Miss Bimbo

Miss Bimbo
Developer(s)	Blouzar
Publisher(s)	Blouzar
Platform(s)	Web browser
Genre(s)	Social networking

MissBimbo.com is an online fashion game and a social networking site with a mainly female audience. Players look after a 'Bimbo' character as she progress through life.

Tasks in the game include gaining Bimbo Attitude (BA) and IQ points, participating in fashion duels and challenges against other players, acquiring boyfriends, making various changes in the Bimbos appearance (such as with plastic surgery, hairstyles and costumes) and training for careers. The game was initially the English version of a French game called Ma Bimbo^[1], and is owned and developed by Blouzar Ltd., London.

Game

The game has now a new adjustment to the bimbo body. Shoddily scrawled pubic hair has been implemented in the name of "natural beavers campaign", which claims that wearing a caricatured, unkempt "beaver" represents womankind's stand against sexism and misogyny. However, the fact that breast enlargement surgery and facelifts are still a required component to pass certain levels presents a laughable contradiction to this. More likely, the community speculates, this is a ploy for attention to the site, a revival of dwindling numbers of active players, or an embodiment of a fetish of one of the administrators.

There are 100 levels within the game, each containing of a number of goals. Players have the opportunity of styling their Bimbo with clothes, hair and make-up. The game includes a hair salon, make-up parlor, and a body art shop where players can purchase tattoos, piercings, or special makeup such as beauty marks and bindis for their Bimbo. Miss Bimbo also allows each player to customize their profile, which allows her to further display her Bimbo's many looks and share her likes and interests with other players.

Typical gameplay activities include seeking a boyfriend, playing with a pet and renting or purchasing real estate. The Bimbo must also keep herself at a designated healthy weight, and remain happy. She can exercise at the gym, dance at the city club and play with her pet to stay at her healthy weight. To earn money, she can train for and accept jobs, get richer male companions, play games, win staked fashion challenges and duels and sell items at the market.

Also provided is the forum section of the site. The forum section offers help for beginners, a general conversation area, help with bugs and themed fashion contests. Fashion contests allow players to take part in contests created by the Administrators or, more frequently, by fellow players. In these contests they can use clothes purchased from Nines online boutique or create their own. It is a popular venue for players to show off their artistic and creative abilities and knowledge in style.

Players may win points/credits for engaging in strategy games on the site. One of the games, 'Mastermind', is based on the board game manufactured by the Hasbro company under the same title. There is a version of online Sudoku which is made easy for players. The same 'trios' of numbers appear in each 3x3 square on the board. So if 2 and 5 and 7 appear vertically in one 3x3 square, those three numbers will appear vertically (but possibly in a different sequence) in every 3x3 square on the board. Another puzzle on the site titled 'jigsaw' presents images which are divided into 3x3 or 4x4 grids, tesselated and then shuffled, loosely based on the 'Fifteen Puzzle'. There is also a memory game, where players must uncover then remember the location of pairs of images, similar to the board game 'Concentration.That game in Miss Bimbo is called 'Sort your bag!'.

Controversies

The site was criticized in much media coverage as promoting the use of cosmetic surgery and crash dieting, encouraging potentially pre-teen players to pursue an 'ideal' body image through such measures as the key to success^[2][3][4][5]

Jacquart has said that he is working on ways to expand the site and reach out to the media to explain why 75,000 people per day log in to the site "without any marketing or ads on the site at all. We have some ideas for new brands, we want to expand Miss Bimbo with social networks."^[6]. Defenders of the game claim that the criticism is unfair and out of proportion ^[7].

Chris Evans, former co-owner of Blouzar Ltd, recently answered user generated questions defending the game on the online gaming magazine forum^[8]. In the interview he compared the humor of the site to The Simpsons and pointed out that of the top 10 players at the time only one was under 19 years old.

See also

• Sexualization

References

1. ^ "J's 1UP Blog: Ma Bimbo/Miss Bimbo". 1UP.com. 2008-03-25. http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8678175&publicUserId=5555169. Retrieved 2008-03-25. 
2. ^ "Bimbo Game 'Fuels Pressure On Youth". sky news. 2008-03-25. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1310501,00.html?f=rss. Retrieved 2008-03-25. 
3. ^ Bird, Steve (2008-03-25). "Miss Bimbo website promotes extreme diets and surgery to 9-year-olds". Times (London). http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3613881.ece. Retrieved 2008-03-25. 
4. ^ McVeigh, Karen (2008-03-25). "Internet Miss Bimbo game for girls attacked by parents". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/25/children.news?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews. Retrieved 2008-03-25. 
5. ^ "Parents concerned about Miss Bimbo game". Daily Telegraph (London). 2008-03-25. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/25/nweb225.xml. Retrieved 2008-03-25. 
6. ^ "Miss Bimbo' website draws ire, even without diet pills". Google News. 2008-04-08. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jkwCpdg-qlE7A-JESbh5LXPJe9QQ. Retrieved 2008-04-08. 
7. ^ "Don't blame Miss Bimbo". MSNBC. 2008-04-19. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23851531/. Retrieved 2008-04-19. 
8. ^ "Ask Miss Bimbo...". thirteen.com. 2008-06-20. http://thirteen1.com/forum/index.php?topic=90.30. Retrieved 2008-06-20. ^{[dead link]}

External links

• Miss Bimbo website