Love Plus
As some of you may already be aware, Konami released a new DS dating sim game this fall known as “Love Plus.” Konami is, of course, famous in this market for their Tokimeki Memorial series. The difference with this game, however, is that it continues after the player has successfully wooed the girl. (This is likely the source of the use of “plus” in the title.) From what I understand, the bulk of the game is interacting with the girl with her being the player’s girlfriend.
The website “boingboing” recently posted an article entitled, “Advisor: My husband has a virtual girlfriend,” in which a Japanese couple living in San Francisco was interviewed about the game and if/how it has affected their relationship.
According to boingboing’s Lisa Katayama, who conducted the interview with Koh and Yurie, there’s been quite a number of Japanese women complaining online that their husbands have become addicted to the game and that it is disrupting their family life.
Especially telling is this little interchange during the interview:
Yurie: It sounds like you can really experience the realness of dating.
Koh: Yeah.. the girl also talks a lot. You hear her voice at every part of the game. A lot of dating sims are mostly text, but this one has a real humanistic side to it. I think this comes down to the fact that men are simple. This is obviously a computer program, but this makes us really feel like there’s a girl inside the DS. It feels dangerous, like I might get sucked into this world. Some guys on the Internet are saying that their Love Plus relationships feel more real. They feel like they’re with their girlfriend every day. I kinda get it.
The intimacy of a relationship, without the “baggage” of it being a real person? Not to mention a girl that’s likely to be easier to get for socially akward geeks than a real girl? (Or at least perceived as being such.) I can see why some lonely guys would be pulled into that world. What’s more interesting, however, is the men who already are in relationships that are neglecting them for this virtual girlfriend.
Thankfully, Koh and Yurie don’t have that problem.
Q: But Koh, you have a real woman in your life.
Koh: That’s why I was able to come back. Thank god! I was only stuck in that world for about a week. Also, I got hooked when I was in Japan on a business trip, so when I came back to San Francisco, I didn’t play it that much. Maybe just for a day. In the bathtub.
Yurie: I didn’t really see him playing it.
Koh: It’s pretty damn embarrassing. I think if I wasn’t able to come back from that world, I would have run out of things to talk about with my real wife. I can understand why some couples would get in a fight over that.
Seems that Koh was able to pull himself away, which is good. Not everyone else is that lucky.
Q: Yurie, does this bother you at all?
Yurie: Not at all. If he’s just enjoying it as a game, that’s fine with me. I don’t care that he has a girlfriend inside of the game at all. I’m just like, oh okay. So that’s what you’re into right now. If we were to get into a fight over this, it would be less about the content of the game and more about how much time he spends playing it. It doesn’t matter what he’s doing, but if he spends too much time on the computer, then that’s not good.
Yes, moderation in all things is key. Addictions can ruin lives, relationships, careers, etc.; whether they are physical or psychological in nature.
I found this statement by Yurie slightly amusing, but more eye-roll-inducing than anything. ;)
Yurie: If there was a boy version, I think most women would be able to clearly distinguish between real life and in-game life. I have celebrities I like, too, but then I also have a husband. And they’re totally separate.
Perhaps she could avoid that addiction, but I’d still say that there would be a large number of women caught by that, just like the men caught by the original. I heartily agree with this comment by boingboing user Egypt Urnash:
I have seen women completely lost to WoW. Before that, I have seen women completely lost to mucks. The attachment to the world of imagination is no less powerful for women than men; both sexes will fill in gaps in presentation to see what they want to see.
So yeah. Keep telling yourself you can hold yourself away from this kind of hole, Yurie. Maybe you can – some people are more vulnerable to this kind of thing than others. But I have seen a lot of people fall into virtual romances, with or without real ones to pull them back. And now it seems we finally begin to have software presenting a sophisticated enough illusion to do it without a person on the other end of the datastream.
Some of you may not know this, but I myself have struggled with MUCK addiction. The attachment and draw is very real and can be very dangerous and destructive. I had to learn about that the hard way. It derailed my life for several years. -.- So, while it is extremely tempting, I likely won’t be picking up Love Plus any time soon, if at all.
Source: “Advisor: My husband has a virtual girlfriend (boingboing)
“ラブプラス” (Love Plus official website — Konami)
Header picture cropped from an image on the ゲーム紹介 (Game Introduction) page on the Love Plus website.
Tags: ラブプラス, DS, Video Games
