Play’s Republic

This WSJ article trades on the novelty of establishing traditional relationships through non-traditional venues. Emphasis is on the incongruence of online existence and “real-world” existence:

The next time she logged on to play, Ms. Bard began having her character flirt with Mr. Zenonian’s. Though she had an actual boyfriend, she saw the in-game flirtation as harmless. Then Mr. Zenonian did something else she found attractive: He learned how to speak a special language unique to her type of character — an elf. “As a chick, that impressed me all to heck,” Ms. Bard says.

It should be noted that journalist focuses on the strange contours of a particular MMORPG (e.g., learning an elf language, using certain superpowers), rather than the playful sensibility that they share.