Virtual dogs are so popular nowadays that Google will gives half a million results for both “virtual dogs” and “digital puppy”.

Granted that many of these results merely mention the words it is still surprising how much websites there are dedicated to virtual dogs and other virtual pets. It seems that people can’t have enough of dogs and would love to have dogs as their pet whether in real life or on the web.

The popularity of virtual dogs can attributed to several factors aside from the natural popularity of dogs. Some of the reasons why people opt to have dogs as their virtual pets include:

Not being allowed to have dogs in real life

This is true not just for kids but also adults living in living conditions where dogs as pets are not practical or possible.

Saving money

Real dogs can be costly to maintain. With virtual dogs all you need is a computer connected to the internet or a tamagochi.

Less maintenance

While playing with virtual dogs can be fun they are also easier to maintain because feeding, playing, putting them to sleep, and even training them takes only a few clicks. Virtual dogs don’t take up that much time, unless you get addicted to the game.

No diseases/accidents

Virtual dogs don’t really get sick (although some games allow the digital pets to get sick and die) so you won’t have the heartbreak of dealing with losing a pet. Since the dogs are also digital it is also more sanitary and won’t be a problem even for those with asthma.

Posted by admin on January 28th, 2008
Filed as: Virtual Pets | Leave a Comment | Trackback