Tamagotchi Syndrome

Description
This pattern occurs when a user frequently revisits a site or service to nurture connections, one's own status, or maintain a game.

Examples
There is for instance the example of maintaining a social status by visiting social sites and catching up with recent events of connections, leaving them messages, etc. If this behavior isn’t adopted, users might jeopardize their social connections, much alike the real world where friends are commonly lost due to lack of contact.

Another example is social games such as The Sims Social or CityVille (both on Facebook, September 2011) where the user need to feed, entertain, rest, wash, etc. a virtual character or expand and run a virtual town respectively. The concern that the character will die or the town collapse encourages the user to return more often than usual. It is not uncommon that a point is reached where users keep track of specific times to return.

Pros and Cons
To the user, this behavior can be quite time consuming and create an obsession. However it is something that the service providers feed on in order to get increased activity on their site/service.

Relations
It could be related to Maintaining A Facade or Maintaining A Reputation, but is not bound to it. The pattern might also occur as a result of Reward Hunting by the user. It could also be an effect of the service having a well functioning Reengagement (Crumlish & Malone) design.

Contributions
Created by Patric Westberg.