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.
Been there, done that, and boy is my hand tired.
I'd rather go to a bar and meet chicks to spend money on.
;)
Just don't tell my wife
Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
or is this the most pathetic thing ever?
Blaze a trail to the New World
Somthing similar to this where guys would buy virtual presents for real women, sometimes spending upwards of $30-$200. Anyone care to shed light on what that one was, and whether it is still in business?
:-p
*sigh* nothing quite like the exploitation of desperate single guys...fortunately I'm married and am above such exploitation...now off to Proflowers.com to get her a few
...in bed
how is this different from a tamagotchi?
All the cost and none of the sex? Whats the friggin point?!?!?!
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I might actually be able to get a date!
Target audience seemed to drift during the interview from 16-30 to 15-35, either way, seems to paint a bullseye on Comic Book Guy and the like. He was also evasive on how much the player pays for gifts for the girlfriend, which suggests the hook. Next it'll probably be people selling Virtual Pink Corvettes on eBay so you can meet 'her' special friend 'Skipper'.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
i see they cleverly posted this under "games." *wink*
Will she put out or is this prudish software?
This world is dead to me.
TruePunk | Games
Do they have a virtual boyfriend model too?
To go along with my virtual life?
I thought tamagotchi's died years ago, well at least mine did.
"tsk, tsk...they never had a chance..."
You know what?
people will actually buy it.
This is the saddest Tamagotchi rip off ever.
"For men without a partner, help may be at hand..."
Duh
I virtually married my virtual girlfriend, but then she ran off with my virtual best friend and took my virtual house and virtual dog too.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
just spend it intelligently. Sure, you're wife/girlfriend will appreciate getting flowers, but haveing them delivered to her place of work is even better. I've done this on a few occasions, and trust me, its worth the $20 or so delivery charge as opposed to her just coming home and finding them on the table or such.
And also,will she leave me for a guy with a more expensive phone?
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
Seems like a better idea to me.
Oh wait, Katie Couric already has the market cornered....
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
"she will require more flowers and gifts than many real women"
Is that even possible?
WTF!!!???
Who would buy this service!?
This is so pathetic! I mean why waste the money on a fake girlfriend when you can get better computer parts or modify your car :P
Im just curious what we would have to buy the guys when they are out....
"But i loveded you PIGGY I LOVEDED YOU!!!!!" *Gir*
Thanks to that sentence and the topic of virtual girlfriends in general, I almost want to sit down and cry.
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
she is std-free... ... for now...
Can you add a 2nd one for a threesome?
Looks like the porno world can have a new market for selling artificial sex devices now... put that bluetooth connection to good use ;)
gShares.net
-------
artlu.net
I'm cheap enough when it comes to real women.
Surely you wont be spending "real" money on these things
Sounds just like any other kind of online dating, except this way you know for sure the picture is a fake, and that no matter how much money you spend on her she's never going to meet you in person.
The chances of something like this becoming a successfull in the western world are lower than the chances of a world war 3 breaking out before friday.
I don't know why and I need a fellow slashdotter with better understanding of human nature to explain it better, but for some reason I can see why this would work in Japan and some other Asian cultures and NEVER in, say, Canada, Latin America, the US or Europe.
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
This seems to go well with that story involving _cherry_ earlier.
Non, je ne veux pas coucher avec toi ce soir.
95% of all Slashdotters have reserved a copy of Virtual Girlfriend. The other 5% are holding out for the porn expansion pack coming 2005.
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
If I ignore the VG, will she die like the Virtual Pets did?
MMORPG players have been paying it for years. I gather there are even MMORPGs out there, such as Second Life, where the whole point of the game is to pay real money for virtual goods. This is just stripping that down to a single-person world is all.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I saw this article yesterday and have since wondered when women came to be portrayed so badly. I don't really understand why you would throw money away so that a VR girl, who seemingly won't ever do much other than reveal things about herself, will talk to you. Not only is it a waste of money, but it doesn't teach men skills they actually need to hold onto a girlfriend. I'm sure there are a number of women who would prefer a money tree to a human being, but most of us can't be made happy simply through materialistic things. I'm frustrated the company would choose to reinforce this unfair stereotype about women. What's next? A virtual boyfriend who will only talk to you if you encourage him to spend all his time watching the game and going to strip clubs with his friends?
Live free or die
Just sad. Why not bundle the phone with an eHarmony service if your phone user is that lonely?
I've said that girls take time and money. Well I guess this virtual girl thing will take time and virtual money. I still don't have either. One more reason to get a normal cell phone and not a camera/phone/pda/whatever else they have phone.
your insensitive clod...
how long until
Then I get pissed I didn't think of it first.
that is simply pathetic
great, a Tamagoochi that wants gucchi.
"Virtual Girlfriend" has been a flash-based game for a (relatively) long time.
So... what... the draw is that it is on a cell-phone? I want my "it only makes calls" phone back!
Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
still no cure for cancer.
PCB#@~
free ipod and free gmail!
The first rule of being a player, and the one who gets all the chicks, is not to buy her drinks!
Stupid idiots.
Erogenous zomes I live you,
Without you what would a poor boy do?
Without you mankind handkinds through the blues...
-from "Counting Out Time" by Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, 1974.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
here
Virtual girlfriend could end dating woes
HONG KONG, China (AP) -- She needs to be coddled with sweet talk and pampered with gifts, but you'll never see her in the flesh, says a Hong Kong company that's developing a "virtual girlfriend" for new cell phones with video capability.
Artificial Life, Inc.'s electronic love interest will appear as an animated figure on a telephone screen. But she'll require a lot of attention, involving virtual flowers and diamonds, company spokeswoman Ada Fong said on Monday.
The gifts will keep the relationship going from one level to the next -- and even though it's all made up of cold, hard data, suitors will have to pay cold, hard cash for the gifts.
The amounts have yet to be determined, Fong said.
Users of so-called third-generation, or 3G, cell phones who subscribe to the game can send text messages to the virtual woman, who'll respond by voice, Fong said.
If she's neglected, "she'll be unhappy and she won't talk to you," she added.
The game doesn't allow interactions of a sexual nature, Fong said, calling it "suitable for all ages."
The company hopes to develop a virtual boyfriend for women by early next year.
The virtual girlfriend is similar to the popular Tamagotchi "pet" concept developed by Japan's Bandai Co., Fong said.
Artificial Life hopes to launch the service in the English, Japanese and Korean languages in late November. No 3G operators have agreed to offer it yet, she said.
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
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
If Girlfriend=>Cellphone and Cellphone=>tumor and tumor=>death
Then is it true that Girlfriend=>death?
I've always suspected as much...
And these fellows will be exploiting them all the way to the bank.
...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.
Can we have an awesome orgy ?
sounds like a plan
fifteen jugglers, five believers
..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.
This quote from the article:
each girl will behave differently - depending on how much money is spent on her.
So...is that real money, or virtual money? If it's real cash, then kudos to the inventor - a female Tamagotchi that drains your cash. Wow. I'm still kicking myself for not thinking of it. Makes Everquest look like the March of Dimes.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
So, the men have virtual girlfriends on their phones, the women have arm pillows instead of boyfriends. Is it any wonder the birthrate in Japan is so low?
I am curious if the "virtual girlfriend" can "virtually" stand you up? :)
"Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
theres too much money to be made on cancer to ever come up with a cure. youd need a socialist country like china to come up with a cure.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cixel
And there is something to be said for simplicity. I remember something from 15 years ago called "MEGAMAID", displayed on my Amiga. Just a scrolling picture with appropriate sound effects and music. Very simple... But hours of fun!
So, you get to spend money and she doesn't put out? I once had a girlfriend like that.
I'd rather spend the money on videogames and hookers. The end result might be the same, except that you do "get some".
In related news, whenever I feel the need to get in touch with nature, I just fire up my GBA and play a couple of hours of Harvest Moon.
No sig
Tammy Gotcha
Is Taco scanning comments from earlier in the day to find his new stories?
Cue "Welcome to SlashDot!" jokes.
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." -Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
to come up with a product that has almost all the negative aspects of a girl friend... ( MUST spend money on gifts or she wont talk to you) without any of the great benifits (long conversation about random topics, having someone close by as you drift into sleep, ... kinky sex in the park...). Then again this is probably going to be a cash cow.
Never could figure out why my girl liked my bitch tits, then I found out she was a lesbian.
I should like to add that I proudly made that last statement confident in the fact that my wife will never read that comment.
On a side note... when you break up... will she erase your address book, make thousands of dollars in long distance phone calls and phone all of your friends to tell them how lame you really are?
Just wondering about how complete this sim girlfriend really is...
#SickNotWeak
When does the nude patch get released?
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
You get a virtual girlfriend but become a real-life loser.
I wonder if it comes with a nagging feature?
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
"In return, she will introduce them to different aspects of her life [
Sounds like the biggest hassle ever just to look at postage-stamp-sized pr0n....
Maybe someone should just teach them to google for "portman hot grits".
imaginarygirlfriends.com. sometimes the interweb scares me.
Will she always be virus free?
Let's see, you're buying virtual flowers and such and probably using your phyiscal credit card number.
If the site or you (via the site) catches something you're gonna wonder how your virtual girlfriend had a Hawaiian vacation!
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Want a virtual GF? Try illusion. They specialize in these types of games (specifically, 3D), you might say.
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
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)
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.
I call it a sub-genre because it isn't much different than the AI on Personality Forge. The main difference is that it does 'more than chat'. Not much more, though.
Mathematics is not a crime.
I had a game like that years ago. It plugged into the windows systray and featured a blonde chick tamagotchi with big tits that you had to feed, medicate, "play"-with, send to sleep, buy presents and whip. I didn't really get around to exploring the full potential of this tamagotchi rip-off but I enjoyed medicating and whipping her for a while then making it okay again by buying her presents.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these....
;-)
Admit it - it beats most Beowulf clusters by a long shot
Mike
Read my keyboard review.
each girl will behave differently - depending on how much money is spent on her
Man, is it just me or is AI getting SCARY good?
Does she get real bitchy once a month also?
You don't even need that, you could run this on a C64.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
I guess now we'll have to call them "self-owns".
My best sig is this one.
Slashdot is my virtual girlfriend, you Insensitive Clod!
Seriously though, when I had a girlfriend, the most annoying thing about her was that she was always on my mobile phone!
This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
http://ackers.net/~mark/slashdot/
^^ there...
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
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
False hope! There is no 3G in the States
But why do all that courting, going out and spending money, etc? When you have a sure thing at home (so to speak)? The fake stuff never dumps you for another person (not yet anyways), never stays out late spending your money, etc...this is easy, the costs are easier to establish and the rewards while not quite that of a real girlfriend are "close enough" anyways to make you feel better that you don't have a girlfriend/boyfriend. It's the perfect setup.
...in bed
Mine dumped me for the office fax machine.
-Stephen
Not as enticing or fun as these virtual girlfriends.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
The match made for geeks and nerds. 99% of geeks find a successful match.
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
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.
I thought I'd seen this before on EBAY!
(Not necessarily a work safe link)
LongTail SSH Brute Force analysis tool is here!
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
Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
Do they also make virtual boyfriends? I wonder which one would sell better...
Simpy
It is indeed one of the most pathetic things on earth, but tell you what, I think most of the "boyfriend/husband skills" you learn with "Female Simulators" like this pay off in real life.
I'll give you a real-life example.. The other week I forgot our anniversary. This is one of the dumbest mistakes that you can make as a man and regardless of the experience you may have it may happen to you. I came home, and T. didn't even want to speak to me. She just looked away. Thank God, I remembered just in time and bought $200(!) worth of red roses. At first she told me to shove those roses up my ass but I kept producing them one after another telling her how sorry I was and how much I love her (I do, you know) and after a bunch of roses she fell around my neck and told me straight to my face what a miserable bastard I am and how much she loves me. (NEVER EVER underestimate the power of red roses!).
They had virtual pets for years ... only matter of time before virtaul girlfriends came out ...
And spreaking of virtual pets: A few years ago I was working in a computer shop. Some guy brought in a PC to be fixed and it had one of those virtual pooches installed. So .. we fixed the computer, but a buddy of mine found to be nessesary to smack that dog off the wall a few times and mistreat it in many different ways ... A short while after the customer picked up his computer (i imagine exactly the period of time it took him to get home) he called us literally crying and screaming that the dog had changed personality and we killed his dog nlah blah blah.
You can get someone divorced from his virtual girlfriend like that i think .... would't that be fun !? For that I just might take a job at a computer store for a week !!!!
Give the man a fish and he owes you one fish, teach the man to fish and you have just lost your fishing monopoly.
From the article:
"On top of a general subscription, men will be charged a fee to buy flowers and gifts for the virtual girlfriend."
Who would spend "real" money on a "virtual" girlfriend?
I hope to hell they plan on letting some of the sim girl's virtual rewards link directly to the Japanese School Girl Soiled Panty Vending machines so you can hear the sound of one hand clapping here in "meatspace."
...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
I played the alpha of this, everything was going smoothly until I caught that bitch hanging around on my best friend's cellphone!
As long as you can dump her for one of he friends (who is a cheaper date) it sounds just like real life. Oh, and once you marry her she is going to call more and you are going to "get" less.
It's amazing - the better you are to a woman, often the worse they are to you. Guys - don't fall into the trap of thinking that showering flowers, affection, etc will win the heart of a woman who's not interested, or only marginally interested. Gifts and the like are really tokens of an existing, strong relationship.
Get it? It's a joke. The whole thing is a setup for the punchline at the end.
Can my VG give me a VD like the last cheating GF I had did?
--------========+++Dont Feed The Lab Techs+++========--------
This gadget requires that you jump through hoops and buy it stuff and the like (much as many girls do) but does NOT give you sex, human companionship, a shoulder to cry on or any of that? Well I have just one question then: WHY?????
Sounds like all parts of relationships that guys DON'T usually like with none of the parts they do. Spending money on someone (or worse yet something) seems, well, really stupid.
there's this stereotype that all asian men are desperate people. The entire culture is surrounded about finding/having boyfriends/girlfriends. Every track on every asian CD, especially the ones you find in hong kong have this same theme, and every TV "drama" has the same themes. In both highschool and college, it seems that meeting someone is their ONLY purpose of existence. When you meet up with friends or family relative members that you haven't seen in a long while, 3 sentences within the conversation is ALWAYS whether you have a boyfriend/girlfriend yet.
Sad, yet true, but disturbingly annoying
well now, this phone comes out.... what can i say!
With the success of that tomagotchi years ago, and linking up with the stereotype... seems like they've found the answer!
1. Find way to exploit desperate asians
2. Come out with Virtual Girlfriend on the phone
3. Profit!!!
my blog
I'm sure I've seen this before.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
It seems like you can have an entire existance without physically interacting with anyone. Take care of your Virtual Girlfriend, live the life you've always wanted in The Sims, talk to people via IRC/ICQ/AIM/MSN/etc, share thoughts on /..
Do we even need to leave the house to have a social life anymore?
You won't hate yourself in the morning if you don't get up before noon.
Upgrading to Wife 1.0
Last a friend of mine upgraded from Girlfriend 4.0 to Wife 1.0 and found
that it's memory hog leaving few system resources for other applications.
He is now noticing the Wife 1.0 is also spawning Child-processes, which is
further consuming valuable resources. No mention of this particular
phenomenon was included in the product documentation, though other users
have informed me that this is to be expected due to the nature of the
application.
Not only that, Wife 1.0 installs itself so that it is always launched at
system initialization where it can monitor all other system activity. Some
applications such as PokerNight 10.3, BachelorParty 2.5 and PubNight 7.0
are no longer able to run on the system at all, causing the system to
lockup when launched (even though the apps worked fine before).
Wife 1.0 provides no installation options. Thus, the installation of
undesired plug-ins such as Mother-in-law 55.8 and the Brother-in-law Beta
is unavoidable. Also system performance seems to diminish each passing day.
Some features my friend would like to see in the upcoming Wife 2.0:
A "don't remind me again button"
A Minimize button
The ability to delete the "headache" file
An install feature that provides an option to uninstall 2.0 version
without loss of other system resources
An option to run the network driver in "promiscuous mode" allowing the
systems hardware probe to be much more useful/effective.
I myself wish I had decided to avoid all of the headaches associated with
Wife 1.0 by sticking with Girlfriend 3.0. Even here, however, I have found
many problems. Apparently you cannot install Girlfriend 4.0. You must
uninstall Girlfriend 3.0 first, otherwise the two versions of Girlfriend
will have conflicts over shared use of the I/O port.
Other users have told me that this is a long-standing problem that I
should have been aware of. Guess that explains what happened to versions 1
& 2.
To make matters worse, the uninstall program for Girlfriend 3.0 doesn't
work very well, leaving undesirable traces of the application in the
system. Another identified problem is that all versions of Girlfriend have
annoying little messages about the advantages of upgrading to Wife 1.0.
VIRUS ALERT
All users should be aware that Wife 1.0 has an undocumented bug. If you
try to install Mistress 1.1 before uninstalling Wife 1.0, Wife 1.0 will
delete MS Money files before doing the uninstall itself. Once that
happens, Mistress 1.1. won't install and you will get an "insufficient
resources" error message. To avoid the aforementioned bug, try installing
Mistress 1.1 on a different system and 'never'
run any file transfer applications (such as Laplink) between the two
systems.
"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
each girl will behave differently
depending on how much money is spent on her
she will introduce them to different aspects of her life
meet her female friends - also electronic images.
And they say there are no females in computer design/programming. Unless this merely represents the ultimate triumph of marketing, where females are strongly represented, and education, traditionally a female job. In the info age, you'll pay for no sex, and like it!
--
make install -not war
I'm still going to be lonely.
How much you want to bet, she'll either blow a capacitor or overheat after 10 minutes with me.
Then she's gunna dump me.
And cheat on me with my Mac.
Dammit, that's not a troll. It's both funny and insightful. /me awaits the karma burnage
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
They should make the phone get fatter, uglier and hairier as it gets older, until you can no longer bear to be seen with it and are forced to trade it in for a newer, more expensive model. Of course if you just want to make a quick call, one of the old models will probably be fine. Let's not even get into public payphones.
I'm not wrong. You haven't thought about it hard enough.
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
My Virtual Girlfriend ran off with her Virtual Boyfriend, so here I sit reading slashdot again.
kthxbye
No no no. The way to phrase it is "I can see this working ... in Japan!"
...I can spend real money on a virtual bitch who never, ever puts out, or I can download more porn than I can shake my stick at, for free, off the internet.
Kinda confused over who's going to be stupid enough to fall for this racket. Perhaps people who can't get a girlfriend and are nauseated by the very idea of sex? Just how large a segment of the population can this be, seeing as how evolution is working against them in so many ways?
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
There was an optional mini-quest involving a lonely, melancholy woman who spent all day near the town shrine, wondering whether her father was still alive. You could offer to help find out what happened to him.
As a 13 year old boy with very little female experience, I was really enraptured by this quest, and made it my top priority! And even though the game engine's reward was (no kidding) a text message of "She moans deeply as you passionately kiss", that was pretty cool. And it's a fond memory to this day.
This phone game is just another way of letting people have fantasies. I don't see the problem, except that "money" is such an important factor.
Nothing is so smiple that it can't get screwed up.
...it's called pr0n.
I'll be honest, we're throwing science against the wall to see what sticks. -Cave Johnson
those new cel phone viruses.
:)
I can see it now, you pick up a virus that turns your virtual girlfriend into a virtual mother-in-law.
This sounds more like a bad joke about girlfriends than a business.
set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab nocp worlddomination
Virtual Sociologists refer to these virtual women as the "first-wave virtual baby boomers."
You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
Because even if you win, you're still a loser.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
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
Me and Eliza have been going steady for more than 15 years.
Except, of course, most of the "girls" are really guys. But since you're not gonna get laid anyway, wireless up your PDA and go for it.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
what more is there to say..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
And then, someday, when some lawyer's expert witness says this "artificial life" is virtually non-virtual and not so artificial anymore, the company gets to sue you for alimony when you stop paying money for the program/service. Whimsical, sure, but it can't hurt to train the humans to start treating the machines as alive...
On the other hand, this might be a shoe-in to legalize prostitution.
If aspiration is a virtue, achievement cannot be a vice.
That reminds me of this old gag about problems upgrading GirlFriend and conflicts with DrinkingBuddies 1.0.
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article09-002
Requires lots of money? Needs flowers, gifts, and jewelry constantly? Doesn't give you sex, companionship or a nurturing steak dinner?
For the love of God these guys have just digitized my wife!
So the girlfriend is high maintenance and you have to buy her flowers and things like that. i would wounder if buying a virtual girl virtual flowers might cost you real money. IE to make her happy you would have to pay a 0.35$ fee to buy your virtual girlfriend flowers with real money. i wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. these are market droids mind you, they will stop at nothing to separate you from your money. besides when i was single i might take a girl out to McDonald's if i thought i would get action that night, why would i want to spend anything on a virtual girl, unless a real girl comes over and gives me a blow job afterwords. Don't forget we are geeks, simply go to a bar find a slutty woman and tell her you work at MS as a programmer. shell do anything you want, and its more plausible than brain surgeon, leave the virtual girlfriend to the dumb jocks.
But unlike other computer games, it seems that cash, not skill, will enable players to climb the different levels in the game.
Er... so... how is this a game and not simply handing money over to Hong Kong company?
The sub headline:
For men without a partner, help may be at hand - in the form of a virtual girlfriend.
Yeah right. I don't think the company is concerned with `helping' single men as much as sucking the money out of their pockets while making them feel even more lonely.
Maybe there is demand for something like this because of China's large male/female imbalance? Due to the Chinese government's one child policy, As of 2000, they had 116 boys born for every 100 girls born.
this is so sad that it makes me want to cry. Are there some people that are really this lonely?
just send your love letters to @papernapkin.net and enjoy the personal, intimate reply.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
So now I can use my money to buy a product that asks me to waste money, wonderful.
It will happen.
They'd get further creating a Virtual Boyfriend on cellphones for the women. At least that way, the cellphone itself can double as a self-pleasuring device.....
The whole thing is stupid. Sounds like someone just rehashed the whole Tamagotchi thing, with a human face instead of some other creature to take care of.
... Real Doll *** don't go to link if you're at work, obviously *** and you got yourself a winning product!
I mean, real Literature with an uppercase A, not only documentation.
Two interesting books about what if all your world was virtual:
A masterwork is Charles Williams' Descent into Hell. Here a historian gets, by special providence of a kind of a genie, to recreate his own beloved as he wishes instead of disputing her with a younger, more daring rival. By doing so he ends up cutting himself from all reality, thus effectively becoming irrecuperably mad - and also committing himself to Hell too in the process.
A lighter, more to the point, but also even more overtly Christian book to the point of being a bit doctrinaire, is CS Lewis's The Great Divorce. Here, Hell is just what happens when everyone can have whatever he wants; soon enough people discover they can't live near other people's ideas of what the world should be, and the result is that everyone but the newly arrived lives in perfect isolation at ever-crescent distances from one another.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
It's like a tomagachi, only pathetic and boring.
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 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
(Future Onion Headline)
Bill Jones broke up with his real Girlfriend Cathy Smith today because in his words, "At least the Virtual Girlfriend puts out." When questioned about the break-up Cathy was perturbed, "Like I wanted to put out for that Lo-oo-zer! He was like always giving me these virtual things... never anything real... I mean... I'm like flesh and blood here I want real stuff. My other boyfriends bring me actual gifts."
It is this reporter's opinion that Bill is indeed better off with his HK Virtual Girlfriend because his real one was a total brat.
[signature]
just play neo pets, where there's more than one piece of pussy to chooooose from.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
I think the real purpose is not to offer a substitute girlfriend for single guys... it's to remind them WHY they are single, and help them feel good about it.
What we really need is a ten day waiting period and a background check before you can buy a congressman.
Worst Idea Ever. (in the voice of the comic book store owner from the simpsons)
http://www.rustyrazorblade.com
I played this game as the female avatar. This made the passionate kiss at the end even hotter... ;-)
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
This is only considered "news" because it's posted by BBC. But it's in fact nothing new. Dating simulation games have existed for years, especially in Japan. But they've never gained populairity in foreign markets. Most anime fans would know about the existance of such games.
then we can use the cell-phone itself to sterilize any idiot who actually buys things for someone who doesn't exist!
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
No, it was definitely lassie fair. The grandparent poster is probably a Scotsman, hence female = lassie. "Fair" enters into the equation when he tells her he's heading to a strip club and not to wait up, which is fair enough in his mind. When he comes home at 3 AM and she kicks him in the crotch until he turns blue, the lassie thinks that's fair too.
"Linux doesn't exist. Everyone knows Linux is an unlicensed version of Unix"- Kieren O'Shaughnessy
Gun's don't kill people, rappers do
The Romans didn't find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10
.. does she have virtual tits?
---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"
What happens when some poor schmuck gets his virtual girlfriend hacked?
*snicker*
Where have I heard of this before?
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
... but she's no Laura Croft.
What are those? "A" cups?
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
I'd rather go accross the border to Shenzhen, China - for almost the same money you can get the real thing...
she does whatever she likes. That aside, real women, in my experience, are pretty high maintenance as it is. This is either one more female that I don't need, or a good training exercise for teenage boys.
The two genders evolved to perform different functions and the conflicts between them can be attributed to their differing needs and goals.
That, my friend, is precisely the problem. Our society is correctly labeled as infantile because of our ability to rise above our differences and accept each other for who and what we are, rather than what we feel and how that makes us react. This doesn't justify "gender warfare" anymore than it justifies sexism.
depending on how much money is spent on her
Am I the only one who wish he'd thought of this? People (geeks) spend money on something that isn't real. This may be the elusive 2nd step!
1) Put virtual girl in cell phone
2) Tell geeks it's happier when you spend money on it
3) PROFIT!
---
Those who can, do
Those who can't, teach
Those who don't know how, supervise
Thanks, but I have enough trouble avoiding the constant mobile phone calls from the "real" girlfriend.
This is as dumb an idea as I have ever heard. Let's latch onto some of the worst possible stereo-types of geekdom and women at the sametime and make a game.
Yes, your a loser and you need a virtual girlfriend - and guess what, she is a petty, money hungry thing at that.
gimme a break.
Udemakura Arm Pillow
Article
Picture
Article
Snickersnee3: Build your own 3-watt Luxeon Star headlamp from scratch
Will they just legalize prostitution like Nevada already? That's a fine example of how something like that can can be run and regulated in a rational manner. Then if a guy needs a little lovin' he can get it without having to play the "oh, be my precious knight in shining armor, and don't dare show a single human imperfection" game for eight weeks, or spend more on clothes, hair product and other sociologically vapid facades than on the mortgage and gasoline bill combined (thank *you* Queer Eye). And it's far more cost effective in the long run.
--- Ban humanity.
No, it's actually true. I really do wish I had thought of it first.
Don't suppose anyone's considered the implications a game like this has for gender equality, particularly in countries that aren't exactly known for supporting their women? Given that the only thing this e-girlfriend responds to is money, it doesn't exactly paint a pretty picture.
Of course, the flipside could be an e-boyfriend in the shape of a vibrator, and the more times you use it, the more malleable the will of this e-boyfriend becomes. Advanced features might include the ability to lift heavy objects, run to the store to buy tampons/pads, and, perhaps with the 'webcam/paypal' add-on, the ability to buy things.
Moo
It's probably better to wait for cell phones to improve to the point that you can play the Sims or even Sims2 on them. Or better yet, just take a laptop with you.
I just want a virtual job and make more money for doing nothing than I do right now. &^)
If you are reading this, then you are one of those people whom I just can't take seriously.
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.
... but you can pretty much guarantee that at some point, gender will no longer be such a powerful and divisive attribute as it has been until now. That follows unavoidably from the fact that the changes we will be making to ourselves will make sexual differences pale in comparison.
That's arguably the natural human condition, in the sense that the natural is wild. It won't change until that far-from-humane natural humanity is eroded out of us over the forthcoming centuries by gradual replacement of what nature made by machinery. We already "upgrade" ourselves with dentures, pacemakers, hip replacements and vaccines, but they're just the bottom rung of a gradual process of transformation. It's already fair to say that we're no longer the natural humans that evolved by random mutation. We're changing, not by alteration of our DNA but by parts improvement and replacement, both inside and out.
As things stand currently, we can't see a future for humanity that doesn't involve unlimited mental enhancement to ourselves, because unless that occurs, mankind will end up intellectually inferior to the AI of his machines. So far nobody has accepted a future where we are no longer the dominant intelligence on the planet, from which it follows that we will transform ourselves mentally by enhancing, extending and replacing our current protein apparatus. Or else. There appears to be no alternative. And that will change us mentally in many ways.
Of course, there's no guarantee that the human of 3004 will be more humane and even-handed than that of today
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Imagine a world of humans without gender
I think they're working on that in Japan.
Sounds boring.
Seriously though, you realize that 'messing with the source code' is more likely to entrench power relationships than eliminate them, right?
Even if you allow people to choose their children's birth order, most people want to have a son first, then a daughter. And birth order tends to have a significant effect on people's personalities through life.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
... could also be used to increase the objectification of women. All technology has its abuses.
Mathematics is not a crime.
Just put your phone on vibrate.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
www.realdoll.com
All things being equal, you know, I can still masturbate for free.
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
This is why im no good at business - I would have thought "hmm virtual girlfriend letting you pay real money for virtual gifts that are just records in a database and some pictures/icons, thats the fucking stupidest thing ive ever heard" but im guessing they've done the ground work and figured that theres acutally a market for this! I would love to be in on that, fuck meetings would go something like "lets release another product.. how about a new car, ok ill make a car icon, we should be done buy lunch time, lets charge $500 for it, what a bargin". wow sometimes making money is really easy.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
it's more like driving a bread cart past a dark alley with poor people with nothing to eat
at least the people in the fat camp have had a doughnut in their life, that's not something I could tell about slashdotters and girls.
Kudos ladies, after 3 decades of nag nag nag, empower this and that...after year after year of emasculating your partners, criminalizing male behavior and metrosexualizing everything else. After a lifetime of being unpleasant, unhappy demanding self absorbed power crazed control freak Oprah gazers...after we gave in and up and over and out... and you're still fucking miserable?
Men don't care about you anymore. Men have quit. Men aren't interested in your paranoia, tears, and anger. You won, now go home and bang your heads against the wall. At least we have phones.
I don't get it.
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
Just yesterday I was sitting at breakfast with my wife and I said 'Honey, please pass the butter' and what I really meant to say was 'you miserable fucking bitch, you've destroyed up my entire life'
Should be:
Just yesterday I was sitting at breakfast with my wife and I really meant to say was 'Honey, please pass the butter' but instead I ended up saying 'you miserable fucking bitch, you've destroyed up my entire life'
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
This AI comes (no pun intended) with accessories!!!
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
*NEWSFLASH*
Your S.O. is a total psycho. Put the shoe on the other foot: she forgets some date on you. Do you hold it against her, give her the cold shoulder, and wait for the $200 worth of goodies accompanied by pathetic sniveling?
Show her this post, and hope she bloody well wakes up from her little charm-school preconceptions of a proper romantic relationship. If women want to be treated like equals in modern society, they'd better damn well adhere to some standards of reasonable behaviour.
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.
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
..oh screw it, who am I kidding, when do these things come to Europe?
Tell you what, one lady I had a short & extremely ugly relationship with, happened to hail from the wonderful eastern-european country of Poland. She would have thrown a fit for not giving her the $200 in cash. I sincerely hope you are doing better, but my short but painful introduction to the eastern-european mindset reinforced all the prejudices. I will never again pursue any romantic interest outside my own Volk :-)
...a RealDoll?
What's a phone without a mate, mate?
If the real Realdoll is too expensive, then ship 9" action figures of Uhura, Cat Woman, Wonder Woman, and... well, maybe even Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and the rest... At least THESE will be pocket-sized pals...(Maybe they'll come with communicators and tricorders, too...)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Wouldn't the flipside of this be a virutal boyfriend that gives you real money? Now that would be popular!
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!
VG:
"Can you hear me now?"
"How about now?"
This is way better than those pens that you have to hold upside-down that are sold at truck stops...
Non, je ne veux pas coucher avec toi ce soir.
wow - someone finally made "other" people's cell phones even more annoying.
Now, instead of just ringing at the most inappropriate moments (e.g. theater) and with the most obnoxious rings (e.g. pretty much all of them), we now get the pleasure of hearing their phone bitch and whine.
Yay us.
(fset 'or "\C-ssl\C-du")
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
My point is that one can find internally ugly women everywhere, but American women are by and large the worst and most common. There are gems to be had in America too, but I'm too jaded to look.
:)
I'm Polish but live in America.
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
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.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
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]
if you have a boy first time you don't try again, if you have a girl you try again, so there's a 75% chance a child is a boy).
No, 50% of all first born are male. 50% of all second born are also male. So 50% of all born are male. It does not matter that the second born only happen in the case where the first born was female.
Tor
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.
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.
Wait until you marry her and she gets her citizenship.
...Microsoft just launched a lawsuit claiming that these Japanese guys just stole their whole business model.
put briefly:
The act of believing in absurdism (and therefore trying to structure or add order to the universe) is in itself contradictory AND absurd, according to the definition of absurdism.
And that's why I think it's stupid.
Who said I was staying in the USA? American culture is too toxic and turns women into shrews after a few years. I was planning on moving to either South America or Prague should we get married.
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
Tokyo, the land of school girl panities for sale, will see this game take off. All those middle aged salary men looking for a young thrill (on their nearly surgically attached cell phones, no less), will eat this up. If they'll pay $500 bucks for a school girl outfit, complete with picture of the girl that wore it, no telling what they will pay for this....
... amount of cash spent on her?!
I hope there's an option in there called "GFJ" (Get a Fucking Job). Otherwise I expect her to be naked 24/7.
"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."
Yes, but when you and some of your (male) friends are sitting around on the sofa watching Stargate and one of them notices the way you're unconsciously clutching a throw pillow to your torso, you start to get comments...
100 couples have babys.
50 boys, 50 girls.
The 50 who got girls have another go.
25 more boys, 25 more girls.
Grand total: 150 babys, 75 boys and 75 girls. More specifically 50 couples with one boy, 25 with a boy and a girl, 25 with two girls. 100 first born, 50 second born.
Tor
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.
There are wonderful, non-selfish, totally cool women out there, who, despite all that, still do care about these things being remembered.
Your gf is the exception, not the rule.
Does it make sense? Does it matter if it makes sense? If it makes her happy, isn't that worth it? Not everything is logical, especially not matters of the heart. Whipped? How about just not being an asshole?
Not ALL American women are like that. It's just a stupid generalization. Besides, you only need to find one who isn't. My wife isn't (that's why she's my wife), though she does care about being remembered and not being taken for granted.
Grrrr, just don't be a troglodyte.
m-
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
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.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
serously... 500+ comments? You should all be ashamed of yourselves!!! Go reply to something just a little more meaningfull! :D
Not ALL American women are like that. It's just a stupid generalization. Besides, you only need to find one who isn't. My wife isn't (that's why she's my wife), though she does care about being remembered and not being taken for granted.
Realize that this woman got very angry at him for not remembering an anniversary. He then did damage control, spending a whole large chunk of money to appease Ms./Mrs. Cupcake. American women get angry if their "special days" are not remembered and celebrated. Real women are happy that you remembered, and don't become vengeful if you don't remember. This way, she knows that your getting her a present for a special occasion is because you love her, not because you're motivated by fear or obligation.
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
Most males/boys in the media I listed show a tendency to be unable to mend their own clothing, do their own washing or cook a meal. The women on the otherhand so a tendency to accept this. Strange thing is that it doesn't matter wether the story is aimed at girls or boys. Women or men. That is not to say every bit of media has it. There are a few examples of men who can take care of themselves BUT I seen them more in the media aimed at BOYS then the media aimed at girls.
Yet young japanese women are starting to want something different from their men. They don't want to be in a more equal relationship. Same as in the west but where we had a slow movement over several decades Japan is going at the this whole women-lib thing in the last decade or two. Men have found it impossible to catch up.
So these kinda devices, including the Boyfriend Arm Pillow for women are finding a ready market. Not that it is anything new. Childless couples often have pets as replacement for kids and a dog or cat can often become a replacement partner, someone to talk to and care about, for those who have to do without the real thing for whatever reason.
I do think however you got it wrong about the virtual boyfriend and it shows you don't understand men. The virtual girlfriend is not a simulation of REAL women. It is a simulation of what the men who buy it want a woman to be like. Buying gifts is easy. It doesn't require any thought just money. Japanese men know how to make money. Just work 80 hours. It is being a partner for their gf that they find impossible.
So a virtual boyfriend wouldn't be a like a real man either. Instead a virtual boyfriend would love to be set impossible and conflicting targets. Be though but gently, don't cry but be sensitive, don't be a horntoad but always be turned on.
I can see a big market for virtual partners. Just like their is a huge market for dogs and cats.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Nuff said
Is anyone else crying about the state of the world when a guy needs to buy flowers for his virtual blow-up doll?
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
It gets more complicated though, cause boy babies tend to be just a wee bit more sickly, so if you just look at 1-year olds (or 2-year olds?), you have more girls than boys. (This would be for the US, and was true in the 80s, anyway.)
He decided to just watch the government, and kind of scale it down to size, and run his life that way. --Laurie Anderson
Attack its weak point for massive damage!
A few years ago, some of my friends spent quite a bit of time in a Japanese PC game known as "Beauty teenage girls". The game is turn-based, which you need to issue command to the virtual little girl (6yo) until she becomes an adult (18yo). The commands are like sending her to do housework will increase her obedience but decrease her beauty etc... The goal is to create the perfect girl by the 18yo round...
The game is not intended to sell as porn. It may show a manga that features a naked girl when you choose the "swimming" option.. But, the concept behind the game is a bit pervert. First, although we didn't feel much at that time as we were teen ourselves, it would be a different story for an older man... It sounds a bit paedophile to me... Second, to score high marks, my friends told me that one must send the underage girl to brothel for a short while in order to increase the "attractiveness". It was just so lame and friggin retarded...
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. ;)
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Except peasants will usually get rid of the girl, because peasants can't afford to pay the tax for having a second children, and they don't want a girl as their only child since a girl won't be able to provide for them, and will even require a dowry when she gets married. There's approximately 20% more men than women of a marriageable age in mainland China currently - it's so problematic that the Chinese government has recently announced they would change the system, so that people will get some rewards for raising a girl, and penalties for having a second child will be reduced or removed if the first child is of the female persuasion.
Karma: Could be worse (could be raining)
Alcohol.
=]
grib.
maybe
Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?
I didn't need to go that route, actually. Met her in the USA, she already is a citizen.
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
So I can give that beach food stamps. Suck on this!
JOhn
Campaign for Liberty
portahoe
I Don't Work Here
And that's what's offensively commercial about it. It's less that the company makes money from it, than that the virtual girlfriend is acting like a prostitute.
And that's just so totally unlike real women!!
er...
Dear Yank:
:)
Point well made!
"Hog the doona" translates roughly to: "Bogart the covers"
P.S. Your unending creativity with the English language is rivaled only by the way Loudy Tourkey wiggles her wet butt when she dries off after a dive.
Word! Fo' Shizzi Mah Nizzi!
It would seem that everyday Aussie-isms are indeed eighty-sixing any meaning that could be derived from the English Language.
(in a lucy liu voice) I love you, PHILIP J FRY
http://www.neobard.info - wacky world of me
Or was anyone else shocked to see the quality of that rendered screenshot. What phone is capable of putting out graphics like that?
From the article:
"For men without a partner, help may be at hand..."
Yah...
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
What better way to market a phone-based girlfriend.
My best sig is this one.
What's sad is how short of time it will take before someone comes up with a money hack to buy your vgirl gifts. Sig. I don't need no stinking sig.
You can download it from http://metalvotze.openskynet.de/c64/dld.htm. It is the last game in the games section.
Enjoy.
What these Hong Kongese fail to understand (surprise, surprise) is that without the sex, a girlfriend is useless. Nobody wants a nagging money waster unless, umm, it helps to reproduce the species.
Must-not-watch TV!
didn't you know that giant robots are gonna take care of elderly Japanese! Seriously though, the Japanese will just have to attract more foreign workers.(maybe by treating them better: granting full citizenship, etc) The problems with low-birth rate only exist when a society is xenophobic- unwilling to become multiethnic or multicultural
um, this is all getting a bit sad isnt it, comupters and the internet are already impeding ppl's sociability. when are we going to get ppl trying to marry there virtual girlfriends?
Really? I thought boys were more likely to be born, but because of higher infant and jeuvinile death rates by the age 18 is reached girls outnumber boys.