Ganz Amazing World (giveaway ends 9/19/12)

As a mom I know the importance of finding quality entertainment for my children. When I was young I used to play with dolls and board games. These days children are more into online games then they are offline games. While I do miss a good board game, or even a game of cards, I am impressed with the quality of games that are available to children of all ages.

I recently had the opportunity to check out an online gaming site from Ganz called Amazing World. Amazing World is a colorful, online virtual 3D world that brings together adorable critters that can interact with one another, play games, earn coins and decorate your own personal cottage.

Ganz sent my family an adorable Amazing World Zing. He’s about 6″ tall. His feet contain some kind of beans for support. The rest of his body is very soft and cuddly. I love that he is so colorful with a variety of colors and patterns.

My kids determined that the little plush toy we recieved is a boy and HIS name is Fluffy. LOL! Not exactly the name I would pick out. I was going with Peanut but they wanted Fluffy.

When you purchase a Ganz Amazing World “friend” it comes with a special access code you can enter online at www.AmazingWorld.com. You will first need to register and come with a name, password and other basic information. No worries. It doesn’t ask for your credit card information or even a mailing address, just your e-mail address.

When you are finally registered you rceive a virtual representation of your online critter. Even though Fluffy is an elephant he came up as a teddy bear on the Amazing World website. My kids didn’t mind. My daughter actually likes the teddy bear. His name is Fluffy too.

Your Amazing World friend is known as a “Zing”. They can be named, customized, dressed up and interact with other “Zings”.

Amazing World is similar to other online “worlds” where you play games, earn coins and purchase fun things to go inside and around the outside of your home.

I’m a bit “challenged” when it comes to things like online games. I don’t always get it (although kids are a whiz at these kinds of things). I actually had fun just making Fluffy walk around the Amazing World. To make your online friend move you use the arrow buttons on your keyboard. You can make your friend go straight, backwards, left or right. You can also hit the space bar to make him (or her) jump.

When you are walking around the world you’ll come across some areas that have a “force field” (for lack of a better description) that resemble sparkling stars. Those are areas you can’t enter until you complete certain tasks and get to a specific level.

As you stroll around Amazing World you’ll come across some of the residents. These residents will have tasks for you to do. If you choose to accept them and complete the tasks they ask you, your friend will be rewarded with coins which can be used to buy furniture for your friend’s home, clothing, plants and more. I found that most of the tasks are fairly simple. One game for example wanted you to match the street vendors shirt. That was easy enough. Another task was to plant seeds. I had a harder time with that one because I wasn’t 100% sure what I was supposed to do. My kids on the other hand knew what to do right away.

There are many levels to the game and a huge variety of things you can purchase for your Amazing World friend’s cottage. Your child could easily play this game for hours upon hours and not get bored with it.

The game itself is very cute and colorful. It also plays some darling music.

Your child can interact (chat) with other players. The game itself monitors conversations so that children are not allowed to give out important information like their name, age and location. I like that it has the safe chat feature. You never know who can be playing these games. As with any games similar to this I tell my children to limit their interactions to basic things like “Hello”, “How are you?”, “I hope you have a great day”. Simple things like that.

Amazing World is FREE to play… even without purchasing an Amazing World Zing. You do have to download the game to your computer, but aside from that you are able to play at no cost. If you purchase one of the plush Amazing World plush toys you get an access code that will allow you to not only play but also offer you a lot more features (aka “bells and whistles”) then the regular free account. You can also purchase a monthly subscription for a nominal fee.

The free account allows you to play up to level 20. It will also only limit you to 4 friends and 4 Amazing World “hosts” (the ones that supply you with the challenges to earn coins). Purchasing a plush toy and registering it doesn’t give you full access to the site. It unlocks a virtual “zing” for you as well as gives you a special gift you can use in your character’s home or garden.

The only way to gain access to all the levels and “hosts” is to pay for a subscription. The subscription rates are as follows;

3 months – $23.84 ($7.95 a month)

6 months – $39.90 ($6.65 a month)

12 months – $60 ($5.00 a month)

Subscribers gain access to all levels, all hosts and story lines, all of the items you can purchase for your home or garden and more.

Check out this video for Amazing World. If you are reading this via e-mail you can see the video here, http://bit.ly/RJ52xl.

My suggestion would be to try the game out for yourself and see how much your child or grandchild enjoys the game. Since it’s FREE to play you have nothing to lose. If your child likes the game then you can certainly consider subscribing.

Look for the Amazing World toys at a retail store near you too!

Ganz would like to give a lucky reader a cute Ganz Amazing World characters (1 plush and 1 character figurine) that you can use to register online at AmazingWorld.com. Unlike other giveaways this one is a bit different.

To enter you will need a Twitter account (www.Twitter.com). You will need to tell the world about the Amazing World game and how it’s FREE to play. Your tweet MUST include the following information.

- The hashtag #AmazingWorldGame

- @She_Scribes (my Twitter handle so I can see your tweet)

- Mention that Amazing World is FREE to play

- Include the Amazing World LINK (www.AmazingWorld.com)

Here are a couple of examples that you are welcome to use.

Come discover and explore AMAZINGWORLD.COM, a new free-to‐play 3D virtual world full of challenges and fun! #AmazingWorldGame @She_Scribes.

I just discovered a new game for kids called Amazing World.COM! It’s free‐to‐play and it’s 3D! #AmazingWorldGame @She_Scribes

This giveaway is for US residents only and will run from September 12, 2012 – September 19, 2012.

You are welcome to tweet as many times as you want as long as you make sure to include the hashtag, my Twitter handle and that Amazing World is free to play.