We've all heard the phrase "drink responsibly," but what about Gaming Responsibility? As in, should the Game Publishing industry do more than simply create games for the sake of entertainment, but also create games for the sake of social betterment? I have never been one for edutainment over entertainment as a rule in gaming. However, I do believe that edutainment is a social necessity.

Recently, Ubisoft, the publishers behind Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed, announced a partnership with the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to teach kids about kindness to animals through Ubisoft's Petz video games (Petz Dogz, Petz Dolphinz, etc). Ubisoft started the initiative as a means of promoting Petz Sharing and Caring Month, where several new titles in the Petz franchise were released. One of the games, Petz Nursery, teaches children how to care for their pets. The better you perform at pet nursery, the more exotic animals you can unlock, like pandas and tigers. You can then wirelessly share the Petz you groomed with your other Petz games.

The Ubisoft-ASPCA partnership is focused on Ubiworld.com, Ubisoft's casual gaming community. When you first get to the site, you will see a world map where you can navigate to one of Ubiworld's islands-in-the-sky: Petz, Style Lab and Imagine. The colors and layout have the bright-vivid colors of a site designed primarily for children. I stopped by the Petz Island first. As you drive around on your scooter you can visit various houses on the Island or search around for Ubi "pointz." When you pick up your first collectible coin, you'll realize that this site works like most casual gaming sites: you've got to login to play. If you're like me, you take pride in creating your personal gamertag. Unfortunately, the site is limited to only a few combinations of usernames, consisting of an adjective (like chipper, cute, mysterious, or smart) and a noun (like elf, fairy, dreams, or flower). There are about 40 adjectives and 40 nouns total. So, you'll probably end up with a name like MysteriousWizard or CuteHero, with a number attached to the end to stay unique.

After you create your username, you will be able to create and outfit your in-game avatar. Sorry boys, since the core demographic of Petz, Imagine and Style Lab is young girls your Avatar can be only that: a young girl. The Petz Island, like the Style Lab Island and the Imagine Island, has several houses that represent games in the franchise. Within each of these game houses, you'll find either a DS or a TV screen where you can click to interact with a mini-game. I started out playing the Petz Dogz Trickz mini-game. In this game, you use your mouse like a DS stylus to copy an arrow outline, representing a dog trick. The Dolphinz Encounter house has a similar mini-game where you use your keyboard's arrow keys to either perform tricks or collect items. In the Dogz Talent Show house will have to bath your Pet, slap an outfit on him or her, and then walk your pet down the runway to pose for pictures. Adults probably won't find this last mini-game fun, but that's because it's designed for children.

There are several more mini-games to uncover on Ubiworld.com, but that's only part of the experience. As you collect items or Ubisoft "pointz" from gaming, those accumulated pointz will actually be tallied towards the overall pointz of the community. Thanks to Ubisoft's partnership with the ASPCA, these points don't simply go towards cheesy contests for giveaway swag. Instead, the pointz go towards donations made to the ASPCA on behalf of the Ubiworld community. Each week the ASPCA tallies the total pointz collected and converts them over towards animal support efforts. Negar Baharlou, Senior Brand Manager on Petz brands, said, "That includes Feeding abandoned cats and dogs, taking a puppy or kitten to the vet for a checkup vaccines, or vaccinating homeless cats and dogs." So the more you game, the more you help animals in need. How many times has any game, casual or otherwise, gone beyond self-gratification to directly impact the world?

Some deem success in units sold. Ubisoft has sold 19 million units worldwide across all Petz products. But, with nearly 1 million Ubiworld pointz collected to date, success can be deemed by another metrics: animals helped. If you stop by the ASPCA house on the Petz Island, you'll find out just how many animals were helped through this initiative. To date, 250 abandoned dogs and cats have been fed in the past three weeks thanks to the Ubiworld kids' community. Now, if only the kids can get adults to do their part as well. Baharlou states, Ubiworld has "had a 29% increase in membership signups in November versus October, so that kind of gives you an idea of how fast we're growing." Ubisoft has taken one step towards upgrading casual gaming to socially responsible gaming. Will other game publishers follow? I hope so. Ubisoft has proven that gaming need not just be fun; it can also be rewarding.

The Ubisoft-ASPCA partnership is set to continue through January 4, 2010.