Homeschool Fiction

My family and I (two daughters, ages 11.5 and 7.5) have been able to play with a variety of virtual pets over the past year and we’ve compared them side-by-side. The ones we’ve tried are: Webkinz, Shining Stars, Ty Beanie Babies 2.0, My ePets, and Ty Girlz. If any other company would like my family to evaluate their virtual pet, pets can be sent to: Do Life Right, P.O. Box 61, Sahuarita, AZ 85629; codes can be sent through my form on the right of this page.

Our criteria for comparison included:

1. the stuffed animal itself
2. the games
3. the virtual room the “pet” gets
4. extra bonus activities
5. holiday events
6. naming choices and the virtual pet itself
7. daily events and activities
8. longevity of fun, account length, and how often new things are added
9. uniqueness
10. price

We’ve given each pet a rating between 0 and 10 for each criteria point, then we’ve tallied their scores. We’ve summed up our findings at the end of this article. I’m happy to answer reader questions regarding our experiences using these various websites and playing with these pets. I did not address the privacy/security issue at all, because I think every single one of these companies has gone about 1000 times overboard, thus I’m giving them all a 0 rating for this.
Webkinz

1. the stuffed animal itself; Webkinz pets come in two different sizes, the regular size and the Lil’ Kinz size. The Lil’ Kinz is about the size of a Ty Beanie Baby. The regular size is larger. We’ve found that many of the fabrics are reused on various pets and we’ve found several pets who haven’t been completely sewn (so their quality control is amiss here). There are a lot of pet choices, including special seasonal pets, which allows one to own a lot more unique virtual pets. We’ve felt pressured to hurry and get a pet a couple of times due to its “retired” status (and also the fact they sell out so quickly where we live); this is clearly a marketing gimmick that is working quite well for Ganz. They’ve also started a “Pet of the Month” program. In this, your special pet gets extra prizes all month long as well as a special “Pet of the Month” goody bag that cannot be received elsewhere. All in all, the pets are adorable and we love to sleep with them. 9/10
2. the games; There are a lot of games to play once you log into the Webkinz site. Not only can you play regular games in the Arcade, but you can compete in the Tournament Arena, “work” in the Employment Office, and “go to school” in the Kinz Academy (although the academy costs the user KinzCash, whereas the other games all earn the user KinzCash). You can also purchase special games for your pet’s room that you can play by yourself or online with a real friend. For those that want more friends, you can try out their Clubhouse; we don’t have a lot of experience with it because we found it boring. With the purchase of a stuffed Zingoz, an extra game can be played. 9/10
3. the virtual room the “pet” gets; Honestly, this is by far the best thing about Webkinz. I, as an adult, absolutely love this feature. For your first ten pets, Webkinz gives you a new medium sized room (rooms come in four styles: large, medium, small, and outdoor - which is the same size as large). Within each room, the user can decorate it however he wants using items purchased with virtual money in one of their two shops, items purchased with real money through their e-store, or as a bonus gift from the purchase of a pet or other accessory item (such as their charms, trading cards, clothing, figures, notebooks, bookmarks, etc.). The more pets you have, the more presents of virtual items you will receive. Extra rooms can always be purchased (no limit, apparently) and starting with the tenth pet, you receive Kinzcash in lieu of another room. 9/10
4. extra bonus activities; As I’ve already mentioned, Ganz’s Webkinz line carries more than just stuffed animals. With each of these extra purchases, additional parts of their site open up. These are great fun and we’ve never regretted a single purchase of these. 7/10
5. holiday events; Major holidays, Webkinz’s anniversary, and pet’s birthdays will have you finding a bonus present in your Webkinz account. These are silly, but great fun and highly anticipated. Special seasonal pets (Love Puppy, Love Frog, Black Cat, Reindeer, Sherbert Bunny, etc.) are offered for special holidays. We love these! 8/10
6. naming choices and the virtual pet itself; Here, we’ve been a bit frustrated. All in all, we were able to get our first choice on two out of three of our usernames (my mom went through about a hundred before she found one available that she wanted). For naming our pets, we’ve had the Webkinz site refuse to let us use beautiful names which had words they don’t approve of in them (e.g. Buttercup). The virtual pets are adorable and we’ve often found they have been even cuter than their real life counterpart. 8/10
7. daily events and activities; There are hourly events during evening hours during weekdays and “daylight in New York” on the weekends. We often look forward to these, especially the various “Wheels” they’ve created. We enjoy doing all the daily activities we like every single day. We gave up on Bingoz a long time ago, but we love gardening and gem hunting. Arte’s Curio Shop sells different items every hour. We wish the list of items coming up would be publicized, since there are several items we’d love to have if given the opportunity (e.g. Ancient Civilizations bed and other special beds). 8/10
8. longevity of fun, account length, and how often new things are added; With the purchase and adoption of your first Webkinz pet, you are given one year’s worth of play. With the purchase of all additional pets, the original account is extended to one year from the adoption of your most recently adopted pet. There are usually at least two full hours of down time per day, always at times when we want to play (but we live on a night-owl schedule). New items in the virtual stores are added at least monthly (more often lately), and new stuffed animals are being introduced at a rate of about four per month currently. All in all, they are actually adding a bit too many products for us. However, we’re often only interested in about half of all items introduced, so it averages out just fine. 8/10
9. uniqueness; This is the only site we’ve found that every member of the family has enjoyed (even Grandpa and Grandma). Other sites have been too slow, or too boring, or too difficult, or too simplistic, or too “teen girl who likes to wear high heels” oriented, or just plain too stupid. 10/10
10. price; Well, the price of these products vary from store to store. They range from $6-$15 each and are well worth it in the $13 and under range. If it was just a stuffed animal, they’d be overpriced. However, they most certainly are not. 9/10

Shining Stars

1. the stuffed animal itself; Slightly cute, but poorly constructed with cheap fabric. These are about the same size as a good sized teddy bear (larger than a regular Webkinz). They remind me of a stuffed animal you’d win at a carnival. 2/10
2. the games; There are a handful of games on this site. They are fun, but not extremely sophisticated. The calculation of point earnings doesn’t work properly. 3/10
3. the virtual room the “pet” gets; None, because it isn’t really a room… 0/10
4. extra bonus activities; None other than the naming of a star (mentioned in uniqueness category). 0/10
5. holiday events; None that I’ve seen, although they’ve made the front of their site different depending on the season. We did see bunnies and chicks in the stores at Eastertime. 1/10
6. naming choices and the virtual pet itself; Naming wasn’t difficult, but the quality of the virtual pet is poor (almost like an old cartoon). 3/10
7. daily events and activities; Nonexistent, although they are adding a “Bilingual Pet Feature”. 0/10
8. longevity of fun, account length, and how often new things are added; Account appears to be good indefinitely with the adoption of only one pet, but who cares if you never want to go back to it? 1/10
9. uniqueness; Okay, this is the Shining Stars redeeming quality. For every stuffed animal you purchase, you get to name a real star (limited choices, but who cares?). 10/10
10. price; Less expensive than purchasing a star elsewhere, but more expensive than any of the other stuffed animals on this list. If you are wanting a virtual pet, you’ve overpaid. If you are wanting a star, you’ve gotten a great deal! 5/10

Ty Beanie Babies 2.0

1. the stuffed animal itself; These are the same size as the regular Beanie Babies and made to the exact same superb standards. They are well constructed and very cute. Of all the virtual pets, these stuffed animals are made the best. 10/10
2. the games; The games don’t work very well, even over our high speed internet. If they worked, we all agree they’d probably be fun. However, there aren’t very many and we originally thought we’d have to buy more pets in order to open up more games (the virtual world has a very confusing layout). 3/10
3. the virtual room the “pet” gets; Each pet (you can only have one of each kind) has a prefabricated room. Nothing can be moved around and it’s rather boring since there isn’t much to do (a toddler might like this for 5 minutes or so). 1/10
4. extra bonus activities; Has a chat room, but it’s fairly lame. It doesn’t kick you out like Webkinz does if you accidentally use a word they don’t allow, but it won’t let you actually use those words. 2/10
5. holiday events; New pets were added for a few holidays. We saw special ones for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, 4th of July, and Easter. 1/10
6. naming choices and the virtual pet itself; Our first Ty pets were prenamed, just like Beanie Babies. We were allowed to rename our most recent pet (the tan dog “Fletch”) when we adopted it, but it’s name still shows up as “Fletch”. We find this very annoying. We especially found it annoying that we weren’t allowed to use the name “Butterscotch”, but neither does Webkinz. We didn’t have a problem with creating a username for our account. The virtual pets are quite cute, just like their stuffed animal counterparts. However, when you adopt the pet, you originally see the stuffed pet on your screen, then it is morphed in a bizarre manner (this is the most polite term I could find; it’s sort of creepy and freaked us all out for several days afterward, but it’s given us a good story to tell…). 1/10 (only because the virtual pet is cute)
7. daily events and activities; None. Feeding is yet another bizarre ritual in the Ty world. Jelly beans have to be randomly found on the ground… We’ve found no need to regularly log in. 0/10
8. longevity of fun, account length, and how often new things are added; These accounts seem to be unlimited in time length. Since we adopted our first a couple of months ago, we’ve seen several new pets in the stores. That said, we haven’t had a desire to play on this site very much. 2/10
9. uniqueness; Seems like Ty just joined the virtual pet bandwagon with this. They make well constructed stuffed animals amazingly well and should stick with that only. 1/10
10. price; On par with a regular Ty stuffed animal. 5/10

My ePets

1. the stuffed animal itself; The droopy eyes made us all think the pets were sad and depressed. It made my youngest feel like they were all caged up and needing to be rescued. This, in fact, is how we got our first one. The eyes and big head are reminiscent of Precious Moments, but in an annoying way. My oldest daughter can’t stand to look at the poor dog we have. They are constructed fine, but not fantastically well. 5/10
2. the games; Really really really really really really stupid. 0/10
3. the virtual room the “pet” gets; Not configurable in any fun way. 1/10
4. extra bonus activities; None. 0/10
5. holiday events; None. 0/10
6. naming choices and the virtual pet itself; This annoyed us greatly!!!! We understand that all usernames need to be unique. However, not all pet names should be required to be unique. This became a huge problem for us when we tried naming our dog. It took hours before we found a unique name that we all liked. The virtual pet itself looks just as droopy as his real life counterpart. 0/10 (or can I give this a negative???)
7. daily events and activities; None. 0/10
8. longevity of fun, account length, and how often new things are added; Works forever, but, so? 0/10
9. uniqueness; Droopy eyes. 0/10
10. price; Sold at discount stores for a price around $10-$15. Average. 5/10

Ty Girlz

1. the stuffed animal itself; To be precise, this is a stuffed doll not an animal. We’ve added it here only because we’ve tried the site and we’ve played in the virtual world. It is constructed quite well. Ty has sewing down to a precise artform. We should have realized, however, based on the doll’s appearance (gaudy makeup, glittery “sexy” clothing, and high heels) that we were never going to like anything about this product. 3/10
2. the games; If you call shopping for clothing and getting your makeup done games, then you are good to go. We, however, don’t. We thought the games were ridiculous. We were also extremely offended at the comments the virtual Girlz said. Their priorities were “looking good for a date” and other things that most young girls (who this product is geared toward) would never in a million years care about. 0/10
3. the virtual room the “pet” gets; Weird prenamed rooms. 1/10
4. extra bonus activities; None. 0/10
5. holiday events; None. 0/10
6. naming choices and the virtual pet itself; Prenamed, way too “old” (even for me and I’m not a prude) language. We all were so offended by this site we threw away all information on it and gave the dolls to Goodwill. 0/10
7. daily events and activities; None. 0/10
8. longevity of fun, account length, and how often new things are added; Lasts forever… For the purposes of this article, we checked their site again. Apparently they are adding new dolls and new site features, but I can’t imagine who is buying them. 1/10
9. uniqueness; The only one that is not an “animal”. That said, if your child is looking to play with a virtual doll, try Groovy Girls. They are cute, fun, and their website is very fun. The dolls don’t directly correspond with the online virtual dolls, but that is fine. You can change its appearance as much as you want. Back to Ty, we’re giving it a: 0/10
10. price; On par with Groovy Girls for price, but not even half as cool. 3/10

Final Scores:

• Webkinz = 85
• Shining Stars = 25
• Ty Beanie Babies 2.0 = 26
• My ePets = 11
• Ty Girlz = 8

In conclusion, if you are wanting a virtual pet then buy Webkinz. Honestly, you won’t regret it. There is plenty of room for improvement on their site, but they are steadily working on it. If you purchase the others, you just might regret it. If you are only wanting a cute stuffed toy, then buy the one your child wants the most — ignore the virtual label (but sell the tag on ebay!).

Related Articles:

• Webkinz Junior - Is it worth it?
• Webkinz Virtual Blossom Fish
• Webkinz Talk
• Webkinz Deluxe Membership
• Webkinz Tinkerpup

By: Lisa