Y Halo Thar!

Welcome to Airee.net, a World of Warcraft themed blog maintained by theorycrafting enthusiast and avid roleplayer Cynra.
29Sep

Online Friendships — Here, There, and Everywhere

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There was a wonderful post written over at the blog Hearthstone today regarding online friendships.  Titled “Online Friendships: Are they Real?“, the author1 claims that online relationships are just as viable as the ones created in real life.  She argues that even in meeting people face-to-face, it’s extremely to get to know them as intimately as is desired.  She wrote:

The beauty of on-line friendship is the opportunity to get to know individuals who I would never have gravitated to had I met them in real life first. In World of Warcraft, people of every age and social status are brought together in an environment that levels the playing field and allows us to interact as equals. In this realm we can get to know one another without the prejudice that colors our real life interactions.

As a gamer and someone who has dabbled in a variety of communities online for over a decade, I know very well the siren call of friendships online.  There are people that I met years ago in my first online game — called at the time SubSpace and now known as Continuum2  — that I still occasionally speak with almost fourteen years later.  It was fun and exciting to meet people that I would never have had the opportunity to encounter in my daily life and with many of them I have forged what I hoped were lasting friendships. I look forward to seeing many of these people each day when I log in, perhaps more now than before due to my recent move to the other side of the country.

I think of this fact this evening, after an afternoon spent with friend and frequent commenter Draccos.  This young man is an amazing individual, full of boundless energy, goodwill, fun, and the quirkiest sense of humor I have ever met.  He’s sweet, thoughtful, and entirely endearing.  We’ve known each over for over a year now and communicate outside of the game, through the occasional email and even a phone conversation or two.  At times I feel closer to him than any of my three younger brothers, who some combination of fate and genetics burdened me with some years ago.3  I enjoy hearing about his day and his pursuit of the fairer sex and his plans for college.

At times, Draccos has complained that I do far too much for him in game.  Both the significant other and I have taken him underwing4, gleefully working together to garner the necessary materials for an enchant, or purchase better gems for him, and even — in our latest task — pool together the remaining gold required to purchase the training for his Artisan Riding skill.

Oh, and man, if you thought that he was excited when an old friend and I helped him learn the Expert Riding skill you ain’t seen nothing!

These are the ways that people online try to show how they feel for one another.  It’s not as if we’re close enough that I can stop by and give him a hug when I know he’s feeling a little down.  Or invite him over to spend an after hanging out, playing games, and just finding an excuse to leave the house and have fun!  Little things like talking through the night, dragging his butt with us into raids that he might otherwise not see, farming the materials needed to craft some new piece of gear, or even spending an afternoon being silly in character are my only recourse.

Oh, and there’s one other way that I’ve discovered recently, which did have it’s desired effect.  Last night I ordered Draccos an oh-so-delicious Hawaiian pizza from my computer desk, having it hand delivered to his place of residence by the fine people of his local Papa John’s.  Can you imagine the delivery boy’s surprise when Draccos ran outside to accost him, excitedly telling him, “Did you know that she ordered this from Washington?!”  I must have laughed for ten minutes when he recounted that tale to me this afternoon!

Love you, kiddo!

  1. I would credit her by name, but nowhere does she list her name or what people should be calling her!  I went through every post and the about page, yet nothing seemed to shed a clue on the writer’s name.  Oh, and read her stories — now! ↩
  2. It was tagged with the phrase, “Meet people from all over the world… then kill them.” ↩
  3. Which isn’t to say that I don’t love them.  I just didn’t get that choice! ↩
  4. As did some members of my guild, it appears, what with our efforts to craft him gear that will make him a more effective wreckadin! ↩

Related Posts

  1. You’ll Be Missed, Patsy!
  2. I Regret That I Have But One Life to Give
  3. Leave Only Footprints; Take Only Pictures

Responses

HOLY CRAP CONTINUUM. it’s been ages since i last played that. I rocked up Star Warzone and Extreme Games before I moved on to free MMOs, and then onto WoW.

krizzlybear said,

29 September 2008 at 8:37 pm

krizzlybear: Holy hell! Someone knows of this game? I frequented, umm, that first map that everyone frequented and had that weekly point cap to prevent experienced players from preying on the neophytes. I want to say that it was something with a W — perhaps West was in the name — but I can’t recall. I was CynraAnar, and then CynraAnar1, CynraAnar2, CynraAnar3, and so on ad nauseum until the week reset.

I also lurked on one of the old (original?) Star Wars maps, played on a soccer map or two, and had a lot of fun. I remember back when there were only five ships and then the Lancaster and Shark were released. I adored the Javelin, calling it my Javvie and using it to repel off of walls when in a dogfight rather than rely on its admittedly lackluster rotation and mobility.

I used to hang out with a bunch of guys who were in, wow, the Federation of Galactic Navies, a group of individuals online who played the old X-Wing versus Tie Fighter and Jedi Knight games to build on online interactive Star Wars universe.

I feel so nostalgic thinking back on those days.

Cynra’s last blog post: Online Friendships — Here, There, and Everywhere

Cynra said,

29 September 2008 at 9:27 pm

You’re probably thinking of SSCX Alpha West.

I’m not as much a SS vet as you are, since I was around when all 8 ships were already released. In SWZ, the Leviathan was the one with the bouncing bombs, and the jav had no-bounce bombs. My ship back in the day was the Weasel, it was slightly less maneuverable than a Warbird, but it could only shoot yellow bullets, but it was able to fire EMP bombs, which were deadly in the hands of those who could aim them well.

What I miss the most about SWZ though was the fact that the lanc and shark were both restricted ships. During flag games where there were 8-10 or more players on each side, both frequencies could turn one of the players into a capital ship that had insane maximum energy, but moved really slow. It made for some epic base fights.

Reading your post made me quite nostalgic as well, so I actually re-downloaded the game just now, and ran into some old friends for some 2v2 action, despite the zone being a total wasteland. So thanks for that, cyn!

krizzlybear said,

29 September 2008 at 9:47 pm

I’m crying.
I luv yous.
The sister I never had.
(0,_0,)

Draccos said,

29 September 2008 at 9:53 pm

krizzlybear: Not sure if that’s right, the zone name. After giving it some thought, I want to say it was Alpha West. It was great because T20 was a huge hot spot, along with the large structure in the middle (N13 or so?). We’d look for the siren calls to join our shipmates in both areas, though A1 was pretty nifty.

Remember, I joined long before VIE tried to sell it — I was in the two year beta testing. Hell, I want to say that I can remember when there were only four ships on the roster, but I might be remembering some of the older players talk. I joined back when it was just an awesome free game. Then I left when it went for-pay and came back a year or so later when VIE had decided to make it freeware again due to the amount of people who were cracking the game.

Man, I joined the game when I was in the sixth grade, so that must have been 1994 or 1995, depending on when we finally got connection to the Internet. I suffered — and still suffer, to be honest — from really bad insomnia, so I remember sneaking down to the computer late at night and playing until 0500 or so, when the elder parental unit would be getting up.

Glad I could help ya get back into the game! Kick some tail for me and don’t be a vulch!

Draccos: Well, the post served two purposes: share your awesome story about the pizza and then embarrass you further. Did I accomplish my goal? Besides, you know you love seeing your name on the ‘net!

Cynra’s last blog post: Online Friendships — Here, There, and Everywhere

Cynra said,

30 September 2008 at 9:09 am

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