Revitalizing Webkinz Using Web 3.0
Hey everyone!
Hope y’all had a great week! My weekend was fun, but due to my (possibly unhealthy) passion for football, I ended up enduring some tough losses…
On to more fun things! In my last blog, I mentioned how I was going to write my next piece about the nostalgic, mid-to-late 2000s phenomenon called Webkinz. Specifically, I wanted to try and connect Webkinz to Web 3.0 and take a look at the similarities & differences that existed between the two. However, to make this blog slightly more fun than a middle school “compare and contrast” assignment, I decided to send a tweet into the ether (pun intended) and see if I could get any traction on a slightly different idea: what would a Web 3.0 revitalized Webkinz look like?
After getting not one, but TWO people to respond to my tweet (pretty rare for me, ngl), I decided to change the topic in hopes to make it more fun (and hopefully get a Web 3.0 VC to turn this idea into a reality). Let’s dive in!
Before we get into the main points, I want to talk about where Webkinz is today. After I posted my tweet, not expecting anyone to see it, I got this response from a quite dedicated Webkinz supporter.
I was shocked to see Webkinz was even still around tbh (especially enough to see my tweet) and was skeptical about Cass’ opinion that it didn’t need to be revitalized. Thus, I decided to do a little digging & DM’ing to see what I could find.
I first DM’ed Cass with a few questions to see how active the space was today. From her responses:
Not many active people in the community in her opinion
Those who were active typically chat on forums on Webkinz Newz
50/50 split between those who buy Webkinz for the plush toy and those who buy them for access to the online world.
With this info, I then started looking for some statistics about Webkinz’s past to compare & contrast today’s activity with the previous one to see if a revitalization could benefit:
In terms of active players, I found that Webkinz hit over 1 million users on the website in 2006 and had over 3.2 million players on Easter Sunday in 2009 (a sign to resurrect Webkinz from the dead like Jesus?).
In terms of Webkinz forum activity, it’s better than I anticipated with one post receiving over 450 responses recently. However, it pales in comparison to the Webkinz heyday, when its “Huge Announcement” received close to 15,000 responses.
In terms of the split between why people were buying the plush toys, I wasn’t able to find a specific stat (I’m gonna have to go a little qualitative with this one). However, as a young Gen Z degen, I don’t remember crying my eyes out to get a Webkinz toy just so I could have the plush toy sit in my room. I remember screaming at the top of my lungs so I could hop on the computer and see my toy come to life.
Although they do still have the original Webkinz iteration (now dubbed Webkinz Classic, they created a new, 3D world called Webkinz Next that looks…well…what nightmares are made of (left is Next, right is Classic).
I will give Webkinz some credit, as their social media pages (Insta, Twitter, and YouTube) are more active than I originally thought (didn’t think they’d even have social media accounts tbh). Still, I think for the reasons stated above, Webkinz is in need of a major revitalization. Thankfully, with Web 3.0, as Taylor Swift said…“Everything Has Changed.” Here is how Webkinz can change to capitalize on the next version of the internet.
1) Tokenize Everything
The first step needed to revitalize Webkinz would be to tokenize the shit out of it. In this case, it would require changing its in-game currency (Kinzcash) into a tradeable cryptocurrency, turning all the virtual Webkinz animals into NFTs, and making the in-game assets like clothing items, room decor, etc. NFTs as well.
The new Kinzcash cryptocurrency would be similar to that of the Sandbox & MANA cryptocurrencies which are used to make in-game transactions. For NFT Webkinz animals, two main options come to mind:
Mint price based on rarity: (least rare = free to mint; 1-of-1s = $500). This strategy would allow anyone to play and join in on the fun and allow dedicated players to put more money into it
10,000 unit NFT drops every quarter with the same mint price (ex: .2 ETH or free to mint). This would be a better way to increase the value of the NFTs themselves using supply & demand dynamics but would limit the number of people that could play the game at one single time
There are definitely more (and possibly better) ideas for the tokenomics of the animal NFTs, but these are just the two most obvious ones for me. To make the animal NFTs more profitable (especially if free to mint), you could also offer a way to redeem a physical plush doll with your NFT for three small payments of $4.99. Lastly, just like Decentraland and the Sandbox, all the in-game assets would become NFTs so users could buy, sell, and trade them, which brings us to the next point.
2) Webkinz Marketplace
When doing some research about the topic, I went to the website where you typically find the most hardcore supporters of any cause, game, or retail trader degeneracy (i.e. WallStBets): Reddit. From scrolling through the r/Webkinz page, I was shocked to find that most of the conversations were about buying, selling, or trading their in-game items or animals with others. This process of chatting on Reddit, the having to meet in the trade room at the same time on the Webkinz game is very inefficient and sees no value accrue back to Webkinz.
In my recent blog about GameFi, I talk all about how Web 3.0 completely changes gaming economies, and believe the same principle I talked about there can apply in this case. Webkinz could either have NFTs listed on Opensea or even create their own marketplace where users could easily and efficiently buy, sell, & trade items. Furthermore, the creators of the game could stamp a 5% royalty fee on every transaction so that they can establish some recurring revenue to help keep the business operational.
3) Allow Open Development
Just like any decentralized virtual world, a revitalized Webkinz one would allow for open development of the world itself by users on the platform. Other Web 3.0 virtual worlds like Decentraland and the Sandbox are known for this open development, where users or DAOs create cool projects such as casinos with the virtual land they buy.
Now, just like many Web 3.0 projects, I think it would be beneficial to start off fairly centralized, allowing the Webkinz internal team to create a main hub that includes all the classics, like the Curio Shop (with the gem mine obviously) or the Wheel of Wow, and place some parameters around what can get developed (it’s supposed to be kid-friendly after all). After that, Webkinz, like Sandbox & Decentraland, can sell plots of land as NFTs where users can develop new games, activities, and more.
Conclusion
In doing research for this game, I found a Forbes article from about a year ago describing an interview with the Webkinz creative director Karl Borst. The interviewer, Jackson Weimer, asks Borst about NFTs to which he says:
“We are naturally following the growth of NFTs and I have studied how others have tried integrating them into their games. All that I can say is that at the moment we have no immediate plans to use NFTs in Webkinz.”
Although I probably (actually…definitely) don’t have any idea what I am talking about, I think a Web 3.0 VC could go bring back an old internet relic and pivot it to the new Web 3.0 world (like Hivemind did with Napster and Limewire). Two reasons why:
Webkinz is already past the hardest part of accepting this new tech: not thinking it’s all just a scam. Given they are already studying and exploring how to integrate this new tech into their game, they are (most likely) much more open to the idea and would probably consider making the change with capital & partners to help make it happen
As of July 1 of this year, there are only 50,000 users of Web 3.0 virtual worlds (that’s in total; not just on Sandbox or Decentraland) With Webkinz having 3 million players at its peak, a strong brand and nostalgia factor for Gen Zers, and being a kid-friendly platform, I think a revitalized Webkinz could blow these other virtual worlds out of the water. If Web 3.0 VCs think Sandbox and Decentraland were great investments, then I see no reason why Webkinz couldn’t be as well.
Thanks for reading! I don’t have a topic in mind for the next blog, so we’ll see what I write about. If someone even makes it this far into the blog and has a topic they are curious to learn more about, please lmk and I’ll probably write about that lol.
Here are my links if you feel inclined (I’ve been tweeting more, so please follow that. Desperate for more followers so my polls get more than one response, lol):