This constant upselling and manipulation is baked into a platform that over 90,000 schools have assigned as homework. Instead, they are presented with an ad for a Premium membership, and kids who don’t upgrade at that moment must settle for the wooden box. When kids without Premium memberships click on the sparkly blue box, their choice is denied and they are blocked from finding out what’s inside. When kids finish a math battle they are presented with two treasure boxes: a plain wooden one and a sparkly blue one. Prodigy’s tactics for selling Premium memberships also exploit kids’ curiosity. For example, kids without memberships literally walk in dirt while kids with memberships ride around on clouds. Kids without Premium memberships are constantly reminded of their “lesser” status. When non-members click on the sparkly treasure chest, they are denied its contents and told to purchase a membership.Īlthough Prodigy’s math lessons are poorly integrated into the game, missing opportunities for students to make connections, the same cannot be said of its manipulative upselling tactics. Instead, these memberships provide kids with bragging rights and digital goodies like cool hats and cute pets. Premium memberships do not provide kids with access to a better learning tool. A Prodigy member rides a cloud and sports a Member Badge while a non-member walks in the dirt.

Ads take the form of videos and news feeds that showcase what Premium members can do that players without a membership cannot. In just 19 minutes of “studying,” we saw 16 ads for membership and only 4 math problems. Prodigy’s push to sell Premium memberships is relentless, and aimed at kids.

As of September 2021, Prodigy also introduced an “Ultimate” membership priced at over $180 per year, further stratifying membership. This home version, though technically “free,” bombards children with advertisements and uses relentless tactics to pressure children to ask parents for “premium” memberships, which cost up to $120 per child per year plus tax. However, as children play one free version in the classroom they are encouraged to play a different free version at home. Prodigy claims it is “free forever” for schools. Instead of being designed to get kids excited about math, Prodigy is designed to make money. Prodigy is intentionally formulated to keep kids playing for long periods of time, but not for the reasons that we might hope. Children can also shop with Prodigy currency, practice dance moves, chat with other players, and rescue cute pets. In this online role-playing game, children create customized wizard characters to earn stars and prizes for winning math “battles,” finding treasure, and completing a variety of non-math challenges throughout the game. The game is designed for 1st through 8th graders to play during the school day and at home. Prodigy is a math game used by millions of students, parents, and teachers across the globe.

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