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With all the virtual reality gaming, the question arises if cheating in the game is cheating.  Is it Cheating? In my dealing with people, I find that since there is an emotional investment in the virtual reality games, it is a form of cheating. I know that critics may say in the old board game of life, people often married, but there were not accusations of cheating. My answer is that in board games such as “Life”, there was not the emotional investment that exists in Second Life and the other such environments. As a therapist, I have seen how the avatars are often an extension of the person’s idealized image, or a ‘fantasy’ if you will. So in many ways, having such virtual relations is like maintaining a fantasy affair with some individual.  The difference between a passing fantasy and virtual relations is that the individual consciously returns to this fantasy and actively takes steps to conceptualize it further.  There is an adage in the counseling field that “it happens in the head before it happens in the bed”. These people may not have physically participated in an affair, but on an emotional level, there is an emotional and intellectual bonding that is going on. Those bonds are real. There are physiological responses to the events. There is a connection going on that is not healthy for marriages. Some couples may see no danger in it and are fine with such interactions. My thoughts are to use great caution in entering these virtual gaming worlds.

Best Regards,

Jeff Murrah

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