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.