Water Cooler Games - Scholastic Defiles Self, World with Game-Book Tie-ins

Scholastic Defiles Self, World with Game-Book Tie-ins
December 19, 2007 - by Ian Bogost

Scholastic, the textbook publisher Kaiser Permanente paid off to publish their craptastic nutrition game, is back with more cross-media garbage for you and your tween.

Now that the Harry Potter series is complete, Scholastic is eager to get a new franchise out. According to a story in the New York Times today, the series, called The 39 Clues will feature 10 books, apparently to be penned by different authors including Gordon Korman and Rick Riordan. But in addition, as the Times reports "many children are now as transfixed by Internet and video games as they are by reading." According to Scholastic, "reading the books will make you better at the games," thus completing what I desperately hope friend and colleague Henry Jenkins doesn't celebrate as an example of "convergence," but instead sees as the schlock that it really is.

Ready to be more offended? Check this out:

The series is also Scholastic's attempt to create a branded franchise for which it owns all the rights. Ms. Rowling retained the rights to the Harry Potter series, which meant that she could pursue separate deals for film and other licensed products, effectively cutting out Scholastic.

I have my problems with Harry Potter, most of which I talked about in Persuasive Games and in my review of Jenkins' book, but 39 Clues is completely manufactured by Scholastic -- it's the Hannah Montana of the kids book world. Imagine the gaul, JK Rowling retaining the rights to the work she created!

(thanks to Karen, with apologies for lambasting her new gig)

Comments (1) | Post a Comment

Comment from josh giesbrecht on December 19, 2007

Or the Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys of our century. Which, strangely, doesn't sound as offensive despite the fact that they were considered the same sort of publisher-driven shlock in their times.

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