Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Love At First Byte...
"I was stuck by an article in The Wall Street Journal about the extend of love connections among characters playing massive multiplayer online games (MMOG's) and how real life personality are extended into the virtual world.
Nick Yee, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication at Stanford University who studies online games, found in a survey earlier this year for his Deadaus Project that about 80% of female players and 60% of male players have flirted with another player. Furthermore about 29% of women players and 8% of men said they had gone on to date someone they met in a game. He says the games are filled with scenarios that shed light on players' personalities. A risky raid on a dungeon, for example, can reveal whether someone is a team player. "These are trust-building exercises," he says. Players "are constantly having to make decisions like, 'Do I run out and save myself or help the others survive?' " Situations that reveal so much about someone's character are less common in the real world, he thinks.
Online wedding taking place in the Eternal Lands MMORPG
A drawback of dual marriage - online and real life - is you have to remember two wedding days and two engagements days, says Mr. Knife who met his wife while playing Anarcy Online and felt for her abilities to lead the player guild and using emoticons to expressing her personality in game.