I've come to the conclusion that whoever designed these digital pets
really did their homework.

When the digikitty moved up to the "senior" life stage, the changes
that took place mirror some of the experiences I've had with a REAL
older kitty. For example, the cat loses weight. They eat less. Their
strength goes down -- I can't get that darn Strength index to go past
the halfway mark, which is 3 out of 6, no matter what I do. In fact,
I'm lucky to even get the darn index to go THAT high. It's been
hovering at 2 or even 1 since the cat awoke from her nightly snooze
yesterday.

Whereas before, the normal cat image on the screen showed her sitting
or standing (prancing around, actually), now she alternates between
sitting and lying down. Sometimes her facial expression is alert,
sometimes her eyes are half-closed. Her tail, which used to wave high,
droops down.

And sometimes, even when the hunger index is not at the top (meaning
that the cat's hunger is sated), she won't eat. Boy, does THAT ever
remind me of what I went through with Harmony a few weeks ago!

Her personality has changed a bit, also. Now the cat sometimes
complains (via beeping noises) when she feels sick. She did that during
the baby/youngster stage, but not as an adult.

Each time the digi-critter moved from one life stage to the next (baby
to youngster, youngster to adult, adult to senior), the keychain played
some music. The next time I hear that music, it's gonna mean "This is
the big one, Elizabeth!", because the stage after this is the "moved on
to Pet's Paradise in the sky" stage. None of the other stages continued
for more than a day or two, so I'm kind of expecting that serenade to
happen sometime today or tomorrow. We'll see what happens.

Interestingly, I find myself feeling sorry for the digipet when she
starts to look mopey. Especially since the things that USED to perk her
back up in previous life stages don't seem to have as much effect
anymore. It's frustrating, especially coming on the heels of my
real-life experience to that effect. However, if these toys were
originally designed to give kids an inkling of what it's like to have a
pet, KUDOS. Whoever did the design work really hit the mark.



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Send holiday email and support a worthy cause. Do good.
http://celebrity.mail.yahoo.com