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A brief overview of MMOs and other online community games / services for girls.
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Girl games in a nutshell
� Short paper of the ”First 15 years of girl games”: http://souplala.net/show/girlgames_first15years.pdf
� The 4th wave of girl games is expanding to MMO scene [1st wave: pink girly PC games mid 90s, 2nd: casual free online girl games, 3rd: social party online, PC and console games]
� Many large entertainment and toy companies have alreadylaunched their own MMOs for girls
Current status of MMOs for girls
� Currently all girls’ online MMOs are in English and done in 2D style. All focus on personalization of the avatar, shopping and safe chatting. Pink is the dominant color on web sites and the avatar is a girl. All games run inside a browser window. A player can earn diamonds, bucks or something else by playing minigames. With that money they can decorate their apartment or take care of their avatar and/or pet. Currently branded girl communities are the most popular (counted by reg. users) but it might be so merely because of the well-known brand and marketing muscle (=easiness to find the MMO / community).
Girls’ communities in comparison with
some popular online [game] communities
Registered users Active accounts Paying customers
BarbieGirls 13M 2.3M
Habbo 100M 10M 10%
Gaia 15M 2M
Puzzle Pirates 5M 200 000 15 - 22%
Runescape 10M 6M 17%
Neopets 53M 12M
Club Penguin 12M 2.9M 25%
IMVU 20M 600 000
Stardoll 20M 8M
Lola's Land 669 000 ? 0%
TyGirls
[ http://ty-girlz.ty.com/ ]
� TyGirls: Profile page, my house, chatting, shopping (around the world) and playing mini games. Currently no payment methods are in place.
� Age: Teens, not defined
� Countries/Languages: The US, English
� Status: Launched (April 2007)
� Company: Ty Inc. is an American plush animal company in US. Ty Inc. is also behind Beanie Babies online community.
BarbieGirls
[ http://www.barbiegirls.com/homeMtl.html ]
� BarbieGirls: chat, play games, buy stuff, VIP account (5.99$ month) exclusive areas, gifts, clothes, makeover.
� Age: 7-12
� Countries/languages: The US, English
� Status: Launched (April 2007)
� Company: Mattel Inc. is the world's largest toy importing company and brand owner of Barbie.
Sparkle City
[http://www.allgirlarcade.com/comingsoon/?intro=1 ]
� Sparkle City: Mini games, earn credit (diamonds) and chat. No payment methods are in place.
� Age: Not defined
� Countries/language: Canada, English
� Status: beta (released November 2008)
� Company: Fuel Industries is an Ottawa, Ontario based online interactive and marketing agency. Founded in 1999, employs over 85 people and has satellite offices in Toronto and New York. Fuel Games is a division of Fuel Industries specializing in advergaming.
BeBratz
[ http://www.be-bratz.com/ ]
� Be-Bratz: play, make friends, my room, profile, quiz, make friends, take care of Bratz & the pet (happy-healthy-hungry meters), earn point in mini games and use messaging. With a Be-Bratz USB Key, the doll owner can take a Be-Bratz doll online, name it, and create an online social homepage. Games can be played with the Be-Bratz account to acquire accessories for the doll.
� Age: 8-12� Countries/languages: The US, English� Status: Launched (August 2007)� Company: MGA Entertainment (Micro-Games America Entertainment) is a manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1997. Currently MGA –Mattel law suit on-going.
Guppylife
[ http://www.guppylife.com/ ]
� GuppyLife: GuppyLife is a free-to-play realistic looking 3D virtual world that appeals to tween girls, where they care for and love a virtual character, the Guppy—and for a small fee can add features to take better care of their Guppy, to stand out from other players, and gain gaming advantages in a fun, creative and safe online world.
� Age: 8-14� Countries/languages: Denmark, Danish, English� Status: Beta (released October 2008)� Company: Danish Guppyworks is a game developer with talent from games; TV and movie backgrounds and veteran experience from working on more than 70 published games on most current platforms, some localized to more than 15 languages and published in over 30 countries.
Lola’s Land
[ http://www.lolasland.com/ ]
� Lola’s Land: earn bucks by playing minigames, shop items to your room. The site is based on the character, Lola Love, created by teen magazine writer Lisa Clark. Lola Love adventures also published in a book format by HarperCollins Children’s Books. No clear payment methods in place.
� Age: 9-13
� Countries/languages: The UK, English
� Status: Launched (April 2008)
� Company: HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company.
Pixie Hollow
[ http://pixiehollow.go.com/ ]
� Pixie Hollow: make friends, 'quick' chat with pre-selected phrases or do messaging, play various "Talent Games", or fairy themed mini-games. Players can purchase Disney Fairy themed toys to receive extras in game, and a monthly membership allows access to additional features such as the ability to make additional clothes for the player's avatar and buy furniture to decorate a virtual room.
� Age: 9-13
� Countries/languages: The US, English
� Status: Launched (October 2008)
� Company: The Walt Disney Company is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world.
New Moon Girls
[http://NewMoonGirls.com ]
[http://orb28.blogspot.com/ ]
� New Moon Girls: New Moon Girl Media, champion of girl-centred media and publisher since 1993 of the girls' magazine New Moon Girls launch of the new online community NewMoonGirls.com.
� Age: online community for 8-12 year olds, orb28 MMO (?) for 13-15 year olds
� Countries/languages: The US, English� Status: Launched (New Moon Girls community November 2008, MMO upcoming)
� Company: New Moon Publishing, Inc. is a publisher of New Moon magazine and New Moon Network. The New Moon magazine contains fiction, poetry, artwork, and letters. In addition, the company operates an online book club. New Moon Publishing was founded in 1992 and is based in Duluth, Minnesota.
Other online services targeted to teens &
tweens
� Besides girl MMOs there are also several dress-up games such as Stardoll, goSuperModel and CartoonDollEmporium; virtual pet and plush toy services such as Neopets, Marapets and Webkinz: online communities such as Neopets, Habbo and Club Penquin and mini games sites such as Miniclip and FreeOnlineGames. Over 50% of Neopets users use the service to play mini games. There are also several children’s online games and/or communities like Shining stars, PonyClub which will most likely at least partly reach the same target group.
