Typical setting. Boy meets girl, fall in love, get married. Sounds feasible right? Well try repeating that like 7 more times. Welcome to the world of MMORPG. In MMORPG, as a girl, you're most likely to run into a guy or two while you're leveling your character. Say, in RO terms, you might be a priest who doesn't have good attack skills at all. You therefore party (leveling together to gain experience) male hunters/male wizards/male crusaders and somehow develop a rapport with one of them. Therefore your list of possible party members dwindles to one, which is that guy, let's say the guy hunter. You spend all your time together even when you're not leveling. And then one day you decide, "Hey, why don't we get married?" And so you do. And this is where all my problems start.
You guys become sickeningly mushy. No. Worse.
Another typical setting: Married couple on MMORPG's world channel (Perfect World's)
Guy: Thanks to all for coming to our wedding! *insert some cutesy emoticon here*
Girl: (doesn't say anything, just insert some cutesy emoticon here, usually a heart)
Friend of guy/girl: Congrats xyz, congrats abc, go make babies !!
Friend of guy/girl: Congrats xyz, congrats abc, go make babies !!
Friend of guy/girl: Congrats xyz, congrats abc, go make babies !!
Friend of guy/girl: Congrats xyz, congrats abc, go make babies !!
Guy: Thank you thank you. I love you dear abc *insert another cutesy emoticon*
Girl: I love you too xyz sugar bun, honey cakes, darling pumpkin *another emoticon*
Note: Might continue for 5 minutes or longer, depending on how popular the guy and girl are and how many rich, no-brain friends they have between them. The more they have, the longer it goes.
So then, yeah. I have a few questions.
Number 1: How old exactly (in real life) are those two? Well, well, well, let me see. The guy might be 32 and the girl 16. Mmhmm.. that sounds about right. Or they both might be 13. In the real world, a 16-year-old girl's parents will definitely not allow her to marry a 32-year-old man. And 13-year-olds can't even get married legally.
Number 2: Do they really know what love is? Or are they just married for the love of money? I quote a gamer from Perfect World, as seen on the Perfect World MY-EN forum board, in response to the poll topic of "How much did you spend on cubi?" (cubi referring to in-game cash shop currency, meaning to say that the real world cash converted to cash shop currency, and is by no means related to in-game gold, which everyone has means to acquire at all times)
"I paid for 7 marriages (both boxes) (divorced 5 times), when I make a character I max out inventory and bank. I buy them the best aviation and mount, I buy fashion like crazy and have always used gold hieros (2 each character at a time). I use tele stones, dolls, and basic perks. I paid for friends wedding boxes, gave my husbands (in-game) the best mounts, aviation, wings, fashion.. whatever moves me... etc..
I have bought plants/minerals to get those crafting skills up quick, and sure - I buy dyes, sell what I don't want.
When I was GM - I held contests that blew through 100+ cubi a month, so.. wow not sure - probably $250-300 a month, more when I want new aviation or to get married. More when I begin a new character, and just started 2 new ones.
Started in January so.... u can add it up"
Note: edited some spelling and grammar mistakes. This post was made in November 2008.
I have bought plants/minerals to get those crafting skills up quick, and sure - I buy dyes, sell what I don't want.
When I was GM - I held contests that blew through 100+ cubi a month, so.. wow not sure - probably $250-300 a month, more when I want new aviation or to get married. More when I begin a new character, and just started 2 new ones.
Started in January so.... u can add it up"
Note: edited some spelling and grammar mistakes. This post was made in November 2008.
Yep. Her hubbies gets the best aviations and mounts and she paid for the wedding. Good aviations are not cheap. At least not by Malaysian standards. I know minimum wage in the US is around USD7. And that converts to RM24.50. And I only get paid RM4.50 per hour working at a bookstore. A really good aviation costs 89-114 cubis which is equivalent to RM89-RM114, please do count how many hours I have to work for that. And seven hubbies? Good grief, we're talking a few months of going hungry for me.
Whoopie, I think she is the only person who doesn't think that they love her for the money she spends on them.
Number 3: Marriage lasts a lifetime. The above gamer has been married 7 times. Geez, and she started in January and the post made in November. So that's probably about a husband in two to three months, taking into account that she has probably married before she started buying cubis like mad. Only Britney Spears divorce faster than her. And I assure you she is definitely not the only one out there.
Number 4: In-game love does not equate real life love. Also, that sweet murmurings also does not mean that you love or care about someone. So they think that by going around "a dear dear here and a dear dear there" that they have found actual love? What about the *insert name here* 731 1314, bunch of mathematical equation thing? Does confessing his undying love for you all over the virtual fantasy world actually translate to him caring deeply for you and only you for a long long time?
Please note that people seek fun and enjoyment from MMORPG and this extends to include any virtual "relationship". It is more than likely that he "married" you for the enjoyment of this gaming feature. There are people out there who suffer from attention deficiency and strives to attract the affection from those around him.
