Slashdot Mirror
Virtual Girlfriend
Sven-Erik writes " BBC News reports about a Hong Kong based company called Artificial Life that has developed a solution for men without a partner, in the form of a virtual girlfriend that appear as an animated figure on the video screen of a mobile phone. But there is a downside to the virtual girlfriend - she will require more flowers and gifts than many real women. All virtual girls will look the same - but each girl will behave differently - depending on how much money is spent on her. In return, she will introduce them to different aspects of her life, like letting them meet her female friends - also electronic images. Artificial Life is hoping to launch the new game later this year, on the latest 3-G mobile phones.
or is this the most pathetic thing ever?
Blaze a trail to the New World
people will actually buy it.
WTF!!!???
Who would buy this service!?
How is this any different from "Dating Sims" like this one or this one? Am I missing something, or is the innovation here just that it is on a mobile phone? -F
Then I get pissed I didn't think of it first.
I know that a guy who is bad with girls can use the simulation to practice, but really, just try a real girl. You don't have to date. Just hang. Also, this game is going to be used by guys with girls, but instead of talking and spending time with thier girlfriends, they are going to be wasting time on this. A girlfriend is more than just a convinent hole and someone to make you dinner.
A long time ago, when I was taking sex ed, the book, Boys and Sex, talked about masturbation. It pretty much said all things in moderation, and solo activity should allow, not take the place of forming real relationships that are neccesary for emotional development. It sounds like this is just anothe thing that is going stunt the growth of a generation of teenage boys.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
And these fellows will be exploiting them all the way to the bank.
..but each girl will behave differently - depending on how much money is spent on her.
Since you're not getting any sex, she's more like a therapist than a girlfriend.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
Why would anyone in their right mind want to pay for virtual gifts for a virtual woman. This is the ultimate version of hell. Appearantly she nags at you if you don't spend money on her. It's like all the punishment and none of the reward. Morphix Game Rate: -5 (Would rather run tongue across a rasp than play this game)
I think someone needs to be smacked for even thinking this is a topic we care about... It's not like we have nothing better to do then beat off to our phnes...in the words of Jimmy on southpark: "I mean...come on...". I would never ever want to buy something so stu...HOLY FUCK THEIR ONLY $300! See you later...
If carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up. - Comedian Mitch Hedberg R.I.P. 03/30/68-2/24/05
Ten years after Demi Moore went for a million bucks, we've found a way to bring the objectification of women to a new level. The computer is apparently Larry Flynt's new meat grinder.
It's sad to see the rate at which our runaway technological advances outstrip the advancement of society. In one hundred years we've developed flight, space travel, nuclear physics, gene therapy, and global digital communications networks, but we still can't get past treating women like property instead of people.
Articles like this are why I'm so excited about the possibilities of genetic engineering. I feel like the only way to get this bug out of the system is to change the source code. Imagine a world of humans without gender or race - imagine what we could accomplish!
For now we're stuck with a world where we hang female children for mouthing off, create computer programs to be interchangeable currency for female slaves, pretend that gender warfare is actually a natural state, and where female developers can't post on Slashdot without seeing the first ten replies read "show us your tits".
Humynity sure has a long way to go.
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
Moderators are on crack. This is not offtopic.
I think it just struck a little close to home for someone..
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
It's an X-rated Tamaguchi!! Do you have to pet her and feed her and talk to her?!?
I can think of better ways to spend my money, thanks!
--LWM
I have this overwhelming sense of pity for some poor lonely guy out there who would have to get a Virtual Girlfriend because he cannot hold a real relationship. All this guy wants is a bit of love and respect, but he just can't get it. Then I get disgusted at the greedy, money-grubbing company trying to capitalize on these poor souls, feeding their thirst for money off of their victim's need for love and acceptance...
I'm not sure if all of this is meant to be a joke (as one respondant has already suggested) but since you are being modded as Insightful I'm going to reply as though you were serious. This company is providing a service. To think of them as exploiting someone is a real misunderstanding of commerce. Do grocery stores exploit me because I have a biological need to eat? There are numerous reasons why some guy may need to find love and finds this Virtual Girlfriend thing to be a less-risky outlet. Perhaps someone has recently been hurt very badly in a relationship (e.g., engaged and then his fiance ran off with someone else) and just isn't ready to date real people just yet. Rather than forcing him to interact with other (real) women when he's still thinking about his loss (which wouldn't be very much fun for the women he meets) or having him sit on his couch bawling to himself, this Virtual Girlfriend may actually serve a theraputic purpose. In this case, the company is not exploiting him but is helping provide a way for him to get over his loss. Yeah, it would be great if this company provided this free of charge out of the goodness of their hearts but that's not the world we live in. They developed the technology and need to recoup their investment as well as reward those who came up with the idea. This is legitimate commerce, not exploitation.
GMD
watch this
Gee, guys still worry about the size of their dicks, yet women have said time and again they don't care.
Any stable, loving lesbian couple will tell you that it's not big dicks women are after.
When will you little boys understand this?
Loser.
What's the difference between this and an "online relationship" with some girl on the other side of the country that has tricked you into believing that she's some model in a JC Penny catalogue?
I mean, really, virtual girlfriends have been around since IRC became popular..this is nothing new.
I have to say, I'm catastrophically single (25, never dated, - things could only be worse if I lived in my parents basement), and I think this is a bad idea. This should tell you something.
I have this overwhelming sense of pity for some poor lonely guy out there ...
He may be "poor", but that's not because he has no girlfriend. He's poor because he's fallen into self-pity after being brainwashed into believing that he must have one or else he becomes somehow inferior.
The fact of the matter is, companionship is not wanted by all, and sex is not necessarily tied to companionship, and sex is not wanted by all either. On top of that, even when both companionship and sex are desired, they can be judged on a cost/benefit basis and rejected as detrimental on balance.
Not everybody is a slave to their instincts and their hormones. Even though we live in pretty anti-intellectual times, some people control their lives a little more carefully than the mass media and Slashdot would have you believe.
Funny, but when I forget our anniversary, I apologise to J. and we move on with our life. I don't know where this stereotype of women being hung up on random stupid shit came from, but I'm sure glad I seem to have missed it.
"America has done some terrible things. But I know that Americans don't cheer when innocents die." -Dave Barry
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
You're right, you can't. You have to want to change yourself. Reading alone does nothing.
But want to change and you will.
Gee, guys still worry about the size of their dicks, yet women have said time and again they don't care.
They're trying to spare your feelings.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Dude, ouch! You're obviously not thrilled about the situation, but it can be changed -- but it takes a lot of groundwork. If it's a psychological problem like chronic shyness, social phobia or generalised anxiety disorder, get thee to psychotherapist (preferably one that's into Cognitive Therapy instead of Freudian analysis). If you've got Generalized Nerd Syndrome (bad clothes, overweight, etc), get thee to a gym, book a starter session with a personal trainer and work out a realistic routine. Then find a department store that offers a 'personal shopper' service (it's like your very own 'Queer Eye for The Straight Guy') Ask for help with clothes and toiletries. It won't be cheap, but if you haven't been dating you should have some disposable income and you'll end up smelling nice with well fitting clothes that suit you, which makes a huge difference. If you're actually disfigured due to injury or disease get thee to a support group and start exploring options with them. Once you've laid the groundwork, consider something like eHarmony, Match.com or Nerve (meeting someone through a dating service has finally lost it stigma, at least on the coasts if not everywhere). Take it easy: you haven't had the opportunity to practise dating skills in the sandbox of adolesence, so resign yourself now to making screw-ups. Don't sweat about them, just learn from them. But the point is you actually have to start doing the spadework: self-awareness is great but only if you use it to chart a course to somewhere else. Set short-term concrete goals: i.e. "By the end of the week I will have made an appointment with a doctor/personal trainer..." not "I'll try get fit by Christmas," because Christmas will be here in the blink of a eye and you still won't be in shape. Remember, Do or Do Not, a Jedi does not try.
"Just once, I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." -- The Brigadier, Dr. Who
You forgot to mention a bit of advice which has saved countless people from being intimidated... If you go on a date, DO NOT think of it as a date. Just think of it as going out with a friend to hang out.
If the chemistry is right between you, things will happen. One of you will just know the right time to make a move.
Thinking of a date as a date can set unrealistic expectations.
Enough said really... striking up a friendship or rapport with someone is the best ice breaker ever.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
'Zactly. _If_ I were the kind of girl that could ever be found in a bar... and if on _top_ of that I went around asking guys to buy drinks for me.... then maybe I'd be the kind of chick this stuff would work on. But I'm not, I'm here instead ;)
You're an idiot.
I think this is very apt
[snip]So is this the image they're pushing to our men out there, now? Everyone knows that the woman you are with doesn't want you for you -- It's really only the gift that matters -- and it's obviously only diamonds that we want! So forget those little, inexpensive but nice tokens of appreciation, forget going on walks in the city or countryside, and forget just plain conversation! Buy your woman a great big fat rock. Everyone wants a big shiny rock. Especially women. You are now a sex-god if you give your woman a shiny rock. Rocks good. Sex good. Rocks get sex. Buy rocks.
There is always this scene in one show or movie or other where the man takes his fiancee to pick out a ring. When she picks this diamond encrusted, platinum looped, gold finished, ruby studded abomination of metal and stone and the man refuses because he simply isn't willing to pay sixty grand for a ring, she freaks out at him.
Obviously the man sees it as a huge practical loss, sixty thou for a fucking circular band of metal that could fall down the toilet whilst his ugly wife is using her daily douche or whatever it is high-maintenance women do in the bathroom.
Either that or he has the horrendous statistic in his head, the 50% of marriages break up after year one... Or was it six months? Well, anyways, the man has the practicality of the situation at hand and tries to persuade his picky fiancee into a cheaper, more plain ring. [snip]
Any such strategy you try will not change the basic probabilities. Choosing whether you have another child, based on the gender of the last one, will not affect the gender of the next one. (Ultimately, the next couple to have children will only be picking up where you left off.)
It could be said that the strategy described encourages those who are somehow predisposed to having girls, to have more children, but whether that occurs is outside the scope of this argument.
It's tragic. Laugh.
You are absolutely right. I used to be in the same boat. But for the hell of it I started thinking I was the king shit, top dog, alpha mail, whenever I walked into a place. Amazingly enough chicks started to check me out and talk to me. It's all about how you cary yourself and how you present yourself.
Of course this turns you into a superficial ass hole but wtf, you get laid.
You pay money for the Virtual Girlfriend program. There is no sex involved, no nudity, no dirty talk, no physical contact, not even a kiss.
Ok, now, in order to have her talk to you, she requires virtual gifts. Lucky you, for the company that makes Virtual Girlfriend can sell them to you FOR REAL MONEY, yet she will keep requiring more and more from you, otherwise she won't speak to you.
Apparently, as I understand it, not only does it waste your time, it also wastes your real money, and only rich people can afford to keep her talking to them. The amount you have to spend has not yet been determined, yet I got a funny feeling that they can change the setting on you to make her require more "gifts" that end up costing you more money. You might, oh, start by spending $20 a week on her, and then they send an instant message to your phone that turns on the golddigger routines to make you pay $200 a week. That is what I think will happen.
If you want to waste your time and money, find a webcam whore, cell phones have amazing web browsers now and the Internet fees and webcam fees can potentionally be less than the Virtual Girlfriend. I used that link because Maddox explains how to be a Web Cam Whore so well, that you'll know what to expect. At least you might be able to see some female body parts for your money, and be able to get some bad poetry, which should be better than the Engrish responses the Virtual Girlfriend would give you. I think Virtual Girlfriend is targeted towards the guys who visit Web Cam Whores anyway, both the Web Cam Whores and Virtual Girlfriends seem to have the same intelligence anyway, and the same low intelligence audience that cannot get a date even if they were the last man in town, with $1 million USD in a suitcase, a 2004 BMW, and used phermones to attract women.
The whole business idea of Virtual Girlfriend is to get the sad lonely loser hooked, until he is paying more money than a crack addict for a fix.
I hope that someone like Maddox writes a sarcastic review on it, besides me. ;)
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