VIRTUALLY DIVORCED

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Originally uploaded by Linden Lab

I confess that I don’t understand the fascination of virtual reality games. “What’s wrong with real life,” I find myself screaming. Little Girl and her friends, however, enjoy playing with Sims and I now learn that for adults addicted to the online world there are sites such as “Second Life”. There you create an avatar and then presumably live either a mirror image of your own life or, if you have the imagination, a totally different one. The website itself claims to offer “a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents..(which).. has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.”

A real life London couple are reported today as divorcing because of the antics of the husband’s avatar. It seems it has been found indulging in extra-marital relations with a female avatar and both the real and virtual wives have taken umbrage. So much so that the real wife has spoken to the press and is quoted as describing the actions of her husband’s avatar as the “ultimate betrayal” and “cheating.”

Mind much can be explained by the names of the avatars involved. The wife’s was called Skye, leading one to assume that she could go round with her head in the clouds. The husband’s was called Barmy, which could well have summed up his whole view of virtual life, especially as the husband himself has purportedly said that it’s “a big fuss about nothing.”

Of course, if virtual break-ups are to become commonplace I am wondering if there’s any scope for me to get involved. I was thinking of an avatar called Miss Fortune offering virtual sympathy and divorce. However, I’ve since read that the wife has found a new relationship playing “World of Warcraft” so maybe I should just think about opening a firm in a virtual Anderson shelter under the style of Armageddon and Phoenix.