Word: fad
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...experiences rank as high on the surrealism meter as being asked to judge a robot dog contest. In following the cyber-pooch in question - AIBO, or Artificial Intelligence 'Bot - for two years now, I've seen Sony's high-end consumer toy go from a $2,500 limited-edition fad to a relatively mass-market, mass-produced $1,500 fad. But what transpired last Saturday afternoon at the Sony Metreon, San Francisco's massive multiplex and temple to all things techno, made me believe AIBO is leaving the realm of novelty and entering the living room and hearts...
...depends on who ended up with it. What I saw was that MTV was not merely a music channel; it was a generational channel. When we acquired Viacom, the world was saying MTV was a fad. And that was a challenge. Viacom deserves credit for making MTV into a worldwide brand...
...playing Yu-Gi-Oh, the game that has replaced Pokémon as Japan's No. 1 fad and is expected soon to enter the global lexicon. Yu-Gi-Oh, which means "King of Games," stars a seemingly normal boy named Yugi who gains extraordinary powers when playing a card game. The boom began when it was introduced as a plot twist in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga-comic series, which then spawned an actual card game, as well as Game Boy and PlayStation software, an animated TV show, action figures, pencil boxes and countless other money-sucking doodads...
Which is exactly why younger boys love it. The craze isn't limited to fad-mad Tokyo; in a large toy store on the southern island of Shikoku, every Yu-Gi-Oh card and Yu-Gi-Oh Game Boy game is sold out. "I get swarms of kids from the elementary school next door," says Mitsuaki Muraoka, the shop's manager. "On weekends, parents come in with pieces of paper on which they've written the word yu-gi-oh." Since Konami introduced them in 1999, the company has sold 3.5 billion cards; 7 million computer games have been sold...
...about these games is that they have reminded kids how fun it is to play with each other, instead of at home alone with a video console," says Macoto Nakamura, a Tokyo game designer. Are interactive games promoting interactivity of the retro, Old Economy kind? Could be: the toy fad currently sweeping Japan is Bei Blade, an updated version of spinning tops...