Second Life Relationships: Rachy and Dark Folsom’s Story

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, this is the perfect time to talk about Second Life relationships. Like all chat rooms, social sites and other virtual worlds where people come together, a few are bound to pair together. Second Life is no different, but it seems that having a relationship in this virtual world has a little extra kick that makes it stand out from the traditional chat rooms and  dating sites. Over the next few weeks we will be telling the stories of three different couples who have met in Second Life and are now in a relationship. These are all long-term relationships. 

“ We first met in a club and Dark was standing in my way, I couldn’t hit the teleport button so I asked him to move. He was a big avatar, back then I guess we all were, it was SL’s Amazon Era. Anyway the way I asked him to move wasn’t very nice so once when I got into the club, I sent him an instant message and apologized for being rude. We started talking in IM for a few minutes and he complimented me on my dance moves. I was a little confused about this and asked him how he knew my moves were good. He was in club too and had been watching me this whole time, he then asked if I wanted to dance and I accepted. We danced together and just talked the night away.

The next day when I logged in he IM-ed me and asked me what I was doing that night, I honestly wasn’t expecting anything from him and I didn’t think that it would turn into anything. Nevertheless we went out dancing that night and I think its safe to stay that it all went from there. It just became a relationship without either of us ever saying it was. We just fell into naturally.

We have had arguments, every relationship does and at one point we did split up because he didn’t feel he could carry on with the relationship. The biggest thing was time difference, I lived in the UK at the time and he was in the USA so the time difference was by 5 hours. We did talk about it and I think the reason for the split was he didn’t  feel that he wanted just an online relationship and didn’t feel he could ask for it be any thing other than that.

We did bring some of the relationship into real life. We talked through Skype and phone calls. We often talked about real life and how we would like to meet each other and then about 3 months after meeting and talking I did fly over to see him and met face to face. I was

there for 2 weeks. Our first meeting was a bit weird, because it wasn’t like I was meeting someone I met online, it was like meeting an old friend. We felt like we had known each other for years and that allowed us to take our relationship to whole other level. During my two weeks he asked me to marry him in Second Life. When I flew we did just that, then after eight weeks of being in the UK, I couldn’t take it any more. I packed my bags and flew back to the states for a three month visit. About three weeks before the three months were up, we started talking about what it was going to be like with me not being there, what it would be like back in the UK and to be honest it was too much to bare. We did a quick check with immigration to see what would happen if I stayed and about two weeks before my visa was up we got married in real life. We got the correct papers and everything and here I am in the states four years later, still very much in love and still playing Second Life.

August will be our 5^th year of marriage in Second Life and Real life. Meeting in Second Life was a big advantage because if we hadn’t met in SL we would have never been together now because there is simply no way, no chance of meeting your soul mate who lives half way across the world.

I believe the reason why relationships in Second Life work out is because of communication, our relationship was based on communication because we didn’t have anything else, no TV, no Movies, no nights out just SL. When you’re in world what else can you? Yeah you can dress up but mainly it’s talking and back then it was all keyboard talk so you really get to know that person. Dark and I, are very like-minded and added to the fact that I really liked him in real life makes it even better. I got the best of both worlds, I got a man I could talk to, a man I found very attractive and a man who is my best friend. Of course everyone’s experience is different, I was just lucky, I guess. “

All Second Life relationships are different, not everyone will find their soul mate in this virtual world, but it seems that a lot of people are falling in love and sometimes relationships form but never go into Real Life.

Don’t miss the next Second Life Relationships, when another long-term SL couple will tell their story.