Good article on the new BarbieGirls MMO

OK, today must have been some weird confluence of MMO news, because here I am posting for what, the fifth time in an hour? Anyway.

New York Times has an article on the new BarbieGirls world, yet another Webkinz/etc-ish world. I could swear I had mentioned it here before, but if not, here’s a decent summary.

Girls soon learn that some of the dress-up items, like that green purse with sparkles, are reserved for those who own a $60 Barbie-shaped MP3 player, left, due out in July. When the player is plugged into the U.S.B. port of your Windows computer, the virtual baubles are unlocked, along with V.I.P. access to the virtual pet store.

Insert my typical “what is the mainstream game industry thinking, are they noticing this, etc” sort of rant here, of course.