Sweet, Sweet Nerd Love

Nick Yee, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication at Stanford University who studies online games, found in a survey earlier this year that 29% of women players and 8% of men said they had gone on to date someone they met in a game. He says the games are filled with scenarios that shed light on players' personalities. A risky raid on a dungeon, for example, can reveal whether someone is a team player. "These are trust-building exercises," he says. Players "are constantly having to make decisions like, 'Do I run out and save myself or help the others survive?' " Situations that reveal so much about someone's character are less common in the real world, he thinks.

David Knife, 32, fell in love with his wife, Tracy, 30, while playing Anarchy Online, a science-fiction game. Mr. Knife says he was impressed by her leadership skills. Ms. Knife, who in the game led a guild of about 50 players, "was very motherly to many of the players," he says. "It's the way she controls everyone by still being very nice."

Terri Perkins, a spokeswoman for Funcom NV, the Norwegian publisher of Anarchy Online, says the company knows of more than 20 couples who married after meeting in the game, which was launched in June 2001. Because so many players like to stage in-game weddings, she says, the company has assigned about a dozen volunteer players to help arrange the weddings, which can include fireworks displays at the ceremony.

"I have to remember two wedding days and two engagement days,"