This is part of a series of posts looking at virtual worlds targeted toward kids.
Augmentation or immersion? It’s a popular debate among the virtual world crowd. Do people enjoy virtual worlds for the escapism they can allow when you fully immerse yourself into another character? Or, do virtual worlds simply augment your current life by allowing new ways to interact with information and other people? Studies of teens have shown that they tend to fall into the augmentation crowd - socially playing online games with others that they already know. The subject of our latest virtual world exploration has really landed on how to capitalize on that with an even younger set.
In beta for quite some time, Disney’s Pixie Hollow officially opened October 23 - two days before the fairies debuted at the Magic Kingdom and five days before the Tinker Bell movie comes out on DVD. And if all that cross-promotion wasn’t enough, the real jewels in the crown in my opinion are the toys. Sure there have been Disney Fairies toys for a while, but the dolls my girl had already collected are nothing like these new Fairies toys. I’d heard Steve Parkis mention them at his Virtual Worlds Expo keynote and was most amazed at the scenario he painted where two girls could meet on the playground, touch their bracelets together and then go home to find their virtual Fairies already connected in-world. Oh, and for the kids who already have cell phones, there’s a mobile option through which users can use their phones to create butterflies as pets for their fairies!
Pixie Hollow is free to play, although there is an option to do more for a monthly fee of $5.95. During our weekend excursion in-world, however, we found plenty to do without going in for the membership option. You can create up to three fairies. You can design clothes for them that are either yours exclusively or available to the entire community. You can play games with fireflies, fish, spiderwebs and probably more we didn’t find. Your fairie has a home and a few bits of furniture with which to furnish it. You can chat with other fairies, although we found very few that would talk back to us. Through the parental controls (pictured below with the more matronly fairie) you have the option to allow free chat or restrict chat to a preset list of options.
The Good
I can’t say enough about the fantastic graphics of this world. To quote my girl “what a pretty place!” The images are pure Disney animation style and create a natural fantasy land that really invites you to explore. If you have sound turned on, you get soothing background noise that coordinates perfectly, as well. When flying close to the water you hear the babble of a brook, but fly higher in the same spot and the water sounds fade out to be replaced by chirping birds or soft breezes.
It’s easy to learn how to maneuver your fairy by moving your mouse across the screen which creates a nice flowing feel to fairy flight. When moving from one “meadow” to a “vale” or into a particular game, the flight is much more reminiscent of a Second Life teleport. Even then, however, my girl said “I like when my fairy flys. She looks so cute!”
The Bad
I really can’t find much bad to say about this world unless you’re one to worry about “the conflation between consumption and consumerism and citizenship” due to all the cross-marketing between the virtual and the real world toys and merchandise. Me, I’m not one to fight the Disney machine because as much as I may lament the amount of my money they get, this time of year, I’m still much happier to spend it on a princess costume than some Bratz costume.
The Lessons Learned
My girl’s first instinct when furnishing her room was to try to drag and drop items, but she quickly adapted to the click and download format of this world. Flying by moving her mouse was also different from using the arrow keys as she has done for most of the worlds we previously visited. But, again she easily adapted and picked up on the new user interface.
Flying around picking up “ingredients” such as berries, dandylion fluff, sunflower seeds and other in-world currency can be addictive. It’s just so easy and so much fun - like an online Easter egg hunt that can go on for hours before you realize it. It can also take a lot of time to customize your fairy due to the large number of options available. However, considering that the number one thing my girl always asks to do when she sees me in Second Life is to change my clothes and hair, that’s something right up the alley of their target audience.
Overall, it’s a definite thumbs up from us and I predict many returns.
Laura P. Thomas is the wife of a former rocker and mother of one 6-year-old girl that’s already waaay too interested in The Jonas Brothers. (the apple didn’t fall far) She works in the Global Online team at Dell, evangelizes virtual worlds, and twitters too much as LPT.
