My daughter has recently discovered Webkinz. If you’re not familiar with them, just walk in the general vicinity of a group of 8 year old girls and after about fifteen minutes you’ll be fully up to speed on the latest toy craze. That is if you haven’t been arrested for stalking 8 year old girls, sicko.
Webkinz are stuffed animals not much unlike the other 4 dozen plush animals piled on my daughter’s bedspread. The one key difference that makes Webkinz special is that each toy comes affixed with a tag containing a unique code. This code can then be entered into the Webkinz website allowing her to “adopt” a pixilated version of the stuffed animal. The real stuffed animal, having served it’s purpose as the code delivery mule, is cast aside into the plush pile.
Being a bit of a gamer myself, I joined my daughter on her first visit to Webkinz World. I helped her make a sign-in name and a suitable password, a task at which I found myself overqualified since all of my work passwords are reset each month. Then came the adoption process requiring the entry of the code, desired name and gender for the pet. The adoption process was pretty simple and probably not much different from the one celebrities use to adopt foreign babies with the absense of a skintone selection preference tab (more brown? less brown?). A few mouse clicks later and her first virtual pet was born.
Webkinz, like our 16th president Abraham Lincoln, are born naked and poor in a one room shack. Luckily each new adoption comes with $2000 KinzCashTM, the currency of Webkinz World which my daughter can use to purchase furniture, clothing, toys and food for her pet. After that money is gone, players earn KinzCashTM by playing the numerous minigames found in Webkinz World. The games vary from educational, skill, and straight up gambling games. I took the time to show her how to play a few games (steering her towards the more educational ones), after which she went to the KinzShop to purchase some new accessories for her pet. At this point I took my leave since I had little to add to the debate over which color wallpaper her horse would like best. I thought blue, but apparently I know nothing of such matters.
A couple days later my daughter approached me with a problem. It turns out she managed to spend all of her KinzCashTM and didn’t have any money left over to feed her pet. She asked if I would play a few games so she could buy some food and possibly that perfect bedroom set she had her eye on. This was the ideal opportunity to segue into a fatherly lecture on fiscal responsibility, but it was also the only instance where my video game skills and parenting skills intersected. For the first time in my life, I was being asked to use my video game skills for good.
I took the helm and started racking up all kinds of KinzCashTM for her as she cheered me on. “Wow Dad, you’re really good at this game” she said as I beat my personal high score for the second straight time. This was the defining moment of my video game playing life, as all those years spent saving princesses and playing Tetris were now elevating my status in my daughter’s eyes. My gaming skills were now something she could brag about to her friends. Won’t all the other Dads be jealous!
Though I was riding high as my daughter’s new video game playing hero, I started to realize that what I was doing, no matter how right it felt, was wrong. I should no more fight her virtual battles than I should fight the ones she faces in the real world. So after I beat my high score for the third (and fourth) time and secured enough KinzCashTM to keep her pet from starving, I turned the mouse over to her and gave my first “Daddy can’t bail you out all the time” speech, reminding her that the pet was her virtual responsibility.
Since then she has managed to keep better track of her virtual assets and make sure that the needs of her pets (she has adopted more) are met. I still play an occasional game for her from time to time, not out of necessity, but just to show off ‘mah skillz’. The one drawback to her Webkinz play is she is spending a lot more time online which cuts into my ability to check email and tend to my own virtual responsibilities. Still, I’m willing to overlook this small hinderance since there has been one major positive outcome as a result of her new Webkinz obsession.
Since she’s discovered Webkinz, she hasn’t touched her Bratz dolls.
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Comments: 10
However, he was forgetting to put the animal to sleep and when my daughter would play, the thing would be really hungry and sometimes sick. We had to remind Dad to put the pet to bed when he was done playing.
It's also a great incentive for my daughter to keep her grades up.
Congratulations to you and your daughter for finding a happy medium.
We have worked hard to avoid the Game Boy craze and bought our kids Leapsters because of the educational bias. However, event the Leapsters have their share of meaningless games. At the end of the day, I guess I'm old school and would prefer to see my kids pick up a book rather than a game player.
HER room, on the other hand....