Japanese Culture in New York - Chopsticks NY

It’s been more than 10 years since the virtual pet game Tamagotchi swept Japan. This key chain video game, which allows players to raise a baby chicken, targeted young girls. It was commonly thought that high school girls played Tamagotchi at home, while commuting and even at school because the baby chicken needed to be fed, taken care of and pampered all the time. Utilizing a similar concept but with completely different relationship dynamics, a virtual communication game appealing to young males has been released in Japan.  Love Plus, developed by Konami Digital Entertainment for Nintendo DS, has quickly spread and established a huge fandom.

In Love Plus, the male player plays the role of a high school student who has just transferred to a new school and falls in love with a girl there. The player can choose his favorite character from three options, Manaka, Rinko or Nene, and enjoy virtual love with her.  Each girl has different personalities and looks, drawn in shojo manga style.  If the player cannot choose one by himself, there are matching diagnoses available. Since the game employs a RTC (Real Time Clock) system, the virtual love relationship synchronizes with real time. So unless he takes proper care of his girl, she will not return his love. If he is able to create a good relationship with her, she might change her personality to become closer to his ideal girl in areas such as fashion style, hobbies and even attitude.  For the player who cannot fully indulge in the virtual love due to time constraints, the game is conveniently equipped with a skip mode which allows him to play only when he wants.

The feature of Love Plus that differs greatly from Tamagotchi is the DS function of the touch pen. The player can actually touch the girl he’s in love with, and this gives the simulated video game world a realistic aspect. It figures that real girlfriends and wives now complain that Love Plus is taking up too much of their partners’ time.

http://www.konami.jp/products/loveplus/
*Love Plus is in Japanese only and not available overseas.