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One Week In: General Review! |
I started playing Virtual Popstar one week ago! Here's my general review of the site so far. Pixel doll makers are as old as the internet. My first memories online are from the mid-90s playing with drag and drop doll makers. Over time, I migrated to different games like Neopets, RuneScape, MapleStory, WoW, Ragnorak Online... and here I am. Back to the OG of browser games: A pixel doll design game. Overview: It's not all about the doll.This game has multiple modes of play. There's massing fans to become globally renown, going on tours, playing games and referring other users to unlock achievements.There's just as much nuance in the non-dress-up portions as there is in them. If you want to perform in Japan, you have to click on it from a map and travel in your independently purchased automobile. If it's damaged, you have to repair it. Navigating to the different forms of content is just as easy as the dress-up portion and members recommend them strongly. Naturally, the doll is a huge driving forceOther modes of play exist without interacting with the doll, but let's face it, if you have a doll dress-up feature, people are going to play that.Virtual Popstar (VP) does a great job with their customizing interface. The games I played as a child required dragging and dropping images that were sometimes a page and a half away. That was a drag. Not only is it easy to equip apparel, but the apparel is beautiful. VP recently acquired Dollz Mania and is reportedly migrating clothing content from Dollz Mania to VP. Additionally, users can submit designs for apparel, skins and hair to the VP database. Purchasing and acquiring clothes happens in a variety of ways, there are VP-ran shops and a user marketplace. Users who want to sell their wardrobe items can either put them up in the marketplace or advertise them for direct transfer on the forums. Exchanging clothing is facilitated by being able to view other users' wardrobe. This is a very useful feature. An unexpected facet to this game is item rarity. Some items have limited runs and less copies on the site. You can quantify just how rare your wardrobe is. I didn't expect this feature when coming in to this game. Gameplay: Get some fansThe goals of this game are be cute and (b) get fans. Building a popstar empire means growing a fanbase all over the world.The interactive elements of building the fans number are set to timers, like a mobile game. Depending on how many fans they have, it takes more time to rest between singing lessons, dancing lessons and performances. But with each of these interactions, they get more fans. Virtual popstars, just like a real popstar, can go on tour to build their notoriety. But unlike real humans, these popstars have to travel to three global locations within 24 hours. They can be required to go to Japan, Hollywood and then Milan. The time it takes to travel depends on the method of transport. For me, it's about 20 minutes to get to each location. I love any game that has an educational aspect. The educational aspect in this game is the opportunity to get better acquainted with different countries and capital cities. I wish there were more cities and strange locations in the performing objectives. I also wish that there was an incentive to practice singing & dancing, like levels built into the separate skills with experience gained with each interaction. I see little point to singing & dancing for the price and low return on fans gained. The Mini-GamesThere's a variety of interactive flash games on VP to fill time.Like any other browser game, we've got the 'classic' games: Tetris, Snake and Minesweeper (Mijnenveger). There are also gambling games for the particularly saucy player: Roulette, Dice, Blackjack, Keno, Slots and Memory. The Popstar flash games original to this platform are not very innovative or particularly drawing. While they're not good, there's an incentive to playing them. Users on the weekly high score list for a game get a special rare item. The real fun is supposedly in the fashion contests and battles. While I haven't taken part of the battles, I participated in my first fashion contest tonight. I had a great time putting together an outfit to the theme of 'colors' and tied with another user for first place. It really was a redeeming experience. I can't wait to participate in more fashion contests. ReferralsThis game has the smallest user-base of any game I'm playing right now. At one point, there were 220 users online when I was playing today. That was the most I've seen at once. This leads to a huge incentive to referring other users.There's even an achievement that you progress by referring new users. On the fan page, the first two links are all about spreading the word about VP. Thanks for reading!! Let me know comments & crits |