Rafayel's girlfriends went all out to celebrate their lover's birthday, renting malls across China for parties, decorating high-speed trains with his photos, and even staging a dazzling drone show.

When I first came across a “virtual lover” service on e-commerce site Taobao, China’s version of Amazon, I thought it was hype. For an average of 20 yuan ($3) per day, it claimed you could hire a ...

Mark Zuckerberg's vision of a sanitized, hypercapitalist metaverse will likely never be as compelling or idiosyncratic as VRChat, the virtual reality community that's been home to anime fans, Furries ...

Some Japanese men are wooing girlfriends who don’t exist. While they can only interact with their partner through a pre-written script, these virtual beauties — Rinko, Manaka or Nene — offer a kind of ...

It’s Valentine’s Day, otherwise known as the one day per year when it’s socially acceptable to complain about the loneliness of human existence. Single-player narrative games seem like the perfect ...

"I can reveal myself to him without reservation, and he will show me his love without reservation," she said. Rafayel's love is firm and faithful -- something she says is rare in real life. Another ...