Webkinz World

I have a koala, as mentioned in my opening, named Zed27. Zed was an evil koala in the story my friend wrote me and the leader of a pack-minded group of koalas. He was extremely aggressive, a killer and absolutely adorably adorable.

I also have a bat(I have an unhealthy obsession with Batman and bats) named Manbat(what did I tell you? Obsession).

And finally, I have a purple dragon. She does not have a name yet and she is not registered into Webkinz World. I'm holding onto her and her code until my account time is about to be up.

Webkinz World goes down every night at exactly 2AM EST. Do NOT be logged in at this time! If you are playing a game or doing anything the server will automatically kick you out and you will lose anything you were doing. This includes money you earned from a game as well as money spent on a class. The server will be down until 4:30AM EST or later.

Daily events cannot be repeated until AFTER the server reset is done. This includes games such as the Wheel of Wow or Kinzville Academy.

The time changed from midnight to give west coast Webkinz members more online time. Could you imagine being west coast and kicked off every night at 10PM for the site to run maintenance?

Webkinz accounts will only last for one year from the date of activation. The time will be extended when you add a new Webkinz pet. This means, if you activated your account in August, 2008 then it will be run out by August, 2009.

If you were to add a new pet to your account on December, 2008 then the account will be extended until December, 2009.

As if the $15 stuffed animal wasn't expensive enough, you'll have to shell out $15 once every year to make sure you don't lose all the things you've bought and earned in Webkinz World.

To date, I have entered three contests. I didn't realize there was one a week until I saw it on one of the ads on the Webkinz World page. I have yet to win a Webkinz contest. This makes me a bit suspicious as I'm not a 12 year old and actually have some level of skill at doing the things they want, though I suspect there are more adults playing here than even Webkinz realizes.

Valentine's Day 2009 - Write a three line poem using the word 'rose'.

Red Clothing - The most unique outfit with at least one red article of clothing. I've noticed unique in Webkinz World means hideously ugly.

Easter Room - A small room that makes good use of the color yellow.

Contests stopped being held once a week for a long time. There was a big splurge then just a giant dry spell. I stopped paying attention as I realized I just didn't have the time to write what they wanted or to play games for enough Kinzcash as they wanted for these contests.

My time is better spent outside or earning actual money. Do kids even still run lemonade stands?

There are a lot of fun games on Webkinz World, though almost all of them seem like rip-offs from Neopets. Definitely don't understand why parents are paying for their kids to play here when Neopets offers the same games, more games, a more exploratory world and it's FREE. But I'm not here to gab about Neopets.

There are certain games that are really good earners for Kinzcash even if you're not completely coordinated. There are others that are poor earners even if you're really skilled at the game.

Always a high earner. I rarely get below level 13, though it's partially about luck of the initial draw. This Goober's Lab guide will help you get a really good score, a lot of Kinzcash(I average about 150 per play) and maybe even a trophy!

Once you get the hang of the order in which to buy things and figure out what order some of the pizza sizes come out in, you can really start raking in the money. I sometimes get a little confounded on Level 9, because I lose track of which pizza I'm on, but this Pizza Palace tutorial has gotten me up pretty high in the levels.

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After you earn some Kinzcash playing games you'll probably have enough to purchase a Webkinz Studio from the W Shop. I was so excited when I saw this toy. I thought it would be so much fun to make a simple, little story with the preset 'actors' and 'sets'.

Boy, was I wrong, or what? Turns out there are all kinds of limitations on this thing, including storing only two stories at a time and censoring words, such as specifically, god, especially, tantamount, etc. These are not 'bad' words and there is no reason to censor them or even slang words such as gonna or wanna.

Is it somehow 'bad' for child to have a vocabulary that consists of the word beautiful instead of pretty? I don't think so, but Webkinz does.

Check out some stories I created and learn more about the problems I encountered while using the Webkinz Studio .

15 full days of class to get recess. A full day is 3 classes attempted. I'm not sure if it counts if you have 2 pets doing 6 classes total a day. Does that equal 2 full days of class on one day?

I'm a bit disappointed that this isn't retroactive because I've been spending a LOT of money on these classes and this is the first thing that has made it worth it to spend that money.

After you play all four games you get a special packed lunch from Miss Cowoline. I've received a few questions about what to do with the packed lunch. Go to your room and drop the bag into the room. It will open up and you will have some food items.

Recess consists of:

Sandbox - 3 chances to dig up treasure.

Hopscotch - Win Kinzcash. You roll the di and each time it lands on a number you win money. If it lands on the same number, you lose.

Basketball Court - Play Hide and Go Seek with Wacky. It will tell you if you are hot or cold with each guess. Five tries.

Merry Go Round - Spin it, like the Wheel of WOW.

I logged in today and there was a new game. Yay! That's a great thing. It's a race game that looks at your Kinzville Academy scores and makes your car go faster, jump higher, look cooler, etc. Your pets strength(Academy Strength) makes the car jump higher, your pets speed(Academy Speed) makes the car go faster, your pets agility(Academy Agility) makes the car easier to turn and style(Academy style) makes your car look cooler. The cooler car doesn't give any other perks.

There was also a new place within the Magical Forest called Zumwhere. Everything, except Alyssa's Star Challenge, within the Magical Forest requires you to purchase more Webkinz crap, and not even the cute crap like stuffed animals.

To get into Zumwhere you must collect Kinz Klips(because everything needs spelled stupidly here, apparently). By collecting this money draining stuff, you can unlock a series of prizes... online prizes, mind you, nothing of any REAL value. And by collecting more Kinz Klips you raise your chance of spotting a Zum... whatever that is.

The Caring Valley was also opened today. The point, according to the front page written about it, is to 'find out about some very special child-focused charities!' By adopting a Caring Valley stuffed animal and entering the code into Webkinz World, you will be given four saplings, which you can plant. Upon planting four you get a tree to decorate and display in your Webkinz room. Ohhh and awe? Hardly.

They also introduced the Deluxe Membership today! "If you sign up for an entire year of Deluxe membership, you'll get an extraordinarily unique eStore item free!" That's $45 for the annual Deluxe Webkinz Membership. And, if you want to instead have your whole family on the Deluxe plan, you can give up the unique item and have five accounts as Deluxe Accounts.

By getting a Deluxe Account you'll receive 3,000 points per month to spend in the online Webkinz store! And if you sign up for the 6 month, one year or family plan then you'll receive a one time bonus of even more online points! You also get a monthly gift box, access to the GOLD Kinzchat zone and a virtual membership hat that cannot be traded or sold.

I gotta say, that Deluxe Account doesn't look like it's worth the real money they want you to trade for Monopoly money... I mean Kinzcash.

Yes, April Fool's Day was a busy day. Maybe because only fools give into their toddlers and teenagers enough to spend that kind of REAL money for VIRTUAL money. I won't be making the trade anytime soon.