Boyfriend Maker is a

dating sim Dating sims, or , are video game subgenre of simulation games with romantic elements. Dating sims are often dialog-heavy and focus on time management. The player must befriend and carefully build and maintain a relationship with one or more ...

chatbot A chatbot or chatterbot is a Software agent, software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation via text or Speech synthesis, text-to-speech, in lieu of providing direct contact with a live human agent. Designed to convincingly si ...

, romance bot

smartphone app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on de ...

for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

( iPhone) and Android devices, developed by Japanese studio 36 You Games (styled as 36You) and distributed under the

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...

business model. According to the developer's website, Boyfriend Maker is an "app that lets you interact and chat with quirky virtual boyfriends". Boyfriend Maker functions in a similar way as a game, since users can achieve various levels as they continue using the app. While each virtual boyfriend has certain unique characteristics, the various instances of the boyfriend are powered by a chat engine that (at least within a language and market) can utilise vocabulary and knowledge acquired in a chat with one user in subsequent chats with other users.

Apple delisting and reintroduction

In late November 2012, the original iOS Boyfriend Maker app was delisted from the Apple

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

due to "ribald" (i.e. lewd) chat, according to the New York Times. According to the website polygon.com, Boyfriend Maker was removed by Apple due to "reports of references to violent sexual acts and pedophilia". The polygon.com article notes that Boyfriend Maker had an age rating of 4+, even though the chat bot "responds with often strange and explicit text unsuitable for young children". User-posted chat excerpts do indicate that the virtual boyfriend would sometimes transition abruptly to flirtatious cybersex chat in response to a seemingly innocent question. In one a user-posted example, in response to the question, "what kind of wedding cake will we have" the boyfriend responds, "a good sex ima be on top of u u gonna ride oon me bitin the pillow gurrl ima fuck da shit out of u". According to the polygon.com article, "The developer's use of the SimSimi-created third-party chat engine is believed to be responsible for highly sexual chat text." As the virtual boyfriend converses with human users, the SimSimi chat engine acquires vocabulary from users of the game and applies this "learned" vocabulary in chats with other users. The chat engine might also employ lines harvested from human-human chat logs, song lyrics, movies or TV shows. In April, 2013, a detuned and presumably tamer version of the app, titled Boyfriend Plus, was permitted on Apple's App Store.

Customizable appearance

Users can customize their virtual boyfriend's appearance by selecting items such as hair, clothing, face, and a necklace.

References

{{reflist, 30em 2012 video games Android (operating system) games Dating sims IOS games Video games developed in Japan

Apple delisting and reintroduction

Customizable appearance

See also

References