Tuesday, June 30, 2009 @ 7:11 PM

Marrying For Power, Straits Times 29 June 2009

Ok ok, one day late. But still, very interesting to read. (:

Copying it here would be plagiarism and will infringe copyrights. So, the link:

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_396818.html?vgnmr=1

But it's not the full article.

I read the full article in Home Page 2 (I think) on Monday, and basically the article talks about marrying in virtual games (like MapleStory and AuditionSEA) for the added boosts and powers.

E.g. in Maple, the ring DOES add stats and makes your character look more aesthetically pleasing.

The issue of online unions surfaced last month in court, during a coroner's inquiry into the death of undergraduate David Hartanto Widjaja.

The 21-year-old Indonesian was "married" online to a 18-year-old girl on Destiny Online.

The article also states that these online unions are becoming more and more popular and prevalent, especially among youths today.

However, it also states that while gamers marry each other online, most would not even think about meeting their online partners in real life.

They draw the line distinctly between "online" and "offline".

For these people, an online relationship is just that - online!

(When asked as to why there is a "marriage" function in the games)

ASIASOFT Online, which publishes games such as MapleStory and AuditionSEA, said getting married in these games is purely for fun.

However, these marriages do not come cheap. A typical wedding costs more than 20,000 @Cash, roughly equivalent to SGD20. @Cash cards can be bought at 7-Eleven, Cheers, Popular bookstores, Comics Connections etc; at SGD10.70 (inclusive of 7% GST) for 10,000@Cash.

A divorce costs only 500,000 mesos, MapleStory's ingame currency (of which I am currently short of. hurhur. `HOGgie! Ok, digressing. Back to the topic -_-) and a "cool down" period of 4 days, I believe.

There are people who marry who are after the stats, those who do so for the fun of it, and those who are actually in a relationship in real life doing so.

Either way, I have witnessed all three types as mentioned above. So I shall not say anything more about this issue.

On this note, let me wish everybody..uhh...happy Mapling! Yay! :D