Divorce rate in 2011 is pretty high with around 50%.  But it’s even higher in the video game world MapleStory, with close to 75% of the marriages ending in divorce.  Nexon America, the company producing the game reported that last year in North America, 26,982 in-game marriages were performed with a price tag of $25 per wedding. Of those marriages, 20,344, or 75 percent, have since been annulled at the players’ request.

The process isn’t simple either for a marriage and you have to do tasks.  First, they must get engaged. This requires players to complete a quest which is rewarded with an engagement ring. Players can use the engagement ring to send a proposal to his or her significant other, and they must accept in order to become engaged. If they do not accept, the player can use the same ring to propose to someone else.  Once engaged, players must purchase a cash shop wedding ticket. Once the ticket and the engagement ring are presented to an NPC, players can set a date, send out invitations and make a gift wish list. Once the couple is married, both players receive a wedding ring, coveted in-game item that boasts impeccably strong statistics.

I don’t get why these people would get married in an online game when it’s so obvious that it’s so easy to cheat with another gamer.  I mean the temptation is right there in front of their face. 

One guy talked about his heartbreak:

“We met through a friend I made while playing MapleStory. We started dating online, and everything was going great at first. We hung out, trained, did party quests, and even leveled up together. A few months later, the Amoria update came out, and a few months after that, it was my birthday. I convinced my brother to lend me the money for the NX [Nexon’s currency] to undergo the marriage process. We invited all our friends and had a great time. We did the Amoria PQ together all the time. We made second characters that we only played on together. Mine was, ‘YouCom,’ hers was ‘PleteMe.’ Together, ‘YouComPleteMe.’ We even trusted each other with our accounts and would play on each others characters.

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