For nearly 5 years now I (a fully grown adult!) have been the parent of a virtual frog. Yep, I have been logging onto the website Racing Frogs so I can feed, train, buy items, talk too and build dragon fly traps for my pixelated little pal.
So why has this web site captivated me so much that my commitment to "Ribbit Redford", "Julia Ribbits" and "Bruce Leap" (too name but a few) has lasted longer than some of my relationships?... That's worrying now I've put it down in words!
I think its the same reason why the facebook/MySpace/Bebo phenomenon has happened. It has made me feel I'm part of something. Something that I can visit to do the necessary then put to the side. Safe in the knowledge, that I can do the same thing tomorrow. Although we might moan about "the same old routine", I think we all need a degree of familiarity in life.
That of course is not the only reason. It’s also a very well designed web site and one that’s intuitive and fun to use.
Your frog starts off in grade 1, so it’s racing other grade 1 frogs each night. You can choose its food to improve its energy, items in the hypermarket to improve commitment and most importantly train the little fella so your fitness is at its peak.
You race each night winning money so that you can do the same again the next day.
For a small fee you can also enter a "VIP" zone. In here you can feed your virtual hopper some dragonflies, buy more items and even set up your own league so you can race-ya-mates.
As your frog improves it moves up the grades and wins more money, although the races are harder. You also win medals to increase motivation.
All this is for one ultimate goal, to become... A Superfrog!
Don't get too emotionally involved though as when your frog reaches 240 days of age (3 frog days to every 1 human day), the little bloke retires. But stay committed, start another frog with the same account and you can start to buy items from the retirement fund to be a real contender.
This site it a little gem, and with competitions through the year, you will find yourself getting very competitive!
There's also a great community around this site, so the forum is well worth joining.
Go on... give it a go, before you know it you will be hankering after the prestigious title of Superfrog!
Anyway, why cant adults have a bit of simple virtual fun!
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Reviews: Racing Frogs - Website Game
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2 comments:
I am also an immature adult who loves this site. I've had many generations of frogs over the 3 years I've been playing and I can honestly say that I have never become bored or complacent training all the different generations. There are 3 ponds and you can have as many frogs as you like. I have 4 but I know a few people who have many more! You can have just one frog but then you enter a competition and when it finishes you don't want to say goodbye to your little green friend so you think: just one more won't hurt. The best thing about the game is that it can take a few minutes if that's all you want or it can take over your life! There is a friendly forum where there are tips to help you get to know the game and get better at making your frog the best and also a lot of interesting and downright crazy stuff you can read and/or become a part of. There are people from all over the world and of all ages who have become hooked so there is never a dull moment. I would recommend this site to anyone. It's fun, competitive and friendly.
I'm another user of RF and also an organiser of a current competition (of which I'm losing). I honestly can't remember when I first raced. As much as I remember, I did it for a few months a year or two ago, got hooked, then stopped as I was at university and had very little access to an internet computer, but when I left uni last summer, I got right back on and have not looked back. At the minute I'm training 5 frogs, of which it takes an hour a day to train, feed and organise them, which also includes updating the table for the competition I am running! Not much time at all to be honest when you consider the table takes the majority of the time. And also on the forum, we have a good laugh and a bit of banter between us all, all in the spirit of good fun!!!
Come join us, it's easy to play!
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