Man Develops Relationship with Digital Character

It is not uncommon for people to develop lasting relationships while working on a project together, but when the relationship is between a freelance app developer and his or her project that is usually enough to create a buzz.

Seattle, WA (prHWY.com) August 21, 2012 - It is not uncommon for people to develop lasting relationships while working on a project together, but when the relationship is between a freelance app developer and his or her project that is usually enough to create a buzz. James Dashing, freelance app developer, is raising eyebrows in a small town in Idaho for his budding relationship with a character he created for an augmented reality application program.

"I was trying to develop a program that allowed people to form lasting friendships and relationships with these avatars", said James Dashing. "In order for this to happen I have to program the character's personality. While doing that I just sort of started to fall for the character."

James Dashing was tasked with the part of the project that required him to develop the personalities for the characters. There were supposed to be 150 different characters, all of which offered people a wide range of personalities to interact and develop relationships with while using this app.

"I was working on developing the personality for the character named Chloe", said Dashing. "Part of the development process is the de-bugging stage where I interact with the character. It was during this part that I really started to fall for Chloe."

It was during the de-bugging stage that Dashing started to develop an attraction for his avatar. He would come home from work and talk to Chloe, interact with her, and do everything as if they were a couple.

"It was really odd", said Dashing. "It was like Chloe was developing a personality all on her own. I know I created her, but she seemed to take a whole life of her own after we started interacting. It was really weird."

James Dashing went approximately three weeks developing a relationship with Chloe when his co-workers decided to surprise him. James Dashing's co-workers, who were working on the same augmented reality application development project, programmed Chloe every evening to have a different personality and act 'human-like'.

"We thought it would be a kind of funny trick to pull on him", said Thomas Hill. "We didn't realize that he would become so attached to the character. It wasn't until we realized he was really bonding with it that we decided to pull the plug on the trick."

James Dashing isn't upset about the trick, but expressed his disappointment in the fact that the relationship couldn't last.

"I miss Chloe", said James Dashing. "I just wish it could have lasted. Maybe there will be a real-life Chloe someday. It was a funny trick to pull. Very few people would get it."

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Tag Words: reality app development

Categories: Technology

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