Ryan MacMillan

Conceivably it’s the heat here in Baltimore, but I found this article by Margaret Robinson to be rather cute. Apparently the kids these days don’t meet up at the roller disco to find romance, they go dragon-slaying….

These days, the media is full of tales of people who fall in love online. The wave that started in chatrooms has swept across internet dating sites and crashed against the shores of Azeroth, Vana’diel and Norrath. Hundreds, probably thousands, of players can attest that they met their partners or spouses in the worlds of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI and EverQuest. A few more have darker tales to tell of romances that led to obsession or that were founded in deceit or infidelity. For a while, it was a taboo. Couples steeled themselves against the inevitable silence that followed the announcement “we met online”. Now, it’s commonplace: any silence following that kind of declaration will be based on boredom, not embarrassment. The speed of that acceptance has meant that a fundamental question doesn’t often get asked: just what is it about online games that makes them a good place to hook up?”

Robertson argues that “insight abounds” about fellow players during MMPORG sessions: how they react to unusual social situations, how they handle money - even what they wear under their armour. MMPORG situations can reveal whether someone is a risk taker, a joker, prone to panic, a hopeless racist with no hope of social redemption…. The obvious, fifth-on-the-bill-at-Jongleurs reaction is to laugh at the poor, pitiful sun-deprived geeks who spend so much time online that they mistake a metasex session in SecondLife for, y’know, actually getting their rawks off. But, really, is meeting one’s partner whilst hunting for an imaginary dragon/sword/pixie flute of doom (or whatevs.) online any less valid or human than, say trolling for twinks n’bears on gaydar? It’s all just playing, isn’t it?

NB: the author of this post has never met anyone online either to have sex with them, or to slay a dragon. More’s the pity.