Virtual Pets, once the plaything of children, have started to infiltrate the workplace. Consultancy Global Beach has created an obvious but very clever marketing tool, MOPy the fish to help Hewlett Packard Co market its printers. MOPy lives on your desktop, but is fed and kept happy by utilizing the print action. Owners of the virtual fish must feed and play with him or after fourteen days he will die. However, when kept contented and well fed he is a delight. It’s highly addictive, said one animated Moby owner. When MOPy is happy he swims up to the screen and gives you a kiss. Of course it’s all a ploy to make you feel guilty that you aren’t generating enough print-outs, destroying the rain forests fast enough, and using up as much of that high- margin toner cartridge as Hewlett Packard would like you to.
