This could quite possibly be the killer app for next gen cell phones. It's the Virtual Girlfriend for your mobile phone. Just like the real thing, she demands that you pay a lot of attention to her and when you don't she will call you or SMS you and want to know why.
"The rules are simple, just spend time with me, talk to me, and make me happy, and you will do quite well in the game. You will need to answer the questions I am posing every day, and play in the role play games, this will earn you extra points."
There is actually a substantial amount of technology in this game. Developed by Artificial Life:
"The primary control or core of the ALife-SmartEngine™ is a meta-controller that is essential for the bot to formulate appropriate
responses to user inquiries.SmartEngine 3.0 is our proprietary Natural Language Processing
technology that is fully integrated into EVERY product we sell. Following are key features of the SmartEngine."
What's really fascinating about this is how the subscriber actually builds a relationship with the bot, which in turn learns and advances to new levels of play. But you have to be careful because you can get to the point where the v-girl proposes to you and introduces you to the virtual mother-in-law who will then proceed to call you in the evenings and ask you why are aren't paying enough attention to her daughter.
what??? no virtual boyfriend (v-boy)? Such a simple program really. Occasional outbound calls for late night bootycalls and "I have to cancel our date, I'm working late" quips. Sporadically it would conveniently pass your calls right onto voice mail and issue the following warning - "Didn't you read The Rules? Don't CALL BOYS."
Posted by: kirsten | Dec 22, 2004 at 08:48 AM
I read that the company is planning a v-boy app for the spring...
perhaps you can get on the product team and help define the functionality ;-)
Posted by: jeff | Dec 22, 2004 at 08:59 AM
i think there is no need for virtual girlfriend... because just like any other virtual friend/pet/whutever... it's just wasting of time and money..
it's just make "human" more passive...
yeah for some people, it's for fun.. but some people may fell in love wit it(her).. i think it is not ethical..
this is just an opinion..
Posted by: Ajendgreat | Feb 07, 2005 at 06:36 PM
please report to the lost-and-found to retrieve a sense of humor :)
Posted by: Jeff | Feb 07, 2005 at 08:10 PM