>> DIGITAL LOVE
“extends the companionship of the
game.” Ming Chan, a player in Hong
Kong, has even posed his Manaka
pillow at the dinner table. A photo
he posted to Facebook shows the
pillow across the table from him,
with a soda, burger and french fries
placed in front of it. He arranged
her straw so that the pillow appeared to be sipping its drink.
Konami designed its virtual
girlfriends to copy the expecta-
HUFFINGTON
02.16.14
splash water on their shirts and,
using the Nintendo DS’s built-in
microphone, whisper sweet nothings back and forth.
The girlfriends are limited to
understanding a handful of cloying stock phrases like, “Hey, can
you tell me your favorite color?”
and “Hey, hey. Can you tell me
your favorite food?” Some players barely understand the game’s
Japanese phrases, a kind of bliss-
People have turned to the LovePlus ladies as a form of practice in picking up
girls, as a reprieve from the awkwardness of face-to-face encounters, and as a
refuge in the unwavering support of a woman who can never, ever leave them.
tions and idiosyncrasies of actual
women. The girls blush when
they’re pleased, and they smack
their boyfriends when they’re insulted. Over the course of months
or even years playing the game,
LovePlus romeos will exchange
flirtatious emails with their digital lovers, take them on weekend
getaways to hot springs resorts,
check in on them while they’re
sick, buy them gifts on their
birthdays, apply suntan lotion to
their backs, apologize for showing up late, kiss them in the park,
ful ignorance that seems to keep
minor i \\