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In Love With a Virtual Partner

August 19, 2014

Romantic interaction between man and machine - that’s what dating sims offer. Nowhere in the world are these emotionally-laden games as successful as in Japan. A new version of "Love Plus” has just been released for the Nintendo DS mobile game console. With it, players can have virtual schoolgirls accompany them through their lives.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Cwbj

Japanese digital expert Masaki Ishitani describes "Love Plus” as a milestone in the history of video games. He says this game is the first one to offer the fusion of a real and a virtual life. It’s already sold 300,000 copies in Japan so far. Most of the players are male, and some of them have pledged to be faithful to their computer-generated partners. But dating sims are not without their critics: studies indicated that increasing numbers of young Japanese have little interest in relationships with real people, or getting married and having children. The fear is that they will hide out in virtual worlds instead.