Nintendogs 3rd Million+ Seller For DS 19
TotalVideoGames reports that Nintendogs has passed the millions-sold mark, making it the third game for the DS to do so. From the article: "Additional titles set to break through the milestone shortly include Mario Kart DS, Yawaraka Atamajuku (Gentle Brain Exercises) and Motto Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training (Prof. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? 2), whilst Bandai's hugely popular Tamagotchi no Puchi Puchi Omisetchi (yes Tamagotchi) has also passed the mark making it the first 3rd party title to do so." We've previously reported on the DS's domination of sales charts in Japan.
Quick start to the "get a real dog" complaints! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll bite. Every time Nintendogs gets mentioned, I hear exactly what the poster here is saying.
Personally, I own the game because I already have two cats and I'd get evicted from my apartment if I took in some dogs, not to mention the headache of getting my 5 year old cats who have lived together all of their life to accept a dog coming into their territory. I happen to like my apartment and it's location, and don't wish to move to a house where I can have 84938493 dogs and 4839284932 cats.
I also do a lot of business travel unfortunately - kinda hard to take a dog with me to hotels all around the country. But the DS travels just fine.
Your "excuse" also holds merit to a situation I was in years ago - college dorms don't allow pets. So, I played PF Magic's Catz and Dogz while I was in college to be able to have pets again. It was a long way home to the cats my parents had.
Another reason that I've seen some parents latch onto Nintendogs is that they can see if their child can actually take the responsibility of introducing a pet into the house. Yes, the parents do take care of the pet as well, but if they expect the child to be a part of the caretaking process, what better way to see if they can handle it by using a virtual pet? Granted, it's not the best test, but it's a good first start to placate the child while the parents perhaps look through humane societies finding the perfect new family member. (The Nintendogs manual does spend a lot of time reminding you that Nintendogs are not real dogs, since they stay puppies throughout the entire game and don't get sick or die.)
I'm sure that an AC like you probably won't accept any of these reasons and claim that everyone should have two real pets for each virtual pet they happen to have as a video game, but there are real and noble reasons to have the game in my mind. And, yes, I do donate to the Humane Society (including the Georgia license plate that benefits animal care) in lieu of not being able to have more than two pets in my place of residence at a time.
-Bobby Blackwolf
It's about the gameplay. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, I think most people are playing the game because it's fun, not because it's any kind of replacement for a real dog.
Stupid. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, and why don't people drive real cars instead of playing racing games? Why don't they enlist in the military instead of playing first person shooters? Why don't they jump on real turtles instead of playing Mario?
Geez, it's a game. It's not a dog replacement. I'm getting tired of reading this same stupid comment in each Nintendogs article.
Anway, I've written about this before here [slashdot.org] and here [slashdot.org], so I won't repeat those arguments.