Ty Girlz Are Now In Stores

The Ty Girlz are now available in stores! I spent a considerable amount of time with my 11 year old playing with our online Ty Girlz this weekend. As with Barbie Girls, some aspects were fantastic (great graphics and a fun world to explore) and other aspects really still need work. My biggest disappointment with both Ty Girlz and Barbie Girls is that the methods of earning the "currency" of the two worlds are boring. In Ty Girlz, there are competitive games to play, but for some odd reason, you don't earn "Ty $" when you play them. Instead, you earn Ty $ for just being on the site. For Barbie Girls, you do earn "B Bucks" when you play games, but the games are more like creative art projects than competitive games, and you earn the same amount of B Bucks no matter how well you do. Both companies will have to seriously adjust this aspect of their worlds in order to make engrossing sites that children and fans will want to spend time in daily.

On the plus side, like any good Dolls 2.0 site, it it lots of fun to dress your Ty Girlz and Barbie Girls, and it's also fun to play virtual dollhouse and decorate the dolls' houses.

^{Photo © 2007 Denise Van Patten. Licensed to About.com, Inc.}