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Does a man who "marries" his "video game character" need psychological help? Or is this just good, clean fun?

Sal, a resident of Tokyo, Japan, thinks the character is superior to a human girlfriend:
http://www.wavy.com/dpps/news/strange_news/man-marries-a-video-game-character-_3140333
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unwirklich
unwirklich
Marked as Best! December 20, 2009 01:36 PM
I would not say so no.

The man expresses he understands that the virtual girl is not real as well as that the marriage is not real. Some of his comments actually suggest to me this was more of a ha-ha at his own misfortune with women. i.e real women are so bad even this virtual stand in is superior. If every man who had some mistrust issues with women sought psychological help.. I'd be signing up to be a psychologist because DAMN would demand skyrocket.

To put it in a more western perspective as I do agree with mithrandir, remember virtual pets? Those tiny electronic toys that became super omega popular in the US for awhile? Would you have felt all of those people needed psychological help because they were spending time caring for an electronic pet rather than taking on the hassle of a real one? What about people who place facebook games such as farmtown...do they need help because they prefer virtual to a real life farm? I'm going to bet both answers are a no form most people, so with that in mind, re-think the poor real woman-less man.

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/tomagotchi-virtual-pet.jpg
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bootz
bootz
December 20, 2009 07:56 PM
Yep, I definitely caught that humor, and I suspect the fellow will work things out in his own way. As I stated in my comments to mithrandir above, I was not judging that particular man's mental health or lifestyle; I was just putting the question out there to see what others thought about the article.
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owl
owl
December 20, 2009 10:43 AM
He certainly needs a psychological help. The games have gotten on his nerves and brain and he is mixing up real life with virtual gaming life. This phenomenon is pretty common in Japan now a days.

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mithrandir
mithrandir
December 20, 2009 10:58 AM
Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. The game character you are referring to is Nene Anegasaki. Nene is one of the main characters of 'Love Plus', a game specifically tailored at single men, who have trouble approaching women. They have to 'woe' the women in the game, and try to win them over. So, it is not too far fetched to understand how men could start to get feelings for these characters, they are specifically designed to do that!
Do we westerners understand how that works? No. Does it mean those men need psychological help? Not perse.
We westerners have our own 'substitutes' for the opposite sex. We have vibrators, sex-dolls and the lots. Do all people using that need to be locked away? Not perse either.
I agree it's a bit odd, but just because you don't understand, doesn't mean the other person is a lunatic.

Oh, you might want to read a bit more on this on the accompanying Mahalo page I included. Interesting read!
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http://www.mahalo.com/man-marries-game-character
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bootz
bootz
December 20, 2009 07:43 PM
Well, for the record, I was simply offering the question based on the article and not judging anyone. Also, psychological help doesn't mean someone needs to be "locked away" or that the man is considered to be "a lunatic" by the rest of the world. It can simply mean a bit of counseling to assist a person in forming and/or working out improved relationships with other people, if he would want to pursue that. If not, that's obviously his choice, just as it is his life to live in whatever way he chooses.
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