What happens when your virtual pets die?

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I used to play Tamagothi quite a bit, but the virtual pet dying was pretty much the point. Too much heroin, most of the time.

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If they just stuck to pot…oh wait, from what I hear pot may be worse than heroin.

They go to Silicon Heaven?

Well if Robot Hell is real, why not?

The Lifecycle of Software Objects

As one of the writers of Petz, this warms the cockles of my heart.

I can’t vouch for the veracity of the PF.Magic info sheet, but it’s certainly a topic we discussed, and then made a marketing decision to not allow death to keep customers happy. They really didn’t want their pets to die.

We got a letter from a fan once, about how a tornado was bearing down on her home, and she ran inside to save her Catz onto a floppy so it would not be destroyed. We were simultaneously thrilled at the emotional bond we were able to cultivate, and horrified that someone would risk their life over a virtual cat.

People REALLY didn’t want them to die.

hi everyone, dixon here!
leigh alexander, thank you for reviewing my game and thinking so highly of it as to recommend it to others. i’ll definitely be walking around on a little cloud for a while! thank you so much. it really means a lot to me when others connect with my games.
@Pinkerton – i really don’t know what to say, my eyes are stars - thank you for commenting. dogz was quite literally my favorite game growing up. i really appreciate all the work and thought yall put into it. obviously others did too!!
and to everyone! thank you for being here and showing up for small games. please check out other games in the pet jam! they’re all gonna be stellar. ok bye <3

That’s fantastic - nice to see you here! I put Catz and Dogz on my dad’s pc in the early 90s, and laughed myself silly at the cat knocking the windows around!

My kids now have “Hatch” with Fugus. The creators elected not to have the pet die, but it does run away. Massive distress. It actually drives philosophical discussion with them!

It’s really great to hear from fans of the franchise, it always brings back great memories of that time. Even better when they’ve written a whole game dedicated to it! So thank you!

Now if only I could get off my butt and finish the Petz-alike game I’ve been working on on-and-off for the last six years… it’s all about death. Someone needs to make a virtual pet that pits your nurturing instincts against your competitive instincts. I have the whole thing planned out.

The pets feast on your blood… it’s kind of sick. :wink:

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