Dizzywood Tree-Hugs Community Conservation

That Will Allow for Real-World Reforestation

For each tree planted in the virtual Dizzywood forest, a real tree will be planted through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – August 4, 2008 – Dizzywood (http://www.dizzywood.com), a virtual world and online game for children ages 8-12, today announced that as a result of its players growing trees in its virtual forest, 15,000 real trees will be planted on Earth through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. The online activity, which aimed to restore nature and balance to large tracts of the Wildwood Glen forest that had been destroyed by Dizzywood’s notorious arch-villain and his ruthless plots to pollute the land, encouraged players to earn tree seedlings and then plant them in the damaged areas of the forest.

As a result of the children’s efforts, the polluted sky has cleared, the fish have returned to the pond, and the adorable Dizzywood critters have ventured back to their woodland home. Wildwood Glen is now a lush forest environment where kids can play games with a Leaf Sprite for magical seeds, can jump through the trees collecting honey for a bear, or can hang out by the pond and catch fish that will follow them around. In addition, a statue commemorates all the hard work the kids did restoring the forest.

“This wonderful virtual event gave children real-world context by allowing them to plant trees and rehabilitate a forest — and then see the impact, including reduced air pollution and providing a habitat for wildlife,” said Kevin Sander, director of corporate partnerships of the Arbor Day Foundation. “The ability to see the online impact of their tree planting, and knowing it will translate into an offline one, provides children with a sense of empowerment and a purposeful experience.”

“Dizzywood’s tree planting is a great example of how an adventurous storyline can cleverly weave a strong educational component into play,” said Ken Marden, co-founder of Dizzywood. “It is an opportunity to allow kids to see the wider impact that they can have by working together, as well as what it means to be a citizen of the world – in this case, a virtual one. We hope the kids are as inspired to see their online environmental activity have real-world results as we are.”

Dizzywood is free to use. Subscriptions will be available to access premium content in the future.

About the Arbor Day Foundation

The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation and education organization of nearly one million members, with a mission to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. More information on the Foundation and its programs can be found at arborday.org.

About Dizzywood

Dizzywood’s mission is to inspire young people to use their imagination and have fun, while learning real-life values and skills. Dizzywood’s creative, story-driven world offers children a safe virtual environment where they can explore worlds unlike any other, engage in challenging activities and cooperate with others, while developing important cognitive skills. Because Dizzywood’s games and activities have endless variation, each experience is new and unique – keeping kids captivated and engaged. Kids are appropriately challenged with games and activities that earn players unique super powers and other creative rewards. For more information, visit www.dizzywood.com.

Dizzywood Press Release

Ya know…. you have GOT to hand it to those Dizzywood folks. They’ve done some really great things for their world lately. They found a way to uniquely use NPC interactivity – kids go to an NPC’s salon to get their “hair did”… but not just by the NPC, but by EACH OTHER. Then they started this epic storyline with trees & the Arbor Day foundation. Very impressive. They’ve opened quite a lovely chapter here, that they can continue with (diving in different directions of tent-pole events), and they can always mention this HUGE process (building history, and giving the community a long-standing memory – which only creates a deeper connection level and sense of belonging, which builds empowerment). And then to top it off – it also benefits the real world & education within conservation.

Tent-pole events like this – when strung together in episodic form – and well supported by various underling events & happenings & games (sprites, honey bear, catching fish) = a highly valid form of embracing a community. You’re TRULY building an environment for them. Living. Breathing. World. Chalk full of cause & reaction, empowerment, etc.

Once again, I tip my hat to the community management over there, and the people who keep coming up with these deeps, awesome actions. I haven’t actually signed in to see this stuff myself (I know, I know – izzy, this is what you love to do! VW research!), and I’m not sure how well everything translates to the public, but the concept is brillsville. Hopefully I’ll be able to jump in today and report back?

Anyway – cheers Dizzywood.