Second Life is one of the increasingly popular “massive multiplayer online role-playing games” or MMOs. Most MMOs involve sci-fi battles like dragon slayings or space wars. But "Second Life" allows people to create alternate lives in a virtual world.

Avatars do nearly everything humans do. They go shopping, plan dinners or buy beach houses, using a special currency called Linden dollars, which are exchanged through PayPal to U.S. dollars. They dance in clubs, attend conferences, have sex.

Second Life has exploded, expanding from 100,000 users at the end of 2005 to more than a million today. Two-thirds of users are from the United States, with Canada, the Netherlands and Germany following. Nearly half are women and the median age of users is 32.

The average user logs on for 10 hours a week, but Farrant and Roden interacted through Ravan and Ruby for up to 12 hours a day.

“Every time I signed online, I looked for her,” Farrant said in a phone interview. “I started ignoring more and more people.”

Things were heating up between the two and they were soon experimenting with virtual sex between their avatars. Embedded programs called “pose balls” can move avatars in a variety of ways. When Ravan and Ruby consummated their virtual relationship, they built a structure called a "skybox" for privacy. Then they used 30 to 40 different animations to simulate the act. Farrant and Roden enhanced their encounters in Second Life with sexually charged phone conversations and instant messaging chats.

“It could get pretty hot and erotic at times,” Farrant said. “You see your avatar placing your hands on another avatar, which is a very sensual thing.”

Still, their online sex seems fairly tame considering the technology that is becoming available. Kyle Machulis, a cyber-sex developer now working for Linden Lab, the company that introduced Second Life, has made it easier for couples to experience actual pleasure during virtual sex. One of his devices is a sex toy interface, which each user attaches to him or herself. Through this hardware, the controller is able to remotely stimulate his or her real world partner behind the avatar.

To what extent does sex in video games replace real sex? No one is sure, but Brenda Brathwaite, a

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