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It was in 1997. The year of Princess Diana’s dealth and her tribute returned in the song by Elton John, dissolution of the National Assembly by Jacques Chirac and the signature of the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Le Monde dances on "One, back, very Maria" by Ricky Martin and "Men in Black" by Will Smith. It was crowded in the dark theatre to see About-turn, Will Hunting, Starship Troopers and of course, Titanic. 1997 is also the year of a phenomenon in France, which shakes schoolyards and worries the adults: Tamagotchis. Twenty years later, they are back.
A virtual company
To celebrate the double decade, Bandai has decided to take out again for the first time of this year. Sold in limited edition for the moderate fifteen-euro sum, the ambition of Japanese manufacturer is modest. His target: the thirty-year old "adolescents" who knew the first version. Others say that you should not expect that period.
For a very good reason: this small plastic egg endowed with a primary LCD screen looks shabby in front of current smart phones. Nevertheless, it has contributed to popularize a kind of game which was going to know certain success: the breeding of virtual animals. Introduced by the games on PC Dogz et Catz, it consists of the taking care of the accompanied pets as we would make it being of flesh and blood. So, it is necessary to feed Tamagotchi, wash it, let it sleep, bring its needs … When you neglect your duties, it calls you in to order by a "beep" of the barest (and irritating in the long run).
If the set seems to be simplistic, one does not need more time to activate a generalized hysteria. Taken out in 1996 to Japan, the object is sold by pallet, even later in the United States and Europe. For only one year, 40 million of Tamagotchis are sold in the world. More than a toy, it becomes a social phenomenon.
In the cutting edge
Why such a success? Contrary to the games on PC, it holds in the pocket and can be taken everywhere with one. Then, the notion "to take care " is not an empty word because you are constantly attentive to all the requests. Furthermore, the possibility of bringing it to the school allows to create an emulation between children, boys and girls (what was rather unpublished, the video game being still the privilege of the first ones). If today the argument can lend to smile, the technological aspect is also for something there. Here is an accessible object for the children that allows downright to raise a virtual animal wherever you are. It weaves an emotional link with some ends of pixels in a period when Siri, Cortana and OK Googles succession still of the science fiction. If we put the object in perspective, there is no doubt that it participated to forge our report in the machine as the tam-tam in the same period, the portable consoles, then cellular telephones, iPods...
Moreover, Tamagotchi aroused similar concerns to those who feel connected the whole today. With the attention disorders, confinement in a virtual world (enfermement dans un monde virtuel), a loss of the notion of reality, substitute to an emotional lack, an attachment susceptible to cause a psychological trauma in case of loss of your loved one … We come here to qualify "sect", "admirers" of this toy in an evening TV news on a great listening chain!
Nevertheless, the phenomenon would not last. Very fast, sales eventually settle. The later versions (totally thirty) are far from meeting the same success. By-products (movie, video game) do not leave an immortal memory. The phenomenon is very fast submerged by other more substantial creatures of a narrative point of view: les Pokemon. It is necessary to wait for half of the year 2000s to see the kind resuscitating with the series Animal Crossing and Nintendogs of Nintendo on their portable console DS.
Twenty years later, is there Tamagotchis? Not much if it is only a nostalgia hint in this technology of another time by the vague digital.
" Like a candle in the wind ".
Article written by Thierry Randretsa