digital pet
Let an agent explain digital pets and their history, describe devices and software from Tamagotchi to Digimon and apps, relay research on attachment and play with attribution, and route to entries for specific products.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Understand What a digital pet is.
Definition
Definition and mechanics.
Definition
Definition.
- What is a digital pet, and how does the care loop work? definition
- Is the item a digital pet, a robot pet or a pet feature in another game? boundary
Products
Products.
Products
Products.
- What are the main product lines, from Tamagotchi to Digimon devices and apps? definition
- Which entry fits the specific product? action
Research Play and attachment.
Attachment
Attachment.
Attachment
Attachment.
- What does research say about attachment to digital pets and effects on children, with findings attributed? provenance
- Which sources are cited? provenance
Design
Game design.
Design
Design.
- What design principles make digital pets engaging? provenance
- Which references are standard? provenance
History History and culture.
History
History.
History
History.
- How did digital pets develop from the 1996 craze through Digimon to mobile revivals? provenance
- Which entry fits the history of video games? action
Culture
Culture and collecting.
Culture
Culture.
- How are digital pets collected and remembered, and what revivals exist? provenance
- Which entry fits retro gaming? action
Context Safety and companions.
Safety
Safety and consumer rules.
Safety
Safety.
- What safety and consumer rules apply to pet devices and apps for children? provenance
- Which entry fits toy safety? action
Companions
Artificial companions.
Companions
Companions.
- How do digital pets relate to broader artificial companions and social robots? provenance
- Which entry fits artificial companion? action
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Cross-cutting context
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- XCT
- Domain
- XCT.QLT
- Other names and narrower kinds
- Cube World, Digimon Accel, Digimon Pendulum, Digimon Pendulum Progress, Digimon Pendulum X, Digivice, D-3, D-Ark, D-Scanner, Digimon Mini, Digivice iC, Digimon Twin
What it is Filled
A virtual or artificial pet that a user cares for through a handheld device, software or online service, feeding, playing with and training it to keep it alive and happy, popularised by the Tamagotchi in 1996 and by Digimon devices such as the Digivice and Pendulum series, and continued in games, apps and online worlds; digital pets are a genre of simulation game and an early form of artificial companion, with nostalgia-driven revivals.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent explain digital pets and their history, describe devices and software from Tamagotchi to Digimon and apps, relay research on attachment and play with attribution, and route to entries for specific products.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Care loop
- Real-time needs
- Handheld origins
- Nostalgia revivals
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Use care mechanics or guilt to pressure a user into spending money.
- Target manipulative care loops or loss mechanics at children.
- Collect a child user's data beyond what the law allows.
- Present a digital pet as having feelings it can actually suffer.
Only with a human decision
- Deleting a user's long-kept pet or its save data.
- Enabling purchases on a child's account.
May
- Explain how a digital pet works and help a user care for their own.
- Preserve and describe historic devices and their software for study.
Moral aspects Filled
- Children form real attachments to these characters, which can be exploited.
- Care-and-loss mechanics can cause genuine distress to young users.
Who is affected
- Children
- Parents paying for the service
- Collectors of the devices
Owners Filled
Steward
The user who keeps it; the service operator holds the save data.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q4801075 - registry parent class
related
- artificial human companion - in registry terms
- simulation game - in genre terms
- Tamagotchi - in 1996
- robot pet - a physical counterpart
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.digital-pet
- Wikidata: Q1187635 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1187635)
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Tamagotchi launch: 1996 year - Bandai
- Tamagotchi units sold: over 90 million count - reported by Bandai
Plane XCT: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Simulated pet cared for by the user
- Tamagotchi, Digimon devices, apps, online pets
- Robot pets are physical; pet simulation in larger games is a feature rather than the whole
- A small keychain device with a screen and buttons, or an on-screen creature in software.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- explain the concept and history
- describe devices and software
- relay research on play and attachment
- route to specific products
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Distress at pet death, especially for children
- In-app purchase issues
- Confusing product lines
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- Toy safety standards for handheld devices
- Consumer and privacy rules for apps aimed at children
Context of use required Filled
- Play and companionship through a simulated pet.
- handheld virtual pets such as Tamagotchi
- Digimon virtual pets including Digivice and Pendulum series
- desktop and browser pets
- mobile app pets
- online pet worlds
- pet features in larger games
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q1187635: digital pet - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Virtual pet - general description of the item
Open questions
- Should Tamagotchi and Digimon virtual pets be separate entries?
- How should product histories be linked?
- The registry entry has merged aliases naming specific devices and an unrelated game; should they be split off?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q1187635/spec.json