After I checked the tips, rules, more rules and even more rules for the girls in the BarbieGirls virtual world, it was time to jump right there and hope for the best. I took a deep breath and clicked login button.

Technically, it is a small world made in Flash and running in the browser. Not surprisingly, pink is all over. Interface is nice and intuitive. Each girl has an avatar which initially rezzes in her own room. Nice.

So I opened avatar customization window, choose my hair, eyes and lips. I took some clothes too. Then in another dialogue, I dropped some furniture in my room. There was a nice bed already, so I added an armchair, a lamp and a bucket. A bucket? Yup, a green one. Don't ask. I don't get it either.

I was also able to choose what will I see from my balcony: city, beach, sky… Creating my character earned me my first 100 B bucks which is the in-world money. More money can be earned by playing games that is nail polishing, making a barbie music video and choosing the hot outfit for the Ken of your dreams. "Well", I thought to myself, "I am coming from the second life. If I have some money, I am going shopping!" And so I did.

The world outside my room was small but sufficient: a park, cafe, cinema, beauty salon and shops for the clothes, jewelry, furniture and pets. Or better: B park, B cinema, B cafe, B shops… you got the idea. Shopping is easy, you click on items, choose what you like, choose colors and textures, put things in the basket and pay the sum when you exit the shop. Interesting thing is that some items are marked by small barbie sign and those will open another tab in the browser leading you (and your parents) to a different store where you can buy a RL Barbie for RL cash. Then you get the code which unlocks some items from the in-world stores. No surprise that things that are cool are marked and locked. Three minutes later I was able to know which girl has a RL doll, and which one is a noob. Tired of shopping I headed back to my room to drop the furniture around and change the clothes.

barbie room

It was time to do some socializing. And there the horror began. I went to the park, then to the cafe and to the cinema, and it was all the same everywhere. Those are the public places where you can use B chat to communicate with the fellow barbie girls. And the (trademarked) B chat is something that Orwell would envy. It gives you exactly 60 sentences, phrases, questions and answers to choose and click! They're all connected to the barbie world and each mentioning of the word "barbie" has uppercased TM attached.

barbie chat

Now you can think of me whatever you want, but all the horrors of the internet are not comparable to limiting someone's expression on sixty sentences. What is the point of the game? Making the kids retarded? Yes, I know this is intended to be a quite safe environment. It is safe from talking and it is safe from thinking!

So, how was it in the cafe? Girls were coming in and going out. From time to time somebody would ask "Hi, what's up?" And that was it. Some of them were adding me as a friend, but what was the point of that? I was standing with couple of zombified girls not able to say anything.

Games, and especially virtual environments and social platforms are powerful educational tools. I really hope that the future of today's kids is not in the hands of those who got the bright idea of limiting child's vocabulary on 60 "Hi, where did you bought that? Hello, in B shopTM" phrases.

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