How do people find their SO through mmorpgs or other games?

[Eclipse Dragon]

I met my best friend in a chat room on AOL 4.0, I feel like I can talk to him about anything because we've known each other that long and when your life takes a turn for the worse, that faceless name online can really help to make you feel better. Of course, he's no longer faceless, we've been best friends IRL now for years. You can really get to know a person's personality online since it's a platform in which people feel comfortable being themselves, whether you can stand them when you do finally meet is another question entirely.

I also met my current SO on OkCupid, though that is a dating site and you may or may not view it as different than an MMO, but I don't see how an MMO is any different than a bar, you meet, you talk, you decide you'd like to get to know them better, things go from there. The only difference is that you're splitting the personality from the physical and making them two separate steps rather than one.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Gods no. I went out into the real world to experience things, people, places. If you're up for doing the down and dirty with your raid teams healer...I won't be one to stop you. I do find it pretty weird and honestly a bit sad. What mundane and boring life do you live where you find a girlfriend/boyfriend through an MMO?

So the fantasy land where you kill dragons is more mundane than a bar?

Two people who play the same game already have a topic of discussion. Two people who meet in a bar might have absolutely nothing in common beyond where they are at the moment.

 

[Johnny Impact]

It's understandable. People who share interests and activities immediately have things in common. They chat while doing said activities. Chatting leads to deeper conversation leads to bonding leads to romance.

Of course it can and more typically does lead to knowing your guild's main healer is an insufferable douche you have to grit your teeth and tolerate for the sake of the game. The chance of romance is always minuscule. The chance of successful romance is smaller still.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

How do some people find their SO through online games?

Low standards.

Really though, online communication can very rapidly give you a sense of false intimacy. You get to know one aspect of a person (how they present online) and get to color in the rest with your projections. It's why, when online dating, the general rule of thumb is to move things into "meatspace" as quickly as possible to avoid the inevitable dissonance between your online interaction and your actual interaction.

I think it would be interesting to find out how many of these "I met my wife in WoW!" stories resulted in divorce inside of ~5 years.

 

[DEAD34345]

Gods no. I went out into the real world to experience things, people, places. If you're up for doing the down and dirty with your raid teams healer...I won't be one to stop you. I do find it pretty weird and honestly a bit sad. What mundane and boring life do you live where you find a girlfriend/boyfriend through an MMO?

That's a pretty strange reaction... First you say it's weird, then you say people who do it must be mundane and boring? You're complaining that it's odd at the same time as you're complaining that it's normal, it doesn't really make any sense. It almost seems like you yourself don't know why you don't like the idea.

OT: MMOs and other games are often pretty social, so people talk. Once you have people talking, especially when they already have a shared interest, presumably some of them might find they're interested in each other just like they might in other settings. I don't really see what's so strange about it.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Its not just MMO's, its meeting people across the internet in general. What is the difference? People find people by communication. Back in the day people used to have pen-pals, writing manually on these things we call paper... oh what? We still use that? My mistake... And some of those people may have indeed fallen for each other before ever meeting face-to-face then went on to getting together IRL (physically) and seeing if said relationship could work.
Its not common, but its not always a bad way or wrong way to go about something. It may not always work out, but that is the way with all relationships, whether you met online, or in a coffee shop, or at work, etc.
Physically meeting someone is not a requirement of building a relationship with them, not saying a romantic one necessarily, but people do that all the time.
All of you who have friends you met online, and later met IRL and are still friends, though you don't always see each other except when you happen to visit or be at the same convention or whatever, how is that any different than two people meeting online and discovering they might be compatible for a romantic relationship? The only difference is the romantic part.
So take care if you dismiss people who find love online (on am MMO or otherwise) as meaningless, trite, wrong or otherwise in any negative way because if you've made even one friend online, you are also doing the exact same thing to your online friendships, especially if you met any of those people IRL.

 

[rednose1]

Well, I met my current girlfriend on WoW, and honestly didn't start out looking for anything. We were in the same guild and from random conversations, kept getting closer. Stalked each other on Facebook, then eventually let her know how I felt. Never thought about meeting anyone in a MMO, but hey, met someone I think is awesome, that's good enough for me, not really concerned about the details of how.

 

[BadNewDingus]

To each their own. I'm not gonna bash someone who found love on the internet. If both sides truly care about each other, that's that beautiful thing ... but not those mail-order brides. That's messed up.

I have no idea how people find each other on any MMO, though. But hey, gotta give them props for falling for someone's personality and not just their looks.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Gods no. I went out into the real world to experience things, people, places. If you're up for doing the down and dirty with your raid teams healer...I won't be one to stop you. I do find it pretty weird and honestly a bit sad. What mundane and boring life do you live where you find a girlfriend/boyfriend through an MMO?

How is that sad? You are both playing a game, realise you live close by, decide to meet and hit it off. It's no worst that meeting someone at the gym or during one of your bowling leagues. I think it's a lot better to meet someone on an MMO than at a bar.

Really, you people and you're prejudices.

 

[Aerosteam]

People meet each other online all the time, in this case it's just really specific. Considering there's millions of pople who play WoW alone, I don't think it's out of the ordinary people meet their significant others there.

I think it would be interesting to find out how many of these "I met my wife in WoW!" stories resulted in divorce inside of ~5 years.

C'mon, dude. You're basically saying to these people (including users in this very thread) "I bet you won't last 5 years". Kind of a dick move don't you think? It's not your place to determine how much other people love each other based on how they met.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

C'mon, dude. You're basically saying to these people (including users in this very thread) "I bet you won't last 5 years". Kind of a dick move don't you think? It's not your place to determine how much other people love each other based on how they met.

Nope, I don't think. I'm speaking in generalities, and people can determine for themselves whether said generalities apply to their specific circumstances.

 

[Lunar Templar]

no idea how this happens, but apparently it does.

my guess is though, it starts with said person being apart of the other regular grouping I guess, I assume not sucking at the game helps to.

 

[Doom972]

Whether it's in an MMO or in real life, it's harder to find a significant other when you're actively searching. You might meet someone and hit it off and you might not. It rarely happens in MMOs or online games in general, so I'd suggest going out an meeting people.