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View Full Version : WSJ: Gamers find love in MMOs



wraggster
June 10th, 2006, 11:41
It goes without saying how MMO games have embedded themselves into our culture -- we have heard for some time about quite a few people who have found love in MMOs, gotten married in-game, and have even seen a few funerals take place in the virtual world. Page one of the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article, tackling the very topic of finding offline love through online gaming.

In a survey conducted by Stanford University's Nick Yee, a Ph.D. student, 29% of women and 8% of men have admitted to have gone on dates with someone they met in a game. Yee attributes this phenomenon to the "trust-building exercises" of working in team scenarios -- how one player acts during an in-game raid may reveal traits relative to the avatar's actual personality, through "situations that ... are less common in the real world."

The stories featured in the piece are fascinating, with one man quipping "I have to remember two wedding days and two engagement days," referring to how he and his wife had separate ceremonies both in the virtual world and in the real world.

Shilo
June 17th, 2006, 06:32
That is weird. But, I guess it is no differnt that those online dating sites.

Zion
June 18th, 2006, 15:06
il have to start playing online more! :p

LOL :D

jman420
June 27th, 2006, 20:54
heh, I had a long distance relationship with a girl I met on RuneScape, I still talk to her when she gets on yahoo lol...

MMOLove is a lot like preparing for a blind date (if you ask me) your just trying to learn about the person, find out if you would like them, and hang out on a fake world to, just in general hang out...

and then you meet the person and its more like a blind date then anything else, so its no different then a lot of other relationships, the only difference is, you already knew the person before you started dating lol...

so I say its not a bad thing, just different method of meeting people...