Even My Virtual Girlfriend Won't Put Out

How sad is this?

Men, are you tired of the time, trouble and expense of having a girlfriend?
Irritated by the difficulty of finding a new one?
Eberhard Schöneburg, the chief executive of the software maker Artificial Life Inc. of Hong Kong, may have found the answer: a virtual girlfriend named Vivienne who goes wherever you go.
Vivienne likes to be taken to movies and bars. She loves to be given virtual flowers and chocolates, and she can translate six languages if you travel overseas. She never undresses, although she has some skimpy outfits for the gym, and is a tease who draws the line at anything beyond blowing kisses.
If you marry her in a virtual ceremony, you even end up with a virtual mother-in-law who really does call you in the middle of the night on your cellphone to ask where you are and whether you have been treating her daughter right.

The folks at Artificial Life, who offer the Vivienne 'girlfriend experience' for $6 per month, think this is just the beginning; mobile phone companies see it as a lure to get people to spend on 3G handsets and services.

"'It's a little bit for the losers,' said Rick Wong, a 32-year-old off-duty security guard" in Hong Kong when asked. Dya think?

Haven't we seen something like this before? See you all on the holodeck?

Tags: Artificial Life, irishblogs