Slashdot Mirror
Resort Attracts Men With Virtual Girlfriends
disco_tracy writes "Long a favorite of lovers and honeymooners, a Japanese beach town with fading sparkle has found a new tourism niche in the wired age. A resort based on a game called 'Love Plus,' encourages players to develop long-term relationships with virtual women. From the article: 'Local souvenir shops in the resort town have caught on and capitalized on the love-struck new clientele, selling Love Plus-themed souvenirs, from good-luck charms to steamed buns and fish sausages. The local Ohnoya hotel even offers traditional rooms to the unusual couples, which feature two sets of futon beds and another barcode panel that allows the men to visualize their girlfriends in a flattering summer kimono.'"
What happens when the AR wears off and rogue LovePlus boys start kissing real girls by mistake? Find out tonight on VR-Smackdown.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
Oh no, they must have never seen the film:
DON'T DATE ROBOTS!
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Please tell me about the CAN'T EAT MORE. (Would you like to take 5 minutes to register me?)
is WTF. Large quantities of WTF
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Strangely enough, this COULD catch on with much of the slashdot crowd. All you'd have to do, is get those barcodes down in the basements of many a /.dweller....then they could live with Mom AND girlfriend.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
ROR
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I can't imagine why Japan is having a population problem with low birth rates.
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
...then you should just kill yourself.
After the steamed buns and fish sausages, of course.
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
What's the matter, Japanese men? Japanese women not good enough for you? They are widely held by many cultures as the best women in the world. It reminds me of that ancient joke that goes:
Heaven is:
an American salary,
a Chinese Cook,
a British Home,
and a Japanese Wife.
Hell is:
a Chinese salary,
a British Cook,
a Japanese House,
and an American Wife.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Sorry, Sounds like you'll have to settle for Rosie Palm.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Cause that's not creepy at all...
No. /. poster
Though I would expect it to appeal to the average
"Resort ATTACKS Men With Virtual Girlfriends".
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
I'm just guessing, here, no research done (hey, a /. tradition) but I suspect that if your culture continues to have a deeply-embedded prejudice for treating women like crap, and wives in particular as servants for yourself and her mother-in-law, it could be tough finding a wife.
This problem exists to varying degrees in Asia, and is already being hugely exacerbated by a plummeting female/male ratio in some countries due to selective abortion and even (quiet) infanticide.
A whole generation of men the size of the whole US population won't be able to find women in the coming generation.
And if you aren't sympathetic, maybe you will be later. Because that's also the generation that's going to enjoy a whole new level of industrialized prosperity - enough to basically come bidding for women from other countries.
Women from America's growing underclass, as rich and poor grow further apart might find a nice condo in Bangalore and a (pathetically) grateful south Asian hubby more attractive than a trailer park...
I know you're joking...BUT, I wonder, would real women (GF or spousal unit) really be mad if you had a robotic GF if technology got good enough for you to really want one?
I mean...just using it for physical pleasure...since it isn't a real human, would it be cheating? I'd think it would be MUCH less so, than Clinton's definition of sex...?
What about a step further, if VR got good enough to where you just plugged in? Would that be in any form cheating or just REALLY REALLY good porn?
Then again..I could see a future...where if the VR stuff was THAT good, would men start shying away from real women and reality? I mean, you get a VR chick that never ages, never says no, always looks JUST like you want her....and never complains or nags you. Who'd want the real thing after that (unless you wanted to reproduce).
Just some random ideas...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Japan is undergoing a huge cultural shift. In the past corporate loyalty was a big concept in Japan; workers expected to work long hours for their entire lives for a single employer, and in return they would get paid well and never get laid off. The economic problems of Japan have led to this culture going away. For most older workers it is still in place (although some have been laid off), but for most young people the situation is pretty awful. There is huge unemployment among young people, and the jobs available are mostly contract positions that don't pay well and may end with little notice. A particularly harsh problem for a country that puts a large emphasis on employment as a basis for personal success and has relied on the corporate benevolance that was present in the past instead of creating extensive social safety net programs.
This has led to poverty and disillusionment, with many younger people reacting by withdrawing from society to various degrees. This is presumably why Japan has some of the lowest numbers in the world for children born per capita and frequency of sexual contact. The virtual girlfriend is an attempt to capitalize on those withdrawn young men who are still active in society but do not have the interest or self-confidence necessary to pursue a human female. It isn't so much a rejection of Japanese women as a reaction of despair to a society that treats them as if they have no value. It's a cautionary note for the United States too. The fact that the corporate loyalty culture here is much weaker probably means that the impact won't be as bad, but the potential for a generation that is poorer, less motivated, and less active socially is definitely present.
BTW, make sure your Chinese cook is a gourmet--a great Chinese cook can make lots of great food, but an ok Chinese cook makes food that is very greasy and salty, which tastes great once in a while but is monotonous (not to mention very unhealthy) if eaten regularly. Contrast that to an ok French or Italian cook, who makes food that isn't inspired but is still good to eat any or every day.
Like most things, I think it would depend on the woman. I've met more than a few women that get extremely upset when they realize their man has a porn collection and the willingness to use it ("What, am I not good enough for you?!"). I've also met more than a few women that just write it off as "boys will be boys", and a subset of those that watch and enjoy the porn with the guys.
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd assume that those that get upset about porn would get extremely upset about the robot sex slave, those that write porn off as "boys will be boys" might get a bit uncomfortable about the robot (there's a fine line between "porn's on the TV" and "my guy is with a robotic sex toy") but may or may not keep their discomfort to themselves, and those that watch and enjoy the porn will be arranging robotic threesomes, assuming they don't already have matching male sex robots to play with.
Judgind by the picture, the resort is located in the picturesque Uncanny Valley.
No sig
Sounds perfect, doesn't it? "The last invention of man was the Holodeck."
Problem is, perfect gets boring. The inconvenient truth about all those little relationship annoyances is that they challenge you to grow in ways you'd never think to explore otherwise.
Your resignation makes me sad, because courtship ultimately boils down to a game many nerds are more suited to than they realize.
Granted, it's a grind, but the loot... or dare I say booty beats anything virtual.
The hardest part is getting over yourself. "But who could possibly want me?" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think that might actually be the whole nerd social issue... we get too "meta" with social interaction over shit that just doesn't occur to most people.
Hmm. I'm gonna go write an entirely unsubstantiated self-help book.
How would you feel if your girlfriend told you robot dick feels better than yours?
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
What? I couldn't hear you with these perfect robot thighs wrapped around my head.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
I've yet to meet a woman out there in the real world....that doesn't yet know what a vibrator is, and generally most own more than ONE of them.
I've learned some good tricks and skills over the years, but NO MAN can make his dick do what some of these things do, and if they can, well, they need to be making money hand over fist (no pun intended) in films and off rich lady clients.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
You can leave now
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
My wife is a more open minded geek, and she wouldn't mind, and that's why I married her.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
But the same woman who would be upset about you banging rosie the robot will happily bang the vibrator all day long.
In theory, the modern idea behind gaining a life partner (wife/husband/de facto/same-sex partner) is to find someone you enjoy spending time with, sharing the better and worse, growing old with and on a mutually agreeable schedule bumping uglies.
Contrary to popular misconception - it is normal for women to have a sex drive and actually want to have sex with their partner. While it is possible that the frequency may not match exactly (it's not unheard of for females to want more sex than their male partner), provided it's close enough both partners will be happy.
If a VR partner enabled you to manage the desire gap effectively you'd probably be fine, but if your partner is left hanging because your giving it to a robot instead of them when they actually want it, you'll probably be ducking frypans and alimony settlements shortly.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
I'm a feminist and most of my friends are guys. I'm also married and am the primary breadwinner in our household.
I don't want my husband to be m doormat anymore than I believe that I should be his. It's a partnership.
The impression I get from your posting is that you don't believe men and women can have a relationship on an equal footing. I am sad for you and your narrow world view.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World