Ten Ton Hamster

Buildabearville.com was started in October, 2007, and is brought to us by the folks at Build-A-Bear Workshops. From my time spent in game, I would say the game is suitable for children ages 5 and up. The site is free to use.

Buildabearville.com is structured a lot like Webkinz. They are one of many companies that are creating virtual worlds based around the products that they sell. Like Webkinz, you will need to have built a bear at one of the workshops in order to be able to fully participate on the site. You don't need a bear to register and play on the site, however, owning a bear will open up more things that you can do there.

You can register any of your bears, even those that you had built before the game was launched. All you need to register is the animal ID and the key code on the birth certificate of your bear.

When you register, you get to pick a two word name to represent yourself. These two words come in a pre-determined list to chose from. After you choose your name, you will then be offered two chat types.

▸ Safe chat ~ allows you to chose phrases and words from a menu.

▸ Open filtered chat ~ allows you to type words and phrases, but they go through a filtering system to make sure to remove any offensive words. *To use open filtered chat, you must have a Build-A-Bear buddy. If you haven’t built a bear, you will be restricted to only using the safe chat option.

Character creation is very simple. I was slightly surprised to find that you make a human character. Based on the names that you get to choose from (Bearriliant for example), I was under the assumption that we would all be bears in game, much like how you play a penguin in Club Penguin.

Once in game you can do several different things. Head to the build a bear workshop and make a bear in game. Buy items for your Cub Condo house. To make Bear Bills, the money used in game, just play the games! You’ll get points for playing, and those points get turned in to Bear Bills.

Make sure to head on over to Build A Bear University. There are classrooms in which you can play different educational games, like Fast and Furbulous Shapes. You can also go to the Library where you can read books and use activity books. There are also other places that you can go to to play games and earn more Bear Bills.

Buildabearville.com seems to offer a safe and friendly place for your child to spend some time online playing games and making friends. As always, please make sure to spend time playing with your child for the first week to make sure you are comfortable with how the game works and what your child sees and experiences while in game.