WEBKINZ World has been a busy place. First came this piece of news from Webkinz Insider, passed on to them directly by the folks at Ganz:
• There will be some Cheeky news in the new year, but no, we are NOT re-releasing the retired Cheeky Dog. Once retired, a pet stays retired.
• A major new area will be opening in Webkinz World in two weeks. It will be for everyone. It's not feature code related at all.
• Secure trading is on the way. No more KinzPost trading.
This sounds as if there may be some other Cheeky animals (the Cheeky Dog and Cat are presently retired, but the Cheeky Monkey is still in release) or perhaps a Lil Kinz Cheeky Dog or Cat).
The trading is a big step for Ganz. They have said in the past that they did not want any trading on Webkinz, but the fans have done it themselves via KinzPost. Unfortunately some people have been scammed, although many places have set up what they hope are secure trading sites, with traders getting reputation points when they participate in a good trade and being blacklisted if they cheat someone. I suppose they figure if Webkinz users are going to trade anyway, they will help supervise it. I have several things I would love to trade, but am still wary.
Yesterday WW was down until after 10 a.m. When it finally reopened, a new theme was unveiled—the first half of the "Atlantis" theme which is done in dark blues and golds, which I assume is preparatory for the marine pets coming out in November (the penguin, the seal, and the turtle)—and also a new tab was added to the dock area where your items and food can be kept: Actions. You can make your pet do three actions: smile, giggle, and wave, plus you can "record" these actions into repeatable sequences.
Also, in the "W Shop," you could see the exclusives that are supposed to come with the Pet of the Month.
This last was particularly interesting because for a while the items had prices on them and folks could buy them. Some people bought one of everything and several of one or two things before someone at Ganz realized the glitch and shut the site down again. When people returned, the exclusive items were gone and their KinzCash returned—except for a few folks who seemed to have escaped the purge by having the items enroute in KinzPost.
Several of the items looked pretty interesting, especially the snow-making machine—I'd really like that myself! I'm hoping that the two older animals I bought and put away may be POTM in the future so I may have it and also the crystalline pond and perhaps the star-making machine. Maybe it's even worth adopting my virtual frog pet for. :-) James is holding a bear for November and wants the outer-space window from the Dex Dangerous game (it has spaceships flitting around occasionally).
The second statement, about the new area, is particularly interesting because there is a user on one of the Webkinz forums who knows the particular programming language that Ganz uses for the website and also knows how to access the site. This person has discovered, for instance, the new avatars for the upcoming Webkinz and what looks like ideas for another theme (Japanese!). Some animations have been found online which closely tie in with the new "actions" and it looks like there will eventually be eighteen of them, including "dance" and "jump."
But this person also found some images referencing what looks like it is possibly the new area premiering in two weeks: it will be some type of school where the Kinz learn skills and earn more KinzCash. You can even hire a tutor. Perhaps the actions may be used in this school?
Another item is something a user on WI found one day while doing daily KinzCare. An extra screen was visible. Recently, WW upgraded to a full-screen format. Instead of having the games and rooms be full screen, little "advertisements" for other games on WW appeared at the side of the screen. Some of the advertisements were PSAs, telling the kids playing to brush their teeth, eat fruit, go outside and play, etc.
On the page this person saw, there was a box you could check to get actual advertisements for real products in the spaces where the Webkinz World ads were. If you accepted advertisements, you would get an extra gift at the beginning of the month.
I know many parents like Webkinz because there are no advertisements for other products. I know at least one parent who cancelled his child's account due to the WW advertisements now appearing on the right. I'm wondering how this move might go over with parents. Will the kids ask for the ads just to get the free item? Will enough parents allow it to make it feasible?
For my part I don't know if I would check the box or not. A free item sounds tempting and I rarely pay attention to advertisements anyway. Most television commercials go right over my head unless they are clever, and then I remember the commercial and not what it's advertising, so I'm a dead loss to advertisers! I'd be more worried that they would be loud or slow down Webkinz World.
Many, Many Things Going On
