We Have Turned a Corner

Zane plays a game on his parents’ Facebook account every day called Pet Society (Broken link, active January 2, 2011). You create a pet by choosing from cute colors and features (kitty or puppy noses, that sort of thing). You have a house that your pet lives in. Your house is in a neighborhood with your other Facebook friends’ pets who also play Pet Society. The neighborhood is in a town with a grocery, clothes, and other stores just like a real town. You feed and wash your pet every day, and play ball, frisbee, or jump rope with him. Or you can take him fishing.

Your pet can earn money by visiting his pet friends, growing fruit and vegetables in the garden outside his house, and digging for buried treasure and selling what he finds. Then he can go to the store and buy clothes, toys, furniture for his house, and all sorts of cool gadgets.

So Dad and I discovered that Zane played this every day with Sarah. They send toys, gifts, and presents back and forth to each other, and visit each other in their houses. When you visit a friend, you can choose to hug each other, kiss each other, tell a joke, dance, or punch each other. We always hug. 🙂

So then we started playing it this weekend for something to do with Zane even though he is so far away. It has taken a little work to figure out the game, but one thing that is nice about it – no guns, no fighting, no shooting, no monsters, no aliens, and no violence (except for the punching, which is what two guy pets do, I suppose, so as not to get lost in their feminine side, LOL).

I have already been to the toy store in the game and blew my wad of pretend cash on this cool flying saucer toy that flies around the room, and sent it to Zane’s pet. When I visited Zane’s pet’s house last night, sure nuff, there it was flying around the room. 🙂

It is surprisingly fun decorating your house, filling up your closet with clothes, and collecting toys. And trying to catch all the different fish in the pond.

So guess how long Dave played Pet Society this morning? THREE HOURS. And he chatted with Ty on Facebook chat for a nice long while. Houston, Dave has turned a corner in his Facebook aversion. All thanks to Zane. Way to go, buddy!