No, not all the characters of the mass-production that reside in the club around the corner, but the real Mattel's Barbies. They have their own world as I've just learned at Terra Nova:
Girls can create their own, personalized online space–everything from designing a "room" to creating a character–where they can then play games, chat with gal pals, watch videos and even shop with earned virtual money.
That's what girls were doing with barbies since long before Barbie was born (whether they were made out of cloth, rubber or pixels). Ok, except the last two: videos are natural extension of the tea parties in the 21st century and shopping is the result of capitalism educating kids into nice consumers.
What could I do than to put my anti-pink shields and go into the world of Barbie Girls.
I am writing this while the server is sending me my parents an e-mail to check if it is ok for their little Kimban (dammit! I hate when dandellion is already taken!) to play in the barbie world. Before I rezz there I'll check tips for girls and rules to follow.
- Get your parent's permission
- Don't use your real name in your screen name Ok, nice. We are learning the basics of internet security,
Instead, make up something new and creative!
And we are even learning that can be fun. Much better than a freakin' FaceBook.
- Don't share your password with anyone - basics of the internet security, lesson 2. Though it says that it's ok to share your password with "your mom, dad, or guardian". Weird. Inviting mom, dad or guardian to be around while kid is playing sounds much healthier for kid's development and is a nice opportunity to spend some time in personal communication with your offspring.
- Be careful making new friends and best friends A nice warning and a short howto. And a good separation of best friends who are actually RL friends and have access to "Secret B ChatTM in your room".
- Talk to your parents about allowing friends to visit your room Also a short howto ban "ask to leave" somebody and to report the offender. Which will probably make AR (abuse report) service spammed with all the daily girl's fights.
- Be safe when chatting
- There are two kinds of chat in the Barbie GirlTM world — B ChatTM and Secret B ChatTM.
- With a regular B ChatTM, you can talk to anybody about fun girl stuff. You can use any words we’ve already selected for you and added to our huge list, but naughty words and personal info get blocked.
- If you have best friends, invite them to your online room for a private chat.
- You can talk about more stuff than a regular B ChatTM allows. But a Secret B ChatTM still blocks anything naughty or not nice.
Nice things those filters. Let's state this clear: I am not against filters and blockers, in kid's or grownup's worlds. But I am for the open and voluntary use of them. Can parents see which words are blocked? And beside that, "you can use any words we've already selected for you" sounds too Orwellian for my taste.
- Report someone who's misbehaveing.
- Block someone who's misbehaveing
- Always be nice to others Golden rule and a disclaimer:
We sometimes review chatting to make sure people are being friendly and safe and are following the rules. But because we don’t constantly monitor the site, you should “report” users to us who are misbehaving.
And two more "follow the rules" in next couple of sentences. And is being nice of any worth if you have to be nice because there is someone watching you from the dark?
- Play by the rules or don't play at all! Again? The word rules appears five more times, twice as "our rules", and it sounds as a basic show off of mere force and power.
Then some fun tips goes:
- Design, play and shop on BarbieGirls.comSM
- Find your friends online This has one interesting part:
we’ve created several copies of our stores and hangouts. For that reason, you and a friend might be in the same place at the same time but still not see each other.
This is called a bug, right?
- Print these tips Yup, that must be a huge fun
There are so many fun things you can do! You will be able to create a virtual character, design your own room, earn and shop with B Bucks (pretend "money")…
I thought it is illegal for kids to earn and to work for the money! And one more thing, do you feel there is too much those TM's and SM's in uppercase, too? They trademarked even chat! What's so fuckin' special about trademarked B chat? But they haven't forgot to mention the rules one more time.
Ok, in the meanwhile, my parent I got a polite e-mail form my "friends at BarbieGirls.com" and activated an account. Stay tuned….
[...] The Caffeine Kid wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptInviting mom, dad or guardian to be around while kid is playing sounds much healthier for kid’s development and is a nice opportunity to spend some time in personal communication with your offspring. Be careful making new friends and … [...]
ROFL! Omg for once I’m happy I don’t have any daughters: I don’t know if I’d given them permission. (I hate pink ;-) )
Btw, don’t we all look like Barbie and Ken in SL?
As always, another clean shot, hehehe… rules, rules, rules – I wonder if the author of the guidelines has kids of his/her own, lol
And yeah, Zippora, most of us look like, act like, build and decorate like. In many ways, it’s nothing but paying dolls again. However in so many others… nothing of the kind, huh ?
Zippora, no we don’t! If you don’t believe me, I’ll take you to some clubs to see what real Barbies are. And if you were inside you would have no doubts if to let your own kid in.
Summer, I agree that living the swecond life is in many ways extension of playing with dolls (and with action figures and cars and guns, depending on our humans). But it is not just that simple. Playing with the dolls is not a simple thing at all.
I know, Dandellion, I should have said *most* of us. I was actually already writing a blogpost about the average (female) appearance in SL, and I think I have a nice title now I’ve read yours ;-) I will probably post it later today.
SLInsider wrote about this soem time ago..
Poor Akela seems to still recieve demands on Barbie system changes by young ladies, heh, despite his claims that Second Life is not related to Barbie.
Read the comments, they’re pretty funny. Or scary.
http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/04/20/mmo-watch-barbiegirls-com/#comments
*cracks out laughing* I don’t believe…. Have those people ever met the internet before? Or is it just a bunch of spambots (runned by Mattel?)
Very funny post, can’t wait to hear more about your Barbie adventures :)
@Zippora: I officially object to the statement that we all look like Barbie and Ken, as I know that YOU don’t look anything like it and I’m far away from Ken myself … as I have never seen a neko Ken and I hope I NEVER will!
As with everything in life , if things where used for whom ,for what etc…. they where made for it could be wonderful . kids who are very ill or in a wheelchair or just very much alone can have friends to play with through this fantastic platform . And sl is not playing barbie&ken i think , thats sound too much like a game, which in some cases SL is absolutely not.
(i hate pink too btw lol )
@Timothy OMG I just had visions of little girls everywhere painting spots/stripes on their Ken dolls and demanding that mattel manufactures little ears and tails for them. *grin*
Great post Dandellion .. watching with interest
I had some friends try it out as well. Their word filter is pretty trippy. You are pretty limited in expressing yourself in chat, because it is a white list and not a black list. For example the word boy isn’t white listed, so you have to say not girl, and adult becomes not young not girl, or something like it. It is a lot like newspeak in 1984. Try to rewrite some Shakespeare to barbie speak and you will have hours of fun.
Interesting stuff. I’m not sure I know enough white words
to be conversant in that environment, although I’m curious
if they’ve filtered ‘lead-contamination’ from the available text.
badleroybrown, I am not saying that virtual world for little girls is a bad idea. On contrary. I was just looking how company that runs that world is communicating with little girls.
As far as I caught in a glimpse last night,
word filterschat possibilities will be the most interesting thing when I get in there once again. But, buggy thing seems broken the whole day.And i don’t believe we’ll ever see tails and neko ears in barbie world… that’s too sexy.
ehmm… tails and ears too sexy?? Hmmm, probably I’ve failed in my attempts not to be sexy then :P
And after reading Frans’ comment I really feel challenged, not to rewrite Shakespeare, but to have a naughty conversation in barbie language. *grins* I only have to overcome my aversion against pink first…
y does barbiegirls have to b a stupid site? before it was awsome the fights at club beuty i liked fighting for boss there,it was totally awsome! now that u have 2 choose wat u wanna say, its not totally awsome,its annoying! i like the club b cause u gat 2 get makeovers and stuff like that…………..but still when they dont choose the hair styles u want u always have 2 say:thats not my style, instead of saying:i hate that look!, but when u say thats not my style they leave the same 1,then they click im done, now u cant say anything! u have 2 choose ur sentence! i cant get on it right now cause of the stupid site!
I just want to see how drama of Club Beauty in Barbie World looks like!
je suis le pére de linda je less ma fille joue dans barbie girls
i went to club beuty and glam crowns with my barbiegirlmp3 player cool huh?
i think it shouldnt make parents check emials and its so stupid
It is. That is the question if you are building a healthy relationship with your kid. What a parent have done wrong to have to check emails?
You guys are taking this parental consent thing way too seriously.
Most sites send you an activation email when you sign up. Most 5 year olds do not have their own email account. Hence, it is sent to the parents. As an added bonus, the parents have no right to get pissy about their kids interacting with other people in a Barbie chatroom, since they effectively said it was ok.
I am not a fan of Barbie either, but come on, guys. Focus your ire in a more productive direction. (Female body image, perhaps?)
I agree that activation email is not a problem. The rest is. It sounds like Mattel did a great job of cleaning responsibility from themselves and parents and took the kids to play in virtual environment where they will be raised by the rules (made by who?), to talk with filters (with which words?) and to have a finite spectrum of activities (designed by who and with which purpose?).
hey every boddy do u ppl knoe i find one new site club penguin thats very good game thats once the best site in the world if u ppl like games so please try that penguin name is kitty 4 and password is rabia so please try that game
i mean know
And I bet you also didn’ t mean to post your password here. ;)
barbiegirls is stupid when you log in and disconnect with the internet then you try to log in again it says looks like your already signed in that so ggggggaaaayyyy
I love barbiegirls.
barbiegirls is rilly the hottest hangout for girls
I love it too but its just sooooo annoying when u have to wait such a looonnggg time to go on again when the internet disconnects
all people with an without barbie dolls an VIP should be able to get anything as long as you have enough B bucks.