by Arithan

Created on: April 09, 2009

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games were never an interest to me until I actually started playing one. I have always been playing single player role-playing games like the Final Fantasy series before Final Fantasy XI, but it wasn't until a friend of mine showed me a screenshot of Everquest that inspired me to try MMO's. He told me that all the characters in the picture were each played by individual people in real life. This was a very interesting concept for me. Shortly after, I decided to get Final Fantasy XI.

I remember that first day I started playing, standing there setting up my controls, walking around Bastok, and wondering which characters were non-player controlled and which were actual players. After learning the basics, I started leveling my character. I picked a White Mage because I like helping people and being able to heal them. As I started meeting new people, I soon realized that this really felt like an alternate reality. I started playing all day, every day. I even neglected my real life friends because I wanted to escape reality. This isn't a good thing but it helped me forget about my real life problems. This went on for a while.

I wasn't very social in real life and by playing this game I really felt like I could relax and be who I really am. I was actually able to communicate with people without feeling shy or awkward. I realized that I actually like meeting people this way better because I get to see who they are first, rather than judging them by looks. I have made many good friends from this game.

Eventually, I started meeting people in this game who are actually women in real life. I was probably around eighteen back then and had never had a girlfriend or even dated, so this was an interesting experience for me to be able to talk to them without the uncomfortable feeling. A lot of them and my other friends must have seen me as a good person because they would always want to hang out with me. It was a nice feeling to know that people liked me. I played Final Fantasy XI for about a year and then moved on to World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft is not as "hardcore" as Final Fantasy XI was so I didn't get the same feeling of an alternate reality there, but it was still close. Again, I met a lot of new people and became good friends with a lot of them. My first year of playing wasn't as relaxing because I was in a hardcore guild. Even though it felt like a full time job, I really felt good about myself every time we downed a new boss, especially if it was a server first. Eventually the guild became self-centered and most people only cared about themselves and loot. Most of them ended up transferring servers, but I stayed because I didn't want to leave my non-guilded friends behind.

I ended up leveling another character with my friends and eventually found another guild to join, which I still am in today. This guild is like a family to me and I really care for the people in it. Most of my closest friends I have today are from this guild. When I have problems in real life, I try to escape it by playing. I feel I can really come to my World of Warcraft friends for comfort and solutions. They have helped me through countless situations. Even just going through dungeons or raiding can get my mind off of real life situations for a while.

I have been playing World of Warcraft ever since open beta. My friends and I have gone through so much since then. If they have problems with real life, they would log on to play or talk to me about it in game. They usually seem more relaxed and happy after talking about it. My friendship with my friends I have met in MMO's means a lot to me and I would trust them my life.

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