Tamatalk and Tamagotchis... our friends

[Nazotchi25]

I remember a time, when i woke up in the morning. Quickly logged into Tamatalk.com, and had a feeling of a race to be the first one, with the best answer to someone's tamagotchi question. It was a small pleasure to feel this sort of.. Helpful feeling.

There was even a whole summer i could practically not peel away from my PC because i wanted to help so badly.

This is now but a dream... A dream that past by like the night. What happened to Tamagotchis? Where are all the people needing help. Where are the post? The frequency of people logging on an posting new topics. Before now, your post would be pushed out of the recent topics within minutes. Now it may take a day, sometimes two.

In this year alone, everything feels like a decline.. And it makes me sad.

Tamagotchis have basically disappeared from media in North America completely. There is not a thing we can do..

I used to ask and answer questions on a daily basis about tamagotchis. Now im surprised if i can even find a topic about the versions i have.

What can we do? What would we do?

How could we increase popularity in Tamatalk and Tamagotchi once more?

I'd love to hear any of your suggestions and answers on what you may think. Because i'd love to get back to the glory days of tamagotchi once more.

 

[WiiYoShi14]

Yes. It is very sad that Tamagotchi has faded from our media. I remember the day I got my first tamagotchi, on my 7th birthday. Tamagotchis were almost ALWAYS sold out. I remember TamaTalk from 2007, and I never made an account, until now. I remember like you did, about how topics would be out of the "Recent Topics" section, within minutes. One time, I saw a topic about a V3, and when I went to find it the next day, it almost took me an hour to find it, because there was so many new topics.

Tamagotchi is a wonderful thing, that I think kids nowadays should be able to experience it. I asked my friend, who used to be ALL over tamagotchis, if she still had any, because I thought I could buy it from her, and she said: "Why would you want them? You like those?" (Exact Quote) *Note* Our fandom for tamagotchis had faded as we got older, but I recently got back into them. She still dislikes them. I told my other friend about tamagotchis, and he seemed pretty interested, so thats good, right? I told him I would loan him one of mine. But still. Bandai America has really let us down. Where are the tamas? All of the "New L.I.F.E Accessories" are mostly geared toward girls.

Where has tamagotchi gone?

~Wii

 

[elisiemo]

I think some of it may have to do with the lack of an American/English release since 2010. No new players are being made aware of how much fun these toys are because, well, they aren't being sold anywhere. If Bandai were to release a new model here, I'm willing to bet we'd see a large influx of members.

 

[LittleChocoWolf]

It'd also have to be more about the size of a Japanese color tamagotchi. People probably saw the Tama-Go but who would want to buy that large toy and carry it around with them unless they were already avid fans of the toys? Bandai America just needs to get their crap together and release once again and people WOULD get back into them :c

I think some of it may have to do with the lack of an American/English release since 2010. No new players are being made aware of how much fun these toys are because, well, they aren't being sold anywhere. If Bandai were to release a new model here, I'm willing to bet we'd see a large influx of members.

 

[Eternal Mametchi Fan]

They ought to make the anime more known! If people see how funny and cool the anime is, they'll want to buy Tamagotchis. The English anime only has 26 episodes though and is only in Australia. They need to dub more episodes and release it in America!

 

[webster04]

I think if Bandai japan and Bandai america worked together to bring back the vintage tama's in english then they would make a huge profit from it! But alas they will probably never do it even though I love my vintage tama's more than my connection tama's.

 

[abokado]

Well, another reason can be: It's summer. This is totally normal for summer time. It's a summer slump. People are busy, going on a vacation and stuff like that. I think this is normal. I mean, I haven't checked in here for some time either and have a lot to catch up, but I don't really bother right now because it's summer and I have a lot of other stuff to do.

 

[Nazotchi25]

Well, another reason can be: It's summer. This is totally normal for summer time. It's a summer slump. People are busy, going on a vacation and stuff like that. I think this is normal. I mean, I haven't checked in here for some time either and have a lot to catch up, but I don't really bother right now because it's summer and I have a lot of other stuff to do.

However its only summer on the north hemisphere

 

[robodog]

There's really nothing we can do. Without an American release to attract new fans the only people left are the die hards who are interested enough to seek out Tamagotchi Information. TamaTalk is probably the biggest Tama site on the internet. It's one of the first sites anyone searching for Tama info will find. But with no new Tamas available for potential new fans to stumble across the amount of new people searching for Tama info has decreased dramatically. That just leaves the aforementioned die hards. Most of which are probably already aware of TamaTalk and already have accounts.

 

[TotallyTamagotchi]

If they released an English colored version in America, I'm sure they would be a big hit.

 

[robodog]

I'm certain they would too if it was advertised properly. The P's are a lot of fun. I can't see English versions not flying off the shelves in America. New Furbys do and the P's blows them out of the water.

 

[Owl]

I'm certain they would too if it was advertised properly. The P's are a lot of fun. I can't see English versions not flying off the shelves in America. New Furbys do and the P's blows them out of the water.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[Tamacass]

I know! It's all because of a mash up in 2010! It's stupid! WHY BANDAI?! WHY?!

 

[tamastar133]

THE FREAKING BANDAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just gave up to BanDai JP and gave us the Tamago O__________O

 

[Samjjetchi]

In reality, Tamagotchi has been exponentially declining in popularity since around 2008. The difference is Bandai Japan created the Tamagotchi+Color - the first ever color Tamagotchi release - which was something new and "reinvented" the brand. Bandai America released the Tamagotchi Music Star, which tied in with the previous releases that were losing public interest. As Bandai Japan continued to move forward (with the iD including downloads), Bandai America tried a different approach in the form of the Tama-Go and a greyscale screen, which (evidently) didn't work too well.

If Bandai America were to release a color screen Tamagotchi in the US, there would still be a chance for the brand to be "reinvented" - even 5 years after Japan has already done so. Running with what EMF said, if they brought the Tamagotchi! Anime to the US, that could help engage attention with the younger audience to introduce them to Tamagotchis, and perhaps their parents - who may have grown up with the original 1996 Tamagotchis - will give them a try, too.

... back to the topic at hand though, this was always going to happen. It's not just TamaTalk that's been affected, it's all online Tamagotchi communities. 5 years ago, there were quite literally hundreds of Tamagotchi fan forums around... now, I'd struggle to name even 5 that are still moderately active. If interest in Tamagotchi declines, interest in Tamagotchi fan forums do as well. It's a knock on effect. It can only be rectified by reigniting interest in the main brand.

 

[kuromametchifan123]

Also, advertising, which Bandai America doesn't do the best job of. New fans can't become new fans without knowing the product exists. I remember back in 2006 or so, you'd see Tamagotchi commercials all the time, and Tamagotchi were popular then. Then in 2010 when the Tama-Go was released, I saw the Tama-Go commercial only once, late at night, on TV, when the target audience would probably be asleep.

If Bandai America released a new toy, and advertised it properly, there would be more new fans.