English couple get divorce because of treason on Second Life

When the virtual invades real life... This notice was divulged by the world press in november 14 [2008] and goes right in the direction of a crescent tendency that is getting established regarding personal relations through the we, even in the highest level of intimacy...

• The british Amy Taylor, 28, asked for divorce from her husband in real life after discovering that he was having intimate encounters with an avatar in Second Life [SL]. Amy said that this is the second time in which her husband David Pollard, 40, got involved in a virtual relationship since they got married. Second Life allows players to create virtual lifes in which their characters, or avatars, can have a social life, relationships, buy real state or even open business in an imaginary digital world that has its own currency. In the virtual world Amy is the DJ Laura Skye and Pollard is the avatar Dave Barmy. Amy and Pollard got acquainted in an internet chat in may of 2003. The exchanged photos and six months later, after many calls and e-mails, Amy left London to live with Pollard in a flat. The happiness of Amy didn’t last long. Three months later she caught Pollard having fun in the web with a virtual hooker. “I got crazy. It was very painful and I could hardly believe on what he did.” In July 2005, Amy and Pollard got married in real life and celebrated the fact with a cerimony in Second Life. Things seemed to be right but Amy suspected that something was still wrong. “He never did anything wrong in real life, but I was suspicious about SL”, she said. In the following day of the discovery, Amy asked for divorce. She claimed that this behavior was unacceptable and ended a three year marriage.

It is very interesting to know that, for example, not only the virtual treasoning of the husband happened in Second Life and his avatar, the relationship between the couple happened from encounters through the virtual tools, since the moment they knew each other until the end...

The complaining wife, after the divorce motivated by virtual problems in Second Life, instead of keeping some distance of internet relationships, is beggining a new romance with na internet user, but instead of using SL is getting acquainted with her new date through the online game plataform War of Warcraft.

By João Luís de Almeida Machado