My wife and I finally gave in to the incessant wining and bought two Webkinz for our 7-year-old daughter. We had to use eBay, because Webkinz are exeeded in popularity by only the iPhone and possibly the Obama girl. Our daughter chose the Chihuahua and the Koala, for reasons only known to her second-grade girl mind. I suspect her choices are really a coded message to the outside world: “I have skillfully manipulated my parents for the first time. It won’t be the last.”
We bought the Webkinz just as news broke that the American Medical Association was considering classifying excessive video gaming as an addictive disorder, like drugs or alcohol or news about Paris Hilton. The AMA singles out role-playing games like World of Warcraft, in which the gamer enters a make believe world - which is exactly how Webkinz works. Each Webkinz comes with a code number that you use to enter the online Webkinz world, where you care for and nurture your Webkin.
So by giving my daughter a Webkin, I was really saying: “Here’s a crack pipe, honey.”
Thankfully, the AMA has backed off from it’s stance and “instead adopted a watered-down measure declaring that while overuse of video games and online games can be a problem for children and adults, calling it a formal addiction would be premature.”
That’s a relief. Now it’s more like: “Here’s a bong, honey.”