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.

Comments

Ignore Mode?

[grunt107]

If I ignore the VG, will she die like the Virtual Pets did?

Re:One of the saddest things I'v ever read. AC1

[Anonymous Coward]

You get the same endorphin release even if the hugging stimulus is artificial. Shelton's research found that if opiate receptor blockers were used, monkeys would go crazy for their endorphin fix, and hug just about anything.

A hugging pillow would do a lot of good to mildly depressed people. Even if you don't think it should work, apparently the body still responds.
I have a pet theory that some bondage/constriction etc fetishes are caused by endorphin depletion.

Thinking about it, that's kinda sad too.

Re:One of the saddest things I'v ever read.

[RainbowSix]

Here's a pic of the boyfriend arm pillow

the site is called FUNHI

[Destoo]

Yes. FunHi
here's an opinion. (I'm still too speechless from seeing the site the first time to form an opinion about it. I'm still at the "banging head on monitor repeatedly" stage)

There is a gift store, which allows people to buy gifts for people they like. Which mostly means that guys will try to attract the attention of the girls who've uploaded the most enjoyable bikini pictures. The gifts are simply a small GIF file with a picture of something. Like flowers or a private jet. The gifts start at 1 cent. And there's nothing wrong with the gifts that cost 1 or 5 cents. But, somehow, the social dynamic of showing a list of who gave what gifts to what person, and them being listed in reverse price order, means that some people will be very motivated to buy the expensive gifts. Like the $14.99 jet plane or the $30 credit card. Remember, they're just GIF pictures. You don't even download them. And, remember, you pay for them with a real credit card.
-Flemming Funch, ming.tv

Re:Skills you learn could save your real relations

[jlseagull]

You, my friend, are whipped. Verbatim quote from the girl I've been dating for years, after I mentioned the fact "hey, we met X years ago today."

"You know, don't bother remembering stupid things like that. Even though my girlfriends think I'm an idiot for saying this, I'm sticking by it. Make every day special for us, and I'll be yours forever. I will never ever get mad at you for not remembering these things."

Of course, it helps that she's Eastern European and doesn't grant importance to the Hallmark Holidays(tm). American women have bought into that bullshit wholesale, I'm done with them.

It's not even that novel an idea

[cryptochrome]

The Japanese have been pumping out dating sims for years now. Very few of them have moved outside of Japan though, and the few that have are usually hentai.

When I pondered the nature of this phenomena I could draw only one conclusion - they're much like flight sims in the sense that you could theoretically apply the skills you've built there to real life. Remember key facts about her. Give gifts. Manage your time so you can work to earn money to buy said gifts while still maintaining a relationship. Say the right things. Do everything right on a date. Climb the relationship ladder so she'll put out.

Of course the details vary by game and all of them have a distinctly Japanese sense of relationships, which is why you see so few outside of Japan. And it doesn't have anything like the nuance of real relationships - it practically trains you not to do or expect anything unique either. And when it comes to the hentai, the "lessons learned" are frequently worthless and often morally repugnant, but nevertheless fit into some twisted perception of dating.

So, this expensive mobile realtime version of a dating sim is just an evolution of the concept. Albeit a rather expensive one. Frankly, it doesn't seem like it needs to be online. And the fact that all "girlfriends" look alike reeks of encouraging either mental or programming laziness. It must have some other special realtime hooks, like an advanced voice synthesis and interpretation engine, or an extensive and up-to-date library of keywords and responses.

Re:It's not even that novel an idea

[gujo-odori]

I lived in Japan for eight years, and you're quite right, there's nothing especially unique about this; it's basically just a Tamagotchi for people who are old enough to jerk off.

So, how to make it unique?

Just a little glue. The pieces are already all in Japan.

One of the many things that Japan is (in)famous for, and perhaps wishes it wasnt, is imekura (image clubs) and telephone clubs. An imekura is where you go for koosu-purei (course play) - sexual fantasy vignettes. For everyone salaryman who has ever wanted to be a train groper but had either too much decency or too little nerve, they have an answer: a train car mockup complete with an OL (or a young woman in a high school uniform, if that's your thing). They also have OL fantasies, nurses, the usual suspects. SM at some of them.

Then there are the telephone clubs. The girls are often high school girls, the customers are not high school boys. Go to the telephone club, use the phone, maybe get to make a date to meet up with a girl. If you meet up, money and bodily fluids will be exchanged.

In other words, Japan has no shortage of young women, high school girls (and even some jr. high school girls) willing to put out for money, either in a direct cash transaction or in exchange for expensive designer bags and such.

Enter (no pun intended) the virtual girlfriend.

You play the game. You buy her presents, do and say all the right things, etc. If you've been very good, a real, live meatspace girl (who has been getting her cut from all these virtual presents for the virtual GF) shows up.

She doesn't know your real name. You don't know hers. But she does know your history with the virtual GF and takes over the persona for a little while in meatspace. Maybe she'll go to some function with you. Maybe have dinner or go to a movie, have a meatspace date with the virtual girlfriend. Or maybe you just head straight to the love hotel, which is what she really showed up for: real-life sex with the virtual girlfriend. Whether this would require some additional presents (most likely the foldable kind that go in your wallet) or not would have to be worked out. If, or how much,she needed would probably depend on what kind of cut she was getting from those virtual presents.

Is this a troll or something? Heck no. Anyone who has lived in Japan for a while (and BTW, I love the place; none of this is trash-talking Japan, I'm just describing some things that are there. No, I don't go to those places; I'm married) knows that combining the virtual GF game with a meatspace temporary GF who just shows up for a no-strings-attached turn at a love hotel would be a huge hit. Not with the whole population, and maybe not long term, but for a year or two (maybe more), they'd make a killing.

Steps will have to be taken to ensure that neither the virtual BF (hereafter referred to as "the john") nor the virtual GF (hereafter referred to as "the ho") can find out the other's identity (nothing could stop the john and the ho from sharing this info if they wanted to; the important point is just to prevent the other person from knowing who your are without your consent), but the plan itself is fully workable.

And I won't even try to patent it ;-) However, if anyone else does, you saw the prior art here :-)

Re:Holy Cow!

[InfiniteWisdom]

I'll attest to that. I was in almost the same situation... 23 years old and never been on a date

At some point I decided to take the plunge into online dating and bought memberships at a website or two. Its not like things changed dramatically overnight, but I went from never having dated to having a date or two every month. Even though things didn't work out even a little bit with anyone for a long time, I felt like a lot less of a loser. Especially given that even if I got brushed off after a date, there were others I'd met mroe recently who "were in the pipeline"

I met several very nice (often also very attractive) women, chatted a while, decided to meet. It took me a while to even get a second date though, so take what the parent said about screw-ups and learning from them seriously. Most of the girls probably went from thinking of me as a "nice, fun guy" from chatting online to "nice but horribly socially inept" guy withing the first hour. After about a year of stumbling around I learnt to read signs, be just a little less awkward etc.

I think what the parents suggests about seeing a therapist might be a little too extreme unless you figure out there really is a problem that warrants professional help. For me, just keeping my eyes open helped go a long way. I learnt to pay attention to other people... those who are a lot more socially talented that I. Learn how to make small talk, know what topics to avoid with someone you've met 5 minutes ago, take notes from other peoples' sense of style. Don't copy them, but just observe and learn. I also made it a point to put myself in social situations that I used to avoid, talk to new people in bars/parties etc. (whether male or female).

I really do feel like a changed person over the past year that I decided to actively do something about it.

Well, time for me to go pick up a movie and bottle of wine and head over to my girlfriend's place :)

Not so funny

[SmallFurryCreature]

Japan is having real troubles with this. Western civilisation is already dying out because to few kids are being born but Japan is racing past europe at an alarming speed.

Modern japanese women expect/want a more equal partnership and modern japanese males seem unable to supply that. So many girls are putting of getting married and therefore getting kids. You have heard of the baby boom? This is the opposite. A baby implosion. Even if the women simply postpone getting kids it will have a huge effect as later in live the changes of getting a healthy child go down alarmingly.

I have now seen several documenturies on the problem so it seems to be real.

I got the real sense that there was a huge culture clash going on with both sides expecting the other side to be something they are not.

It is easy to say that feminisme is to blame but if you ever watched a bit of japanese culture it is also easy to see why women are fed up. A male who claims he is starving because there is nobody to cook is pathetic by western standards. I can imagine that Japanese women have grown fed up with it. It is not that the japanese women don't want to get married and have kids. They just don't want to be a slave to their husband. On the other hand the boys are still raised with the ideal of the demure wife who never talks back or makes demands.

Having a few confirmed bachelors around the place adds color to the world. Having a nation of people unwilling to create families is asking for trouble when people are living longer and longer. Japan may not have enough people to take care of their old ones in a decade or two.