Finding love in Azeroth: a pixel-perfect love story
In college, many couples meet in class or through friends. Others find each other in the bar and club scenes. Still others turn to online sources like Plenty of Fish. But once in a while, you'll meet a rare couple who didn't meet in this world at all: they met in the World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft is an online multiplayer role-playing game. Each player controls a character of a certain class, and each class has a special set of abilities and talents. Players complete quests to level up, eventually defeating bosses with large groups of other players in events called raids.
Tyler and Kelsie (last names withheld to protect privacy) are one of these unconventional couples who met in the game. Their story begins with Tyler teasing Kelsie on the WoW online forums. Kelsie looked him up on her server, Demon Soul, and the two began chatting in-game. Tyler played a number of characters, including a Hunter named Central and a Death Knight named Letdown, and Kelsie was working to level her second character, a Shaman named Delightful.
"We really hit it off and ended up becoming close friends for five months, talking on the phone and through texts," she explained.
Chatting in-game was definitely an unconventional way of getting to know each other. "Before we got together, it was sometimes the only way we could talk ... I wouldn't even say we really 'played' together for the first few months. It was just casual talking when we were online at the same time," said Tyler. "Eventually it caused us to actually get to know each other a lot better because we started organizing things (in-game) together."
The couple didn't consider themselves "official" until July 2009, when Tyler drove from Kansas City to Indianapolis. Kelsie packed up all her worldly possessions (her desktop and clothes) and moved across state lines to be with him.
After moving into an apartment, the couple continued to play together, and Kelsie joined Tyler's guild. "For me, it wasn't too hard (to separate WoW from our real-life relationship) until new content came out," said Kelsie. With new content, different parts of the world become accessible, meaning new dungeons and more complicated bosses to defeat. Kelsie said she especially felt pressure from the difficulty of new content. "It felt like we were bashing our heads against a wall. I don't deal well with failure, so I was taking out in-game things on him."
Tyler said he has also noticed that playing the game together occasionally puts some strain on their relationship. "Raiding together could lead to arguing outside of the game, or one of us getting angry at the other for messing around. Quite a few of our offline fights stemmed from WoW, especially when, for example, she would want to go out and do something on a raid night, things like that."
"It really comes down to balancing the game without making your significant other too angry," he added.
But WoW definitely doesn't only add negativity to their relationship, Kelsie was sure to add. "It's inexpensive and really fun, especially with all the new quests and zones with (the Cataclysm) expansion. Leveling characters together is a blast, and it gives us something to do on nights we'd otherwise be spending $60 to $80 at a bar or with friends."
Other gamer couples could consider Warcraft a different way to hang out together, they said. "It's a fun way to enjoy each other's company, sitting right next to each other or a thousand miles away," said Kelsie.
Today, the couple has been together for over two years and they are currently working to remodel their home. "WoW has brought us together," said Kelsie. "We level alternate characters, do heroic dungeons or run 10-man raids together." The couple is also sure to take breaks a few nights every week from the game so they don't feel as though that is all they do. "We could live without WoW, it's just a pastime, but we play because we enjoy doing something together that's inexpensive and fun," she smiled.
When they tell people how they met, "Most people are pretty surprised that a relationship from a game was successful or even came to fruition," said Tyler, but it's clear that these two love fools couldn't be happier.
So go on, /wave at that cute Gnome, or /wink at that hot young Undead — you never know who you might meet!
World of Warcraft is an online multiplayer role-playing game. Each player controls a character of a certain class, and each class has a special set of abilities and talents. Players complete quests to level up, eventually defeating bosses with large groups of other players in events called raids.
Tyler and Kelsie (last names withheld to protect privacy) are one of these unconventional couples who met in the game. Their story begins with Tyler teasing Kelsie on the WoW online forums. Kelsie looked him up on her server, Demon Soul, and the two began chatting in-game. Tyler played a number of characters, including a Hunter named Central and a Death Knight named Letdown, and Kelsie was working to level her second character, a Shaman named Delightful.
"We really hit it off and ended up becoming close friends for five months, talking on the phone and through texts," she explained.
Chatting in-game was definitely an unconventional way of getting to know each other. "Before we got together, it was sometimes the only way we could talk ... I wouldn't even say we really 'played' together for the first few months. It was just casual talking when we were online at the same time," said Tyler. "Eventually it caused us to actually get to know each other a lot better because we started organizing things (in-game) together."
The couple didn't consider themselves "official" until July 2009, when Tyler drove from Kansas City to Indianapolis. Kelsie packed up all her worldly possessions (her desktop and clothes) and moved across state lines to be with him.
After moving into an apartment, the couple continued to play together, and Kelsie joined Tyler's guild. "For me, it wasn't too hard (to separate WoW from our real-life relationship) until new content came out," said Kelsie. With new content, different parts of the world become accessible, meaning new dungeons and more complicated bosses to defeat. Kelsie said she especially felt pressure from the difficulty of new content. "It felt like we were bashing our heads against a wall. I don't deal well with failure, so I was taking out in-game things on him."
Tyler said he has also noticed that playing the game together occasionally puts some strain on their relationship. "Raiding together could lead to arguing outside of the game, or one of us getting angry at the other for messing around. Quite a few of our offline fights stemmed from WoW, especially when, for example, she would want to go out and do something on a raid night, things like that."
"It really comes down to balancing the game without making your significant other too angry," he added.
But WoW definitely doesn't only add negativity to their relationship, Kelsie was sure to add. "It's inexpensive and really fun, especially with all the new quests and zones with (the Cataclysm) expansion. Leveling characters together is a blast, and it gives us something to do on nights we'd otherwise be spending $60 to $80 at a bar or with friends."
Other gamer couples could consider Warcraft a different way to hang out together, they said. "It's a fun way to enjoy each other's company, sitting right next to each other or a thousand miles away," said Kelsie.
Today, the couple has been together for over two years and they are currently working to remodel their home. "WoW has brought us together," said Kelsie. "We level alternate characters, do heroic dungeons or run 10-man raids together." The couple is also sure to take breaks a few nights every week from the game so they don't feel as though that is all they do. "We could live without WoW, it's just a pastime, but we play because we enjoy doing something together that's inexpensive and fun," she smiled.
When they tell people how they met, "Most people are pretty surprised that a relationship from a game was successful or even came to fruition," said Tyler, but it's clear that these two love fools couldn't be happier.
So go on, /wave at that cute Gnome, or /wink at that hot young Undead — you never know who you might meet!
