Teaching your Spouse to Play
Everquest 2

by Paul "Slide" Shortt

I started playing style="font-style: italic;">Everquest 2 back in January 2005
not long
after its release.  I played
role-playing games before, all of them of the solo persuasion.  Games like Final
Fantasy
, Baldur’s Gate, Morrowind and most recently style="font-style: italic;">Fable have been my games of choice.  These did help me a bit in understanding
what was expected of an EQ2 player. 

I
taught myself how to play the game through a lot
of trial,
error and research.  The official
message boards became my friend and I was learning something new
everyday.  I joined a guild, met some
friends, nuked
some baddies, rolled some alts and became a regular style="font-style: italic;">Everquest 2 player. 

The
more I played the game, the more I noticed
couples
playing the game with each other.  I’ve
seen around 5 or 6 couples play in our guild alone.  Some of them share one computer and take turns while others have
the privilege of owning two computers to allow simultaneous play. 

style="color: black;">Blackguard posted a
question a
few months ago in the official forums asking people if they married an
EQ2
sweetheart.  This question was brought
on by a German women’s magazine that was interested in finding a story
about a
couple who met in an online game and fell in love in real life.


A women's magazine in Germany
("For Her") is interested in
hearing the story of a couple that met
in an online game and then fell in love in real life. If you met your
sweetheart in Everquest II and are now married happily ever after, let
us know.
We'll choose a couple and send their story/contact information to the
magazine
in Germany. They may want to contact you so please only send us your
information if you are comfortable with pictures of you being printed
and being
interviewed for the magazine. Please send your story and contact info
to style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"
href="[email protected]">[email protected]. Thanks!



I’m not sure if
anything ever
came of these responses, but href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=commnews&message.id=5044&view=by_date_ascending&page=1">check
out the thread here to read about some real
life MMORPG love.

I
wanted a part of this.  How cool would it be to share this virtual world with my wife?
We share
almost everything together, why not this alternate reality too?  I already find myself on many, many
occasions telling her of events that had happened to me in the
dangerous world
of Norrath.  She seems to listen
intently (god bless her) when deep down I know she has no clue about
what I’m
talking about.  I try and explain some
of the finer points of MMORPGing in Everquest
2
, but she never really
gets it,
and I understand that.  This will not
stop me from pursuing the quest laid out before me.  By the end of this article I will have her nuking goblins and
skeletons by the dozen.

Admittedly
I became paranoid in my preparations to
start a
new account.  I asked myself questions
in fear.

“What if I push her too hard and she never wants to play a
game with me again?”

“What if she becomes an EQ2 elitist and calls me a no0b?”

“What if she starts her own guild on another server because
she doesn’t want to share her virtual life with me anymore?”

“What if she logs into my account and steals all my money?”

That night I drank heavily and passed out on the kitchen
counter where I had dreams of happy, narcissistic bunnies that took me
into
their house of mirrors where they… *ahem*… sorry.

The
next day I wanted answers to questions that I
had about playing this MMORPG with my wife.  I
cornered a number of guildies who acted happy to answer my questions.  One of my main concerns was arguing.  Would this game prompt unnecessary arguing
regarding different aspects of the game.  Most of what I learned was that there was very little bickering.  There might be a disagreement about
technique or where to hunt, but nothing that would force one half onto
the
couch for the night. I’m sure this differs for each couple that plays,
but for
now my mind was at ease. 

It
seemed as if each person that plays EQ2 with a
significant other has started their RPG career with some of the simpler
games
like Final Fantasy and moved
on from there.  My wife Christa would be starting with style="font-style: italic;">Everquest 2 and it
worried me a
bit, but I’m a good teacher.  Why should
I be worried? 



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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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