Last week over dinner I heard Ben Hammersley tell a fun story about his encounter with a four-year old girl on an airplane. The girl had introduced Ben to Neopets, a virtual pet simulation game that takes place in a world called Neopia. To make sure that Ben was getting the story right, the girl had pulled a couple of Neopet softies out of her bag and shown Ben how each of them carried a code that converted into Neopoints, the Neopet currency, on the website.
To a four-year old, a digital currency-carrying softie is the most natural thing. Makes one think.
Inspired by Neopets, I knitted two softies: Otso and Kamu.
These buddies are special in the sense that they have eaten RFID stickers that enable them to do little tricks. They can call or text a number, or pull up a mobile-friendly website if I read them with the 3220 phone.
First I thought it would be nice if Otso carried a link to something that I want to share with my friends, like a MP3 tune or perhaps a photo. For Kamu I planned a career as a Greenpeace promoter. Or maybe Otso and Kamu could be a figures in a new mobile game, where touching them with the reader phone would incarnate them as a characters in a virtual world?
Comments