When RPGs Are Included in Kids' Meals

We previously discussed how hobby games have gone mainstream, and as further evidence look no further than Wendy's, fast-food chain in the U.S. that has included a very basic form of role-play in its kid meals as part of its "Creative Revolution."

Welcome to the Creative Revolution
Wendy's Creative Revolution for kids goes back at least two years to 2015, in which kids' meals included creative ways for kids to play with the included toys. These toys are refreshingly not branded, a way around a company's challenges of finding branding partners. For a comparison of just how branded fast food toys can be, Burger King features Dreamworks' Trolls, Captain D features Kung Fu Panda, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's include Surf's Up and The Nut Job, and Subway has Boss Baby toys. The most recent kids' meals are of particular interest to prospective role-players, positioned as part of the Maker Movement:

Each Kids’ Meal packs in one of six different worlds, just waiting for your child to create their own adventures! Each Create Your Adventure kit features a pop-out story theater setting and comes with tons of fun characters, creatures and props to build and play with. Collect and connect the sets together for even more fun. What stories will your kids’ imaginations create next?

The adventure includes a royal court, enchanted forest, high seas, undersea kingdom, ice mountain, and mystic jungle. There's an additional supplement that details how to create dioramas, finger puppets, a storytime basket, felt storyboard, family photo storytelling, and storytelling cards. There are even storybook theater board books for kids under 3 to help toddlers tell stories.

Why It Matters
The benefits of role-play for children are numerous. Telling a story or taking on a role develops communication skills, allows them to experiment in a safe environment, develop empathy by putting themselves in someone else's shoes, and learn how to express themselves. This is important for child development:

Imaginative and creative play is a more natural way for children to learn about the world and does involve the whole body. Children manipulate and touch various play materials. They express themselves through play both verbally and non-verbally. They use all of their muscles and senses to move around. Actively using their large and small muscles as well as their different senses in play, children develop healthy, strong, and complete neurological connections in their brains.

As the inventor of the Erector Set, Dr. A.C. Gilbert said, toys are valuable learning tools that:

...showed the long-term effects of fostering inventiveness, creativity, ingenuity, and problem solving abilities. Gilbert told Congress that we must take care of our current human resources, “our children,” for the perpetuity of American ingenuity and the value of learning.

Wendy's kids meals introduce the basic elements of tabletop play -- a fantasy setting, miniatures, and storytelling -- to children who might not otherwise be exposed to this sort of play. These are all skills adult gamers exercise in their hobby of choice every day. And that's very good news for the future of role-playing games.

 

[Morrus]

Unless I'm missing something here, I think this article is really stretching.

First, an RPG and Role-playing are different. An RPG can contain some role-playing, but it isn't necessary or mandatory and pretty much every RPG on the market works just fine without it. A Role-playing game doesn't need RPG rules at all and many (LARPS for example) don't even try.

"RPG" stands for "role playing game". They aren't different things.

 

[77IM]

Would you categorise it as a game, or a play set?

Definitely more of a play set; there is nothing "game" about it.

The characters and scenes are straight out of the "adventure fantasy" genre. So this is definitely another indicator of how mainstream fantasy has become. It's a far cry from the days when the only fantasy kids had exposure to was Disney movies and Saturday morning cartoons (which can be legit fantasy, but are not quite the same as what D&D is about).

 

[dbm]

Definitely more of a play set; there is nothing "game" about it.

The characters and scenes are straight out of the "adventure fantasy" genre. So this is definitely another indicator of how mainstream fantasy has become.

I think that is totally fair; fantasy as a genre is now much more mainstream and accepted. RPGs are still pretty fringe, unless we're talking computer-based gaming.

 

[hawkeyefan]

My daughter got one of these a few days ago...and immediately started creating little stories of her own. I think that because these are more generic rather than some licensed property, she was more inclined to make her own stories rather than simply mimic what she thought the licensed property would be doing. It got her imagination going, and gave me lots of ways to kind of prompt her about it.

She's only 3, so games in the sense that we know them aren't exactly happening yet, other than a little Go Fish and some frightening rounds of Operation. But for her, it got her imagination going, and she was playing the girl and I was the boy and we took "turns".....so there was some game like elements to her play. Is it a game in the sense that we here may think of them? Probably not...but there's also no need to be so strict about it.

I see it as an early step toward gaming, which is very cool!

 

[Jhaelen]

Unless I'm missing something here, I think this article is really stretching.

First, an RPG and Role-playing are different. An RPG can contain some role-playing, but it isn't necessary or mandatory and pretty much every RPG on the market works just fine without it. A Role-playing game doesn't need RPG rules at all and many (LARPS for example) don't even try.

Frankly, I think you definitely seem to be missing quite a lot actually, although, sadly, I know full well the reason.

An RPG without role-playing isn't an RPG; it's a tactical skirmish game.

The utterly wrong impression that you could consider yourself playing an RPG without actually roleplaying is something caused by the unfortunate misnomer applied to the category of computer/video-games labelled as RPGs.

For an RPG you need a) roleplaying, and b) a set of rules. Otherwise it's something else. Applying these criteria to the Kid's Meals, there's apparently a lack of b).

 

[Lylandra]

Actually, in ludology there is a difference between "play" and "game", so I'd call the dioramas settings for role-playing, not necessarily gaming.

Gaming is defined by having rules and a certain goal. Roleplaying games, especially TTRPGs are a bit of a hybrid as the "goal" is not set in stone and the rules part can often be negotiated or ignored if the rules don't fit the narrative.

That being said, I like the dioramas. I recall doing a *lot* of roleplaying (outdoors as well as indoors) as a kid, and these experiences really set the groundwork for my first stories (figuring out which tropes or characterizations or roles I liked and which I didn't etc.).