Learning to care for a real pet whilst interacting with a virtual one? The educational value of games like Nintendogs

Publishers and manufacturers of virtual pet games and products have also regularly claimed in their marketing literature, that their games and toys have worthwhile educational value in other words they imply that simply by using their products can people learn to become better pet owners. At present these claims are entirely unfounded. However, if they are true then the impact of their educational value is potentially huge games like Nintendogs, which, as of January 2008, has sold almost 18 million copies worldwide, do indeed have even the slightest educational value then the net improvement to the worldwide understanding of good pet-ownership and animal welfare could be tremendous. This paper outlines a research project aiming to test these claims.