A brief overview of MMOs and other online community games / services for girls.

1. Girl Games and MMOs for girls
Sonja.Kangas@souplala.net (Dec 08)

2. 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 already
launched their own MMOs for girls

3. 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).

4. 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%

5. TyGirls

6. [ 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.

7. BarbieGirls

8. [ 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.

9. Sparkle City

10. [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.

11. BeBratz

12. [ 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.

13. Guppylife

14. [ 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.

15. Lola’s Land

16. [ 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.

17. Pixie Hollow

18. [ http://pixiehollow.go.com/ ]
Pixie Hollow: make friends, 'quick' chat with pre-selected
phrases or do messaging, play various quot;Talent Gamesquot;, 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.

19. New Moon Girls

20. [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.

21. Other online services targeted to teens &
tweens
Besides girl MMOs there are also several dress-up games
such as Stardoll, goSuperModel and CartoonDoll
Emporium; 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.

22. Contact
Sonja.Kangas@souplala.net
Twitter: souplala
Jaiku: soppa