What was your favorite addition to the site in 2010?
While the addition of Kinzville and MAZIN’ Hamsters were definitely the biggest additions to Webkinz World this year, my favorite addition was redoing the Webkinz Stadium. The original Stadium didn’t live up to expectations and was missing key features like showing all of the pets in the competitions wearing their actual outfits. We fixed this, simplified signing up, added the Quick Events and finally got the running races out. I’m also really happy about the change to the Daily Kinzcare. It was a tiny change but it’s completely breathed new life into this classic feature.
What is the most exciting thing you’ll be adding in 2011?
2011 won’t be about adding, it’ll be about making what we have better than ever! During our Webkinz Day Twitter Party (which was crazy fun) I said that we’d be working on adding new features to the room – including the ability to move and remove doors. Well, that feature will be coming in 2011, along with a bunch of new room features that you won’t expect.
Does this mean you won’t see anything new? Of course not. We’ve got a whole year’s worth of games, furniture themes, recipes, events and more planned for Webkinz. And we’re going to be changing things up this year. We’re already working a new event for Valentine’s Day that we’ve never done before.
Why did you add the map?
Way back in 2005, Webkinz World had just six options: Adoption Centre, the Clinic, Arcade, W-Shop, Quizzy’s and the Room. That’s it. It was very easy to navigate and understand. Since then we’ve added tons of sections and that poor old Things to Do menu was getting really crowded and confusing, particularly for new members. The new map really cleans this up and also gives us opportunities to do more with Kinzville in the future.
Will you be adding anything new to the map in 2011?
The Key to Kinzville challenges were just the start of a larger plan that will happen in 2011. Wait and see!
I hear my Webkinz account will no longer expire – awesome! Why did you make this change?
It was just the right thing to do. We spent a lot of time and effort listening to our fans this year, and account expiry was something our fans simply didn’t want. So we got rid of it. Now once you’ve signed up you either have Full or Deluxe Membership or you don’t. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on some features, but you’ll still be able to log in, play with your pets, play games… have a great time! And that is what Webkinz is all about.
Anything else you want to tell us?
I think we surprised a lot of people this year with decisions like making the Kinzville Academy free, adding the map, and getting rid of Account Expiry. We’re going to continue to shake things up in 2011. It will be all about making Webkinz World more fun. Simple example? Winterfest will be 9 days this year. That’s two weekends of snowflake catching instead of one!
I think things in Webkinz world are going GREAT! Deluxe membership is about more than just avoiding account expiration. Just a couple of features I would like – Being able to make up your own room names (decent ones, of course), and being able to move more than one item from your dock to the W-Store “Sell” window at a time. I love gardening, and it gets really tedious selling 172 strawberries – I’d like to be able to move ALL my produce at once, or be able to choose how many I want to move at once (say I want to keep some, but sell most – have a pop-up asking how many I want to move with a “Change Quantity” box like in a real on-line store). I’d also like a “Greenhouse” wallpaper you could put in your outdoors room where you can see the seasons outside the garden, but there’s no snow actually IN the garden – growing gardens in the winter looks silly. :-)
I’m pretty upset about the change of policy just after we renewed our Deluxe Membership (in December). I think that Webkinz should refund purchases of membership that we made recently.
I’ve been a member since 2006, and my account expired in 2008. How do I log back in under the new policy? Do i still need a new animal?
with the improvements you’ve already made, and the ones you have planned for 2011. Being able to remove/move doors will be wonderful! From my personal wish list, I’d love to be able to have more naming options (both for pets and rooms). For example, I’d love to name my new (unadopted) cat Coraline, and my polar bears’ shared room “The Polar Region”. Maybe there could be a way we could submit requests for names to be approved (with however long a delay is needed) before we could use them? Also, I’d love to have a “My Arcade” feature, where I could select my favorite games and have them all appear together so I don’t have to scroll all the way down to find Tile Towers! Thanks so much for all you do!
i have 51 pets in webkinz, love the site,taking the pets places doing things with them, thanks,trish
where do you get a welcome back code? my account expired and would love to rejoin.
I think we should be able to customize the Things to Do menu, and add what we want from the map. I have a very fast computer and very fast internet, but I hate waiting for the entire map to load. If we could customize the menu, we wouldn’t have to always wait for the map and it would be easier to access our favourite things!
I signed up for Webkinz almost 4 years ago and I’ve seen almost every change there is. (one of my favorites being the addition of Mazin’ Hamsters. ^^) But I’m telling you, this is, by far, the best list of changes you have EVER made. Keep up the awesome work!! :D
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, bring back the tutor at the Academy!
I would like to have an option to zoom in on a room or item. This would help seeing the weeds when gardening.