Nowadays, when most people say they met their spouse “online,” it means on a dating site or app or reconnected on social media.
My husband and I aren’t like most people. We are nerds, gamer nerds.
Since it’s February, I suppose a “How We Met” story is in order. Hold on to your seats; it’s about to get super nerdy in here.
In the pixelated land of Azeroth within the Alliance capital of Stormwind, there was a priest… Okay, let’s back it up a bit. There’s a game called World of Warcraft (WoW), which had over 12 million subscribers at its peak. It is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), which, by the way, is a real term and genre. One would basically create a character and roam around an expansive world with a rich storyline and complete quests to gain rewards. Typically, one would play with other people and join guilds to get help and achieve things together as a team.
We met in our guild. He played sporadically, and I was an addict. He liked to compete against other folks in player versus player (PVP), and I liked raiding for hours on end to take down a big baddie. We had been friends for a long time, and I found him utterly annoying.
One night, he came online and started a fight discussion. He had recently attended E3 and everyone was discussing the next gen console war. In plain speak, it was when Nintendo was releasing the Wii, Microsoft the Xbox 360, and Sony’s PlayStation 3. We were all discussing who would win. I predicted that the Wii (albeit with a strange and clunky new controller) would appeal to the wider audience because of its lower price point and family-orientated content. He touted the Xbox because of its appeal to hardcore gamers and far superior hard drive and graphics. (The Wii outperformed sales in units sold in the first few years, but ultimately, the Xbox won over time).
After that, we seemed inseparable. Debating and arguing the merits of gaming and sharing all things nerdy. We did everything together in the game, which was difficult because I was in Seattle, and he was in New York. We became great friends and talked less about games and more about each other.
One day he messaged me while I was on the East Coast, “I think you like me, here’s my number xxx-xxx-xxx. Call me.”
I responded with a suave, “Uh, okay? Maybe later tonight?”
I was long overdue for a girls’ night out. After a bit of “liquid courage,” I called him. We talked through the night and watched the sunrise together. I knew then that I was in love. It took us over a year to finally meet in person.
We have been together for over 11 years and have two amazing girls and a little dog. I love our online love story and my little offline family that came from it.
