It started with Tamagotchi… followed by desktop sheep that would pee on your files, little dogs that would run through your fuckin computer barking the hell out of non existant viruses…
yes. That stuff makes you roll the eyes and mumble “who the fuck gives a damn?” (Actually the peeing sheep are sweet… whatever)
But then there was neopets… and I went there just for a quick laugh at yet another company that made money selling none existant pets and stealing the owners of the none existant pets there precious time whilest they are happy playing hide and seek with there little cyberbeast.
Neopets made me give in… I have to say… that bluemaroo (sp?) was sooo sweet… looked somewhat like a kangaroo… with those “love me - cuddle me - bla bla” look in it s pixelated eyes.
So I took care of it until it was happy.
Then I went on holiday and my dad promised to feed Delilan (that s her name) every day. Which he did.
I was gone for two months to find my indiffrent little bluemaroo as happy and bloated as before I left.
(Even more bloated… I always forget to feed the little beast)
And now … I let her starve.
For… exactly… 1 month.
Today my dad asked me how Delilan was and I told him I hadnt fed her lately… so he went all glassy eyed and demanded I go feed her imediately (he had put quite some time into Delilan) so I went and expected to find a dead pixelated corps… but here are her stats:
Back in the old AOL SDMB days manny of us had virtual goldfish. The longer you cared for it, the more points you got, and could add stuff to its fishtank. You could also earn points for special food that would make the fish kiss you. Everyone cheated with the point gathering, changing the date on their computer.
Now I have the Catz program. I rarely open it but it is my screensaver. My cat is named Mambo.
It’s a wonder your dad allows you to keep your virtual pet, if you are not careful dad will take Delilan to the virtual pound where it could be put virtually to sleep.
I thought the whole virtual pet thing was kind of fun, especially if it’s just a thing that walks around on your desktop while you’re doing work…
But this whole “Petz” thing just makes me sick. Maybe it’s just the fact that my annoying whiny little sister uses it all the time, and I’m making a bad association, but it’s damned annoying. Especially considering that I can be sitting at my computer, trying to program some kind of super encryption algorithm or something, and she actually has the right (according to my parents) to kick me off of the computer so she can feed her catz. And the sound effects are incredibly annoying, too; “slurrrrrp, suck suck suck, meow, slurrrrrp”
One exception to my annoyance with virtual pets is the Demon Pet (get it at http://www.destroyerzero.com/)…it uses the sprite for the Cyberdemon from Doom. There’s also a Caco-Pet (somewhere) which uses the sprite for the Cacodemon from Doom. It could use lots of improvements, but it is a nice satire of the virtual pets. Heeere, cybie cybie cybie.
