Much like big sister Kim's gaming app, the primary objective of Kylie and Kendall Jenner's latest foray into the digital space is to gain fame and followers.
While its agenda isn't exactly surprising or innovative, the app itself is addictive. I tested the app out this morning expecting to click around for a few minutes, but ended up getting sucked in for almost an hour. Am I a more vapid person than I was when I woke up? Maybe. But hopefully that will wear off once I delete the game from my phone.
Here's the deal: Players start off as lowly Santa Monica newbies. They have an apartment share — and the opportunity to start building a life (and a personal brand!) at a nearby salon. But trouble swiftly shows up: A bratty girl whose mother can make or break your new place of business drops by, and you're not able to provide the services she needs. She decides she wants to ruin your employer, so you and your new friends have to figure out how to keep that from happening. It's like high-stakes choose your own adventure, though everyone is remarkably chill, even for SoCal.
From there, my customized player avatar — who, it should be mentioned, is named PrincessPeach29 and looks an awful lot like Kylie — heads to Malibu, where she flirts with a cute boy at a concert and also runs into the famous Jenner sisters. This is where my luck turns around. The Jenners not only invite me to a red carpet event they are attending later in the day, they also offer to pop by the salon and get gussied up there, not to mention post photos of the place to help promote it across their social networks.
Kylie even snaps a selfie with me that helps by skyrocketing my social media following, then Kendall shares a really cute nice-to-meet-you video message on her own account. So sweet and helpful, right?
As the game continues, the gals head to the Santa Monica salon and help save the day, and PrincessPeach29 keeps gaining followers and becoming ever more Kardashian-like along the way. Kylie and Kendall are super nice and encouraging, and their real-life faces pop up at random times, offering dedicated followers the impression that they have their very own relationship with the reality stars — just like anyone else with a big enough data plan and a WiFi connection.
But here's the thing: To rise through the ranks of Kylie and Kendall's app world, all you really have to do is press buttons and do the bidding of your more established peers. All conversations are surface level, and the underlying agenda is always to gain new followers and multiply the growing squad of people you can leverage for your own benefit. The game is to get famous on social media so that you too can get paid for just showing up. It's a Kardashian world, and we're getting a virtual glimpse at what living in it must be like.