Basically, if you play an online role-playing game one reason could be that it allows you to act on your fantasies in real life – fantasies that you may not be free to pursue for professional, familial or legal reasons.
They go as far as to claim that playing games such as Sims Online allows people to live the secret lives that they cannot in real life in order to fulfill that requirement, not just for fun. According to the article, some psychologists believe that we all need to keep secrets and maintain secret lives in order to thrive and be healthy. Taken together, these articles offer some interesting food for thought… Hamlet’s article appeared nearly the same day as an article in the New York Times which discusses online experimentation with alternative lifestyles and family structures (and also keeping secrets) in online games. In a recent article in New World Notes, Hamlet Linden tells us that Second Life partners Torley Torgeson and Lily Jade are actually guys in real life. Secret Lives and Virtual Families in Online Gamesīy Alphaville Herald on 12/01/05 at 10:21 pm
