The star video game developer behind Age of Empires has turned his gaming talents to something new: teaching children languages.
Wiz World Online, developed by 8D World, a start-up based in Shanghai, China, and Woburn, Mass., was built by Rick Goodman, who developed the popular games Age of Empires and Empire Earth. In his latest virtual world, instead of re-enacting historical battles, Chinese children can learn English.
Alex Wang, the company’s chief executive and co-founder, said the idea grew out of his personal experience landing at the San Francisco airport on his first visit from China, 21 years ago, when he was in his 20s.
Though he had studied English for years and scored well on the written part of the GRE test, he discovered that he could not read the McDonald’s menu in the airport, nor could he converse with the server. Although he was hungry, “I was never in that kind of conversation before, and I ended up with a jumbo Coca-Cola with tons of ice,” he recalled.
“Hundreds of millions of people experience the same problem worldwide, particularly in Asia,” he said. “People study languages, but cannot talk, cannot communicate.”
The biggest problems, he said, are that children studying languages do not get to practice the language in their daily lives, they do not get much attention from teachers in large classrooms and they are often afraid to make mistakes when they do try to speak different languages.
Those are the problems that Wiz World Online aims to solve. Kids choose an avatar and pick a scene, like a castle in a fantasy land or a supermarket in the United States. They are confronted with challenges, like dodging flying monsters or buying fruit, all of which ask them to use English. If they hit a ceiling in their language capabilities, they go to the wizards’ library and read so-called magical books that teach them lessons.
The company is initially focusing on kids age 7 to 12 in China but plans to expand globally, eventually teaching many different languages to kids all over the world.
Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are increasingly interested in Web companies that have to do with education, an area they say has not yet been transformed by the Internet.
“The fundamental education business models are coming down,” said Alex Finkelstein, a general partner at Spark Capital, which led a $7 million venture capital round for 8D World.
Only a few years ago, he said, people did not think education was suited to the Web, but companies like Rosetta Stone, a language learning Web company that went public this year, has proven them wrong. “Those are educational products that not only teach people, but are becoming very very big, profitable companies,” he said.
Mr. Goodman and Mr. Wang met at Boston Post Mortem, a group of game developers that meets regularly. They started the company in 2007 but kept its educational purpose a secret. Some bloggers guessed that it would be a massive, multiplayer fantasy world. This summer, they unveiled Wiz World Online in Shanghai.
Though China has cracked down on some Internet companies, Mr. Finkelstein called the Chinese government “our best distribution partner.” Shanghai public schools are using Wiz World Online in classrooms and in July, the Shanghai government will launch the Wiz World Cup, an oral English competition.
Wiz World Online is free for now as it works out the kinks, but the company plans to charge $120 to $150 a year for subscriptions starting in September. Down the road, the company could also make money selling virtual goods or sponsorships to advertisers, Mr. Finkelstein said.