Dress Up Games- Modern Day Paper Dolls by Vlad Stivenson
You might wonder what there is about those Dress up Games that your daughter keeps talking about. You might dismiss them as mother versions of the old fashioned dress up games that you used to play with your mother's clothes. It's a bit like that, but dues to the nature of Internet, it's become a world wide sensation.
Just what are those Dress Up Games? The best way to understand them is to remember the paper dolls that you used to like so much. They had a paper or carton base, with a girl or a doll in undergarments. There were several paper dresses and clothing that you had to cut out as well so that you could dress your doll. The most creative of girls would make their own paper clothing so that they would always have new outfits for their dolls.
With technology and Internet available, those paper dolls have become virtual dolls that require clicking and dragging rather than cutting and pasting. With people from all over the world creating new ones every day, the number of sites with dress up games has increased enormously. And with each site having at least a few dozen games, there's really not a limit to the number of dolls that your daughter can play with.
Virtual Dolls; the Descendents of Paper Dolls Although the game mechanic is the same, virtual dolls have a far wider range of clothing styles. While paper dolls came in a set that had only a few pieces of clothing, Virtual doll's pieces of clothing are limited to the imagination of the designer.
In addition, paper doll's clothing was rather conservative and conventional, with only a few variations of dresses, skirts and blouses that didn't really defy the imagination. Virtual dolls can become students, teachers, policewomen, astronauts, pirates, singers, actresses and pretty much anything your daughter wishes to be when she grows up.
What's the point of Dress Up Games? The same as with paper dolls; just to have fun by dressing up a doll. Girls play them for the same reason that you played paper dolls in your childhood. However, because they are in their most basic of nature, digital information, you can save them and give them other uses.
Avatars An avatar is a representation of yourself in an online site that features social interaction. While a lot of people use pictures of themselves as avatars, this is not advisable, for safety reasons. Much less in the case of your own daughter! Saving a virtual doll as a picture and then loading the picture as an avatar will keep your daughter safer from strangers.
Illustrations for Stories Most of the girls that play dress up games have a lot of imagination and creativeness. Her virtual doll could be the main character for her first story. Having a visual image of a character will make it easier to develop a story. Friends and enemies of the character can be created through a dress up game as well.
About the Author
Vlad Stivenson, creator of dress up games for girls. Paper Dolls Live at Music Speaks 2010
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