I would like to try something new and see if it works

From Video Game to Game: A Date Like Goblins App for Singles and Generative AI-enabled Online Relationships

If the idea of going on a date makes you jittery and you would rather stay home and play games, then you should download the app for that. Date Like Goblins, a new dating platform that debuted on Kickstarter this week and will launch later this year, invites you to go on dates that take place entirely inside your favorite video games. You play a few rounds of Fortnite or Final Fantasy with your date, while voice-chatting and getting to know each other. It’s cute!

“Why not show up as the version of yourself that they’re going to see and hang out with in the next three months?” says Lise Keeney, a publicist who built the app after struggling on dating apps herself.

The discontent has brought about alternatives. The rise of Date Me docs was in 2022, and it was where people would write lengthy descriptions of themselves and how they wanted to be known. Since ChatGPT’s rise to prominence, people have looked for ways to incorporate generative AI into conversations with strangers online, either by having a digital twin go on first dates for them or by turning to chatbots to come up with new pickup lines. Some people have stopped using the apps in order to find love.

These smaller platforms, Sharabi says, can provide a more “boutique-like” experience that might be more appealing than catchall apps because they know and understand their user base better.

It was true for apps meant for daters of different sexual orientations, like Grindr. Grindr saw 33 percent revenue growth last year, and Feeld’s user numbers were growing in 2023, too. Religion, fitness, and even rural users can be found in the apps that have been designed to connect lovers of video games.

Lauren Goode on Twitter: Singles at GadgetLab, Solar Keys at the Fermilab Tevatron, NYTimes x Lives, and The NYT Underground Radio Station

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Amanda recommends making butter coconut bars for your next summer potluck. Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a guest on the episode of The Daily from The New York Times. Michael recommends Trickster: The Many Lives of Carlos Castaneda, a podcast about the wild, shadowy history of the famous author and counterculture figurehead.

You can read the story about Date Like Goblins. Read Lauren Goode on “Date Me” docs. Read Jason Parham on Boomers on the apps. All of the dating coverage can be found here.