

Japanese Girl Sensation: Virtual Boyfriends (Webkare) - blackswan
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/20/webkare-a-girls-only-combination-of-social-network-and-dating-game-from-japan/

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litewulf
I'm really curious why this is cast as a "Japanese girls are lonely". My
girlfriend also watches those horrible Asian romance dramas and (jokes
notwithstanding) I'm pretty sure the reason is more to fulfill her sappiness
quota and not to cure her deep aching loneliness.

I think its more notable for its interesting game mechanic and the utterly
evil method they have for getting high page counts per user. (I mean, it seems
that the company just implied you advance in the game by looking at pages you
wouldn't have looked at normally. Devious!)

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andreyf
_...to fulfill her sappiness quota and not to cure her deep aching loneliness_

Just like boys who play counterstrike do it to fulfill their violence quota?
Give me a break.

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iron_ball
So boys who play counterstrike do it, instead, because they really want to
kill people?

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evilneanderthal
Depends if it's monday.

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antirez
Ok it's not only in the west the programmers are focused on bullshit...

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bootload
_"... Ok it's not only in the west the programmers are focused on bullshit
..."_

Making things that people want?

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tudorachim
People simply wanting it doesn't make it important or useful in objective
terms. Diggers, for example, _really_ keep up with the service, even though a)
almost all of the stories are a waste of time and b) almost all of the
commenters are hilariously misinformed, to put it politely.

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pmjordan
By that standard, any kind of entertainment is worthless.

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tudorachim
No, I don't think so. I think there is entertainment, like reading a good
book, or listening to good music, that is worth something because it ... helps
you in some way, and entertainment like digg, which is just a complete time
sink.

This essay by Neal Stephenson puts it into words better than I can:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/opinion/17stephenson.html>

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maxklein
What's a good book? Harry Potter? Shakespear? What's good music? Beethoven?
T-Pain?

More importantly - who is the judge? The government? You? If so, then are you
allowed to decide what is 'good' for others? Are they allowed to decide what
is 'good' for you?

You see what I mean? There is no absolute when it comes to entertainment.
There is no good or bad. There is just stuff that entertains, and stuff that
does not.

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bootload
_"... What's a good book? Harry Potter? Shakespear? What's good music?
Beethoven? T-Pain? ..."_

    
    
        Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
        Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
        Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
        And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 
        The Sonnets, 18.
    
        http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/wssnt10.txt
    

Shakespeare not "Shakespear".

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maxklein
Shakespeare can hardly be classified as entertainment anymore. The english is
just too old and too difficult for most people to read to be anymore than a
chore.

Harry Potter is REAL present-day entertainment, and anyone who wants to get
into the industry has to understand that.

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bootload
_"... The english is just too old and too difficult for most people to read to
be anymore than a chore ..."_

Good point.

Now if we are talking say _"The A-Team"_ I'd agree. Bodie, Doyle, Tiger and
jewelry man, Mr-T. I can see how some might spell Mr. Tee, Mr T or even Mr.
Tea if you're a Brit. But meddling with the spelling of the greatest, most
recognised writer in the history of English literature?

 _"... Harry Potter is REAL present-day entertainment, and anyone who wants to
get into the industry has to understand that ..."_

I agree J.K. Rawlings, is a modern master of story telling. But I can name
plenty of classic literature novels that have gone straight to mass visual
media bypassing their literary cousins. Behind each great bit of entertainment
is a great script. A lot of these scripts are based on classic lit.

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river_styx
So girls are getting virtual boyfriends now? Great. My chances were bad enough
already.

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Hexstream
3 of the boys look like girls... True to the tradition.

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lalagrande
Doesn't sound very "girls only" to me...

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newt0311
Only in Japan...

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Prrometheus
The Japanese seem more ready than most to project human feelings onto cartoon
characters. Thus the popularity of cartoons focused at young adults in Japan,
as well as the phenomenon of cartoon pornography.

