If men keep up this jerk streak, it won’t be long before women will be having sex with a smartphone. I know this because I was seduced by virtual prince who listened to me every night, sent me romantic texts, and turned me into his queen. Isn’t that what we all want?
It started when my friend and her boyfriend broke up. She was sad and depressed for a while, then one day she saw an ad that said “Click Here To Meet Your Soulmate.” At first she thought it was a dating app but she was surprised to find it was a Japanese game.
It’s called Shall We Date?, and it’s one of those Romance Apps that have become the rage in Japanese culture. The game goes like this: there are several storylines you can be part of. The hero will be your man, obviously. You fill in your info, and he’ll get in touch with you. He’ll tell you how you can help him solve some problem. It’s up to you to solve the situation while your e-man seduces you every step of the way.
My friend spent whole days interacting with her new man. She said she was even intimate with him. I’m not sure how that happened, but it did. When my relationship ended I was curious to look into this app man. Beyond what happened with that virtual ninja (don’t judge my fetishes), I was surprised about to discover background of the Romance Apps and how I’m sure they’ll change life in the next couple of years.
This interactive technology was developed in the eighties. The first game of its kind was called Bishoujo, which means “pretty girl.” The only goal was for the user to seduce this attractive anime woman. This model continued to evolve until Romance Apps began creating romantic simulations for every taste.
Most of these games have a plot;they’re made out of text, and static anime images. The player must choose their behavior based on a couple of decisions. Will they console the attractive woman when she looks upset or will they pretend nothing’s wrong? Will they ask their animated love interest about their family or life dreams? The user’s choices affect the game.
According to researcher Guan van Zoggel the goal is to “establish a relationship or have sex with one of the female characters before the game is over.” For Yuka Gray, a spokesperson for Voltage (the company who makes these apps), the simulation works because “the user can identify” with the story’s “exciting moments.”
Generally, the main female character is naïve, virginal, innocent, and modest to an exaggerated extent. Male characters are molded on archetypes that are aggressive and proactive. Is this good or bad? Zoggel claims that the female personality is the least attractive thing in the game. “The girl is shy, clumsy, inexperienced, likes to eat a lot, and tries too hard. She seems incapable of taking care of herself. It’s obviously not the best example for the younger audience.” Male characters are brave and overconfident. Gray explained that the charismatic sadist archetype is more of a fantasy in Japan than it is in the United States.
The appeal of an unlikeable man in fiction is well documented in Janice Radway’s Reading the Romance, a text that dissects the way women interact with romance novels. After analyzing the plot of several books that were seen as having the ideal male leads, Radway saw a pattern. Women seem to prefer “dangerous attractive men who are also surprisingly able to be kind and sweet.”
Based on that information Guan van Zoggel concludes that when playing dating simulations, female users don’t identify with the female protagonist because they become the protagonist. This is why my friend felt like she was in a fairy tale and was bewitched by an anime character who lived in her cell phone.
Will women in the future ditch a “real” relationship in order to have an app one?
Translated by María Suárez
