This is part of a series of posts looking at virtual worlds targeted toward kids.
This series of posts was born out my confession to buying a Webkinz stuffed animal for a friend’s daughter, and for the first time since then we visit another world based on furry purchases. Build-A-Bearville first launched in December of 2007 and now has about 7.8 million registered avatars or users. When we first ventured into this new world, I must say I didn’t expect much; but, it seems to have struck a cord with my daughter. She has returned so often that she is now a certified Jr. Cy-Bear Guide - which means she’s an in-world ambassador who answers questions from other residents such as where the fun places are to visit.
The Good
This world definitely carries a positive vibe - my girl says that she likes to visit it when she’s had a hard day. The music that constantly plays in the background plays a big part in that - they’ve invested in some quality, original tunes that are very upbeat.
There is a much larger variety of locations to visit in Build-A-Bearville than we’ve seen in the other worlds we’ve reviewed. And with the abundance of locations comes a large number of games. Many of them are multiplayer, and they range from an easy game of tug-of-war to a more challenging car race.
Build-A-Bearville also has great parental controls. When my girl tried to change her chat option from Safe Chat, which limits her to pre-programed responses, to open text chat one day after school, I received an e-mail notification where I was at work asking me to approve first. Today, that’s not even an option — last October Build-A-Bearville disabled their open chat option saying that “Until technology is available to prevent potential abuse we will continue to use ’safe menu chat’.” And, WiredSafety recently presented them a “Best of the Web” award at the 9th Annual WiredKids Summit.
The Bad
While I personally don’t have an issue with the business model, several readers of past virtual world reviews have expressed displeasure with worlds that they feel do a switch and bait on their children - luring them in as free, but restricting much of what can be done in-world to those that spend money for premium content access. Build-A-Bearville, while very connected to the purchase of an animal at their Build-A-Bear Workshop stores, also follows that common standard. They note that “you don’t have to have a furry friend to play, but if you do have one, you can play a lot more games and have even more fun.”
The Lessons Learned
If you’ve somehow been able to avoid the Build-A-Bear Workshop at your local mall and your child doesn’t already hound you for a new animal every time you walk by, don’t get them started with the virtual world. The site was built with the goal to “keep children (and their parents’ credit cards) connected with the furry product after the initial sales.” And it works. In the company’s Q4 2008 earnings call, CEO Maxine Clark said 10 percent of visitors to Build-A-Bear Workshop’s physical stores were influenced to visit by the company’s virtual world, and on average those visitors spend more than others on each visit.
But, if you’re already stuck lining the pockets of Ms. Clark, the virtual world extension is a safe, fun place for your kids to hang out.
Check out another great review of Build-A-Bearville.
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.
Oh yeah . . . I’m so glad we’ve got past D’s obsession with Webkinz. Every kid in his class had one and he was begging to go on the computer every day . . . and we have a strict no screens during the week policy. He would be in tears that his Webkinz pet would “die” because he didn’t feed it and put it to bed!
Great review here, LPT. Kinda reminds me of a cross between Webkinz and ClubPenguin.
A detailed and well balanced review. I still like Secretbuilders over these other sites.
Once site I am really disappointed with is Neopets. They have objectionable advertisements on their site…not at all appropriate for kids so watch out if your kids likes that site.
My biggest objection with Build A Bear is the consumption junction message that the store itself puts out; because no matter how ‘green’ or ‘good’ the VW may purport to be, it doesn’t offset the overspending, overdone aspects of bears with acoutrement ranging from head bands and undies to gym shoes and cellphones…I deep dive a lot of these sites for Shaping Youth, particularly in the tween category and don’t have a problem with the freemium to premium rev gen whatsoever as long as it’s outlined clearly from the get go.
That said, the premium content should be available sans ads if people are purchasing, because double-dipping should be a no-no, frankly. I mean, c’mon, if I’m going to pay to access a higher user experience, I shouldn’t have to be subjected to cross-promos of other product placement or advergaming inside the world (a la neopets)
My favorite? Elf Island.com for online to offline ‘gaming for good’ seeding philanthropy by having the actions ‘in-world’ translate to kids’ empowerment in the real world. (e.g. Wild Aid, Polar Bears Int’l, etc.) and Dizzywood for its storyline based play which we’ve also done some testing within…Zookazoo I like as well, and I’m about to try out the new “Habitat Heroes” to see what’s shaken in there…And for older kids, I heard about Hangout.net at the Ypulse lunch roundtable on VW for doing good things too…
Let’s keep in touch and crosspost when we can, as we clearly are trompin’ around similar spheres, and all the mama-bear eyes and ears attuned would be worthy to me! (Shaping Youth is a tiny nonprofit, so we don’t have the ’staff’ scenarios to be testing a gazillion diff. VW, but come visit…you’ll find a lot of similar interests under ‘interactive games’ or the EcoKids category, etc.
Stumbled on this one while reading a diff. post here!
So thanks, Laura!
Amy Jussel
Founder/Exec. Dir.
http://www.ShapingYouth.org
Using the power of media for positive change
p.s. Anyone tried green.com yet? If so, fill me in?
oh, forgot to leave the link to my ‘Can Somethin’ Be Done about all this Consumption’ review of the Build A Bear Workshops and party platform…http://blog.shapingyouth.org/?p=293
An innocuous VW is the least they could do!
Hi Amy!
So glad you found us here and enjoyed the post. Our “staff” for testing VWs thus far is just myself and my daughter. With new kid-targeted virtual worlds popping up every day, all the eyes and ears on them is indeed a good thing.
I’m hopping over to subscribe to your blog’s feed so we can keep in touch!
~Laura
Thanks, Laura, doing the same…sounds like our micro-staff is similar!
(am in the process of recruiting our kids/helpers and hopefully some service credited interns for the fall when school begins!) Here’s a great roundup of resources for ya on the ‘tween/safety’ VW front…
http://tinyurl.com/mv6dmk
Izzy’s a jewel, and we work together in a wiki forum called Kids Online: Balancing Safety and Fun. Join us?
I am glad someone told me about you.I hope I will find it useful.