However, one concern bubbling at the back of my mind is this: children don’t stick to one kind of toy. So it’s likely that many of them will end up with access to multiple virtual worlds through their toy collection. Are there enough kids with enough time to keep dozens of toyworlds in business? I’m guessing not.
It’s also interesting to wonder whether these worlds will focus on individual toy ranges, or widen out a bit. For example, could Disney run one single virtual world, and whenever you buy any Disney-related toy, you get the right to use that character as an avatar – but in the same world. It would solve that problem of fragmentation, but only a few brands (Hasbro and Mattel included) would have the scale to pull it off.
Tags: toys, vws. virtual worlds, disney, hasbro, mattel, clickables
March 16, 2008 at 6:45 pm
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March 20, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Honestly, I think kids will jump from one VW to the next. I think some will have multiple ones that they are active in. But, I think the moment a kid loses interest, they will jump to something new. The real question I guess is, how to keep a child interested. What does it really take? When you are a Disney, you tend to have a great deal of money to throw at this problem. Hasbro and Mattel also are sort of in this boat as well. I think that although money makes it alot easier, I am not sure that really is the answer. I guess finding the magic bullet is key if there is one.
I saw that you bookmarked the SeaPals website. I thought you might also want to check out http://seapals.blogspot.com
May 11, 2008 at 6:37 pm
SeaPals? Never heard of it (and probably never will). Are SeaPals another scratch off code piece of old fashioned plush with a limited to zero budget to refresh content? My kid says….who really cares.