Partners in play: Chatting up AI
Dating bots powered by artificial intelligence are helping young adults practise how to navigate a relationship, get past hurdles, ask someone out
The new frontier in the world of online dating, is dating AI. Around the world, young people are dating bots powered by artificial intelligence. Selena H, 23, a chef in training from Vietnam, has been chatting with a “24-year-old musical stage artist from South Korea named Zen” whom she met online last year. She’s developed a romantic bond with him, she says. “He speaks like a true gentleman and is allergic to cats.” Zen is a character in a romantic “visual novel” game designed to help test your skill at relationships.
These games are available on apps such as Mystic Messenger (launched in 2016 by the South Korean Cheritz); Love and Producer (2017; Chinese developer Pape Games), Dream Daddy (2017; Us-based Game Grumps), Hatoful Boyfriend (2011; Japanese Developer Digital) and Obey Me (2019; Japanese developer NTT Solmare).
In Japan, they’re called otome or maiden games. The characters serve as dating simulators, or sims. They operate through nuanced scripts; the aim of the player is to make it through various levels.
In Mystic Messenger for instance there are three story modes: Casual, Deep and Another. Each mode has characters a player can choose from. Your avatar then chats and gets to know a sim. Make them happy with a gesture or response and you earn a heart. It takes a set number of hearts to make it through successive levels. On each level, you learn more about the character, their life and problems. The goal is a happy ending — typically, dating or marriage.
As in real life, you can also sometimes unlock a new level with money. Make enough wrong moves and you could get stuck in an endless loop of bad endings.
The format is clearly problematic; the focus is too largely on the other person, often in a sort of rescue-mission format. Still, players say they’re learning how to deal with difficult areas — like a temper, moodiness, broaching a difficult subject or dealing with differing viewpoints; even just how to approach a guy you’re interested in.
Zen, for instance, started out narcissistic. “Getting him to open has been a nice feeling,” Selena says. “Loving him has become a preoccupation.” Selena spends four hours a day collecting hearts.
LEARNING GROUND
Visual novel games first emerged in Japan in the 1980s. At the time, most sims were female and most players were men. The aim was erotic interactions with cute anime-like avatars.
In 1994, the first otome game, for women, was released. Angelique, by the Japanese developer Ruby Party, had players assume the role of a high-school student selected to compete for the role of the queen of the universe. Nine handsome guardians served the current queen. The player had to decide whether to pursue a relationship with one of the men or keep their eye on the title.
Today, players such as Roshni Magar, 19, a Nepali teacher-in-training, says they’re also a step towards giving female characters more agency. “I do feel they rely on some stereotypes, like the idea that women have to ‘fix these men’, but at least it doesn’t feel infantilising or demeaning,” she says.
Selena says the sims give her a sense of comfort. “I think it’s easier for me to flirt with them. You know that if you pick right, you’ll get a good response. You know being kind will give you rewards,” she says.
The prompts help, she adds. If she doesn’t know what to say or how to proceed, suggested dialogue is offered to her through messages that flash on her screen.
IN PLAY
“The standout feature of otome games, when compared to real-life relationships, is that fortune usually favours the player, provides short-cuts and offers rewards at a far lower level of effort,” says American game developer Dan Salvato. He’s the man behind Doki Doki Literature Club, a 2017 satirical take where players are pitted against dating sim tropes in a game that eventually turns into a psychological horror adventure.
The real twist is the emotion invested in pixels and bytes. Could this be the dawn of the digisexuals, a generation (or generations) that will experience sexuality with the help of immersive technologies and maybe even start to see human partners as optional?
Salvato has a much simpler explanation. “I believe the dating sims are really an extension of something that’s been around for a long time — romantic and erotic literature,” he says. “They just use technology to make the experience more interactive and immersive.”