Perdita
14-11-2008, 10:14
A woman has divorced her husband for 'cheating' on her in a virtual reality game.
Amy Taylor and David Pollard married after meeting and falling in love on an internet chatroom.
The couple were both fans of Second Life - a game in which players create a new identity for themselves in a computer-generated world.
Using 3D animated characters, known as avatars, users can move around and interact with others.
The couple were so devoted to the game that when they married at a register office in July 2005, they marked the occasion by holding a virtual wedding in Second Life.
But although the internet brought them together, it eventually tore them apart.
One day, Miss Taylor, 28, found Mr Pollard at the computer - watching his avatar having sex with a prostitute in Second Life.
She said: 'I went mad - I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done.
'I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It's cheating as far as I'm concerned.
'But he didn't see it as a problem, and couldn't see why I was so upset.
'He said I was just making a big fuss and tried to make out it was my fault for not giving him enough attention.'
Using the virtual world's own special currency, she hired an online private detective to investigate his adultery.
However, back in their real lives, the Pollards managed to patch things up.
But then in April this year Mrs Taylor caught her husband's avatar in another compromising position.
She claims he was having ' cybersex' with a female player in the U.S. - chatting intimately in the virtual world.
Although Mr Pollard and the woman had never even met outside the game, Miss Taylor said that she was devastated by what she considered to be his very real betrayal.
She said: 'I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game. It looked really affectionate.
'He turned off the computer monitor and I turned it back on and demanded to look at his chat history.
'But he turned off the computer so the history was all deleted - and I ended up going off in floods of tears.
'He confessed he'd been talking to this woman player in America for one or two weeks, and said our marriage was over and he didn't love me any more, and we should never have got married.'
The next day, Miss Taylor went to a solicitor to file for divorce from her 40-year-old husband of three years on the grounds of ' unreasonable behaviour'.
Luckily, she now has a new man in her life - whom she met while playing the internet fantasy role-playing game World Of Warcraft.
From her home in Newquay, Cornwall, she said yesterday: 'It has been a very difficult time for me. I am now just trying to move on with my life.
People find love in lots of different ways. Ours was a very serious marriage.
'It may have started online but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over.'
She added: 'His was the ultimate betrayal and I felt absolutely terrible.
'I know it sounds bizarre but he had admitted to an earlier incident and he knew how I felt about it.'
Miss Taylor said: 'I still go online and play Second Life but not as much. There's still a chance I could bump into him on there.
'I have met somebody new and we are living together. I am very happy. I know it all sounds pretty strange - but it works for me.'
Her ex-husband, who would only speak to the Mail through his character on Second Life, said yesterday: 'I don't think I was really doing anything wrong.'
And he claimed that the problem was not Second Life, but his real life relationship with Miss Taylor.
'Amy never did anything around the house,' said Mr Pollard. 'She just played World of Warcraft all the time.
'If I wanted to spend time with her I had to ask - but it was always too much trouble for her to come off the game to spend time with me.
:eek: :rotfl:
Amy Taylor and David Pollard married after meeting and falling in love on an internet chatroom.
The couple were both fans of Second Life - a game in which players create a new identity for themselves in a computer-generated world.
Using 3D animated characters, known as avatars, users can move around and interact with others.
The couple were so devoted to the game that when they married at a register office in July 2005, they marked the occasion by holding a virtual wedding in Second Life.
But although the internet brought them together, it eventually tore them apart.
One day, Miss Taylor, 28, found Mr Pollard at the computer - watching his avatar having sex with a prostitute in Second Life.
She said: 'I went mad - I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done.
'I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It's cheating as far as I'm concerned.
'But he didn't see it as a problem, and couldn't see why I was so upset.
'He said I was just making a big fuss and tried to make out it was my fault for not giving him enough attention.'
Using the virtual world's own special currency, she hired an online private detective to investigate his adultery.
However, back in their real lives, the Pollards managed to patch things up.
But then in April this year Mrs Taylor caught her husband's avatar in another compromising position.
She claims he was having ' cybersex' with a female player in the U.S. - chatting intimately in the virtual world.
Although Mr Pollard and the woman had never even met outside the game, Miss Taylor said that she was devastated by what she considered to be his very real betrayal.
She said: 'I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game. It looked really affectionate.
'He turned off the computer monitor and I turned it back on and demanded to look at his chat history.
'But he turned off the computer so the history was all deleted - and I ended up going off in floods of tears.
'He confessed he'd been talking to this woman player in America for one or two weeks, and said our marriage was over and he didn't love me any more, and we should never have got married.'
The next day, Miss Taylor went to a solicitor to file for divorce from her 40-year-old husband of three years on the grounds of ' unreasonable behaviour'.
Luckily, she now has a new man in her life - whom she met while playing the internet fantasy role-playing game World Of Warcraft.
From her home in Newquay, Cornwall, she said yesterday: 'It has been a very difficult time for me. I am now just trying to move on with my life.
People find love in lots of different ways. Ours was a very serious marriage.
'It may have started online but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over.'
She added: 'His was the ultimate betrayal and I felt absolutely terrible.
'I know it sounds bizarre but he had admitted to an earlier incident and he knew how I felt about it.'
Miss Taylor said: 'I still go online and play Second Life but not as much. There's still a chance I could bump into him on there.
'I have met somebody new and we are living together. I am very happy. I know it all sounds pretty strange - but it works for me.'
Her ex-husband, who would only speak to the Mail through his character on Second Life, said yesterday: 'I don't think I was really doing anything wrong.'
And he claimed that the problem was not Second Life, but his real life relationship with Miss Taylor.
'Amy never did anything around the house,' said Mr Pollard. 'She just played World of Warcraft all the time.
'If I wanted to spend time with her I had to ask - but it was always too much trouble for her to come off the game to spend time with me.
:eek: :rotfl: