The Evolution of Virtual Pets

Online pet games such as Neopets are incredibly popular among kids today. Children enjoy having virtual pets that they can care for and play with, and online pet games offer hundreds of different ways to do so. While the various additional features present in a pet game do affect how children react to it, the basic pet-player relationship is what ultimately keeps kids returning to the game. In fact, kids have been drawn to virtual pets long before they first appeared online.

In 1996, a Japanese company produced a virtual pet toy named Tamagotchi. The toy was basically an egg-shaped device with a black and white screen and three buttons below it. To start the game, kids pulled a tab that would activate the battery. An egg appeared on the screen, and it soon cracked to release the creature inside. The creature started out as a baby, and regularly needed to be fed, played with and looked after in order to grow well. How the creature grew up depended on how well it was looked after in its growing stages. The Tamagotchi character even fell sick and could die if neglected. Either way, after growing to adulthood the character would reach old age and die. However, it could always be reset and a new character would appear on the screen in the egg stage.

The toy was incredibly popular in the 90’s, and the company sold around 40 million units worldwide. However, the high level of attention the Tamagotchi pets required made schools ban students from bringing them to school. This was one of the main reasons for the Tamagotchi’s decline in popularity in just a few years. 

“Tamagotchi” by Pascal Maramis is licensed under CC BY 2.0

It was around this time that online pet games came to be. The virtual pet online was far more advanced than the black and white Tamagotchi pets. They were in color, they looked better, you could do much more with them and there were many more pet games to choose from.  Many of these pet games also had the element of social networking. Pet owners, and sometimes even pets made friends with each other, interacted and played multiplayer games together. Some pets were able to procreate, and kids could breed their pets to produce new species. Some pets had to be trained for specific events and competitions. The various pet games on the internet are so large in number that it would be difficult to list out the special features of each kind. Instead, to understand how far virtual pets have come, let’s go back to the Tamagotchi.

A virtual pet so popular wasn’t going to die so quickly. Tamagotchis are back, with new features to rival the other pet games available today. The new Tamagotchis come with larger, color screens and are IR enabled for short range communication. The pets come in different species and can communicate with other Tamagotchi pets that happen to be nearby. You can bump two Tamagotchi sets against each other to let one pet visit the other, exchange gifts and play games together. As two pets continue to spend time with each other, their relationship grows and they can eventually marry and have kids. Alternately, pets can go to a dating center or matchmaker to find a partner. The new generations is looked after by the parent, and once the parent dies, it is the player’s turn to look after the offspring. Another new feature is the “Gotchi Points”, earned by playing games and used to buy items from various shops. These include clothes, decorative items to customize the house and food. The pets also go to school as a kid and to work as an adult. They can go to the park to visit non-player characters. They can also visit their parents and grandparents for a meal together. The specific features available depend on which version of Tamagaotchi you have.

The popularity of this virtual pet is quite impressive, especially considering the fact that it stands in a category all by itself. Even without an online version, the toy has done extremely well around the world. Certain versions had the option of visiting an online virtual world where Gotchi Points could be used and various games could be played. A newer version of the website has recently been released. Kids can visit the Dream Town to meet other characters, go on missions and generally have fun.