So no surprise my (6 year old) daughter is obsessed with trying to get me to let her play in Second Life. Not gonna happen. In it’s place there are dozens of kid-friendly metaverses & online games out there. Club Penguin. Barbie Girl. Disney. Nickelodeon. Webkins. Mushabelly Mushkin. Yepper, there are spinoffs of the biggies now. None of them seem to hold her interest for very long though. I have yet to register her on the Webkins & Mushabelly sites – memberships courtesy of some Christmas presents. She never seems to stick with one game for very long, or get obsessed over it. I suppose that’s good? But because of that, I’m not really willing to shell out money for online membership.
I’m disappointed in the Barbie Girl one, it’s an MP3 player (sort of like an iPod Shuffle in how it just plays songs in order or random) but the software that comes with it doesn’t work. Searched on the ‘net, and it doesn’t work for a lot of people. Husband called the support hotline at Mattel two weeks ago and they opened a support ticket (BFD) and never got back to him. Not that it’s a big deal, the MP3 player works Windows Media Player. Too bad I can’t figure out how to use Media Player. So many stinkin’ popups and subscription prompts in my face. iTunes is SO much easier, it works a bit more passively I think. Anyway, the whole deal with the Barbie Girls MP3 player is 1) you get to dress the stupid player up like it were a Barbie doll 2) it plays music and I’m sick of having the song counter on my iPod show Hannah Montana as the top played songs and 3) it gives you cool digital gear on the BarbieGirls.com website and a year long membership. Without the software working, my daughter can’t get the freebies in the game.
Did I mention the MP3 player was $80 plus the cost of additional outfits?? NOTE: I got it on sale…but still!!
PS – Mattel if you read this, I bought FOUR of these stupid MP3 players for my neices and daughter’s friends. How embarrassing, now I’m going to be the world’s worst Aunt. You suck.
[tags]Club Penguin, Barbie Girl, Disney, Nickelodeon, Webkins, Mushabelly Mushkin[/tags]
