On Virtual Eternity
A bus from Tokyo disgorged a large group of youngsters on a beach at Atami, a little sea-resort and a favourite weekend haunt for the capital’s seekers of erotic adventure; this is what we learn from today’s edition of the YAHOO!News. Buses arrive from Tokyo to Atami several times a day – so how come that one of them earned space in the widely read internet-supplied news bulletin? This particular bus brought to Atami the first batch of the new Nintendo Love+ game players; a swallow that announces a long and profitable Spring for Atami restaurateurs and hoteliers.
The youngsters who alighted from the bus, unlike other passengers, paid no attention to the scantily clad “girls frolicking on the sand”, and clutching their smartphone cameras armed with AR (“augmented reality”) software they proceeded in a hurry straight to the genuine objects of their desire, the real thing: the virtual girlfriends, enchanted in a little barcode glued to the plinth of a love-couple’s sculpture. The software fed into the boys’ smartphones allows them to “disenchant” from the barcode the one and only girl of their virtual dreams, take her for a walk, entertain her, ingratiate themselves in her eyes and win her favours just by following the clear-cut, unambiguous, results-guaranteed-or-money-back rules, spelled out in the interactive on-screen instructions; even spend a hotel night together (kissing is allowed and encouraged, though sex alas is for the time being barred; there are still some limits which even the cutting edge technology is unable to cross. One can be sure, however, that also this limit the technowizards will be able to break through by the time the Love++ or Love2 is launched).
A serious technological website dbtechno.com, convinced that technology is there in order to serve human needs and satisfy humans’ demand, is impressed: “Love+ is a new game devoted to the man who can not handle having a real woman in their life and in the country of Japan it has taken off big time” – it says. As to the services rendered, it is hopeful: “For the men out there who do not want to put up with a woman in their life, the virtual girlfriend maybe the answer”.
Creamglobal.com spots another “needs niche” yearning to be filled: “A generation who grew up with Tamagotchi” (alas, no longer in fashion and so out of the markets) has developed a “caring habit”, indeed a sort of addiction to (virtual) caring for (virtual) beings (virtually) alive – a habit which they are no longer able to satisfy due to the non-possession of appropriate techno-gadgets to unload it. They need a new gizmo with which to practice the contrived habit, and possibly in a yet more exciting and pleasurable (for a time) manner. Thanks to the Love+ however, the worry is over: “To keep the girlfriend, the player must tap a stylus on the DS touch-screen where they can then walk hand-in-hand to school, exchange flirtations, text messages and even meet in the school courtyard for a little afternoon kiss. Through a built in microphone, the player can even carry on sweet, albeit mundane, conversations”. Note: inserting of “albeit” does not necessarily signal regret; remember that Tamagotchi did not manage to a habit out of conversation, let alone a non-mundane one.
On ChicagoNow.com, Jenina Nunez wonders: “In the era of dating and virtual reality, have we become so lonely (and given up on real, human love) that we're willing to court the image of the perfect companion?” And she hypothesizes in response to that question: “I'm starting to think that Love+, which seems to eliminate a human companion from the equation entirely, is a clear example of how far people would go to avoid feeling lonely...” The surmise underpinning that answer - a guess which Jenina Nunez unfortunately neglected to make explicit and failed to develop - is right on target. Yes, the revolution that the latest Nintendo game portends, as much as the secret of its immediate marketing success, is the elimination of human companion entirely from the human relations game… Something in the style of non-alcoholic beer, fat-free butter or calorie-free food, but heretofore only cravenly, surreptitiously, or in inept, cottage-industry primitive style and manner has been attempted in what for techno-boffins and techno-traders is the supreme challenge and the nearest equivalent of the box of worms or a lion’s den: the sphere of human partnerships, bonds, friendship, love…
This is an ambitious new game, Love+ is. In supplying virtual (read: sanitized, stripped of the “strings attached”, of side effects, of “unanticipated consequences” and fears of pre-empting future liberties) substitutes, it aims at the very peak: at the future itself. It offers eternity for instant, on the spot consumption. It offers the way to keep eternity at bay and under control, and stop it the moment it ceases to be enjoyed and desired. It offers “eternal love” to be imbibed and relished in full on a short coach trip to Atami - with no need to carry it back home. As Naoyuki Sakazaki, a man in his 40s, put it: “Love Plus is fun because the relationship continues forever” (italics added). He should know: the Love+ campaign in Atami started on July 10 and finished by the end of August…
To this kind of accomplishment, there has been to my knowledge only one known precedent, albeit apocryphal and un-provable. Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan was so deeply in love with his third wife Mumtaz Mahal, that he summoned and paid the greatest architects of his time and spent 21 years supervising the construction of a fitting monument to her charm and beauty: the Taj (“crown of buildings”) of Mahal. When the last freeze was engraved and the last ornamentation polished, Shah Jahan allegedly inspected the masterpiece and found his love longings finally gratified and nostalgia for the lost love satiated.
September 5th, 2010