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Play Virtual Games at Marapets |
One adult and one egg for "The Birdcage" please...CNNfn 22 January 1997 First, there were those high school students that had to carry around an uncooked egg to learn the trials of parenting. Then, software companies introduced virtual pet programs that sent dogs and cats romping across computer desktops. But imagine, if you will, what would result if someone mixed the two concepts. Well, Japanese toymaker Bandai Co. has created the Tamagotchi, or "loveable egg" -- an electronic bird creature about the size of an egg that you can feed, stroke, carry in your pocket and even take to the bathroom. Actually, you don't have a choice. If you own one of these bird-things and don't care for it, it will waste away and, uh, croak. Right before your eyes. With a defeated peep. People are saying, however, that lavishing attention on their bogus birds is worth it. "When you clean up its droppings, it jumps up and down and looks really happy," one woman told Reuters. "So you stop thinking of it as just a picture." But a picture is basically what it is -- a digital image on an egg-sized key chain. It starts out as a chick and grows up in 10 days, and you interact with it by pushing a bunch of buttons. When it gets happy, it coos. The virtual pet is so popular in Japan that it's available on the black market for 10 times its retail price of 1,980 yen ($16). Bandai spokeswoman Tomio Motofu told Reuters that the company is increasing production to try keep up with surging demand. The firm has sold 350,000 Tamagotchis since the Nov. 23 launch and expects to sell several million by March. In the meantime, Motofu is advising the proud owners the virtual pet to suspend reality and think of them as real creatures. "It's not a game," she told Reuters. "You're looking after a space creature whose lifespan depends on how you care for it." Wonder what would happen if you accidentally locked your keys, and hence the bird, in the car? |
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