Online Love, Nerdy Edition

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online love

Nowadays, when most people say they met their spouse “online,” it really means on a dating site/app, or they 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), at its peak, had over 12 million subscribers. 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), I liked raiding hours on end to take down a big baddie. We were 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 back in 2006 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 it had 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 did outperform sales in terms of units sold 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 game, which was difficult because I was in Seattle and he was in New York. We became really great friends and talked less about games and more about each other.

One day he messages 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 it 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. 

online love

Where did you meet your spouse?