virtual pets--part 2

so today . . . i watched my virtual facebook pet grow up. well, i didn't actually SEE him grow up, because it didn't happen instantly and i looked away from my computer for 5 seconds, and when i looked back, there he was, all grown up.

facebook seems to have an unlimited amount of applications. you can join any kind of group you can think of. you can take a seemingly unlimited number of tests about almost anything, and then share them with your online friends so that they will know more about you--whether they want to or not. you can post and view pictures. you can save the rainforest.

but i find the virtual world to be the most interesting. you can virtually punch someone, virtually watch basketball, virtually go to the beach with your facebook friends. you can send virtual flowers, virtual gifts, virtual snowglobes, virtual teddy bears, virtual sweet treats, virtual coffee, virtually anything. most of these applications require virtual money, which you can earn by playing around on the application's site. for example, to earn "seeds" to send flowers, you can "weed" or "water" or "debug" your friends' gardens. each time you do this, you earn seeds which can be used to buy flowers that you can send to your facebook friends. and all it costs you is time . . .

i have time. sometimes. and so i decided to add a pet to my facebook experience. i chose a baby panda and named him pang. it was fun (and mindless) to feed him and play with him. and i noticed that when i did those things i earned coins. cool, i thought. after several days i had quite a few coins, so i decided to "buy" some things for pang's habitat. i started adding cute stuff to my shopping "cart" and went to check out. AND IT ASKED ME FOR MY VISA NUMBER! wait, i thought, what happened to all those coins i earned?!? i checked around and realized that the things i had added to my cart could only be bought with GOLD coins, not the silver ones i had been earning. gold coins cannot be earned, only bought--10 cents for 1 coin.

you have got to be kidding me?!?!?! so apparently there are actually people out there who will pay money for a cute little picture to appear on their computer screen. think about it--people are paying real money for virtual stuff!! these items range in price from $1.50 to $6.00. they are cool--the pictures move and do stuff when you click on them--but still, they don't really exist! and yet, people PAY for them.

i've been thinking about changing careers--maybe i should think of something i coud sell that doesn't actually exist--it would certainly cut down on inventory and storage costs . . .