| Show Virtually i ua Married By Jason Douglas Feature Editor Crowded around a grassy hill framed by the surrounding grove of trees was a group of friends and acquaintances Deer bounded through the distant woods and a few quacking ducks waddled around a nearby pond The gathering had its focus on the three people positioned on the top of the grass hill One man was dressed in his finest clerical robes and the other two were in their wedding day attire A beautiful ceremony ensued in which the happy couple knelt on the lush grass carpet spoke their vows and exchanged rings Following the traditional kiss the bride even threw her bouquet After which guests helped themselves to a large assortment assortment assortment assort assort- ment of refreshments And as the sun slipped away and gifts were delivered there was a special display of fireworks fireworks fireworks fire fire- works that lighted the way of the newlyweds as they slipped away This ceremony held on Valentines Valentine's Day sounds like a beautiful picture But since the whole thing took place over the internet with the entire experience experience experience being described in text it wasn't wasn't wasn't was was- nt much of a Kodak moment Things like this can be common commonplace commonplace commonplace place to anyone who spends time chatting chatting chatting chat chat- ting over the internet Because most people dont don't have the equipment necessary necessary necessary essary for video or audio transfer and thus they chat via text based chat rooms and Web chat rooms they obviously cant can't see each other The fact that people also are allowed to choose most any name they want to represent themselves adds to a tendency to pretend to be someone other than who they are This is called role The point of role-playing role is to play playas as realistically as possible the persona you choose for yourself And since most times people role-play role other people people people peo peo- they carry carryon on realistic actions So there really is no reason for a marriage to be so shocking Especially since the marriage is not binding in anyway except for in the spirit of true role The particular wedding described above was one of a few I have been privileged enough to attend The wedding wedding wedding wed wed- ding ceremony took place in a Multi User Dimension MUD and was performed performed performed per per- formed by a friend of mine who was wasa Ii role playing a cleric at the time For those of you who dont don't consider consid consid- er this type of role-playing role internet marriage as important there is continued on page 9 Virtually Married Continued Y y Continued from page 8 something for you f The internet definitely plays arole a arole arole role in the real world where you have to pay for that gold band and the laws are quite real and binding There are occasions when internet marriages take place in which the just ice of the peace or minster is in one location and the couple being married are in another with guests attending from many various locations While real marriages are actually performed over the internet there is another more common way in which the internet and marriage are related People being introduced over the internet and getting engaged before even meeting each other in person isan is isan isan an activity that is running rampant And there is no reason for it not to since there is a number of resources for singles to meet each other A large number of paid and free services exist for singles There are pen pal mail e-mail lists with free access to all those on the Web These lists contain profiles that people enter when they submit their name to be put on the list Information such as asage asage asage age gender hobbies and place of residency may all be included There are also paid services that provide names of people who use their services to others with similar interests People choose these types of services because they are not r required to search through long lists of names looking for who they want They are given smaller list that conform conform conform con con- form to their ideals Also it is safe to assume people on a paid singles list are seriously interested in meeting someone In the chat rooms that provide theme rooms where people with similar interest gather many times there will be a room dedicated to sin sin- These rooms are very popular and on any well established chat room there will usually be singles around to chat All of these are only some of the ways in which many couples get together over the internet And the trend and resources appear to be growing E r i It seems that all those people who k have been professing that its it's more v important who a person is rather than r what they look like are backing it up |
