Virtual Soap Opera
Real life marriage ends when UK hubby’s caught in virtual Second Life hanky panky a second time. Important reality/Internet interface roundup, with virtual detective work, virtual journalism, true love and virtual betrayal, starts with Globe and Mail’s actual rewrite:
After catching her husband with his virtual pants down one too many times, Amy Taylor decided enough was enough.
David Pollard’s cybersex with an avatar prostitute and admitted virtual-affair in Second Life spurred his wife to file the first divorce papers to blame a failed marriage on an online role-playing game, British media reported yesterday.
Second Life is a virtual world in which people create attractive versions of themselves called avatars that interact, buy and sell items for real money, build relationships and, apparently, have sex.
Ms. Taylor, 28, said she walked in on Mr. Pollard, 40, having sex in the game once before they were married, an act she forgave. But in April, she caught him at it again and filed for divorce on the grounds of “unreasonable behaviour,” even though her husband had never met in person the woman with whom he was having the affair.
“It’s cheating as far as I’m concerned, but he didn’t see it as a problem and couldn’t see why I was so upset,” Ms. Taylor told The Times of London, calling his actions “the ultimate betrayal.”
The couple from Newquay, Cornwall, in England’s southwest corner, met online in 2003, married two years later and also had a lavish wedding for their Second Life characters, whom they named Dave Barmy and Laura Skye. Both spend much of their time in the virtual world and communicated in Second Life about as much as in person, The Times reported.
Apparently it’s a big problem. About as close as I get to cybersex these days is totty at Theo’s. But the wife isn’t crazy about all the time I spend on the Internet (see PayPal link at left), and I can see Internet issues leading to divorce. This is something else, though.
Last month, a 43-year-old Japanese woman killed her virtual husband after he broke off their relationship on the popular game MapleStory, where the two met. Spouses neglected by their partners’ constant video-game or Internet use have banded together, calling themselves “cyber widowers” or “gamer widows.” Cyber spying is also common.
Virtual infidelities in games such as Second Life have also made their way into the offices of marriage counsellors and therapists.
“It’s extremely common,” says Guy Grenier, a clinical psychologist and marriage counsellor in London, Ont. “[Cyber affairs] run the full gamut from people going to Internet sites to find people to have sex with in real life to the middle-of-the-road where people are using virtual personae to engage in [sex].”
…
Couples involved in virtual marriages who don’t set boundaries or define what cheating is before they become entangled in sordid cyber affairs get into trouble, she says.
“If you travel in that territory, it is unmapped, unchartered, unpoliced, unsupervised - somebody’s going to get hurt. All you can do is be careful and be aware of limitations, but I don’t think that people are fully aware how deeply they can hurt one another with these types of games.”
As for Mr. Pollard, he and his online lover are now engaged to be married. As his Second Life profile reads: “I love you so much my darling wife, I can’t wait to marry you in rl [real life], my fiancee.”
Could work, I suppose. Here’s Mr. Pollard’s avatar.
Dude’s a stud. Here’s his wife’s. Wow, she’s hot!
OK, Here’s the analog Mr. and Mrs. Pollard on their wedding day. Not the same!
Lovely, happy couple, would seem to be well-matched to outward appearances anyway.
Here’s the virtual paramour, Modesty McDonnell. Hey, good stripper name!
And here’s the real deal … though they say she’s 55, so I’m guessing that means this photo is about 25 or 30. Years old, that is.
OK, important information for people interested in online boffing. UK Guardian: Why Tupping the Puppet is a Recipe for Ruined Lives. The navel-gazing column itself doesn’t tell us much we didn’t already know, but introduces an important bit of Internet idiom, “tupping the puppet.”
How she busted him. A Second Life scholar at iTWire, Dave Barmy trapped by wife’s virtual dick.
And here’s the UK Guardian with the back story on the virtual journalists … who double as real-life scribblers … who uncovered the virtual bodice ripper.
OK, we’re out of here, but first, it may be virtually sordid, but who says romance is dead? UK Mirror with the virtual other woman, “We Just Clicked.”
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:31 am on Saturday, November 15, 2008
2 Responses to “Virtual Soap Opera”
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November 15th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Hmmm…… why do the words “complete” and “losers” keep popping into my head when reading this article?
November 16th, 2008 at 5:27 am
How does one boff online? I must have an old computer because that cd slot just doesn’t do it for me.