Tech Immersion Project - Progress Report (continued)

It’s been about a month since I got my e-pet. In order to keep my pet alive and happy, and to increase her strength and skills, I have a lot to do. Basically, what I needed to do is to owe Neopoints, so that I can use the virtual money to purchase food, carry out exchanges, buy pets and toys for my pet, build and decorate houses, acquire equipment to compete with other characters or play in the Battledome. These activities are often located in a variety of ‘worlds’ located in a place called ‘Neopia’. Taking care of my pet is a painstaking process. I have to play a lot of silly computer games to owe neopoints, though I am not a game lover at all. The price for food is very high, at least for me. I have to play hard! Even when I get enough Neopoints, buying food is difficult too. Usually, the cheapest food goes very fast. So very often, when I happily found that there was one type of food I can afford and clicked on the food, it showed up that I was late, and the food was sold! However, I feel relieved and happy when I fed my pet with delicious food or bought her a book to read or a pet to play with. My RongQiuQiu is becoming happy and strong under my care. It is interesting that I clearly know there is no real living creature there. My pet RongQiuQiu is just a few lines of scripts. But I feel the existence of her. I cannot stop playing games for even one day, because I know if I don’t owe money, she will have no food to eat. I hate to make her hungry. I was wondering whether I have to take as much effort if I just keep a real pet. I was also wondering which pet would bring me more fun, the real one or the virtual one.