Every recent generation has had their "must-have" stuffed toy. Teddy Ruxpin, the talking bear, was it for those who are now "twenty-something". Beanie Babies were all the rage for kids ten years ago. Now it seems that there's a new stuffed toy demanding attention, but with a technology twist. Webkinz are the "in" thing for the latest munchkins according to the savvy clerk, at my local toy store. She says they can hardly keep up with the demand, and if you haven't taken one of these soft animal buddies home yet, here's the technology scoop. There about 60 varieties of Webkinz (retails for $14) or smaller Lil' Kinz ($8) that come in all sorts of animal shapes. Each one comes with a sealed tag with a code that can be entered online at Webkinz World , a Ganz company and is good for one year's gratis online playtime. Once kids (ages 5-13) log in and their pet's tag code is recognized, kids can name and then meet a virtual version of their pet that they can use to play games with or "chat" with friends. (Word to the wise: make sure you either write down or print out the login info and the secret code and put it someplace safe.)
Being an adult, I took the time to look at the quick tour of how to get my young Webkinz buddy, a little elephant girl named Ellie, moved into her own home, including how to shuffle her and her furniture around, and how to use my Kinzcash allotment to keep Ellie fed, clothed, housed and otherwise happy. If you have a pre-reader playing, they might find out how to do all this stuff on their own intuitively, but I do recommend that you as a parent take the time to look at this tutorial also. Although Webkinz seems easy to use, this is technology after all, and there are sure to be some questions about why it will or won't do certain things or what to do after the Kinzcash runs out. (Kinzcash can be earned by playing games, etc, but if you have an "ultimate" consumer child like I do, it's good to know that upfront.)
After exploring Webkinz World a bit, I couldn't help thinking that this is just a more benign, pastel, "cartoony" version of some of the extremely popular multiplayer, multi-existence worlds available online like Second Life, minus the free chatting capability and other possible downsides. Instead kids can communicate with their Webkinz or send messages to other animals using canned phrases in pull-down menus, which eliminates the possibility of contact with strangers or the conversation drifting off into less than cordial tones. The online connection finds kids' friends with whom to play the wide variety of games on the site, but contact is minimal (if not, in reality, non-existent since some of these friends are computer generated) and all comments are canned so nothing worse than "better luck next time" gets filtered back to losers who share in the points (to get more Kinzcash) for just playing the games.
There certainly is a lot to do in Webkinz World and kids will be challenged to read (there are story installments as well short and quick tales), do mazes, take part in scavenger hunts and try their brains at trivia contests. There are more arcade kinds of games also good for kids' reflexes and even a bit of strategizing. High scores earn more Kinzcash.
Webkinz World also affords kids the opportunity to have a pet and take care of it including medical visits - with no expense, clean-up or allergies involved- which has been a popular pastime since almost the inception of onscreen gaming. In addition, Webkinz seems to be imbued with a sweet but silly sense of humor, the chance to take part in some clean, but intellectually stimulating competitions, and that wonderfully warm and fuzzy hook of a Webkinz always being glad to see you when you sign-in. No wonder it's so popular, and rightly so.
