The Garbage Collector seemed, at first, like it could actually be an educational opportunity for kids to learn how to sort recycling and be green, and understand why it's good to take out the garbage -- or something along those lines. Well, I entered the Garbage Collector and teleported to a game where I had shoot pieces of garbage that had no variety in appearance, and appeared to be floating in space. What was I supposed to learn from that? How to aim with a mouse and click at the right time? Other games include pinball, throwing candy at other players, matching colors of robot gears, and shooting asteroids so they don't hit you -- all vital for survival in real life? I don't think so.

Socializing and personality-building capabilities is another feature that "Chobots" likes to advertise. Over the course of about 4 hours, I received 10 messages from people who asked me if I was really a boy, didn't use any basic grammar rules, spelled first grade words incorrectly, and tried to add me as a friend without any kind of message or previous exchanges whatsoever. This is not what I would call real socializing. (Or the kind of socializing one would want their kids exposed to on the Internet.) I don't care how many chat windows, blogs and talking functions you put in a game -- it's not going to nearly equal what real-life interaction is like.

"Chobots" seems to be riding on the "educational and family-friend" train to get people interested, but ultimately fails in following through with that promise. If parents want their kids to really learn something, maybe they should get them off the computer to read a book or do their homework.

Review Nikki Lee
October 9, 2009