Toy with a Widespread Fatal Curse - The Tamagotchi Efffect compels toy owners to self-harm

If the gift of a toy is followed by death, does that mean the toy was cursed? Ask the largest toy makers in the world, which are Mattel, Hasbro, LEGO, and Bandai. Bandai is a Japanese toy maker, which manufactures Ultraman, Gundam, and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Their toys have brung joy to hundreds of millions. Some are also said to have brung death.

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In 1996, Bandai introduced the Tamagotchi, a virtual pet. On the LCD display of a plastic key fob, shaped like an egg, a digital egg appears. After the owner sets the time, the egg hatches into a little animal, like a baby bird.

Now the owner is responsible for the care of the pet. By pushing one of three buttons, the new animal must be fed, played with, disciplined, and cleaned up after. At night, the animal will sleep. But in the daytime, if the toy is left alone, for more than six hours, the cyberpet will die, from lack of attention.

First, the Tamagotchi will start to beep, like a heart rate monitor. Then you will hear the steady tone of a flatline. Next, on the display screen, appears a headstone, with a large cross on top of it.

If the animal dies of old age, it may randomly leave an egg behind, so the family line can continue.

The device can be reset. But it will hatch a different animal. The original pet, is forever gone. There was no way to pause the so-called gameplay, so to keep their digital pets alive, children had to bring them to school.

Stories began to circulate, of several children, as well as adults, whose relationship with their digital pets had become so emotionally satisfying, that when their animal's life came to an end, they decided to commit suicide.

This phenomena has given birth to a new psychiatric term. The "Tamagotchi Effect" is the development of emotional attachment to machines, or robots, or software.

Anyone who is old enough to contemplate suicide, will also be aware that a digital pet, is just a simple video game. But on some level, they forget this... more so, as time goes on. It's a basic human need to nurture, and we become increasingly attached to the object of that need.

Toy maker Bandai, released a new generation of Tamagotchi's, late in the year 2014. Now is about the time, their long-life lithium batteries, should begin to run down.

Additional credits:

Demons by cdk (c) 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, original has been altered, http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/cdk/46920

BallisticsArcade-IAAPA.jpg by Triotech Amusement, CC BY-SA 3.0, original has been altered, http://www.trio-tech.com/