About 10 yrs into our relationship my husband started playing online video games. He was always into arcade games, but once we got a personal computer MMOGs became his passion. Oh, what does MMOG stand for? Yeah, I had no idea either. MMOG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Game.
Basically you purchase a game, download the software, and you can escape into this cyber world of good vs. evil. The crazy thing is you're not playing against a computer like a typical video game. You're actually playing along with thousands of people just like you from all around the world.
My husband would get so caught up in these games and chatting with his 'cyber' buddies that we were spending less and less time together. A typical evening would consist of coming home from work, eating dinner, and then going our separate ways. I would usually watch television and my husband would make a mad dash for the computer room.
Night after night of this was causing me concern. To be more brutally honest it was pissing me the fuck off. I remember one night in particular: I kissed my husband goodnight at around 11:30pm and the next morning when I woke up for work at 5:45am he was in the same spot.
When I attempted to discuss any thing with my husband, I had to wait until he was done with tells (by tells I mean his online conversations or chats). I mean, God forbid he leave one of his cyber buddies waiting a few extra seconds so that he could answer my questions. I was becoming more and more jealous of his outpour of attention on these strangers, but I was constantly reminded that he works hard and has to put up with a lot of shit at work and these games help him escape.
"But honey, why can't I be your escape? You hardly 'play' with me any more. We don't do anything together, except when I'm watching you play Asherons Call 2 or Star Wars Galaxies. And by the way, why the hell is that girl dancing erotically in front of you?"
"Oh honey, that's nothing. She's just an 'entertainer' and when I watch her dance it 'heals' my character."
"Excuse me?!?!?!"
* * *
About a year or two passes and I finally have enough balls to say to my husband it's either me or these games. Mind you he had been trying to get me to play along with him so I would stop saying we don't do anything together.
In all fairness MMOGs aren't his only hobby. There were others I could try like deep sea fishing (I get awful motion sickness), snowboarding (I've yet to go but I have a feeling I'll chicken out due to inevitable bruising), bodyboarding (won't be caught dead in any type of swimwear or wetsuit), paintball (he still has a scar from the shot he took to the neck), and finally racing his quad (stick shift owns me and then there's that whole inevitable bruising thing). So there were my choices of things I could do to be more involved in my husband's life. I had spent so much time asking him to do something that I'd like, failing miserably, that I figured I had no choice but to learn to play an MMOG. I loved him too much to lose him to a video game. And because my hobbies consisted of visiting new doctors, trying new treatments and figuring out how to get well, this turned out to be someting I actually needed.
The next step was choosing a MMOG that appealed to both of us. We both love Dungeons and Dragons-like storylines so after viewing a demo of EverQuest II our minds were set. EQ2 was released in November 2004 and my husband and I have been playing together ever since.
I've learned so much about the online gaming community and I never thought I'd say it but I love many of our 'cyber' buddies. In a year's time you really get to know these people and a certain few actually feel like family. Not the family you're stuck with but the family you've always wanted.
I'm proud to say I have a 60 Templar on the Innothule server and she kicks ass =P
If you'd like to find out more visit
http://everquest2.station.sony.com/
