Sports and lifestyle footwear retailer The Athlete’s Foot says it has become the first Australian store to create its own game in Roblox.
The game, called Fitopia, is free for anyone to play and recreates classroom and schoolyard hub areas across three separate worlds. The first is a classroom full of puzzles and brainteasers (a pinpoint accurate recreation of my primary school experience). The second is all about sports and simulations, while the third is about adventure and obstacle courses. In case you couldn’t tell from the name and these experiences, its about promoting healthy minds and bodies in kids.
Because kids with healthy minds and bodies grow into adults who might buy running shoes, you see.
Because we must ensure our larvae display sufficient fealty to our capitalist masters, there’s a TAF store in the lobby. There, players can earn TAF-Coins, whatever those are, and earn power-ups. There’s also a jungle gym, zipline, train, sandpit and waterslide right there in the store. This is exactly the kind of commercial pandering that definitely would have worked on me as a kid.
But here’s my question: how is it possible that The Athlete’s Foot, a chain that sells running shoes, is the first Australian retailer to drop a game in Roblox? EB Games, how did you miss the boat on this one? Gamesmen, where are you? Country full of video game retailers, and nobody built a Roblox game? We used to have Minecraft servers for everything. Have we all moved on?
Anyway, there’s your kitschy local story for the day. If you had asked me to name an Aussie retailer I thought most likely to get in on Roblox, it would not have been The Athlete’s Foot.
Leave a Reply