I may have mentioned that my boss is an Everquest (PS2 Version) addict. She regularly spends from six to ten (or more) hours a night playing her various characters.
She's very involved in her guilds and does her quests and makes up her debt when she's killed...but the real draw for her seems to be the intercharacter relationships. The guilds, the groups, the handsome dark elf shadowknights whispering wicked thoughts, the fun chatting while killing things...that sort of thing.
The problem she's running into is that the majority of the fellows she plays with seem to push the gaming interaction into real life interaction, and doesn't understand why she doesn't play along with them.
The LintKing and I have been trying to be some sort of "gamer liaisons," in trying to interpret what's going on... in their minds. See, she can "flip a switch" and get back to the real world, where she (co-)runs a business, or has family, or whatnot. We've been trying to explain that all these un(der)employed 20somethings she's gaming with really don't have a working switch. (It was shut off for lack of payment on their reality checks...er.)
Now, I did explain the intensity of the relationship; if you think even eight hours a night is fifty-six hours a week, that's more time than you tend to spend together on, say, what, thirteen "average" dates? Not to mention, there's all the hassle of real life situations removed, and it's not like the characters aren't attractive.
She wants to know how to find people who don't want her to dump her husband and marry them in three (real life) days of knowing them. It doesn't seem to matter that her character is NOT "her in real life." At the same time, she wants to be treated like they know she's female, so the, "I'm actually a 50-year old pot-bellied balding guy with warts," response isn't going to work for her.