
Artificial Life in Hong Kong has developed a new game called Virtual Girlfriend. The game is due for launch at the 3G World Conference in Hong Kong on November 15, but has already created a storm of interest, especially in South America, Europe and Asia. Virtual Girlfriend players establish a relationship with a "girlfriend" and progress to new levels as the relationship evolves. The artificial girlfriend needs a lot of attention and likes gifts such as chocolates and flowers. To get "boyfriends" playing the game as often as possible, the company has designed play so that the girlfriend needs a visit every day. She has secrets the boyfriend needs to discover to get to the next level. She reveals the secrets little by little. The game uses technologies such as streaming, video and live chat. It has a natural language processor, text-to-speech voices, including English, German, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Unlike most other games, the user can chat live with the artificial girlfriend," Schoneburg says. The user can follow and interact with the girlfriend during different activities, such as when she is shopping, when she is out for a coffee with her friends, at the workplace or at her virtual home.