The virtual romantic partner idea received an update this season, as Cloud Girlfriend prepares to launch. It's "The Social Network Girlfriend" service, combining cloud computing with Web 2.0, apparently.
Step 1: Define your perfect girlfriend. Step 2: We bring her into existence. Step 3: Connect and interact with her publicly on your favorite social network Step 4: Enjoy a public long distance relationship with your perfect girl.
Perhaps there's some AI behind it, or direct human puppetry. To scale up the latter, they should hire some gold farmers. Now there's a plot device.
Mashable claims the service is based on Girardian triangulation.
the idea behind [the] startup...“The best way to get a girlfriend is to already have one.”
So rather than being a simple replacement for a lacking partner in the physical world, or serving as a training sim for dating a la Japanese games, CG is supposed to win users flesh-and-blood women by spurring their jealousy. Perhaps Cloud Girl can be set to "stalker" mode, in order to ramp up intensity?
Fearsome internet angles are legion. I already mentioned stalkers, and can imagine gold farming going terribly awry. How about men and women lured to waste away by a Cloud Siren? Cloud Homewrecker interfering with happy marriages? Adults terrified that "children" (teens) will be seduced by these Cloud Lamia? I can imagine religious prohibitions, government ordinances, 3d printing...
...and that's the first six months. What happens over an extended period of time, when a user sets aside their first Cloudy for another? Can the company arrange for some jealousy? And how will competitors differentiate out their... services?
(thanks to Todd Bryant; image from wellohorld)
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