They are married, widowed, divorced - all before they are even old enough to get a provisional driver's licence.

Teen gamers at MapleStory, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), get hitched at the rate of a couple a day in a range of weddings that cost between $30 and $40.

Amanda Lee

As part of the game, they can buy wedding tickets - cozy, sweety and premium packages - which enable them to receive anywhere between 10 and 60 guests, and obtain virtual wedding rings that add to their avatar's prowess.

Amanda Lee, a 14-year-old Raffles Girls' School student in real life, has had no fewer than five 'serious boyfriends' in the game.

She has been 'married' three times.



“It was definitely not for love,” she said. “More for the ring and the protection my spouse can offer me in-game.”

Other teens take their couplehood more seriously - offline. Away from the game, they become real-life couples after first getting married online. Others who are already in an off-line relationship make things official with an in-game wedding. Like real marriages, not all work out.



When they fail, players need only wait four days and cough up 500,000 mesos - MapleStory's game currency - to get a Maple divorce.





































Breaking up is easy to do because it allows game developers to sell wedding tickets to the same players repeatedly, said Ray Chua, a senior executive at Touch Cyber Wellness and Sports, a charitable organisation that provides community service.

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