“Mom, I really want to buy a swimming pool, but they’re expensive,” my son said to me recently. “I could probably get a small one for $12,500, though. Do you think a diving board is a good idea?”
His statement caught me by surprise. Not for any of the logistical reasons, such as where we’d put a pool when we live in an apartment building, or whether or not a diving board was advisable, or even where he’d get this kind of money when he’s 9 years old. Rather, I was a bit astonished at how he came to the cost of the pool.
“How do you know that a small pool will cost $12,500? And what, exactly, are we talking about here?” I asked.
As it happened, we were talking about a game he was playing called Bloxburg. It’s in beta testing now, but it’s basically an online multiplayer game where the point is to imitate life. He was creating his home, and one of the options is building a pool.
“My pool would only be 5-by-5. But you can make it any size you want. It’s $500 per square, so mine would be $12,500,” he said.
I asked if he knew what the pool was made of. He shook his head and said, “I’m not sure, but you design it with blocks and can make it into any block-like shape. You can make it as big as you want as long as you have enough space and money for it.”
Well, that certainly is true to life, I thought. But wait, he was also designing his own pool? I asked him to show me the game. His eyes lit up and he excitedly logged in, saying, “I really like the pool options because you can add things like fancy water walls, patio furniture, outdoor lights, diving boards, beach balls and pool tubes to float on. There’s a huge high-diving board you can buy, but I’d obviously need a bigger pool for that.”
It was amazing to me how much fun he was having designing his backyard. The fact that design software has trickled down to the gaming industry as a form of entertainment is brilliant. Or devious, depending on how you look at it. After all, the internet has created a new demographic of “fauxsumers” (those who spend hours online researching purchasing choices and deriving pleasure from it); continued exposure to a desired product can eventually lead to a sale. And from a marketing standpoint, it’s always best to get them young.
At the very least, it looks like I’ve got a budding pool designer (and future PSN reader) on my hands.