Virtual affair leads to real divorce for UK couple (Associated Press)
Comments(1) Amy Taylor filed for divorce when she discovered her husband cheating in Second Life — an online community where players adopt personas called avatars, mingle with others and teleport themselves into a series of artificial worlds. –Raphael G. Satter
[Satter cites Ellen Helsper from the Oxford Internet Institute, whose research shows people make a personal investment with their avatars in a virtual setting, whether Second Life or another popular program like World of Warcraft (also mentioned in the article). Although personal attachment with a virtual identity is interesting, I imagine an element of addiction may also be involved, since online activities are interfering with life offline.
I question motives whenever I read stories like this one because such a personal investment is an unhealthy behavior, not necessarily because it happens since video game players often describe their gaming experiences with self-reference (“I died…”, “I saved…”, “I killed…”), but because it is a sustained investment indistinguishable from real life. Gamers love playing games for a number of reasons, but being able to oscillate between their real-life identity and rhetorical situations encourages replay. However, oscillation only seems possible as long as players identify with their avatars rather than accept them as extensions of themselves, offline or online. BK]
category: Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology