Bianca

I recently purchased a pet chicken called Bianca. She is white and fluffy with dark beady eyes and she lives in her own elaborate chicken coop. I thought she would be an easy pet to keep, but, as it turns out, she’s high maintenance. She is always hungry, she gets sick and she constantly wants to be entertained. And that’s only the beginning…

Bianca is a virtual pet. She lives in her own affluent virtual world inhabited by a multitude of other virtual pets, all on a quest to earn virtual cash and buy more virtual stuff. I purchased Bianca so I could play interactive games with my grandchildren, a concept that intrigued me but, it seems, this feature isn’t high on the site’s priority list. It’s very difficult to meet up in game rooms without being aggressively overrun by other virtual pets that are either starved for attention or, considering the life Bianca leads, spoiled rotten.

I’ve spent time as an interloper in this virtual world, trying to evaluate the quality of the time spent on such a site. Certainly children learn to take care of their virtual pets, but beware, its pets, not pet. Pets need friends, right, and therefore there is a big push to add to the virtual pet community. Poor Bianca remains alone, only finding companionship in game and reading rooms where she meets virtual strangers on a superficial level.

Each pet comes with a virtual room and some virtual money. Like anyone just starting out in life, there are necessities to acquire – a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, food and furniture, maybe a television, a trampoline, a motorized scooter – the list is endless. With a little cash anything is possible. And where does the cash come from? It comes from a small daily allowance, answering quiz questions, playing arcade games, and maybe getting a job.

At first I thought Bianca should take the high road and become a valuable member of her virtual society. She went to school and was rewarded for her achievements. Then she looked for a job. There wasn’t much for an inexperienced chicken to do but she tried hard to be successful. The tasks got harder very quickly. Poor Bianca couldn’t keep up and her confidence was shaken. (Lord knows how five-year-olds do this!) However, she managed to earn enough to add rooms and a yard to her home and purchase food and clothing.

But Bianca yearned for more. I tried to find a creative outlet for her, or some community-minded activity that would teach her to share, but other than buying and sending toys to other virtual pets – the ones belonging to the grandchildren – there was no opportunity to be a nice, upstanding chicken. She raises virtual fruit and vegetables in her virtual garden and occasionally attempts jobs that challenge my dexterity.

           

Eventually Bianca and I had a virtual breakthrough. She was able to save up and buy a virtual pool table and she discovered she was very good at playing pool – so good, in fact, that she now earns a steady, if somewhat shady, income from her talent and has been able to turn her home into a virtual mansion, take virtual vacations, visit virtual the virtual spa, and has a six-figure savings account. I wonder, as Bianca chalks her cue yet again, if perhaps a little more emphasis on relationships, sharing, community service and charitable donations, were they available to her, it might do her some good.

Published in airdrielife magazine summer 2010