Signup at Nicktropolis couldn't be easier-- everything's embedded in one browser window, you choose a "NickName" and a password and you're good to go. If you want to have the option of using dictionary chat (composing your own messages), there's one extra step; provide an email address to receive an activation code that acts as a password to the parental controls. Though the site clearly instructs kids to ask a parent to input theirs, there's no reason a savvy kid with his or her own email address couldn't easily unlock dictionary chat.

The avatar creation process is standard, too-- choose gender, and then swap hair and clothing styles and colors. The color palette for Nicktropolis's avatars is slightly odd, though-- there's brown, green, and more than one shade of purple, for example, but no blonde, and there's only one hair style. As a result, very limited differentiation occurs. However, somewhat less commonly, users re-create their avatar every time they log in-- lots of fun for those who like variety, but possibly frustrating for those who prefer a consistent representation. This makes sense, though, considering that lots of Nicktropolis's themed areas have special avatars-- when you enter the room for SpongeBob SquarePants, for example, you'll need to customize a new, setting-appropriate avatar of a funny little squid-looking person.

Once inside Nicktropolis, the different areas (and there are a fair number) are accessible on a point-and-click map. A click on an icon-- Downtown Nicktropolis, TeenNick Point, or Nicktoons Boulevard, for example-- takes you to a subsection of more area icons, most of them themed around Nickelodeon Shows. There's the Naked Brothers Band Apartment, Jimmy Neutron's Retroville, and SpongeBob's Bikini Bottom, to name a few. Once inside a room, you can walk amongst interconnected areas by point-and-click, or use the navigation buttons above the play windows to go back a room, or return to the maps.

Some rooms have minigames related to the particular TV show theme of the room that launch when you click an item, like a video game arcade machine. The reward for playing is NickPoints, which can be traded for decorative items for your room-- which starts as a bare space accessed via the map navigation buttons. Lamps, chairs, and different carpets and wallpapers are available, and you decorate by clicking items you've purchased in a right-hand inventory window and dropping them into the room (think The Sims). Users may also visit one another's rooms, provided they know one another's user name and have buddy-listed each other.

By far the most desirable item to purchase with points is a fish tank. Nicktropolis lets users who visit The Aquarium adopt and customize a fish as a pet; without a tank in the home, the fish can only be played with in The Aquarium itself. The fish, when clicked, show a meter that indicates their mood (full is bad) and offer three activities to rectify a cranky pet-- feed, play or sleep. "Playing" simply involves making the fish execute a loop-the-loop, and the "feed" command releases a sprinkle of confetti that the fish eats. There's also an option to "set away," for users that plan on leaving the computer for a few days, lest the fish become irritable at neglect and run away. Even with a fish tank, visitors to The Aquarium will automatically bring their pet along, where it will apparently enjoy socialization with the fish of other users who are in the room.

Users can also earn NickPoints by discovering bouncing "blobs" that seem to appear in different areas at random; discovering them is a matter of luck, and the point reward depends on the color of the blob that's found. There are also events, like the Treasure Hunt, that give users a set period of time-- say, a week-- to find all of a list of items scattered around the Nicktropolis World. Finding all the items before the deadline wins a point reward, or a rare decorative item. These events, like the blob system, seem to be geared to encourage kids to explore all the areas of Nicktropolis.

Not all of the areas have games inside; others play video from Nick shows or are simply decorative, designed to be used as hang-outs or chat areas-- chat in Nicktropolis is enormously rare, though. There's a rather draconian text limit on speech bubbles, making communication in full sentences impossible, and even users who have dictionary chat enabled will have the game attempting to auto-complete their statements with the predefined phrases-- typing "Hey" makes it offer you "Hey Arnold!" the cartoon about the unlucky-in-love football-headed boy.

Nicktropolis wasn't particularly crowded at the time of my visit, either-- most of the copious rooms were empty or nearly so, with the majority of users preferring the more tween-oriented Naked Brothers areas, or the pet-focused Aquarium.

It seems that, somewhat uncommonly, Nicktropolis never forces auto-logout after idle time; you can leave the window open and your avatar active indefinitely.