A digital pet (also known as a virtual pet or artificial pet[1]), is a type of artificial human companion Artificial human companions may be any kind of hardware or software creation designed to give companionship to a person. These can include digital pets, such as the popular Tamagotchi, or robots, such as the well-known Sony AIBO. Virtual companions can be used as a form of entertainment, or they can be medical or functional, to assist the elderly. They are usually kept for companionship or enjoyment. People may keep a digital pet in lieu of a real pet A pet is an animal kept for companionship and enjoyment or a household animal, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful characteristics, for their attractive appearance, or for their.
Digital pets are distinct in that they have no concrete physical form other than the hardware they run on. Interaction with virtual pets may or may not be goal oriented. If it is, then the user must keep it alive as long as possible and often help it to grow into higher forms. Keeping the pet alive and growing often requires 'feeding', grooming and playing with the pet. If the interaction is not goal oriented, the user can explore the character of the pet and enjoy the feeling of building a relationship with it. Often these games use realistic visual effects or interaction to make the pet appear alive and give a sense of reality to users.
Digital pets can be "simulations of real animals, as in the Petz Petz is a series of games dating back to 1995, in which the player can adopt, raise, care for and breed their own virtual pets. Petz has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.[citation needed] series"[1] or "fantasy ones like the Tamagotchi The Tamagotchi is a handheld digital pet created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ Co. Ltd., and Aki Maita of Bandai Co. Ltd. It was first sold by Bandai in 1996 in Japan. Over 70,000,000 Tamagotchis have been sold world-wide as of 2008. Most Tamagotchis are housed in a small egg-shaped computer with an interface usually consisting of three buttons,"[1]. Unlike biological simulations Life simulation games are simulation games in which the player lives or controls one or more artificial lifeforms. A life simulation game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation of an ecosystem", the pet does not usually reproduce[1]. They generally do not die Immortality is the concept of living in a physical or spiritual form for an infinite length of time[1].
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Genera of the digital pets
Web-based digital pets
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Virtual petsites A virtual pet site, VPS, or bbmmo is a website where people can adopt and take care of virtual pets, buy items, play games, earn virtual money and explore lands. Many have clubs, as well as forums, mailing systems and adding friends. Bigger sites have auctions, trading and battling arenas are usually free to play and accessible to all who sign up. They can be accessed through web browsers A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users to easily navigate their browsers to and often include a virtual community, such as Neopia in Neopets Web browser with Adobe Flash Player plugin. Adobe Shockwave and 3D Life Player , Marada in Marapets, and Glacia on IcePets. In these worlds, you can play games to earn virtual money; which is usually spent on items and food for your pets.
Some sites adopt out pets to put on your webpage and use for roleplaying in chat rooms The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology ranging from real-time online chat over instant messaging and online forums to fully immersive graphical social environments. A chat room is a Web site,. They often require the adoptee to have a page ready for their pet. Sometimes they have a setup for breeding one's pets and then adopting them out.
Most sites use quests in order for users to make points & receive items. Some quests can give stat points to your pets for when they are battling. Such sites that use quests for a primary foundation on the site are IcePets[2], NeoPets & MaraPets. MaraPets started off the idea for specific items for specific quests which allowed great profitable restocking of the items. IcePets uses the same technique although IcePets has timed quests & has a quest which goes & picks the top 3 items sold of the day to use for the quests.
Other sites that adopt out pets to put on a webpage are centered around writing for and breeding said pets to create newer, often 'showier' creatures. Members are often encouraged to create their own species of draconic creatures, to adopt from other members, and to breed the various species together. Unlike with some adoption agencies for webpage based cyberpets, where the owner of the species is the only one that can breed said species, the Nexus encourages all of its members to share and interbreed their species together, and the resulting offspring are usually adopted out to story-based or stats page-based web-pages.
Some games also allow users to breed a pet for combat against other players.
Software-based digital pets
There are many computer PC games are created by one or more game developers, often in conjunction with other specialists and either published independently or through a third party publisher. They may then be distributed on physical media such as DVDs and CDs, as Internet-downloadable, possibly freely redistributable, software, or through online delivery services such as and video games A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device. However, with the popular use of the term "video game," it now implies any type of display device. The electronic systems used to that focuses on the care, raising, breeding or exhibition of simulated animals. Such games are described as a sub-class of life simulation game Life simulation games are simulation games in which the player lives or controls one or more artificial lifeforms. A life simulation game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation of an ecosystem". Since the computing power is more powerful than with webpage or gadget based digital pets, these are usually able to achieve a higher level of visual effects and interactivity.
Pet-raising simulations often lack a victory condition or challenge, and can be classified as software toys Non-games define a class of software that lies on the border between video games, toys and applications. The original term non-game game was coined by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. The main difference between non-games and traditional video games is the apparent lack of goals, objectives and challenges. This allows the player a greater degree.[1]
The pet is capable of learning to do a variety of tasks. "This quality of rich intelligence distinguishes artificial pets from other kinds of A-life, in which individuals have simple rules but the population as a whole develops emergent properties In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems".[1] For artificial pets, their behaviors are typically "preprogrammed and are not truly emergent".[1]
History
See also: List of artificial pet games A pet-raising simulation is a video game that focuses on the care, raising, breeding or exhibition of simulated animals. These games are software implementations of digital pets. Such games are described as a sub-class of life simulation game. The concept originated from console role-playing games, with the Megami Tensei series and Dragon Quest VThe concept of raising artificial creatures in a video game A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device. However, with the popular use of the term "video game," it now implies any type of display device. The electronic systems used to originated with Puppy Love by Tom Snyder Productions Soup2Nuts is a production company known for its animated series. It has also became known for its use of "Squigglevision", a technique of animation that reuses frames to make the animation look more kinetic, and for its style of improvisation in voice acting, released for Macintosh The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface rather than a command-line interface. The company continued in 1986. The concept next appeared in 1992 in Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride , known in Europe without the "V", is a console role-playing game and the fifth installment in the Dragon Quest video game series. Originally developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix Corporation, Dragon Quest V was the first title in the series to be released for the Nintendo Super Famicom ( by developer Chunsoft Chunsoft is a Japanese video game developer specializing in console RPGs. It was founded by Koichi Nakamura, a video game designer from Enix. They are best known as the creators of the Fushigi no Dungeon series and the first five installments of the Dragon Quest series.
PF Magic PF Magic was a video game developer founded in 1991 and located in San Francisco, California. Though it developed other types of video games, it was best known for its virtual pet games, such as Dogz and Catz. The company was able to make extra revenue by selling plush toys under the Petz trademark. It was bought out in 1998 by Mindscape, Inc. released the first widely popular virtual pets in 1995 with Dogz[3], followed by Catz in the spring of 1996, eventually becoming a franchise known as Petz Petz is a series of games dating back to 1995, in which the player can adopt, raise, care for and breed their own virtual pets. Petz has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.[citation needed]. Digital pets were further popularized by Nintendo Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel's Pokémon Pokémon is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's own series, debuting in 1995.
Digital pets were a massive fad A fad, sometimes called a trend, meme or a craze, is any form of behavior that develops among a large population and is collectively followed with enthusiasm for some period, generally as a result of the behavior's being perceived as novel in some way. A fad is said to "catch on" when the number of people adopting it begins to increase in Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is, and to a lesser extent in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language and United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land during the late 1990s. There have been significant improvements of digital pets since Tamagotchi The Tamagotchi is a handheld digital pet created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ Co. Ltd., and Aki Maita of Bandai Co. Ltd. It was first sold by Bandai in 1996 in Japan. Over 70,000,000 Tamagotchis have been sold world-wide as of 2008. Most Tamagotchis are housed in a small egg-shaped computer with an interface usually consisting of three buttons,'s success when it was released in 1996, from dot-images (such as Tamagotchi) to rendered and animated 3D games (such as Nintendogs). Today, there are also "Digital Pets" which have physical robotic bodies, known as Ludobots A ludobot is a type of artificial human companion: an entertainment robot, from Latin ludo and bot (robot) or Entertainment robots An entertainment robot is, as the name indicates, a robot that is not made for utilitarian use, as in production or domestic services, but for the sole subjective pleasure -an emotion, something machines, even the 'smartest' computers, are not capable to have- of the human it serves, usually the owner or his housemates, guests or clients. Robotics.
The idea of an animal companion composed of technology rather than flesh has also inspired a lot of fiction Fiction is any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s). Although fiction often describes a major branch of literary work, it is also applied to theatrical, cinematic, documental, and musical work. In contrast to this is non-fiction, which deals, such as the anime Anime (アニメ?, an abbreviated pronunciation in Japanese of "animation", pronounced [anime] in Japanese, but typically /ˈænəˌmeɪ/ (help·info) or /ˈænəˌmə/ in English) is animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation" Digimon Digimon , short for "Digital Monsters" (デジタルモンスター, Dejitaru Monsutā?), is a media franchise encompassing anime, manga, toys, video games, trading card games and other media. The franchise's eponymous creatures are monsters of various forms living in a "Digital World", a parallel universe that originated from (itself a contraction of "Digital Monster").
The popularity of virtual pets in the United States, and the constant need for attention the pets required, led to them being banned from schools across the country, a move that hastened the virtual pet's decline from popularity.
Common features of digital pets
There are many common features between different digital pets, some of them are used to give a sense of reality to the user (such as pet's responds to "touch"), and some for enhancing playability (such as training).
Communicating with digital pets
With advanced video-gaming technology, most modern digital pets do not show a message box or icon An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism. More broadly the term is used in a wide number of contexts for an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it either concretely or by analogy, as in semiotics; to display the pet's internal variable, health state or emotion like earlier generations (such as Tamagotchi). Instead, users can only understand the pet by interpreting their actions, body language Body language is a form of non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Humans send and interpret such signals subconsciously, facial expressions, etc. This helps keep a pet's behavior seem natural, rather than calculated, and fosters a feeling of a relationship between user and digital pet.
Sense of reality
To give a sense of reality to users, most digital pets have certain level of autonomy In the subfield of Sociology called Sociology of knowledge, controversy over the boundaries of autonomy stopped at the concept of relative autonomy , until a typology of autonomy was created and developed within science and technology studies (MARANHÃO, 2005; 2006; 2007; SOBRAL & MARANHÃO, 2008). According to it, the contemporary form of and unpredictability. The user can interact with the pet and this process of personalizing can make the pet more distinctive. Personalizing increases the feeling of responsibility for the pet to the user.[4][5] For example, if a Tamagotchi is unattended for long enough, it will "die".
Interactivity
To increase user's personal attachment to the pet, the pet interacts with the user. Interactivity can be classified into two categories: Short-term and long-term.
Short-term interactivity includes direct interaction or action to reaction from the pet. Example: "touch" a pet with mouse cursor and the pet will give a direct response to the "touching".
Long-term interactivity includes action that affect pet's growth, behavior or life span. Example like training the pet may have good effect on pet's health. Long-term interactivity is quite important for a sense of reality as the user would think that he has some lasting influence on the pet.
Two kinds of interactivity are often combined. Such as playing with a pet (short-term interactivity) may make the pet more optimistic.
Example of common features
- Responds to calling
- Responds to touching
- Training the pet
- Supplies or toys for the pet
- Dressing up the pet
- Competition or trial amongst pets
- Meeting other pets
- Complaining when it needs care
Ethical Concerns
Digital pets and children
While users can do whatever they want with their digital pets nowadays, it may encourage young users to form bad habits Habituation, a form of non-associative learning, is the psychological process in humans and other organisms in which there is a decrease in psychological and behavioral response to a stimulus after repeated exposure to that stimulus over a duration of time. It is arguable that a relationship An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love and liking, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships take place in a great variety of contexts, such as family, friends, with a digital pet cannot compare with a real relationship with an animal, because a real relationship teaches children that their desires can't always come first.
Digital pets over real pets
Some people suggest that digital pets are preferable for a number of reasons. Having a digital pet in place of a real pet ensures real pets don't have to suffer, and it is arguably training The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of technology . In addition to the basic training before adopting a real pet. PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it says it is the largest animal rights group in the world. Its slogan is "animals are not has suggested that robotic animals can help people recognize that they are not up to the commitment of caring for a real animal.[6] Another cogent argument is that the digital pet can successfully substitute a real one for children who cannot care for a real pet, such as those who suffer from allergies Allergy is a disorder of the immune system which is a form of hypersensitivity. Allergic reactions occur to normally harmless environmental substances known as allergens; these reactions are acquired, predictable, and rapid. Strictly, allergy is one of four forms of hypersensitivity and is called type I hypersensitivity. It is characterized by.
Impact of virtual reality on digital pet
Some people suggest that the simulated experience of digital pet lacks the constraints of the real world[7] that allows us to apply substantive ethics Ethics is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality — that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, justice, virtue, etc. The virtual environment failed to simulate real social consequences.
Another problem about digital pet is the "virtual slavery". A robotic pet could be made in the shape of a human, a problem raised by the fiction Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick first published in 1968. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, while the secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-normal intelligence who befriends some of the androids by Philip K. Dick.
Relationship with digital pet
There is research concerning the relationship between digital pets and their owners, and their impact on the emotions Emotion is the complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience". Emotion is associated with mood, temperament, personality and disposition, of people. For example, Furby A Furby was a popular electronic toy or robot, more specifically, a hamster/owl-like creature which went through a period of being a "must-have" toy following its launch in the holiday season of 1998, with continual sales until 2000. Furbies sold 1.8 million units in 1998, 14 million units in 1999, and altogether in its three years of affects the way people think about their identity, and many children think that Furby is alive in a "Furby kind of way" in Sherry Turkle Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a sociologist. Born in New York City in 1948, she has focused her research on psychoanalysis and culture and on the psychology of people's relationship with technology, especially computer technology's research.[8]
