I joined Whyville on October 8th, 2006 on the account thkelley. Like most naive newbs (after amassing a grand salary of 111) I fell for the whole "say your password at the food court scheme while someone hides in the trees" and was successfully hacked. Ashamed on June 15th, 2007 I created my new and current account nitara3. Eventually as time passed I got on Whyville less and less frequently. I still kept up with my account collecting my salary and creating large CDs but for a good two years I did not engage in chat with anyone on Whyville. Now it is 2012 and I find myself visiting the tantalizing island more and more often on my iPad and Kindle Fire.
Mobile Whyville as most of you know (like desktop Whyville) requires Java or Flash Player to enter and chat in chat rooms. On the Kindle Fire you are able to enter chat rooms but with no on screen keyboard there is no way to chat, so you are just that weird looking avatar that just sits there. On the iPad you cannot download Java or Flash, therefore you cannot even enter a chat room. I find this very frustrating. Without chat you can't fully experience Whyville. You can't play games in the Greek Theater, you can't talk with random strangers, you can't even get a Scion loan.
As a Whyville citizen I find that most kids and teens on Whyville are very competitive. Who has the most clams? Who has a scion? Who has a store in Akbar's Face Mall? I for one am no exception. I love my now extravagant salary of 189 (that's better than the average Whyvillian). I love going to any Beach and just typing in "Who ever can touch me first gets x amount of clams." Most people half heartily chase my avatar around the screen and after catching me expect nothing but to their surprise I always follow through. Although I still use ClamGram because I can't figure out the whole bank-transfer-clams thing. Whyvillians envy Nitara and his lavish spending but without access to an actual computer I am unable to give away any clams and am even unable to raise my salary because most of the new salary games involve chat rooms; like the Star Factory and Botball.
In order to solve my own dilemma first I attempted chat on the Kindle Fire by tapping the screen and hoping a keyboard would appear. No luck. Then I tried to download Java and Flash to my iPad. No luck. At a last final and desperate attempt I quickly made my way to the App Store. Typing in Whyville in to the search bar I had high hopes. "Whyville is HUGE," I thought "with millions of users it must have an app." Unfortunately there was no Whyville app and so disappointed I logged off Whyville and continued on with life. It boggled my mind why Whyville workers had yet to make a a Whyville app or even a decent mobile site.
With an app or mobile site Whyville population would skyrocket. No longer would kids, pre teens,and teens be dependent in a desktop computer or bulky laptop for a fun vacation. Interest would be through the roof as teens downloaded their favorite safe chat room to their handheld devices. On top of the added growth of Whyville most tablets and phones are linked to a credit card usually for buying apps and virtual money in apps (like coins in temple run and draw something). The sale of pearls would increase of course and the more pearls sold the more money Whyville creators earn and therefore a better Whyville for Whyvillians, City Workers, Oldies, Newbs, Whyville staff and everyone involved with the site and fantastic island.
I really want to push and encourage the creation of a Whyville app (hopefully for iOS). I made a petition but have found that no one visits City Hall anymore and not a lot of people post petitions or for that matter visit the petitions. Without access to chat my final plea comes in the form of a cleverly worded Whyville Times article. May this article sway whoever reads it and hopefully gives a push toward my cause.
-nitara3
