MMO to IRL – MMORPG Meetups

There are plenty of reasons to play MMORPGs. They’re cost-effective entertainment, they can potentially be mentally stimulating, and most of all, they are a legitimate social activity. It’s not uncommon these days to make friends with the people you play with online, and to then make arrangements to meet them. More often than not, these meetings go great! One of my best friends (forever?) I met initially on World of Warcraft. Although she and I both moved beyond playing that game years and years ago, we still keep in touch and meet whenever we can. She’s gone on to finish up medical school in Montreal, and she was not a healer in game. The world just refuses to make sense.

World of Warcraft – Meeting People is Easy

Socializing online has become a relatively commonplace means of people meeting new friends, and even potential love interests or professional contacts. If nothing else, this new era in long-distance friend making has been a real boon for the airline industry! So what exactly is it about making friends in an MMORPG that makes it different from any other venue online? The easiest answer is that people who play MMOs regularly together, especially a single MMO (and especially in a single guild), develop a since of solidarity and even intimacy over time. Depending on how intense the game is, a bond can form very rapidly.

Dungeons and Dragons Online Screenshot

This can make meeting in person for the first time interesting in the best and worst possible ways. For anyone who has met a long-time online friend in person for the first time, the awkwardness (depending on your level of social savvy) can be intense. It can be completely unbearable at first, but then the ice breaks, the bond finds its way through that barrier of real-life, and a the friendship manifests in another realm! These experiences, to me, have always been fascinating. I find that the internet itself is not nearly as much of a social barrier as being near someone bodily. When we’re around people in person, we tend to be more reserved, even shy (most people, anyways), and on the internet, we’re generally much more able to express ourselves clearly.

Atlantica Online Screenshot – Ever Met A Guildie or Buddy you met in an MMO IRL?

Of course, not every meeting will go well. That person in your guild you could barely tolerate online is unlikely to prove any more tolerable in person. In fact, if you’re brave enough to attend some kind of convention or large-scale IRL meeting for your game community of choice, you may or may not be completely terrified at how insane some of these people are. It could be something minor, like your favorite questing buddy having strong enough body odor to curl your nosehairs. It could be something major, like that obnoxious girl who played cybertease with all of the poor, defenseless, hormone-stricken nerdboys on your server being just as shameless and out of her mind in person. In the end, people are human, and people tend to show their true colors online. If you didn’t like them in game, chances are you won’t like them in person.

What have your experiences been in meeting people from your MMORPG community, if you have at all? If you haven’t, have you heard stories from anyone else? Rumors and hearsay are welcome! Hell, make something up entirely! I want to hear everything there is to tell on this subject, because heaven knows I could blab on about it for pages. A few of those descriptions of individuals were not simply drawn from thin air.

… I really didn’t like her.

By, B. Olivia