CraBlogged

I'm doing something awful, but I can't stop. Let me take you back... way back...

to a week ago, maybe two. We three are walking down our business, minding our own street, when someone approaches us and says, "WOAHOLYSHIZ The candy store down the street is having some crazy OMGOSCHEKSITOUTNOW", so we venture to ourselves, "wise not?" "why snot?"

We see the candy store and yes indeed, there are plentiful kids milling about, and the air was filled with something that smelled an awful lot like excitement. Lo, inside, if you buy $10 worth of candy (crazy candy I might add! Wacky kinds!! We got mini mario mushrooms filled with awful tasting candies but the mushrooms were made of tin! It's cute!), then you get a free stuffed animal! Not any animal, mind you, but, a certifiable Webkinz!

Never heard of it? We almost did business with them, actually. They sell real life stuffed animals to kids, who then take codes attached to the tag and plop them online to see their stuffed animal that they bought in real life come to unreal life in video game format. You can deck out their rooms, feed them, teach them, play with them, etc, etc, use your imagination.

The shtick is you need to get online cash by playing their online games (and other methods of course). The games range in difficulty from Holden understands how to win and gets a few ins in, to Holden likes the noises when you die repeatedly, to Holden is so baffled by them that he presses keys really fast and hopes to win but then never plays it again.

They suck you in pretty easily, perhaps even taking some cues from World of Warcraft. Every day, you can click a button to earn money and food, and if you click that button every day for seven days, your rewards get bigger and brighter and on the seventh day, you can win a big prize. Every day you can spin a wheel for bonus money and prizes - dressers for your room, clothes for your pet, you name it. Every day you can go on a wild gem hunt to try to find rare gems and collect them all for a crown of omg. But all only ONCE a day. Holden loves, he loves it to death.

Then I found something downright nasty. They have tournaments where you submit your score against 20-30 other KIDS, and whoever gets the highest score gets megabucks. At first I was just checking it out with Holden, and then, I found myself logging on. I play the hardest, quickest games, and... and...

I justified it as simply getting Holdy some extra cash to deck out his room. I'm doing it for him, right? For him?

No, I just like dominating seven year olds in stupid, easy web games. Wait. Replace dominating with beating. Wait... um.

Well doc, this has been a great session, I feel a whole lot better - nope, no need to come back next week, I'm all cured - yup! thanks! seeyalaterbyebye!

By the way, it's too cute, he named his frog pet "Furry Headcombo". What did your kid name their pet? Yeah, thought so.