Relationships in Azeroth is this weeks shared topic,
I think Vent or Teamspeak if you like plays a massive part in the building of any relationship in Azeroth.
Its one thing to have all your communication done by text chat, but to be able to speak to the person and instantaneously communicate Ideas, or events makes the interaction more ‘real.’ When the person has a voice, and are not pretty green or pink lines on a screen your interaction transcends that of being pure avatar based. They have a Pitch, and a tone and inflections in a voice that beat any 🙂 or 😛 >< symbol you can type in chat.
It means that you can hear when you make that person happy, and when you make them upset. ( I’m really really sorry for falling asleep on you!)
I am not sure how much I want to reveal, but that I have become quite fond of a person on which the entire relationship was built on that I commented on his sexy Kiwi accent over vent once. At the time I didn’t think much of the comment, it was one I wanted to say and that I meant, but nor did I ever expect anything to come of it.
Instead I now know that a flight to get to where he is is 3h 10 mins. Even if I have yet to take one. I’ve been thinking on it!
How did it cross the line of becoming something more than just someone to chat to? I really don’t know. I am not sure where that line is, or how to define it, or what will happen – or if its silly or serious or fun. It’s just not definable in a conventional sence. It just is.
I blame vent. Mmmm blame is not a good word, but I cannot see how it would have crossed that line in the sand if not for that we have been able to communicate in real time on a regular basis.
Someone jokingly called a relationship like that a ‘wow boyfriend/ Wow girlfriend’ we have decided it is a rather corny label and shall never speak of it again.
The loose statistic ( Not quoting a reference because none of them seem to be verifiable) is that 1 in 8 marriages in the US ( I am not sure what the stats are in oz ) are people who met online, now I wouldn’t want to rely on this stat, but my brother married someone he met online, I have another two close friends who met online back on the IRC days and are now happily married, I’ve met Wow couples who met playing wow, one marriage that I know of, and a couple of others where they are considered to be in serious relationships – just that circumstances have meant that they have not been able to move countries to be together yet, and I can’t mention this topic without dropping the well known – and documented Temerity Jane of who which bloggers have followed the developments and upcoming marriage of to someone special she met online
It happens…
I wonder if each country had their own dedicated Wow servers cross the globe, how many people would not have met, its easy to be close to someone when you spend so many hours in game, or online with them. I say this flippantly… What would be the consequences if mail order brides were given MMORPG accounts.
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Provided by 
Conversation with my mother after she saw me talking with someone on IM: “So who is that?” “Someone I met online.” “Oh, so not a real person.”
I chose to not sigh for reasons of free housing.
I think people who spend any serious amount of time in WoW come to accept that, while the toons aren’t real, the people behind them ARE.
Having been in a similar situation myself in the past its surprising how easy it is to start thinking that way. In one sense its easier than it might be otherwise because you don’t have to similtaneously deal with physical and, for want of a better word, emotional attraction. You also tend to find if you like the person first, you’re more likely to find them physically attractive.
For me, what I would “blame” vent for is creating the illusion of closeness. The clarity of vent communications exceeds that of a phone call and gives the illusion that the person is physically close. The reality of the distance between where they were and where I was became much more real after meeting.
However you only live once, I would never forgo a potentially life changing experience simply because it came about in a non-traditional manner.
Yeh interesting. If you hang around with anyone long enough, you’re shared interests of WoW/IM’ing or whatever will draw you together. As soon as you speak, the bond is cemented.
WoW relationships seem to last because you both probably have a passionate hobby: playing wow. Same as two people who love to paint, meeting at a workshop; two people who play music meeting at a recital or whatever! Most relationships are built like this, but no one who’s not online or in wow takes them seriously because they think there is disconnect when there usually isn’t.
good post! grats on getting off darth too!
I met my fiance through WoW. It started as random late night chats in the guild. And slowly, over time, it progressed to skype chats, with WoW left out of the picture altogether.
Its been almost 5 years and though we don’t play WoW anymore, I’m still quite grateful that I met him through the game. Although explaining to people how we met is always a bit awkward! 🙂
Good luck with your friendship and I hope you get everything you want from it! 😀
I met my wife in SWG (pre-CU, of course).
The landscape in Naboo was so romantic, with all the waterfalls and stuff!
I met my fiance’ online, but we regularly play wow together.
I also do research on WoW. About 10-15% of players have met someone in WoW and had a RL romantic relationship with that person. I think that’s comparable to office romances, or the rate of meeting someone at a club. Just because it’s WoW doesn’t mean it’s abnormal. It’s just another way of meeting and connecting with people.