[jle17]

> I never had a Tamagotchi, but I can understand how the loss of a digital pet could have been quite traumatic.

As a kid I cried when it "died". Taking care of the thing for days, seeing it grow, caring for him when sick, it sure created some attachment even though I knew it was virtual.

And because I couldn't bring it at school, parents had to take care of it sometimes, with the pressure of knowing I would badly react if it didn't receive proper care and died (or became sick).

Not sure this is positive, it could certainly have done without this feature. At least my parents didn't thought that me crying over a piece of electronics was very healthy.

[29athrowaway]

My little cousin was like this. His tamagotchi was fully happy, well fed, etc. But he seemed too attached to it.

One day I told him "I am going to set you free, bro" and reset it. He was pretty upset about it at first but then thanked me.

Few years later I saw him playing an MMO. I think it was Ultima Online. I asked him what he was doing and apparently he was ambushing and mugging newer players. I hope both things were unrelated.

[sumtechguy]

I had something happen to me that was similar. I was forever scrounging for points for this cocacola thing. One day I realized I had let some expire. I gathered all of them up and dumped them in the garbage and did a little dance in my kitchen yelling 'im free!' my wife thought I was nuts. I am now on the look out for engaging patterns companies use to draw you in. Point systems are one of them.

[specialist]

> on the look out for engaging patterns companies use to draw you in

I think about this all the time. Tamagotchi was the start. Every where I look, all I see are variants of Tamagotchi.

eg Quantified self help productivity hacking are just treating your own self as the Tamagotchi.

[cosmodisk]

I still regret telling a few friends about Ultima Online at the time. They got addicted and it spread like virus and in no time the whole town was playing it. There was no place you could hide from conversations about weapons,attacks,and custom servers.

[29athrowaway]

TV is not addictive but for some people it is. Same with food or shopping... and the Internet, and games.

It is not your fault.