World Telemedia Day 3: Virtual Babies: Eccky, by Yme Bosma, Media Republic

*Bizarre* instant-messaging avatar generating thing where you invite your friends to create a baby with you, via IM.

Parents compete for attention from this baby. Parents just chat via IM with their baby, which apparently learns to talk gradually. Eccky will text parents to drag them back in.

1 day real time = 1 year game time, initially. Then they sped the game up to 1 day real time = 3 years game time.

Why? Eccky is about playing with someone else. Young people are living their lives online, and not alone. Eccky is an alpha version of a game which evolves around artificial life (oh god).

Behaves like any other user in the buddy list.