the media's views of tamagotchi?

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purple pyonkotchi

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The title could probably be worded better, and I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but with the pix's announcement I'm seeing this happen again. Like here in America, tamagotchi hasn't really hit the same popularity as it did in the 90's, so anytime there's a new release all of the news articles are like "tamagotchi is back from the 90's!!!" and completely forget about any of the connection tamas or any of the japanese releases since then. Though I'm not sure if this is just an america-exclusive kind of thing, just a pattern I've noticed with any big news outlet/social media site/etc talking about tamagotchi.

When the mini released again in 2017, a lot of news articles were saying it was a remake of the original 90's one, which is technically true, though none of them mentioned that this was technically a rerelease of the 2005 version.... same with the On, too. A lot of articles were worded as if this was the first tamagotchi since the 90's to be released, just kinda completely forgetting all of the connection tamas or anything in japan for that matter. Though I kind of understand that, since it was the first color tama to come to america. But now with the pix's announcement, me and my friends have been seeing news articles acting as if this is AGAIN the first tamagotchi to be released since the 90's. It makes less sense to me now, since the On came out in america just 2 years ago, so seeing articles titled as "the 90's era tamagotchi is back -- this time with a camera" just kinda baffles me. another article title that made me laugh was "The New Tamagotchi's Camera Lets You Take Photos With Your Virtual Pet Before It Dies of Neglect"....... I'm just so lost lmao

It's a bit annoying that no one seems to address the fact that tamagotchi has been consistently successful over the past decade, specifically in japan with all of those color tama releases. I was joking with my friends that like 100 years from now they'll still refer to tamagotchi as just a 90's-only thing, but I really do wonder how long they'll keep this up. anyone else have thoughts on this?

 
Articles usually have clickbait titles, so that the reader feels interested to read the article. I agree, it's rather annoying that they completely skip nearly two decades worth of content.

 another article title that made me laugh was "The New Tamagotchi's Camera Lets You Take Photos With Your Virtual Pet Before It Dies of Neglect"....... I'm just so lost lmao
  It might also be because the writer doesn't really do any research, so they rely on using infamous features from the device. It's so overused that it just gets annoying to read imo. 

I think the media will forever see Tamagotchi as "the toy from the 90s" sadly, it's really quite a shame.

 
At this point, it just feels like a whole bunch of laziness - the general feel that I always get from these articles is "1990s toy that poops and dies", and since there's been a fairly constant stream of Western releases for the last three-and-a-half years, it ends up feeling more jarring to a fan, and quite possibly also to anyone who's seen them still offered for sale in local shops. Of course, Tamagotchis won't have remained a constant for most or all of these writers, but it only takes two minutes to do the necessary research to find that out - even the Wikipedia article will do the job (it's surprisingly comprehensive).

That said, these sorts of articles are generally just regurgitations of official press-releases, so there's usually not very much real writing involved - they're just cheap clickbait articles that don't take much time to create, and which bring easy revenue to the sites that run them. Of course, it never helps when official documentation includes that sort of phraseology to latch onto - though I can fully understand why a copy-writer would want to include a reference to the brand's highest point (and this will probably go on for as long as press-releases include this).

There are other toy brands that occasionally experience this (Teddy Ruxpin, Furby, Polly Pocket, Care Bears, and My Little Pony all spring to mind, and I know that I must be forgetting a bunch), and even some very major brands get affected every now and then - I even remember being shown an article from a foreign newspaper that acted like the 2017 Nintendo Switch was Nintendo's first console since the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System, for example (though quite how they thought that had happened when Pokemon is the world's biggest media-franchise, I don't know). That one was a good example of the sort of laziness and press-release-regurgitation that plagues articles about new Tamagotchi releases. :p

 
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Articles usually have clickbait titles, so that the reader feels interested to read the article.
That said, these sorts of articles are generally just regurgitations of official press-releases, so there's usually not very much real writing involved - they're just cheap clickbait articles that don't take much time to create, and which bring easy revenue to the sites that run them.
yeah yeah i definitely agree, i feel like its mostly clickbaity words used to catch the attention of 90s tamagotchi fans. I wish they would focus more on everything else tamagotchi has had to offer over the past decade, at this point every time i see an article about the pix written in that kind of way i just die inside

also im surprised to hear that nintendo has gone thru that kind of thing before, i feel like if i were to start talking like "your favorite plumber from the 80's is finally back!!!" i'd be getting death stares LMAO

 
Welcome to journalism. They don't care at all, especially when the subject involves technology or children.

It's only obvious when it's about a subject you happen to know about, so always keep it in mind when reading/watching news.

 
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This is a reason why I'm yearning for a dub of the anime; so that outlets will acknowledge Tamagotchi as far more than just "a toy from the 90's" and reconsider how they describe the franchise.
Just because you want a anime dub,doesnt mean BANDAI WONT BRING IT TO AMERICA.
 
Honestly, the media's views on Tamagotchi have always been "90s toy that poops and dies" in the west. This is purely speculation on my part, but because of how popular they were in the 1990s, that became what they were most known for. Tamagotchi's haven't been as popular in the west then they were in the '90s when they practically boomed. It's sad, really, since many other franchises like Pokemon that boomed in the '90s have been able to evolve and become more then just "popular 90's thing." I think the main reason Tamagotchi has that reputation (in the west) is that, unlike Pokemon, it never was as popular in the west after the Tamagotchi fad died out, even though Tamagotchi was able to still have some popularity, it was never as popular in Japan then it was in the best after the '90s. Even though the connections and other devices did sell well, eventually Tamagotchi's did fade out in popularity. Even only a few episodes of the first season of the anime aired outside of Japan.

On the positive side, I saw a trailer for the movie Turning Red, and the main character has a Tamagotchi, and it even makes actual P1/P2 sounds! It's nice to see Tamagotchi's appear in recent media. I hope with the Pix and the Nano's, that Tamagotchis will have a new generation of fans, and possibly be known for more then just being a 90s fad,
 

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