> "It's simply a matter of correct emphasis. For example, a typical downsider history of, say, the settlement of Orient IV usually gives about fifteen pages to the year of the Brothers' War--a temporary if bizarre social aberration--and about two to the actual hundred or so years of settlement and building-up of the planet. Our text gives one paragraph to the war. But the building of the Witgow trans-trench monorail tunnel, with its subsequent beneficial economic effects to both sides, gets five pages."
> "In short, we emphasize the common instead of the rare, building rather than destruction, the normal at the expense of the abnormal. So that the quaddies may never get the idea that the abnormal is somehow expected of them."
> [...] The degree of censorship imposed upon the quaddies implied by Yei's brief description made his skin crawl--and yet, the idea of a text that devoted whole sections to great engineering works made him want to stand up and cheer.
(Falling Free, by Lois McMaster Bujold.)
The tiny buildings and costumes set the mood, but it's really the people who make this park possible.
Our kids aren't quite old enough to play it yet, but I've been trying to figure out how to hide it from them. Not only is it unimaginative, winning is defined as acquiring certain possessions and building a perfect 1950's-style American family. Not that there's anything wrong with that in real life (my own family fits the stereotype), but there are plenty of other ways to "win" at real life.
And I agree: there's nothing else in that game that has any use to children today.
Jeffrey Friedl (author of Mastering Regular Expressions) has some KidZania entries on his blog from a few years ago.
Laresgoiti had sold his share to López in 2002 and moved to Florida, where he launched Wannado, a theme park similar to KidZania. It closed in 2011.
The article later mentions that a separate franchise operation is looking to open up to 16 kidzanias in the US soon.
The one my kids love the most (the Kohl in Glenview, IL) has a play veterinarian's office, day care center, Safeway supermarket, and a miniature Potbelly Sandwich shop:
Hard to find English material, but http://www.mini-muenchen.info/index.php?article_id=34 doesn't look too bad.
For children that's the same.
I personally think this sort of park is a good thing. Making the real world fun? I'm all for that. I'd imagine it's also a good way to encourage children to figure out what they'd really want to be when they grow up by letting them explore what those jobs are like.
