.95 per month. It is also available as a subscription gift card with a CD Rom at DisneyStore.com and major retailers nationwide. Longer-term memberships are available at reduced rates and, for consumers who prefer to try before they buy, there is a 3-day free trial period available at http://www.toontown.com.

--- Kit