Online Gaming vs. Online Dating

This topic stems off of my original topic about online dating. In the class we discussed about the type of people we tend to stereotype who do online dating, and whether or not online dating is a positive or negative influence upon society. I personally felt it was more of a hinderance on a human psychological standpoint. How many people become so ingrained with online relationships that they forget how to do human interaction and most times will than avoid it. But I was a little pived about a comment made in class about how online dating is crap and is not something that people should be doing and how it is all a facade that people create to lure others in. This may have some truth to it but what usettled me was how this comment was taken into comparison with IRP (interactive?role playing) games. IRP's are online communities where people can create stories, play games, or chat. The comment that was said was how IRP's are so much better and that you can really have an honest and detailed relationship with someone...ROLE PLAYING GAME! This is a game where you PRETEND to be someone else; I fail to see how this is any different than online dating, as a matter of fact IRP's can be seen as being a more negative way of communicating because of the fact that none of the things others know about you is true, it is all a lie that the person has concocted to create their idealic character. Perhaps I may have misunderdstood or don't understand the details that accompany role playing games, but if this is so than I am all ears to others opinions on the matter.