Webkinz
 

Okay, fess up. Who's addicted?

Everybody in my office has them, which led to a company-wide banning of Webkinz (although I harbor a suspicion that the HR director had the computer guy override the ban on her computer).

Most of my adult friends now have Webkinz as well.

In case you don't know, Webkinz are cute little stuffed animals that have cute little online existences, cute little virtual houses, cute little virtual clothes, cute little virtual jobs, and you play cute little flash games to earn "KinzCash" to buy other cute little virtual accessories.

Anybody want to be on my buddy list so I can invite you over to play in my KinzHouse or meet in the Clubhouse?

Well, I have one . . . kinda by accident, because I wanted a stuffed Siamese Kitty.

I don't know anything about their "virtual" lives though. Am I missing out? Am I better off not knowing, LOL!

and . . . office-wide banning? What's the rationale for that? Banning those cute little plushy furry animals, awwwww, what meanies! Meanies! I say!

I'm addicted to killing the damned things. It bugs me to no end that my daughter wastes her money on these things. Yes, I understand that a) wasting your money is a necessary learning process. (I certainly did it.) and b) my children will likely always spend their money on things I don't like and/or understand. (I remember when I got my HP-15C calculator, my dad said, "I can't believe you spent $100 and it's so small.") But these things seem useless even by standards of useless childhood purchases.

The only thing I can say for them is, they're better than Shining Stars, which are similar in concept, but are run by the International Star Registry.

But you work at The Nuthouse. QED.


That's just sad on every level. The perceived need to ban certain web sites, the misuse of authority to make arbitrary personal exceptions, etc. etc.


In a perhaps inevitable development, I understand that when you buy an animal at Build A Bear, they now have a web site where you can create a parallel online character.


EDIT: Cloud, I'm assuming she means the web site was banned.

My daughter has 4 or 5.

My nieces like them, but don't have dozens like some kids.

OK, I have one: they had a cute cow (I love cows) here in our bookstore I had to have. I registered him as Cow Webkin (not clever except that it sounds like Cal Ripkin.) This was months ago. I guess he's dead, as I've never fed him. Do they start to smell? Do they attract flies?

Anyway, the cute little stuffed guy is sitting on shelf in my office. Today, I walked by the bookstore and saw the Siamese kitty that Cloud mentioned. Yeah, I want him, but will refrain. :)

If I had interwebz at home I might get involved. It has some of the aspects I loved about Toontown: buying clothes (I think?) and furniture for your house, etc. It would be fun to meet up with wolf in the clubhouse! :)

I used to work at a store that sold these and had one little girl boast that she had collected forty-nine of them, and had come to the store to buy her fiftieth. I saw quite a few children -- and adults -- go into fits over these things, so I decided never to buy one because I know I'd get sucked in, too!

Heehee...remember those damn beanie babies? I hated those things!

When I was a kid all we had were pet rocks. And we had to make up names for them ourselves. And they only came in a crappy cardboard house. And you had to walk to the store in the snow to buy them. 17 miles uphill. And 23 miles uphill to get home.

I had a pet rock that already had googly-eyes glued to it, and a pin so you could clip it to your shirt.

You got to buy a legit pet rock? I asked for one and my brother picked up a rock off the ground and chucked it at me. I named it Fluffy, it lived in a shoe.

so, it's only you Wolf. Lonely in your obsession?

(clutches her stuffed kitty to her breast-ignores virtual meows of smotherification)

are you not supposed to remove the tags?

It had so many pebbles it didn't know what to do?

I will call the pebble Dare...

I haven't heard of this yet here.
I am worried.
I was majorly into Animal Crossing Wild World until I got the biggest house and had my mortgage paid off.

I need to steer clear.
I mustn't Google this.
I won't take part.

I'll let you know.

:D

The only webkinz related purchase I ever made was for a dog. (A real one)

My cousin got one of those designer dog puppies last fall but it was TINY. Kitten-sized. (We call her Rat, but her name is Gracie.)
Aaaaanywho, my cousin still lives at home with my uncle and he complains about the dog, so of course being as catlike as it is, it looooves him. It runs up and falls asleep on his shoulder when he's laying in his chair, it follows him all around, and goes crazy excited when he gets home...so for christmas I was looking for some clothes for it (yes, my cousin even feels the need to dress it) but it was so small, none of the normal dog clothes fit it...till I found a little camo dress on the webkinz rack at Hallmark.

I packaged it up and gave it to my uncle instead. "A present for your hunting hound." *snicker*

Too bad I didn't know you were into the webkinz, I got all kinds of free crap for their website when I bought that skirt, but we threw the codes away cause none of us play webkinz.