My soon-to-be-10-year-old nephew took me on a tour of Webkinz, today – the hottest thing since, well, the last hottest thing, for kids from 4 to 12. 14. Webkinz.com combines the kid appeal of Neopets with a kid-friendly mashup of MySpace and Second Life.
Take a look at it and you’ll begin to realize how soon the kindergarten through junior high generation will leapfrog over adults in their ability to use the Internet, their understanding of e-commerce, their acceptance of online community, and the idea that one’s social life can be centered in a virtual world.
Publishers, this is how kids will learn instead of with already obsolete text books. Fashion, music, art and commerce online will be as natural a part of young digital native’s lives as TV was to baby boomers. The Internet really has changed everything. And we sure live in interesting times.
Webkinz is the brain-child of family-owned Ganz, a Canadian gift wholesaler. It combines off-line sales with online multi-media, that’s feature-rich, ever-changing, and fun — kind of like NeoPets on steroids. And it passed one million members during the summer – entirely through kids’ word of mouth. Ad budget: zero.
Webkinz are adorable stuffed animals (limited edition, a la Beanie Babies) that are sold with a secret code on their foot that gives kids access to an online world where the toys’ avatar versions can chat with other members, play games, decorate their homes, and change their clothes.
Kids have to keep their Webkinz well-fed, rested and exercised, although they don’t die like neglected NeoPets. They win KinzCash by playing games and can use it to buy things for their Webkinz.
There are 41 versions of Webkinz, two retired and selling briskly on e-Bay, and 25 smaller Lil’Kinz. My niece and nephew each own several, as do all of their friends.
Webkinz cost about $10. Lil’ Kinz are $7.50. But you can’t get them. “You put your name on a list,” my sister says. “The store gets them in and they call you. You throw the kids in the car and race to the store. And they’re already gone.”
Kids have posted scores of Webkinz videos on YouTube, some made with the movie sutdio within the site, which also includes a store, an arcade, a clinic where you find out if you are taking good enough care of your avatars, and a whole array of other features that eat time.
Safety is Webkinz’ biggest parental appeal, and the site says that “chat is constructed, so users can’t type in whatever they want. Nothing inappropriate can be said, and there is no way to exchange any personal information.”
Besides teaching children to type, it helps them learn reading, spelling, logical thinking and, perhaps also kiddy gambling. But, the FAQs maintain, “While the Wishing Well and Wheel of WOW use visual metaphors that are sometimes associated with gambling, there is no gambling involved.”
I’ll tell you one thing I’d gamble on: a Ganz public offering.
Horrible customer service. My daughter was given a WebKinz from a friend for a gift. Friend lost the tag but thought she knew the secret password for on-line. It didn’t work and apparently Ganz is so worried about being scammed by kids that they refuse to provide a mechanism for replacement codes, saying instead “Go to the store and buy another one”
Her friend didn’t “lose” the tag. They’re not easily removed due to the manner in which they are attached. I wouldn’t have provided your child with another code either. I’m sure the code attached to her Webkinz is being enjoyed by her friend. Splurge and buy her another one.
Victoria, you clearly don’t have a child immersed in this nonsense. My child got a webkinz with this blasted tag which is a piece of printed paper that comes inside a plastic pouch. One shufty with the vacuum cleaner and it’s all over. I also think Webkinz uses a cache – and over the weekend when my child registered and played a game everything was ok. Next day the site was not accessible with the userid password that we created. I called them on monday and had it changed. Turns out the system already had a userid we were using and had somehow assigned another without our knowing it. The CSR fixed it and promised to let me know how this happened. they have not done so. So beware.
Webkinz are huge!!! There are some like the cheeky dog that sell on ebay for $300, there are some that sell for $60 that cost $12 in the store,
The love Puppy for example. If you dont have one, chances are you have to buy one off ebay cause the stores sold out. I have been researching webkinz for the past week and they are gonna be huge.
Peter
I totally agree with Victoria that the tags would be HARD to lose off a brand new one. My daughters have about 15 Webkinz and Lil Kinz between the two of them and I’ve had to cut the ribbon on every single tag to get it off easily.
Anyway, LOVE Webkinz!!
Horrible Customer service. My twin daughters both received Webkinz for their birthdays. The first logons didn’t go very well and I have been trying to solve this problem ever since. One twin forgot her logon and password, the other forgot her password. The reset password doesn’t work because they appear to have disabled her username and this was less than 30 days ago. I have e-mailed back and forth and the answers never match the questions. We have the tags to the Webkinz in question and have carefully saved every tag for every Webkinz we bought since. Our printer wasn’t working at first logon time and the paper with the usernames and passwords has gone missing. I’m fed up. I just want a warm body connected to a working brain to actually read my e-mail. The problem is not complicated, but I think they were unprepared for the type of problems that would ensue.
Mom.
I lost me secret code paper and forgot my password
My daughter got one of these things as a reward for an excellent report card. Two days later at least 4 of our 5 family members are ADDICTED to the time-wasting arcade games (yes, I’m guilty) on the Webkinz site. Now that we are all waiting around for our turn on the computer, the stupid site is “temporarily unavailable… thanks for your patience…” it’s been more than 24 hours. How long does the upgrade take, and how often does this happen?
lose the code and you’re out of luck. make sure it’s there when you buy one.
I disagree
webkinz can be educational and if you are responsable and dont lose the tag nothing oes wrong. It is not complicated to change your user name or password and your secret code is completely unique no one else has the same one.
Puh-leze! Webkinz is totally fine if you remember your info. never once had a problem.
~Proud owner of 30 Webbies
i have a webkinz. it’s a siamese. webkinz is educational and it’s also great for little kids
i love webkinz. i have 65. my friend is spoiled! she has 75 and gets one once a week!
either way, if you lose your information, don’t email them. try to find the address of ganz and send them a letter