From the standpoint of children, MMOs aren't just fun to play, they can be reasonably educational as well. As its "Massively Multiplayer Online Games" name implies, MMOs allow kids to go online to play with thousands of other players from around the world. In these online game worlds, players create avatars to represent themselves and then join others to go on quests or missions. Seeing how most of these games require the player to collaborate and chat with others in order to achieve certain goals, MMO games are a great way to develop a child's social skills every time they interact with other players online.

Not all MMOs are created equally for kids, however, with some titles a little less designed to foster a platform for learning and more intended to merely entertain, or worse, are either actually too complex for children or contain violent or adult themes. Here, we’ll narrow down the list of kid-friendly MMOs to five of the best titles for children based on the safety of their gameplay as well as their potential to help kids learn valuable real-life skills, such as:

Roblox

From here, they can learn to build games or use their imagination to create stories that naturally push them to think outside the box and not within the confines of a structured, preset framework.

The most obvious educational benefit of Roblox is as an excellent tool for teaching children programming and coding skills. Unlike other games, Roblox was designed with coding in mind, being built using a simple coding language called Lua. By using Lua in the Roblox Studio’s inbuilt scripter, kids will learn how to write out and embed lines of code, and eventually figure out how to use small pieces of code to move and place objects without the assistance of the menus and presets. Over many months, they should begin to understand more complex forms of coding which will then enable them to write longer pieces of code, ostensibly to create their own full-scale game on Roblox.

Many of the concepts that kids learn in Roblox can then be applied to a wide range of fields as they grow older, such as web and game development, database programming, UI/UX design, and machine learning. In fact, many talented young programmers started their careers by learning how to code in Roblox.

Wizard101

As kids navigate the world of Wizard101, they can learn lessons on strategy development, teamwork, and specifically money management as they engage in repetitive resource farming for gold, gear, and crafting materials. And while this feature—one that is ubiquitously present in almost all MMO games whether designed for adults or kids--can tempt players to spend lots of real-world cash to build up their game-play levels, with proper parental controls and supervision, virtual and real-life spending within the game can be managed.

While the game primarily targets 8 to 14-year olds, the game is easy enough for 5 to 7-year old children to understand how to play but has enough depth to allow older audiences the chance to build more complex card decks and think about strategy.

Star Stable

Tasks range from caring for your horse, running errands, racing other players, and interacting with players in its virtual community. The more tasks you complete, the faster you earn rewards. Star Stable’s educational benefits include learning and developing social skills and friendly relationships, problem solving, and even developing financial management skills using the game’s Star Coins virtual currency.

As for safety, Star Stable’s in-game chat uses a strict filter, has active moderators to investigate any potentially unsuitable behavior, and is compliant with the PRIVO Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

AdventureQuest Worlds

Apart from teaching critical thinking and strategy skills in the course of gameplay, another positive feature of AdventureQuest Worlds is that, while it also features a real money shop like most other MMOs, players can only buy cosmetic items such as apparel and pets, instead of items like weapons that make you stronger in the game. The result here is that kids are less likely to feel the pressure to spend real money in this virtual world than in others currently on the market.

On the other hand, because AdventureQuest Worlds is a browser-based game, the game only saves a character's equipment and experience. All quests and quest items are temporary and unless turned in for equipment and experience points, will vanish when the player logs out. This may result in kids not wanting to log off if they are near the end of the quest so as to not miss items, so parents should take note of their kids’ sessions.

Puzzle Pirates

Being an MMO, Puzzle Pirates provide players with a ton of cooperative gameplay opportunities. For instance, when you're out at sea, players on the same voyage will need to switch jobs according to the circumstances and need of the crew as a whole. This creates opportunities for kids to develop teamwork, leadership, team strategy, and negotiation skills with success measured in terms of completed quests resulting from that assembled crew.


Presented above are five popular kid-friendly MMO games in which this article attempts to summarize just a few of the learning opportunities each can impart to children in the course of gameplay. Considered safe and educational by a consensus of experts and parents, these five games are a good starting point to introduce your kids to MMO all while ensuring parents can rest easy knowing their children are in good hands while at play.