Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
Pokemon for the Real World

As Jason Kottke describes The Phylomon Project:

Kids can remember hundreds of Pokémon characters but very few animals. The solution? The Phylomon Project is an open source initiative aiming to make Pokemon-type cards for actual animals.

Looks like fun, and a refreshing way to capitalise on children’s love of trading cards.

I have minor quibbles in the idea that we need to co-opt every popular meta-story or brand out there in the media world that kids enjoy, and somehow turn it into a “good-for-you” sort of thing, but there’s no doubt that there’s some solid reasoning behind using trading cards as a way for kids to engage in nature. There’s just something in them – perhaps epitomised in Pokémon – that makes cards a great outlet for children’s collection, categorisation and meta-labelling, and it seems a perfect way to explore the natural world as well. (Interestingly, Pokémon itself stemmed from its creator’s love of insect collecting as a child – so I suppose you could say the Phylomon project is only returning Pokémon back to its roots.)

Now they just need to come up with a catchy way for me to play and pit my “Vulpes vulpes” up against your “Procyon lotor.”

UPDATE: The Xeko website and “eco-adventure” game is already up and running, and basically utilises the same “Playing Cards for Animals” concept.

Jan 23, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #