VIRTUAL FRIENDS
VIRTUAL PETS
· Digital pet craze replaces
the furry faithfuls
The latest virtual pet is the touch-screen tamagotchi angel, winged creatures who need to do good deeds to increase their angel power. Tamagotchis can now be used on Gameboys, where you can cryogenically freeze your pet, and on PCs, which provide care centres for sick toys.
· The heavy impact of
losing a virtual pet
The attention tamagotchis command has led to schools in Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the US banning the toy from their grounds, while in Canada a support group helps kids cope when their virtual pet cemetery has opened, allowing children to provide their virtual animals with a final resting place. The mail order service costs 4.50 per pet.
· Overcoming shyness
with digital girlfriends
In the same vein as My Lover comes the Toki Memorial, a virtual dating game. Manufactured by the Sony Corporation in Japan, it is already one of the giant company’s 10 best selling games. The game presents shy Japanese boys with a selection of digital girlfriends. Players score points for small talk and good behavior and are awarded a kiss on the cheek if they conduct themselves correctly. Figurines based on the game’s characters have also been selling well in shops.
VIRTUAL STARS
· Get the Drudge Report
for the latest gossip
Matt Drudge’s Drudge Report is making him arguably one of the world’s most influential reporters. The report, originally available via his Internet site, is now sent to about 85,000 subscribers a few times a week- subscribers who in turn become his confidantes to inside political and star studded gossip. Dredge, 31, who fashions himself on 1930s US columnist Walter Winchell, broke the Monica Lewinsky story.
· Becoming a star on the
World Wide Web
Austin based virtual celebrity Harry Knowles is causing a stir in the movie industry by publishing embargoed information and juicy gossip about films, stars and directors on his web site, the Ain’t It Cool News Page. The 26-year-old, who learnt his cyberscribe skills while working for Matt Drudge, has taken advantage of the immediacy and lack of enforcement on the World Wide Web to publish his well informed insider gossip. The film industry itself takes his reviews seriously, as he has built up a reasonable amount of public clout, and Hollywood film posters have even been known to quote Knowles if they like what he says.
· Is he a figment of the
art world’s imagination
Italian-German virtual artist Gunter Solo lives between Bologna, Milan, London and New York. His amazing art events include parachuting over London while sketching the city below, and having a woman give berth at the opening of one of his filled an art gallery with water and swam around in it for two hours at the opening.
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