My Boyfriend is Having an Affair With an Avatar?

I have never played Second Life, and had no idea what it was until a few months ago. Computer games aren’t my thing. They make me feel like I have anger issues, and I can’t stare at a screen for hours without going cross-eyed.

Plus, I’m not all that into living a giant lie.

But some people really dig it. They dig it so much that they spend hours and hours online, living life as an “avatar” and forming relationships with people they’ll never actually see. Like Ric Hoogestraat, a guy from Arizona who is so obsessed with his online life, he ignores his real wife for an animated one.

The Wall Street Journal (for once not being conservative and boring) recently ran an article about Ric and others like him, people so caught up in computer games that they prefer them to reality. Even though Ric insists that the women he married online is simply part of the game, his wife doesn’t like the situation one bit.

And I completely understand.

Now, I know people can become addicted to computer games like poker or drinking, but it’s hard for me to understand a dependence on animated fantasy. Is there true satisfaction in building a hot cartoon version of yourself and “acting” with a keyboard? And for the love of god, why would you spend actual money (in Second Life’s case) on cyber stuff? Buy yourself some social interaction classes, hire a hooker, just spend your cash on something real!

And as for a spouse or boyfriend having an online “relationship” while he’s dating me? Not just unacceptable, but plain old creepy.

The real world can be tough, I’ll admit to that, but locking yourself away in a room for 12 hours a day isn’t going to make your life any easier. In fact, I’m pretty sure it will make it much, much lonelier.

…and a lot more oddly pixilated.