Some thinking points about Animal Kaiser...

* We progressively "lose" our kids as they grow up (not necessarily a bad thing). Animal Kaiser is quite a definitive losing point. The one where we throw up our hands and say: We don’t get it. We just don’t get the blinking card collection / arcade game which apparently infects kids from 4 and some uncles too. We think he picked it up from school.

* As I was saying. The best or most disastrous (depending on how you see it) birthday party pack anyone ever gave Day was a stack of imitation Animal Kaiser cards which apparently cost all of $1. Suddenly the entire K2 cohort is individually equipped with a stack of trading cards which they bandy about / trade / scrutinise every morning.

* There is a very clever accompanying twist: The pack costs a dollar but you have to play an arcade game ($2 a shot) choosing a character from your existing pack (the barcode is scanned in) and after the fight you get ONE more card. Just one. For $2. If you are lucky, it may be THE card featuring the animal with the highest strength / health. That’s the thrill, see, so it’s no use getting several packs of cheap imitation cards.

* Day (elder son) lobbied hard and long for a Timezone (games arcade) card. It’s been months. I caved in. I bought him a card for $10 and brought him to the arcade once, which is what really prompted this post because the sight of the line of machines and the crowd on a Monday afternoon at 4pm made me realize this is bigger than I realize and that is where I started to do a little reading up. I said if he wanted to play anymore he would have to pay for it himself, with what I don’t care.



* Skills? Strategy? No! You don’t even need skill to fight! It’s just luck of the draw! Someone somewhere called Animal Kaiser gambling for kids.

* Day (elder son) has memorized the entire stack of cards, animals, scientific names (Monodon monoceros anyone?), vital statistics, what these animals eat. PING! Educational value!

* Armed with all the independent knowledge search skills I so proudly bestow on him, he relentlessly googles Animal Kaiser whenever I let him loose on the desktop and views fight videos on Youtube. He very mysteriously knows a heck of a lot about cards he does not have and how to play them.

* The machines are found at 7-11 outlets. Unbelievable.

* Adults fight for turns at the machine with the kids. Unbelievable.

* This is probably a classic instance of boring conservative parent not understanding the future generation. Twenty years down the line, all these kids may well talk fondly of Animal Kaiser the way we 30-somethings talk of childhood "buy-and-trade" hobbies like... I don’t know... keeping sticker books??
~ Sher

Source :
Re-posting of original article from http://offsprings.blogspot.com ,dated 15/9/2010

Comments

gosh! i can soooo relate to this post!

my P1 son is also obsessed with this! i told him it was uneducational, offered to buy him more legos, told him the fad would pass (just like his Ben10 fad) and he would be wasting mummy's money blah blah blah ... but he persisted. i gave in.

now he only wants to go timezone all the time. oh, and buy more files to keep those cards.
~ crabcrabby


i find the whole arcade thingie terribly scary. even as a 2 year old, Val is enthralled. The three times we have gone into an arcade, the boy was glued and totally sucked into it all.

I was perturbed to say the least. the noise, the lights, the throbbing music, and of course, the absolute waste of good $ going into the slots. horrible. Once on a cruise ship, we witnessed a kid who had a game card loaded with his parents credit card details so basically, his folks let him loose there with limitless credit
~ tumbleweed in space


Sticker albums? You know, in an effort not to waste, I went on a mission to buy a sticker album for Kate. A proper one like the ones I had when I was younger. Guess what, they don't exist anymore! And, I was like "HAR? What do kids do these days??". So, you've answered my question.
~ katiemom


So THAT was why there was a friggin' huge crowd right outside this particular machine at the arcade on a quiet (we were there for the husband's birthday celebration, uh, its complicated).

Yay, i finally get to go "tsk, tsk, kids nowadays.."
~ daphne


OMG this is a biggie huh? My son saw the picture as I was reading your blog and shouted "ANIMAL KAISER!!!" very excitedly. Apparently his kindy friends have it so he knows all about it too. But he's not asked for it yet, phew! ~ june


oh well. if u cant beat em, join em! i think they get sick of it after a while and move on to new trends.
~ Sher