Friendship is Rare

Friendship is Rare

Once Again… I believe MMOs are the natural progression of social gaming.  Much like snail mail, Scrabble, or even phone books, social gaming is something that is quickly losing its need for a physical medium.  It’s happening everywhere!  Many of my gamer friends remember all-night frag-fests with your friends playing split-screen Goldeneye or Mario Kart and how much fun that was, but many also remember the first time they played Halo 2 on Xbox Live and what a great experience that turned out to be.  Let’s look at a tabletop RPG, D&D 4e for example (BLEGH! says Brian.)

TABLETOP:  You assemble your group, make sure all the roles are filled (who’s going to be the healer?) you set out together in order to crawl through the dungeon designed by the evil mastermind DM, avoid the traps, kill the minions, and triumph over the dragon or the goblin king who’s at the end of the dungeon in order to get the Scepter of Something Awesome because some guy at the tavern asked you to do so.

MMO:  You assemble your group, make sure all the roles are filled (who’s going to be the healer?) you set out together in order to crawl through the dungeon designed by the evil mastermind <insert game company name here>, avoid the traps, kill the minions, and triumph over the dragon or the goblin king who’s at the end of the dungeon in order to get the Scepter of Something Awesome because some guy at the tavern asked you to do so… all while NOT WEARING PANTS!

Note that I’m not referring to the people who are all about the grind and the loot and about being a dick-face.  You know the type…the angry know-it-all nerd who plays games all day and is increasingly incapable of mature and legitimate social interaction.  Though prevalent online, those types of min-maxers exist in the tabletop world as well.  I’m referring to those, like me, who use this medium as a place to meet friends, form real connections, and become part of a community.  That sounds an AWFUL LOT like a FLGS to me.  There are people you like, people you don’t like, general rules of conduct, and some lifelong friendships.  All of these relationships (or more) can be formed by the mutual celebration of this most hallowed geeky pastime.

Tabletop is fun, sometimes unbelievably so, I have many classic memories of late nights full of cigarettes and Mountain Dew, inside jokes and rules lawyering.  I wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything in the world; they’ve helped to define a lot of my current personality and nerd-love.  However, I’ve developed lasting relationships through my years playing MMOs, learning people, their play-style, their pet peeves, learning the inflection of their voice and growing inside jokes.  The fact that we don’t see each other, don’t have to smell each other, and there’s no risk to one of my guildmates burning a hole in my couch with an errant cigarette is just as much a check in the win column as not wearing pants.

But Jason! Those aren’t REAL friends…they’re just online friends.

“PSHAW!” I say! “PSHAW!”

Late this past summer, I attended the wedding of Nikki and Blaise, or as I know them, Mamav and Ethyan.  Those two crazy kids met on World of Warcraft, just random members of a raiding party, represented only as in-game avatars.  However, through familiarity, interaction, and communication, what began as a common pastime bloomed into a romance and marriage of two very real and lovely people. Many guild mates attended the wedding, and I was able to finally put a face to many names and voices.  This is AMAZING to me…finding the one person with whom you wish to spend the rest of your life by a video game is quite a feat. I’ll also throw an honorable mention to DBLR listener Brian, who met his bride on WoW as well.

Hurray for bullet points!

I may be getting a little defensive, (SO WHAT IF I AM!?!?!) but this is a subject I’m very passionate about.  The whole world is going digital at an alarming rate and it’s silly to think that the realm of imagination and gaming won’t do the same.  Social gaming in the traditional sense will always hold a special place in my heart, but one must look to the future…a future without pants.

Stay tuned next time for a Geekcentric Guide to picking and starting an MMO in a post simply titled: “Noob.”