SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Virtual reality games usually promise shoot 'em up adventures but in Hong Kong Friday lovelorn tech fans donned headsets to go on imaginary dates.
The city's annual Ani-Com and Games fair sees thousands queue to try out the latest consoles or buy up comic book collectibles, often dressed up as their favourite characters.
But for those who had spent too long alone in their rooms, a new VR smartphone app offered some romantic solace.
Users can choose between four female models and spend a vacation with them in either Japan or Thailand, joining them on trips to cafes, hot springs and karaoke.
They slot their phones into a plastic headset and are then immersed on a date, during which they can choose options for activities.
Promoters of the Hong Kong-made app, which is known by its Cantonese name "leoi yau" or "VR travel friend", said it was to help what they called "Otakus" to practise their dating skills.
The name is a Japanese term for obsessive manga or anime fans.
"We want to allow more people to try out what it's like to date a girl because there are a lot of Otakus who don't know how to communicate with girls," Margaret Ming, the app's communication officer, told AFP.
"This game can teach them how to get to know girls," Ming said, adding that there is some flirting involved in the story arcs with the models.
Helpful, or sad?
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday July 29 2017, @07:22PM
Pheonix666 wrote :
I did not word that well. Agreed - some guys are born with a natural ability to talk and act the way girls like (if only while courting), by chance not effort, while others like you and I are not - some of us may learn the skill but others don't.
Pheonix666 wrote :
I never thought I was ugly, in fact I never understood why girls turned away from me, neither did my male friends. I believe my facial expressions are "wrong" somehow.
Pheonix666 wrote :
The only girls I ever met were via dating club (pre-internet); any I approached otherwise told me to sod off or worse if they bothered to say anything before walking away. But I was very rarely in a situation to approach them anyway unless I walked up to them in the street (never tried that) or went to a public dance (that didn't work). It is a complete mystery to me how couples ever meet each other other than via dating clubs/websites. However with a pre-arranged date the situation is somewhat "captive" and I found some girls warmed to by the end of the date, enough for a second date anyway.
Pheonix666 wrote :
That beats me, but my fiirst GF had been a Bunny Girl at the London Playboy Club (but only for one day). She had the figure, and with some make-up could have been a centrefold. She got a job in a food factory but was promptly put in reception because of her guileless charm, but she was not as sexy and pretty as it might sound. She was a London cockney you could imagine best selling cabbages at a street market stall, and she was in awe of me as "brainy". The point is that even the most seemingly unapproachable girls are actually human and might be less certain of themselves than you are.
Pheonix666 wrote :
What galls me is that when you hear what women are supposed to like in men, I tick all the boxes (almost). Eg educated, fit, wealthy (I've been well off from my early 20's). But how would women know these things if they will not even talk to you, as I found except in the dating club.