Online games like World of Warcraft and communities like Second Life allow people to connect in amazing ways. Take Amy Taylor and David Pollard, a happily married British couple who met in a chat room and demonstrated their love with a fantasy wedding in Second Life before marrying for real. It was a nice story, but this virtual marriage is ending in a very real divorce.

Both avid gamers, Pollard, 40, kept playing Second Life. His wife, 28, became suspicious when she found his virtual character snuggling up to another woman’s. Taylor hired an online private detective (12 yr old hacker?) and found that her husband was visiting a virtual prostitute. “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,” she claims.

Pollard confessed that through the game he had been seeing an American girl, but said that he wasn’t doing anything wrong and that they “were just chatting and hanging out together.” Stories like this and the Maple Story should serve as a reminder to gamers everywhere that virtual relationships are becoming more and more real. Most of us with wives should probably just stick to FPSs. Don’t feel too sorry for poor Amy Taylor though. She already has a new love interest, who she met while playing WoW.