Virtual reality kills

Virtual reality is starting to cross barriers into the real world. Recently in Tokyo, a Japanese teacher’s divorce from her ONLINE husband (yeah, I said online husband….like not real and shit….marriage in that 3D world…) in a virtual game made her furious. She hacked his information, logged in to the game “Maple Story” and committed a digital murder by killing her husband’s character/avatar. She was charged and fined for this tech crime.

“I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry,” was the official quote she gave to her neighbors and officials.  Luckily for this “online husband”, the woman didn’t hire a real world hit-man.

Maple Story is the equivalent of Second Life in the US.  In these virtual social networks, people create avatars, buy islands with REAL MONEY, and interact with other avatars.  Most of these people are living vicariously using their online persona.  While I can see myself gambling away real money at a real poker table in Vegas, I just can’t see it being spent on a virtual stripper or a private island that is only accessible online.

I understand the entertainment value of these virtual networks but just don’t get how people can get passionate enough to start living and breathing this stuff. I already have  my parents and a wife in my real life…do I really need their virtual clones so the nagging can continue on and offline?