According to Scientific American, Virtual Dating is “the next step in online dating” (Feb/March 2007, p.35) [7].
Virtual Dating combines online dating with online gaming. Through the use of avatars, singles interact in a virtual venue that resembles a real life dating environment. For example, individuals can meet and chat in a romantic virtual cafe in Paris or on a Caribbean resort.
A Time Magazine article entitled “Internet Dating 2.0″ was published on January 19, 2007 citing current and upcoming technologies and explains how people can now connect in a virtual dating environment. Time describes how websites are allowing people to meet for an avatar based, graphically enabled virtual date without leaving their homes. [8]
According to NBC [9] and TIME[10], OmniDate is one example of virtual online dating.
Researchers at MIT and Harvard have found that “people who had had a chance to interact with each other (by computer only) on a virtual tour of a museum subsequently had more successful face-to-face meetings than people who had viewed only profiles.”