Tamagotchis for system maintenance



"Virtual Tamagotchi" could be nourished by:
making backups
downloading patches
cleaning or defragmenting hard drive
People feel compelled to take care of "pets".
Users would take better care of their computers.
Tamagotchis were those popular "virtual pets" from a couple of years ago.  People could be seen constantly pushing buttons to feed and play with them to keep the little creatures happy.  
Maybe this same nurturing instinct can be directed to our computers, which require regular care.  People tend to neglect caring for their computers, but if there were a little character on the screen that represented the state of the computer, and the user may empathize with it.  Perhaps the owner would be encouraged to take care of it by making backups, downloading patches, and cleaning out its hard drive in order to make the little character happy.