Ganz Introduces Two New Social Events...Part 2

Ganz has created a Facebook app.

As such, you cannot use this without a Facebook account. (yet?) You can find the app here. 
This new app is called Webkinz Friends. It is currently in beta, and is a Farmville-meets-Webkinz kind of world. It is a lot more complicated than Webkinz World, as would be expected of an app that only 13+ can use.
Here is the app description:

Webkinz Friends is a social game where you can make a big happy family in the Kinzville of your dreams, with the added benefit of sending prizes to anyone in Webkinz World!

 This is what it looks like...

This is a snippet of Sir Rhineholt's yard. What's supposed to be animated, is, and it's the perfect opportunity to decorate with eStore items when you normally couldn't.

About every 5 minutes, a little ditty that sounds like a cross between Mazin-Hamsters/Creatures Adventures music plays. Birds chirp the whole time.

Upon starting up, Ms. Birdy greets you, and asks you to choose a Webkinz with which to represent yourself in your Kinzville. You also get to name it. You may choose a Black and White Cat, Golden Retriever, Basset Hound, Pig, Cow, Hippo, Cocker Spaniel, or Lion. They don't get specified genders, though.

Then they just traipse around the roads.

The features of the game are as follows:
Pet Adoption--You can adopt Webkinz pets to create your family. You can use the codes from actual Webkinz plush pets (only works if the code is unused, or was used after May 2012), and you can collect Adoption Certificates from the Adoption Center, and trade them in for a pet (which can only be used in the app, of course). Plush pets adopted in Webkinz Friends come with their PSI.
You earn 1 Adoption Certificate a day. It takes 5 Certificates for your first pet, 10 for the second, 15 for the third, and so on--just multiply the number pet it is by 5. 
Upon adopting a new pet, you can choose if you want a new room in your house, OR 2,000 KinzCash.
I do not know exactly how this plush-adoption thing works. We know that Webkinz World first, then Webkinz Friends does not work, but does Webkinz Friends first, then Webkinz World work? I imagine it would only be fair for it to work as such, because I'm not going to buy a plushie just to have it wander around in my Facebook app.

Kinzville--Everyone's wondered what Kinzville looks like in-depth...and now we know--whatever you want it to look like! Yep, you can make little buildings and houses and make your own Kinzville. Sir Rhineholt, your first and default friend, has his own bustling Kinzville that looks like this:

Goals--As you play, you'll see goals--a little Cocker Spaniel in a box--on the left side of the screen. Completing these goals gets you KinzCash, items, goods, and prizes!

Experience--The more you have, the more levels you get. The more levels, the more items you can unlock in the KinzMart. The more items, the bigger your Kinzville can become!

Goods--On the top of your screen, there are Goods. There are four types: Materials, which you get from resources like the Mystery Mine. You can also get them from cutting down pine trees. Materials are used to make buildings. The second type is Food. They're used to stock restaurants. The third type is Items. They're used to stock places like the W-Shop. And lastly is the Clothes, which are used to stock places like clothing stores.

Kinzfolk (I've always wondered what you call citizens of Kinzville)--Kinzfolk are just Webkinz that run around your town, adding the cutest slice of life. A wider variety of Kinzfolk are made available by buying Pet Packs in the KinzMart, however, these packs cost real money in the form of Facebook credits.

Happiness--This is important, as the more happiness you have, the more bonuses you get from harvests from buildings and resources. To get more happiness, have a large family, and/or a high-quality town. 

Town Quality--Based on what's in your town, the Quality level helps determine your Happiness level. You can increase the Quality with a big Webkinz family and having lots of Kinzfolk.

Neighbors--These are your Facebook friends that you invite to Webkinz Friends. You can visit their towns, and help them by collecting from businesses and harvesting crops. This gives you Experience and KinzCash. You can only help out with 5 buildings daily, though.

Your House--Or just "My Room" in WW terms, your house allows you to make recipes. You can also decorate it, of course! You can also get a Happiness bonus from it--the more pets in your family, the more Happiness you earn.

Eager Beavers take care of the construction work. :D

...that Tomato Soup recipe up there is the most sensible one I've seen Webkinz World associated with. (also, I feel duped. I took a book, some gardening tools, and a pen and tossed them together in real life, and was not given a blank book. Just some confetti.)

Collections--Collections are groups of items that you can get from collecting from buildings and harvesting crops. They're awarded randomly, so you never know what you'll get, but the goal is to get ALL the pieces in the collection. For getting a complete collection, you can trade them in for KinzCash, goods, or a special item. Some Collection items can be used in recipes.

Whew! That's a long list.

Ms. Birdy shows up at the start of your Kinzville to guide you through a tutorial. The first building you build is your own house, and you can build other houses, too, from mobile homes to mansions.


You can adopt pets, but only a few varieties work--there's a list you can find here, along with a Q&A of Webkinz Friends. eStore pet codes don't work and due to the lack of a place to enter codes, Zumbuddies and Mazin' Hamsters wouldn't work, either.

If this sounds like something you'd like to check out, do note that the app requires the following of your Facebook account:

• Basic information (name, gender, list of friends, anything you've made public)
• Your birthday
• The ability to send you e-mail notifications
• Post on your behalf (make posts about stuff you've done in Webkinz Friends)
• Manage your [Webkinz Friends-related] notifications

For more information, check out the following:
-this video, made by the staff of Webkinz Insider

-the Webkinz Friends Customer Service
-the Webkinz Friends Facebook page, where they answer questions and clarify things.
-Webkinz Insider has created a sub-forum about Webkinz Friends. 

There is also a Webkinz Friends website, though there's not much point to it, as it just shows the WF title screen and gives a link to the Facebook app, the only place so far to play it.

The thing that I find the best about this new app so far is that the decorations you can place are real items from Webkinz World. Also, there's an option to make it fullscreen. It just makes it so much cooler.

The app runs surprisingly fast, and the little Webkinz running around are so cute! There's so freaking much to learn, though, and it's still in beta, so who knows what's still ahead.

You can send gifts to WW accounts, apparently, but I don't know how to do that yet.