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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Online Gaming World converges with the Real world

 I have always played "video" games. Whether it was Dungeons & dragons, Zork, and in recent years World of Warcraft, Rift, Guild Wars, and Lord of the Rings.  I started playing WoW & GW's back when I was doing art for a major company that deals with MMORPGs and other games. My whole reason for jumping into the MMORPG world online was at first, strictly because I wanted to know what the players wanted to see in terms of art and design for the characters and the ever evolving "world" in the game. I admit, I got sucked in. In a big way. Fairly early on I realized that the world inside the game...was more than just a game. I learned that lasting friendships and relationships were formed. I became a Guild Master or as I prefer to be called, a Guild Mistress back in 2004. I was somewhat unprepared for the fact that my guild would become an important part of not just my life, but those in the guild as well.  The stereo type that people who play games like WoW, GW, Rift and LoTRO are snot nosed little brats who live in their parents basement...is not necessarily true. My guild (and there were several before we created Immortalis Night and Dark) became close and like a second family. We don't just talk in the game world. We send each other birthday gifts, Christmas gifts. We call each other during the week. In most cases, we have met up several times and have went to family functions with each other. The relationships that developed became so much more than a game. They became long, lasting and meaningful relationships. It's not as odd as it may seem believe it or not. The game world has become another extension of our own world. One that has become increasingly more accepted and more widespread. It's not all about fantasy believe it or not. Yes we play a character in the game. Yes we tend to get very much into it. But we don't talk just about game issues. As I said before, through the course of playing the game, raiding, running dungeons, questing or doing randoms....we talk about our day, our week, month, year. We talk about how work went. We discuss what our children are doing and not doing. In some cases, like mine....our children also play the game. I met my husband Daniel in WoW originally. The story behind that one is amusing. To me anyhow.  I was playing my mage at the time. She was level 15 when we first met (Daniel thank you so much for killing Knucklerot and Luzran over and over for me. On multiple toons after that lol). But the most memorable moment was when I was doing a quest and this big honking Tauren (think BIG ugly COW) warrior kept stealing my kills. I was so ticked. I know, I know....it's just a game lol. So I started telling this big ugly cow off. I told him over and over, "Stop taking my kills! I have been trying to complete this damn quest for 4 hours. And i can't because YOU keep taking my kills!" Which of course somehow led to us discussing why I think cows are totally adorable in real life.  Thus a friendship was somehow formed. We became close friends, and then best friends. He was there when I went through my first divorce. I was there when he went through his divorce. We supported each other emotionally when it was needed the most. He eventually supported me through my second divorce and we started dating some time after that. For the first 5 years of our friendship and early on in our eventual couples relationship, I refused to let him see pictures of my kids. I wanted to keep them protected in case the relationship and friendship went sour. Finally when we both decided to become romantically involved, I finally let him see pictures of my kids. I even tried to run him off (that didn't work btw lol) and tried everything I could to keep from getting close and letting my "guard" and "walls" down. Obviously they came tumbling down, as we are married now.  But anyways, what i am saying is, don't be so quick to judge games like WoW, GWs, Rift and LoTRO. They may be games, but they have actually been vital in helping people. And in some cases, preventing harm to the person that plays them. There have been too many cases that I have personally witnessed and been a part of, where it was the online gaming community that alerted authorities that something was so very wrong with someone. I can personally vouch for my online "family". They were instrumental in helping me cope with my divorces, my daughter's death and most importantly some serious health issues and domestic abuse that I suffered from at one point. If it hadn't been for some of them, I would not be here today, talking to you. Don't judge the game or the people who play them, unfairly. Take the time to actually get to know the people that play the "toon". Give it a chance. Don't just sit back and make an assumption or judgement of the online gaming community. Because whether you like it or not, it branches into the real world and they are entwined with each other. My guild Immortalis Night may not be a big guild. And we sure as hell aren't a raiding guild. BUT, we are known for the simple act of going above and beyond to help our members in the game AND out of the game. We put our own needs in game, on hold to help others. We have even helped with charities in the real world. Not every gaming community is evil and bad. Don't judge an entire community of people because of what a handful of people have done. It's not fair to those of us who are far more than that.

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