Barbie Girls

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Nestling somewhere in between MMOs and social networking, virtual worlds are a virtual sandlot for millions of kids worldwide. Think avatar-based chat and mini-games alongside other kids of the same age range and interests, and you'll catch the appeal of these kid-friendly destinations. While a gaming parent might consider virtual worlds mere training wheels for games still to come, kid-friendly virtual worlds seem to fit the attention spans, chatty nature and niche-y interests of kids to a T.

The sheer variety of worlds appealing to children makes it easy for kids to find a spot where they'll want to hang out. As of early 2009, kids could choose from 112 virtual worlds designed for children and teens, according to Engage Digital Media, with more than 80 new worlds under development. The numbers of kids who've found a virtual home in these worlds rivals even the fat figures of MMO big dog World of Warcraft. Research firm eMarketer estimates that in the United States alone, 8 million kids hung out in virtual worlds regularly during 2008; that number is projected to swell to more than 15 million by 2013.

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How will you ever tell your little girl that her friend Jane is a special VIP in Barbie Girls Online, but you won't even give her a dented copper tiara? Jane's tiara is made of diamonds, platinum and unicorn hair! Your daughter: No tiara. You: resented in real life. But you're a good mommy or daddy, and you'll buy your little girl her VIP membership and her tiara will be gold, with rubies, because you love her just that much. Welcome to the wonderful world of getting to your wallet through your children.

It's not entirely new; Kid-oriented web sites such as Webkinz and Neopets have offered dolls with codes for use on their website for some years now, but they were real dolls, and the special perks on the website were theirs forever. They had something to keep when the computer was off. Now, your daughter's tenuous reign as VIP lasts only so long as you keep paying for a VIP membership. (Barbie Girls Online also requires a Barbie-shaped dongle/MP3 player to be plugged into the computer for full access but is not required for most of the site).

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Mattel's child-oriented 2.5D virtual world, BarbieGirls.com has reached ten million registered users (well more or less) according to the Washington Times. Long-time MMO/Virtual World observers and users will instantly note that a registered user does not an active user or subscriber make. However, Barbie Girls registered users require a special (customizable) Barbie MP3 player (called a Barbie Girl Device that range in price from US$40 to $US60) that has to be registered as a part of the signup process.

That makes things more interesting, and puts Barbie Girls as bigger than operations like Second Life which have similar ballpark numbers of registered users, but no such financial barrier to entry.

It's true that we don't normally write much about Barbie Girls - not because of any lack of merit as an MMO, no. We tend to avoid it because of the curse. They say that one of our writers once wrote a small news piece on Barbie Girls, and was inundated with messages about outfit unlocks and Barbie Bucks from millions of little girls. Forever. They say you can still hear him howling at GDC in San Francisco.