Virtual Dating Game
From LoveToKnow Dating
You may wonder what the point of a virtual dating game would be, since there's not actually another person on the other side of the interaction. However, that's exactly the point – there's no actual ego to get bruised or insulted on the other side of the game. Meanwhile, only you will see where you might need to polish up your dating conversation skills.
How Does a Virtual Dating Game Work?
Basically, a virtual dating game is a program that will simulate various kinds of people and some type of dating environment. For example, in RED Virtual Date, you get to choose between three potential dates, all of somewhat differing appearances, and choose where to interact with them – a beach, the university, a bistro, etc.
Once you've chosen those two factors – the only things that in reality you can control – you are given the opportunity to strike up a conversation with the potential partner. Usually you are given three choices of either questions or responses, and based on their appearance and their responses you try and pick the ones that will raise their "heart meter."
The "heart meter" is the way that RED indicates how well or badly you are doing – other games, such as Speed Dating use facial expressions to let you know (more on that later). In RED, though, you have to say enough of the right things to even get from the introduction to the friendship level, much less to a romantic date. From there you choose a new place to have a "second date" (and you have to make sure to suggest the right place – Lucy, for example, doesn't like the beach or the university). The game has several different levels, and you try and work through each one, learning about the characters and hopefully improving your ability to read them.
That's the beauty of a virtual dating game. You get second chances to make first impressions, and a chance to fix your past mistakes. Another advantage is the variety of questions and personality types available in the games. They vary in body type, clothing, and personalities, and you are expected to pick up on clues from all three as you pick your answers. While there are times that the limited choices may seem frustrating, you have as much time as you like in this game to choose your response.
That is very unlike actual dating, when you have to respond to a person quickly and in the spur of the moment. The Speed Dating game adds the element of time pressure to their virtual dating game.
Thinking On Your Feet: Speed Dating
The Speed Dating game on Y8.com is very similar on the surface to RED: you are presented with varying appearances in your potential partners, and you are expected to go by their facial cues and verbal responses to determine whether you are on the right track to getting a second date.
The difference is that it is a simulation of speed dating – so you are expected to ask questions quickly in order to get to the point where your partner wants you to take their number for a second date. The more dates you manage to set up within the allotted time, the better. While the sample partners are more caricatures and stereotypical in Speed Dating than in RED Virtual Date, the questions and answers are more varied and do a good job of simulating the pressure to say the right thing in a short amount of time.
Pitfalls of Playing a Virtual Dating Game
While it can do a good job of both entertaining you and also giving you ideas for interesting questions for your first date, no virtual dating game is going to be a substitute for the real thing. Worse, by playing on stereotypes, they also set you up to make assumptions about people based on their appearance that can be disastrous. Just remember that real people do not follow the game rules, and treat everyone as an individual.
The other pitfall is simply that since the games have been very popular, many sites use the heading of "virtual dating game" as a trap for malware and viruses on your computer. Make sure to use a trusted source (RED, for example, is part of AOL) for the games you choose to play.
Many virtual dating games that were very popular (such as ArianeB) have been supplanted by virtual worlds such as Second Life, where real people are behind the virtual images. Although these aren't "games" per se, they are a way to get a little more conversational practice before the pressure of a physical meeting with someone. Whatever your method of virtual dating, though, it can help you improve your dating skills when the real thing comes around.
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This page has been accessed 4,429 times. This page was last modified 02:40, 3 September 2009.
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