Love is blind! Yes, this is a clichéd usage for sure. But when you see the mad ways of the world which goes to any extend in search of love, you too wonder whether it is just blind or something more.
Sure, we have read and heard enough about people redefining their approach towards love and sex in the most weird way. But the age of those who are glad to be gays and lesbians is giving way to a virtual reality, maybe.
This young man from Tokyo, identified as Sal 9000, found his perfect love not in a real woman but in a luscious, lovely, devoted and entirely portable video game character. Her name is Nene Anegasaki, a character that only exists in the Nintendo DS videogame Love Plus!
Sal's 'infatuation' with the 'attention-seeking' virtual lady began in September, when he started playing 'Love Plus'. Then, for him, it became a regular practice - playing every single day, taking Nene with him everywhere: “Out on the town, even on vacation to the resort beaches of Guam”.
As he nosedived into virtual love Sal finally decided to marry her live. And the marriage with the virtual heroine, 'solemnized' a couple of weeks back, was webcast live to thousands of attendees - both virtual and real.
He is so much in love with this virtual dame that he cannot even think of having a real girlfriend. “I only want Nene right (now), she's better than a human girl,” is what he has to say.
Love, marriage and sexuality are one's personal domains for sure. But when one takes virtual reality for the real one, knowing that it is virtual, it makes the common man bit apprehensive about the ways of the world dominated by cyber space. And the psychologists worldwide are also bit puzzled about the virtual merging with real in day-to-day life.
Interestingly, a new study says that female players of a large online game are more hardcore than men or teenagers.
Dmitri Williams, assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, found several surprises during his study of 7,000 anonymous players of “EverQuest II”, says a report. While 80 percent of players were male, female players spent more time in-world: 29 hours a week, versus 25 for males.
So we may wait for more virtual marriages and divorces. Hope we won't ever read about a woman giving birth to a virtual baby!
b9a36dda-5f92-4ae4-98d3-e105bbdf8925|2|5.0