| Mail |

You might also like: WoW Insider, Joystiq, and more

More Sites You Might Like

The Daily Grind: Have you met your online friends offline?

by Jef Reahard on Aug 12th 2011 8:00AM

Culture, Events (Real-World), Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

MMORPGs make for some mighty strange bedfellows. We all approach these games for different reasons and from many different backgrounds. For some players, MMORPGs are firmly in the fantasy-not-reality section of their daily planners, while others form lasting "real-world" friendships with their MMO compatriots -- and some folks even make the effort to hang out with their online buddies offline.

Whether you've traveled to a guild get-together, attended a gaming convention, or happen to live in the same town as your groupmates, today's Daily Grind is all about real-world meetups. Have you ever hooked up with your MMO pals in person (and if not, would you want to)?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Tags: community, cons, convention, conventions, daily-grind, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, meetups, mmo-discussion, mmo-hot-topics, mmo-issues, mmo-topics, mmorpg-discussion, mmorpg-hot-topics, mmorpg-topics, real-world-events, tdg, the-daily-grind

Reader Comments (46)

If my online friends looked anything like the chick on the far left & Right I would go out of my way to meet up :D

sad truth is most of them look the green fellow in the middle :(

@(Unverified) I thought the same thing.

@(Unverified)
I really did LOL at that one :)

@(Unverified)

I started to LOL really hard and my boss walked into my office! not a good moment.

@(Unverified)

Laughed out loud!!

After a year of playing in a Guild Wars guild I realised there was one guy who lived 10 minutes away from me. We both quit GW after the guild disbanded, but we still payed othjer games like TF2 and CS. We met up with a couple of mates in a park.

Was awkward at first but he was a cool guy.

Many people, many times. I've been playing games online for about 14 years, and over the years I've gone on many trips to meet up with some of the people I've played games with. A few years in a row one of my gaming communities had a giant get together at one guy's house over a weekend. It's always been a ton of fun.

Of course. But we were dressed like normal people, not like overgrown kids... :p

No, not yet, I would be very very afraid. A bunch of crazies the lot of them.

Sure, plenty of times. I've been playing since early 90s (started with MUD's). We still get together with couple of guys (and these days, their families) from the old MUD when we can and it's always good fun.

I'm not even sure this should be a "big thing" anymore?

Actually, my fiancee and I met initially on World of Warcraft, way back on Blackwater Raiders in the Dwarven District of Stormwind. We were both roleplayers, and my character was dressed in some overalls, Defias boots, and a straw hat working on his blacksmithing. She ended up starting a guild on Farstriders, and I followed; to make a long story short, after knowing each other for roughly three years, she moved to Kentucky, and here we are.

Yep. Met up with my APB clan leader in Myrtle beach for beers, brie, and blow-up dolls.

Yep! Hubby & I have not only met up with online friends, but we've had friends come over to visit (and even stay) from all across the US and even from other countries... the best was when 3 friends from New Zealand came over, and it was the first time in the US for all 3. Was fantastic!

I have a couple times. I live in a pretty hugeous city so there tend to be a lot of people in the saem games in the area. I never had a strange experience tho, just had happy hours and some LAN parties. Everyone I met was pretty down to earth and quite diverse, from a overly serious competetive doctor to a stoned yoga instructor. We never met up in costume. Just work or street attire.

Yes. Its been great too - we try to meet up once a year now. Last time we all rented a house by the beach and spent the whole time getting our pasty white MMO player skins sunburnt.

So true (unverified) LOL!

The sad truth is that the MAJORITY of women who play mmorpgs are either MARRIED,ENGAGED, or blindy in a Relationship. Those that ARE single end up being overweight, pregnant or just plain scary looking.

The reason why they get soo much attention online, is for some reason, most of the guy players think if a female is playing an mmorpg, shes HAS to be attractive or look like her character LOL. And this is just not true.

Now, there are a TON of attractive women that look like the models on the left/right of that photo, BUT like I stated, most of them are in relationships or married, but....

There are still some out there. Cool, normal, hot women, that play mmorpgs. Though, they are "hit on" sooo much by creepos online, that if you try to be friendly with them online, they block you and think ur one of the creepos, just for being nice LOL.

Everyone wants a cool chick thats hot and plays online. I'm sure youve heard it before, but the BEST way to have that, is to introduce her to mmos yourself. (I know i know, its NOT the same AT ALL - but its better than a chick that hates mmos ! lol)

@(Unverified)

Speaking as a female, we don't often block people for being genuinely friendly. If you're finding yourself getting blocked, there's probably something you're doing that's coming across as creepy to us.

@(Unverified)

So I assume that, as a man, if your fat and scary looking that we women are just suppose to be thankful, that you pay us any attention at all? >_>

@(Unverified)

Sorry to say, you sound like a textbook example of a "Nice Guy" rather than being a genuinely nice guy. I have nothing to gain from pointing this out to you, so I hope you'll take it in the sincere "maybe should take a closer look at yourself" rather than some kind of personal attack.

http://divalion.livejournal.com/163615.html and
http://www.heartless-bitches.com/rants/niceguys/niceguys.shtml

I've played mmos for many years, and I've had plenty of guys start acting creepy after finding out I was female. Perverts get immediately blocked, but far worse than them are the "nice guys" who say "Hi! How are you?" every damn time you log in. Or "Oh, what are you doing in X location?" several times a gaming period even though you hardly know them. While it sounds ridiculous that this would be creepy to a girl, trust me, it is. They never say or do anything that can make you immediately block them, but still manage to make you horribly uncomfortable logging in. You desperately want to tell them to leave you alone, but you'd feel rude doing so because they've done nothing "wrong" (aside from making you uncomfortable).

It's just unnatural attention. If you want to group up and play and get to know me? Awesome, but for ffs do not stand over my shoulder hovering like that creepy guy from high school.

@(Unverified)

SOMEbody's a stalker :P

But, no. I've never met any people from an MMO

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

The Daily Grind: Have you met your online friends offline?

Reader Comments (46)

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 8:13AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 9:05AM Godsafk said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 10:31AM Ardra Diva said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 12:07PM arodriguezc said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 2:22PM OzzyB said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 8:13AM Danteeeee said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 8:25AM Svenn said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 8:33AM Ziltod said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 8:43AM Kaemin said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 8:44AM SgtBaker1234556 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 8:56AM BearCave said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 8:57AM angrymatt said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 9:18AM Shazzie said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 9:26AM Avernus said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 9:30AM Chiren said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 10:04AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 10:21AM awitelintsta said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 12:30PM ElfLove said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 12:32PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 2:43PM KDolo said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Massively-that-was

Featured Stories

So long, Massively, and thanks for all the fish

The Stream Team: An EverQuest Two-sday afternoon

Norrathian Notebook: Landmark celebrates Year 0 anniversary

Engadget

Joystiq

WoW

TUAW