There have a been a number of stories recently regarding a online role playing “game” called Second Life and how peoples online lives are spilling over in to the real world (and vice versa) with some interesting consequences.

What is second life? Second Life is an online role playing game that allows users to create alter egos known as “avatars” and interact with other players, forming relationships, holding down jobs and trading products and services for a virtual currency convertible into real life dollars.

Story number 1 –

What happened? A British couple who married in a lavish Second Life wedding ceremony is to divorce after one of them had an alleged “affair” in the online world. Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having online “relations” with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chat room in 2003, is now separated. According to Taylor, cheating online is the same as cheating in real life. Taylor had hired an online private detective to track his online activities. She did say that “he never did anything in real life, but I had my suspicions of what he was doing in Second life.”

Taylor is now in a new relationship with a man she met in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft.

Story number 2 –

What happened? People that are meeting in Second Life are having lavish online weddings and then getting married/divorced in the real world. Second Life and other role playing games are offering people the chance to meet, enjoy each others company, go to parties – basically do (almost) everything that a real life couple would do.

What are the advantages? Initially SecondLife is relatively safe as your avatar is just meeting another avatar. An avatar is an online person that you create when joining one of these games. Some couples are reported to have met in real life, then date in Second Life and then date in real life. Others meet, date and establish a relationship online and then move in to the real world. If you decide to meet in person, then it can get dangerous.

Geography doesn’t matter. You can meet and hang out with (well kind of) any one that is playing the game – so geographic barriers don’t exist – there are reports of British players hanging out and developing close online relationships with Americans….I am sure that there are many, many other combinations.

Other interesting facts -

Second Life weddings happen often enough “in-world,” as it’s called in Second Life, that there are even online bridal shows. There were about 40 vendors and over 800 attendees, according to its organizer. It even included a fashion show and panel discussion of “wedding do’s and don’t’s.”