Barbie Girls
Barbie Girls at a Glance
- In short: A rapidly growing Barbie-themed world where girls shop for fashion, music, chat, design rooms, and play games.
- URL: http://www.barbiegirls.com
- Maintained by: Mattel since 2007
- Price: Free access, virtual items cost money
- Barbie Girls system requirements
- Platforms supported: PC
Barbie Girls Overview
Mattel, the nation’s top toymaker, released a relatively new virtual world called Barbie Girls, that targets 7 to 12 year old girls. An attempt to blend girls’ love of fashion, music, and the Web, there is much to do. Girls can create their own virtual characters, adopt virtual pets, chat with others, play games and watch Barbie themed videos, design their own room, shop with “B Bucks”, and try on fashionable clothes at a cyber mall. A Barbie-inspired handheld MP3 music device (optional, about $59.99) also interacts with the website.
Like other virtual environments designed for kids, Barbie Girl has measures to protect the safety of children. The website features word filters to block the exchange of personal information such as names, phone numbers, and addresses. Girls also can lock or allow access to their virtual room to others. A more personal chat is available to those who both have a Barbie Girl device and who have physically connected their devices into a friend’s computer docking station.
Barbie Girls has seen amazing growth since its launch; it hit the 3 million users just in its first 60 days and has been growing at the rate of 50,000 new users a day, figures which will threaten the likes of Second Life and even World of Warcraft. Some have observed that the amazing adoption of Barbie Girls sends a clear message: that virtual worlds are going mainstream and that the user base is dramatically shifting from being predominantly male to majority female. As those playing Barbie Girls grow into adults, this will lead to interesting changes as the next generation of online gaming and virtual world users will not be dominated by men.
Competitors include Zwinktopia, Habbo Hotel, Webkins, Neopets, and Club Penguin, among others.
Barbie Girls Screenshots
Barbie Girls Resources
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