Posts tagged friends

Shared Topic courtesy of Naithin of Tank ‘n’ Tree.

After three years of playing WoW, I have come to realise that there are many different variants on the relationships within Azeroth. During game play, most of us will make friends, that’s almost inevitable when you group with people. Many of us will go so far as to meet people who we don’t necessarily get along with very well. A small handful of us will even meet our other halves through the game. The moral of the story, act the way you would in real life. Endure the bad, appreciate the good, laugh at the stupid.

Friendships

The problem with ingame friendships, is that they can be easy to lose if you don’t keep them up. You create a character, you level upto 80, you join a guild and there you make your first WoW friend. You do everything together, instances, achievements, PvP, but one of you doesn’t like something about the guild. Say your friend leaves for another server and all you have left is MSN, at first you keep in touch but eventually you both go off and meet new people ingame and slowly lose touch. This is just an example, but when you realise that what was once a strong friendship has become an acquaintance who you barely speak to anymore, it sucks.

Of course, once in a while, you will also meet people who you do keep in touch with, even when they decide to quit the game or transfer. In one of the guilds I applied to, one of the members of that guild randomly added me to MSN to talk to because he thought I seemed like a nice person, and is now a really good friend. Just goes to show, stalking isn’t always bad! In each guild I’ve been happy in, I’ve made a friend that I’ve kept in touch with, perhaps the secret to a good friendship ingame is to be happy in the first place. After all, you won’t meet anybody if you keep yourself to yourself.

People we Dislike

Of course, this is a very social game, a great way to talk to new people, but this also includes meeting people we don’t get along with. Personally, I generally dislike people who treat others like crap in order to make themselves feel good, basically ingame bullying. If it’s making fun of somebody jokingly and they understand that, then fine, that’s not the same. Bullying I will never agree with.

People who will act a certain way to benefit themselves over others. For example, as we’ve come to know them, ‘teehee girls’. Girls who will flaunt their femininity in order to receive promotions, loot and attention. They provide us constantly with information reminding us that they are in fact female, and massively overuse smileys, occasionally speaking in guild in such a way that no man would refuse to give said girl her loot. This is one thing I particularly dislike, as it’s only a small handful of WoW girls, some of us like to get into a guild based on good applications and ability rather.

Griefing is another one, corpse camping, trolling, kill stealing. I don’t and never will understand the fun in this kind of behaviour, but it exists, and always will. The trouble with these people is that, just like the real world, we have to learn to get along with them and accept that they are there.

Romantic Relationships

A lot of people think that people who meet their other half over the internet, especially WoW, are weird. However, I know a lot of people who are in strong relationships who met this way. So why is it still seen as a bad thing? It’s an old fashioned way of thinking to be honest. In fact, a few years ago, I knew that you could meet somebody from the internet, get together and have a good relationship, the same way that blind dates and the adverts in newspapers work. I was wrong. It is possible to fall in love with somebody before you meet, but to be sure that it’s real, you have to meet.

This is the part that is dangerous, because it can all go wrong. The main reason so many people are against online relationships, what if you meet and aren’t physically attracted to one another? One of you is a psychotic murderer? One or both of you are a lot older/younger than the other? There are so many things you have to beware of on the internet because it’s so easy to lie about almost anything. Though, I might my boyfriend on WoW, and we now live together, so it’s not always bad.