f13.net

Somewhat on the subject of "there's Godzilla-sized market that gets totally ignored by dinosaur MMO developers who struggle to get their 100k subscribers"...

Barbie Girls (beta) (http://www.barbiegirls.com/home.html)

according to Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/gaming/life-in-plastic%2C-it.s-fantastic%21/fascinating-yet-horrifying-the-barbie--bratz-mmos-288516.php) it's already 4 mil users strong and gettin 45k signups a day. And unlike WoW I don't think they tapped into Chinese market yet....


pretty much as the article puts it, horrifying yet fascinating.

edit: oh, and apparently it was supposed to go in full release mode August 13th.

I've been playing it.

Signups aren't signups. You really have to go see it to understand why I say that.

I've been trying to come up with an article. But it's hard.

The game is, quite literally, stealing candy from babies.

Can you explain how it works? Toontown with sims elements?

Uh. No. More like some minigames with a room to decorate and pedophiles to interact with.

This game needs more Gorean Masters. I'm sooooo signed up. I especially like that the age demographic selecion ends at "16+".


Edit: oh those cocksuckers.... all the cool hair, lips, and eyes you have to by their MP3 player to pick

edit again: WTF, you need the fucking MP3 player to buy any of the good stuff in the shops and chat filter is insane. It's impossible to get a sentence out without half of it jibberished out.

People comparing this shit's number to those of WoW are fucking tools. This shit is nothing but a vehicle to get girls to bitch at parents until they buy the fucking MP3 player.

You mean other pedophiles to interact with or do kids actually play it?

This is the internet: the men are men, the woman are men and the children are all federal agents.

Do you wear a gingham frock and pigtails when you play?

No, you tuck, then make yourself pretty.

Now get back in the hole and put on the lotion.

This is a thread about BARBIE DOLLS!  They're for little girls and the game is for little girls.  Even if big girls play it, STOP MAKING IT DIRTY!  It creeps me out.

It's the BIG BOYS who play it that have me worried.

See the other thread about Neopets (which turned into discussing Club Penguin and Webkinz). Barbiegirls is in that family of experiences, massively single player almost, safe and secure and all that age-appropriate stuff.

Says the woman with an avatar of a naked Tinkerbell, grinning in satisfaction and cherry-red ass cheeks.

Are they red?  It looked more to me like Tink forgot to wipe after making "pixie dust"...

Okay, they're more a flushed pink than red... but whatever caused it made her a happy girl so I'd rule out forgetting to wipe.

So mean.

I'm pretty sure they get their numbers the way SL gets their numbers.  That's probably 4 million accounts and 45,000 account signups per day, which do not represent discrete users.  Most likely, the vast majority are kids who forget their usernames/passwords so make new accounts whenever they log in.

I'd love to see how many parents fall for buying that $60 MP3 player.  Doubt it will come anywhere close to a million.

fixed.

Are Tinkerbell's nipples also blurred out?

Just her nipple.  I didn't want to but when I had my pot girl avatar, they said it was too revealing even though there was no nipple showing.  She had a shiny silver pastie on it.  Anyway, I thought someone would shout at me if her nipple showed.

This is kind of the same gimmick that's fueling Webkinz. What's interesting is that most of the elements of a MMOG are stripped down to the economic core: play minigames to earn stuff for your digital toys, the minigames are very slow and painful ways to earn though, and the quick way? Buy another real toy. The real toys are the RMT of these things. In terms of existing major MMOGs, it reminds me most of the Sims Online and of the reasons why the Sims Online had no real stickiness. I think that's the same thing here--these aren't places where the players make persistent avatars that are appealing in their own right. But that's exactly what the makers of these things intend: they're not doing this for the subscription fees, just as a way to sell more of the real-world product.

This is the Tinkerbell thread. What are you talking about?

Now if only they'd make those mini-games spelling, math, history, science and language arts tests.. ;)

Wow, nobody ever thought of that ?

edit: Well, there is this (http://www.chorewars.com/)

You call the minigames painfully slow, but you gotta consider the prices of the goods in the game and the level of experience of the player. My daughter can buy a new game or piece of furniture for her now-five-room house (including garden) after playing just a few rounds of Four in a Row and Checkers. These teach valuable mental skills as well, without the dry wrapping of "math", "science" and so on. If you want that, check out IGEN :).

Barbiegirls follows on this trend. Webkinz was early, TamaTown (Tamagotchi V4), Miuchiz, all predate it. And more consumer goods companies are coming.