Many of our users who were up late last night noticed that Webkinz World was shut down nearly an hour early for maintenance. When the system allowed them to log back in, a new area had appeared -- the Webkinz Stadium!
This new area appears to be similar to the Tournament Arena, in that you compete with other Webkinz users in certain events. Currently, the "Beauty Pageant" is the only event added to the system at this point, but it looks like Ganz has plans to add quite a few more events in the near future. We'll just have to wait and see what other events will come.
The instructions are quite short, but let us know that you must sign up for an event in advance. Since each event is limited to 1,000 users, sign up as early as you can! The sign-ups open 2 hours before the event starts, so be ready to register your pet early!
Clicking on the Beauty Pageant event shows us that it costs 25 Kinz Cash to enter a competition, and the prizes are some the best we've seen to date in Webkinz World -- a total of $10,000 Kinz Cash and trophies for each event!
Ganz has informed us that the $10,000 Kinz Cash is split between the top 10 of the particular event (with $4,000 Kinz Cash for the top prize). In addition, there will be Bronze, Silver and Gold trophies for each event and event type!
You may also have noticed the "Event Type: open" in the schedule. There appears to be 3 "classes" of events, open, amateur and pro.
Finally, the events appear to be "synced" across the time zones, so the first event, which is at 5pm US Kinz Time is at 10pm Euro Kinz Time (both on April 3rd) and 7am Asian Kinz Time (April 4th). We'll have to wait until then to see pictures and descriptions of the competition itself!
UPDATE ON PET OF THE MONTH ARTICLE -- this is an update to the news from this morning
I have received direct word from Ganz's creative staff that there have been no changes to the Pet of the Month policy. The information given out this morning by the CS department was misinformation. As always, every Pet of the Month is supposed to come with a Pet of the Month loot bag, whether you have 1 Pet of the Month item or 50 Pet of the Month items and it does not depend on how many Pet of the Month adoptions you have made.
If you adopted a Pink Poodle today and did not receive your loot bag, it is likely due to a bug in the system and you may need to notify Ganz that your item was not awarded as it should have been.
Ganz is currently looking to see if there are any bugs in the awarding of Pet of the Month loot bags, so you may want to wait a few days to log in your Pink Poodle for April!
UPDATE: This news has been corrected by Ganz. There have been no Pet of the Month policy changes and the missing loot bags are possibly due to a bug!We have breaking news emerging from our forum about the Pet of the Month. A user from our forum, skysierra, has reported and the staff here at Webkinz Insider has confirmed that Ganz has changed their policy on Pet of the Month adoptions.
This new rule is especially important to those who trade for Pet of the Month items! It is rather confusing, so I'll use an example to illustrate the rule:
Let's say that today you have adopted 4 Pet of the Month pets over the past few months. In addition, you have also traded for 3 other Pet of the Month items that you really liked. So, you have adopted 4 Pet of the Month Webkinz, but have 7 Pet of the Month items, right? Ganz's new policy will not award you any Pet of the Month items until your Pet of the Month adoptions equals the number of Pet of the Month items in your account! In this situation, you would have to activate #5, #6, #7 and get no Pet of the Month items until you activate an 8th Pet of the Month!
One of our staff members has spoken with Customer Support at Webkinz and confirmed the new policy. For those that have already adopted and were not aware of the policy, there is a one time exception on an account to replace the item that you did not receive with the adoption.
For those that have traded for Pet of the Month items, we suggest that you KinzPost any "extra" items to a secondary account before adopting a new Pet of the Month on the main account.
We, the staff of Webkinz Insider, are saddened to announce the departure of our very own founder, Justin. His decision to leave was announced this morning and we were asked to pass on his regrets and appreciation to all the members here. He has asked us to post this statement:
"I have been doing research into Virtual Pets online for quite some time. As part of my research, I have been purchasing other animals to gain access to other sites to see what they have to offer. Recently I purchased a Shining Stars blue dragon, which I named Contessa. As I bonded with my new pet I realized that I have an obligation to pursue all things related to Shining Stars and could no longer devote my time to Webkinz. As much as I regret leaving WI, I look forward to the new online community that Contessa will bring. I appreciate all of you and the staff in particular. To my staff, I will be sending each of you your very own Shining Star in hopes that you will join Contessa and I. Good luck and take care!"
We wish Justin and Contessa the best of luck as they pursue their new adventure.
On his departure, Justin made the decision to sell the Webkinz Insider to Blue Dress, LLC, a small company based in Connecticut that manufactures tie-dyed shirts for plush toy owners. The site, which has over 80,000 members and is averaging about a bazillion hits per month, was sold for a figure exceeding one BILLLLLLLION dollars!
Masteryoda is the only member of the staff that will be staying with the new ownership and is currently accepting applications for administrator and moderator positions. Click here to read the requirements to become an admin or mod!
WebkinzInsider.Com is not an official site of, sponsored by, nor affiliated with Ganz, Inc, Webkinz, or Lil'Kinz and all character names, logos, and images are trademarks owned by Ganz, Inc.
