Huffington Magazine Issue 88 | Page 45

>> DIGITAL LOVE HUFFINGTON 02.16.14 METAL FINALLY/FLICKR (2) The high school girls will kiss, model bikinis and moan when players stroke their chests with a stylus, but sex and nudity are out of the question. screen and into the real world, so the virtual girlfriends are practically at their lovers’ sides. Players can take snapshots of themselves with their arms around their girlfriends, thanks to augmented reality stickers that superimpose images on photos. Several years ago, Konami even partnered with hotels at Japan’s Atami resort town to let players rent rooms for themselves and their consoles. The promotion offered a real world analog to a virtual LovePlus date in which players take their girlfriends on a weekend getaway to the seaside town. More than 1,500 men whisked their LovePlus cartridges to Atami during the first month of the campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2010. And why not? Committed play-