Bailey was shopping on Amazon and discovered Tamagotchis – a blast from the past – hit the Top 5 on Amazon’s Toy’s & Games chart. If you’re a Millennial, Baby Boomer, or from Gen X, you likely remember them from their original release in the 1990s. They helped usher in the era of needy digital pets, like Pokémon. However, I had a more recent memory from this brand I’d like to share in this review.
I was helping a musician friend of mine set up his YouTube, and we got everything rolling just fine. Later, I received a strange call regarding some charges he received from Google. He was wondering if they were transactions we authorized. After looking at my friend’s bill, I realized quickly it wasn’t due to our activities. The charges all seemed to have titles that would appeal to children, to the tune of almost $300. The most outrageous was a pony background subscription that was free until the year ended and they back-charged for the previous 12 months. The next highest bill came from Tamagotchi for their web app. He had to seriously re-think how he supervises his daughter’s activities on his phone. There were other culprits, but Tamagotchi was the most surprising because it’s such a big brand. It seemed as if they stooped to a fly-by-night model. As a result, buying a classic style of Tamagotchi outright may be a better investment. It’s funny how their little alerts and the constant attention they required were considered disruptive, nowadays they fit in quite well. Were Tamagotchis ahead of their time? Or did they merely train a generation to be glued to irritating devices? There is a link to an article from Digital Trends detailing a columnist’s pay-to-play experience on the app. For us, their recent choices tarnished their memory.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/my-tamagotchi-forever-now-available-worldwide/
– post by Chris
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