疯狂的愚蠢玩具，成千上万

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I can still remember the day so vividly. I was in elementary school. My entire family got up early on one special weekend and piled into our pink and white mini van. I had my money tucked safely away in my little black sequin purse, and I could hardly contain my excitement.

我仍然记得那一天如此生动。 我上小学的时候 我的全家人在一个特殊的周末提早起床，堆放在我们的粉色和白色迷你面包车中。 我把钱安全地塞在我的黑色亮片小钱包里，几乎无法抑制自己的兴奋。

Today was the day that we were making the trip over to Toys R Us to pick up the toy that both my sisters and I had been eyeing for months — the tamagotchi.

今天是我们去玩具反斗城(Toys R Us)的那一天，要拿起我和我的姐妹俩几个月来一直在关注的玩具- 他妈哥池。

All my friends had it. And if you didn’t have one, boy did you want one. The tamagotchi was the craze of the late 90’s and early 2000's. At the peak of its popularity, there was one being sold every single second.

我所有的朋友都有。 如果您没有，男孩就想要一个。 他妈哥池是90年代末和2000年代初的热潮。 在其受欢迎程度达到顶峰时， 每秒钟就有一个被出售。

But how on Earth did a 20 dollar piece of plastic with terrible graphics and three simple buttons become so wildly popular? Let’s take a look.

但是，在地球上，如何制作出售价仅为20美元的带有可怕图形和三个简单按钮的塑料如此受欢迎呢？ 让我们来看看。

日本玩具公司万代是他妈哥池的生产商。 (The Japanese toy company, Bandai, was the producer of the tamagotchi.)

They came up with the idea for the toy in an attempt to fill a highly specific desire that most little kids have — to own a pet.

他们想出了这个玩具的想法，试图满足大多数小孩抱有宠物的高度特定的愿望。

When I was a young girl myself, my sisters and I were constantly begging our parents to get us a puppy. However, little kids don’t realize how much work goes into taking care of an animal. You have to feed it, walk it, and worst of all, clean up after it. Owning a pet is a huge responsibility, and an added expense that many families aren’t willing to take on.

当我自己还是个年轻女孩的时候，我的姐妹和我一直在乞求父母让我们养一只小狗。 但是，小孩们并没有意识到照顾动物要付出多少工作。 您必须先喂它，走它，最糟糕的是，清理它。 拥有宠物是一项巨大的责任，也是许多家庭不愿承担的额外费用。

My parents never got us that puppy. But, they did fill that desire for us to own a pet in another way — through the tamagotchi.

我的父母从来没有给我们那只小狗。 但是，他们确实满足了我们对我们通过塔玛哥奇以另一种方式拥有宠物的渴望。

Bandai intelligently designed the tamagotchi in a way that mimicks owning a pet.

万代以模仿主人养宠物的方式巧妙地设计了他妈哥池。

他妈哥池是一个简单的蛋形电子宠物模拟游戏。 (The tamagotchi is a simple, egg shaped electronic pet simulation game.)

It has three buttons that allow you to feed your pet, clean up after it, and take care of it. If you don’t, your pet dies. It seems a little morbid for a child’s play toy, but it captivated millions.

它具有三个按钮，可让您喂食宠物，对其进行清洁并加以照顾。 如果不这样做，您的宠物就会死亡。 一个儿童游戏玩具似乎有些病态，但是却迷住了成千上万。

With the tamagotchi, kids were finally able to take on the responsibility of owning a pet through a small handheld virtual device.

有了tamagotchi，孩子们终于能够通过小型手持虚拟设备承担养宠物的责任。

And taking care of that pixilated pet was addicting.

照顾那个像素化的宠物会上瘾。

I grew so attached to my tamagotchi that, like many other children, I started bringing mine to school. Eventually, our school had to ban them because they were becoming such a distraction in the classroom.

我变得对塔玛哥奇产生了极大的兴趣，以至于像其他许多孩子一样，我开始将我的塔玛哥奇带到学校。 最终，我们学校不得不禁止他们，因为他们在教室里变得如此分心。

Unsurprisingly, the tamagotchi went on to become one of the most iconic and profitable toys of the decade, with over 70 million sold.

毫不奇怪，他妈哥池继续成为近十年来最具标志性和利润的玩具之一， 售出了7,000万只 。

这是Bandai为使玩具取得如此惊人的成功所做的一切： (Here’s everything that Bandai did right to make the toy such a shocking success:)

• They filled a highly specific desire that most children have — to own a pet.
  他们满足了大多数孩子对养宠物的强烈要求。
• They made the toy affordable for almost everyone. It cost only $17.99.
  他们使几乎所有人都能负担得起的玩具。 只需$ 17.99。
• They made it incredibly simple to use, with only 3 buttons controlling the entire device (the later versions had 4 buttons).
  他们仅需3个按钮即可控制整个设备，而使用起来却非常简单(后来的版本只有4个按钮)。
• Children felt an emotional attachment to the toy. They felt a desire to keep their pet alive. Thus, they kept playing with it. And once they had one tamagotchi, they inevitably wanted more. In fact, my sisters and I all ended up buying a second one.
  孩子们对玩具有一种情感上的依恋。 他们感到有一种让宠物活着的愿望。 因此，他们一直在玩。 一旦他们吃了一个他妈哥池，他们不可避免地想要更多。 实际上，我和我的姐妹们最终都买了第二个。
• Parents liked that the toy kept kids occupied and taught them important lessons about responsibility and taking care of something other than themselves.
  父母喜欢玩具让孩子们忙个不停，并教给他们关于责任心和照顾自己以外的事情的重要课程。

This just goes to show that to create a successful product, you don’t have to invent the next Apple iPhone. Your invention doesn’t have to contain the latest and greatest technology, or even blow people’s minds. It simply has to fill a highly specific need. If it can do that, then your product will be incredibly desirable and ultimately, turn a huge profit.

这只是表明，要创建成功的产品，您不必发明下一款Apple iPhone。 您的发明不必包含最新和最先进的技术，甚至不必让人震撼。 它只需要满足高度特定的需求。 如果能够做到这一点，那么您的产品将是令人难以置信的理想之选，最终会带来可观的利润。

翻译自: https://medium.com/illumination/the-insanely-stupid-toy-that-made-millions-68cb02f51de1