Leon's Identity

For my autoethnography project, I have chosen the virtual world known as Webkinz. In order to create my account I bought a small, white Samoyed dog from Hallmark on August 17, 2009, and later registered it on the website as a male, named Leon. I first spent time on the site on August 18, from about 2:00 to 3:45 pm. I felt like it made the most sense for my first visit to build Leon’s identity based on his male gender; my experience with this is what my first journal entry details.
I started by going to his room which I found I had already been given a chair, basketball, activity book, an apple and a present that had inside of it a balloon, a frozen pond (that can only be placed in outside yards or tree top rooms) and a “Chewy Chapon Con Carne” dog treat. I fed Leon the food and placed everything I could into his room and then decided to use the 1,200 Kinzcash I was given for joining, to first buy him clothes: a blue baseball hat, a blue t-shirt, “baggy” jeans, and sneakers, all totaling to 200 Kinzcash. Next, I decided to customize his plain room to make more of an identity for him. Initially, I went to look at the flooring and wallpaper that seemed boyish but then I realized that I was shopping like a girl and that a boy would first buy the basics: a bed, a bathroom, toys and food so I did this first with the intentions of spending any leftover money on flooring and wallpaper. I was really off on how much all of this would cost and so after I was out of money, I decided to play a few games to see what they were like, and to earn some more Kinzcash to eventually finish Leon’s room.
I decided to first check out all of the different aspects of Webkinz which includes an arcade, tournament arena, Quizzy’s Corner, DiceKinz, employment office, travel agency, clubhouse, Magical Corner, The Caring Valley, Code Shop, Curio Shop and Wish Factory. After spending a few minutes in each to familiarize myself, I decided it the most profitable to engage in the games offered in the arcade. I spent about fifty minutes there, in which I began playing games to earn the needed money to further create Leon’s avatar identity. I participated in Webkinz Rally, Bamboo Break, Bananza, Booger Gets an A and Hide N Skunk. After playing all of these games, I had accrued 170 Kinzcash and bought Leon the baseball table and light that matched his bed, and spent the rest on water, vegetables and a cheeseburger; all greatly increasing his health and food monitors.
After creating what I felt was a good start to the precise identity that I wanted for Leon, I decided to sign off. As is stands, Leon is a young, male Samboyed who enjoys sports (mainly baseball), activities, fire trucks, cheeseburgers and cleanliness.