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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.
All the cost and none of the sex? Whats the friggin point?!?!?!
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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
"tsk, tsk...they never had a chance..."
You know what?
people will actually buy it.
"For men without a partner, help may be at hand..."
Duh
"she will require more flowers and gifts than many real women"
Is that even possible?
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.
If I ignore the VG, will she die like the Virtual Pets did?
Then I get pissed I didn't think of it first.
great, a Tamagoochi that wants gucchi.
The first rule of being a player, and the one who gets all the chicks, is not to buy her drinks!
" 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? "
I think the developer was De Beers, the gifts were 3-20k. If memory serves, the game was called Failed Relationship.
Well just don't spend any money on her. She can't dump you - all she can do is get bitchy. Then You'll feel better about not having a real girlfriend.
All generalizations are false, including this one. Mark Twain
... or does the girl really look like the bride of chucky?
I once had a signature.
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.
And to think I got married...
Schnapple
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
What traumatic child-hood experience causes you to lump "panty sniffer" in with those other extremes?
Panty sniffing is not a problem (obviously between consenting adults)
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Oh, come now! I'm sure you've turned off plenty of women.
Angleyne: You can't bend that girder - it's unbendable! Bender: Well I don't know anything about lifting, so that ju
I feel good about not having a real girlfriend all the time. All it takes is one run through the meat-grinder that is a whiny, lying, needy, depressive, self-centered, cheating wench. Now I have more time and money than I've had in a long time and none of the trying to please someone who doesn't deserve it. So I bought a new 19" NEC LCD, named it Nicole, and declared that it can now be my new girlfriend. Strangely enough (to answer ACs right up front), the sex got better.
But I guess if some people haven't had to deal with (in)significant-other hell, then maybe this is just what the doctor ordered. Then they can "dump" their virtual girlfriend and save a fat sack of cash. Might I suggest a nice new monitor and a DSL connection?
- Relativistic? That's barely Newtonian!
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.
So it's all the fun of spending money on women with none of that annoying sex.
:)
And to think I got married...
Oh, so you're already there
SHOW US YOUR TITS!!
Ok, just kidding.
But you know, you're going way overboard. While sexism is most definitely a problem in today's societies, this little gadget is not a representation of that at all. How is this in any way sexist? It's fun and harmless. I could just as easily see a "virtual boyfriend" game. There's no sex involved here and it no more "objectifies" women than any other form of media.
A society without gender or race? You would do well to read up on some evolutionary biology/psychology. Biodiversity and two sexes are crucial components to ensure our long-term survival. We need to get rid of societal prejudice, not our biological markers. You're attacking the wrong problem.
Gender warfare may not be a "good" or "moral" state, but it IS a natural state. Hmm. Read some Richard Dawkins or Steven Pinker. The two genders evolved to perform different functions and the conflicts between them can be attributed to their differing needs and goals. This doesn't justify sexism, but that doesn't mean we can pretend there are no differences between the sexes, because there are.
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
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.
;-) However, if anyone else does, you saw the prior art here :-)
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