Elf Island (www.elfisland.com), the first virtual world to use gaming, storytelling and social interaction to empower kids to make a difference in the real world, is adding a wealth of new features and a unique gifting program with its official launch this week. While giving kids the fun virtual experience they expect, Elf Island brings a special twist to the experience by instilling redeeming values and social responsibility, with a “mirrored gaming” concept that transforms online games into real world actions.

Leading a trend the company has coined, “Gaming for Good,” Elf Island works directly with non-profits to identify real world projects to support, and then mirrors an online GoodQuest game to bring the project to life. Kids are truly empowered to succeed by hearing, seeing and telling the stories of others.

Mirrored Gaming

On Elf Island, kids participate in virtual GoodQuests, “mirroring” real world activity through partnerships with selected non-profit organizations, from building homes in Honduras to protecting sharks in the Galapagos. To heighten the excitement and help other non-profit causes that kids are passionate about, Elf Island continually launches new GoodQuests through rolling campaigns.

Already, GoodQuests have included partnerships with:

• WildAid: Protecting virtual sharks helped protect real sharks in the Galapagos Islands.
• Polar Bears International: Tracking virtual polar bears and polar ice caps helped protect real polar bears and their environments in the Arctic.
• Plant-It 2020: Planting virtual trees helps plant real trees in Niger (April 2009).

“Over the past few months Elf Island has grown into a large, unique community of kids, ranging in age from eight to 17, who are passionate about doing Good in the world,” Craig Kronenberger, president and co-founder of Elf Island. “We have spent these last few months listening and working with the community to create the ‘special sauce’ that truly empowers kids to do Good in the world through gaming."

New Features and Gifting

With the full launch, Elf Island now offers members a number of new features:

• Clothes & Goods – Exclusive digital goods and clothing options
• Awards – Special awards and prices to those who are going above and beyond with gifting, trading, questing and playing
• Prize Room - Award tickets can be redeemed for special goods in the prize room
• Sell Back - Members can sell their items at better prices than non-members
• Members-Only Goods – Special items available in the marketplace
• Allowance – An allowance of digital coins each day when Elf Islanders log in
• Upgrade Home - Members can add additional rooms to their homes
• Dancing - Members can dance like one of the Elf Island animals. At the completion of three GoodQuests, members can dance like a robot.

Elf Island is offering special pricing for membership - with a 50% off savings of $27.95 until April 15th. To extend the premise of Good and helping others, Elf Island is giving people the option of gifting a membership.

Elf Island instills positive social and environmental values in a child’s life while they are having fun.

• More than 78% of kids ages 6-11 play video games online
• 83% of kids believe they can make a difference

Every element of Elf Island’s game play supports individuality, self-expression and character building:

• Kids have access to 2,000 variations of personalization; include gender, hairstyles, skin, hair and eye color, and eight different action sequences for their avatars.
• To heighten team building, belonging and collaboration, the site will soon offer a tribe feature for Elf Islanders. Every member will have the option of joining or starting a tribe. The kids maintain their individual identities, but gain a sense of belonging.
• Elf Island fosters healthy friendships through interaction with elves and animals. The animals give a personal response and provide tips, guidance and clues about Elf Island, ultimately leading to the secret of Elf Island.
• Elf Island uses real moderators and robust dictionary chat to ensure safety is maintained and enforced at all times.

This game seems quite interesting and GDN will attempt to get some further information as well as access to tell you more about it.