Games on a Plane

‘I’ve got Candy now get in the van’ - Has joined the server.

It’s really not like what the government, public television, and your parents tell you; the internet is actually a good place to meet new people, as long as you aren’t stupid about it. As the topic for this week’s Common Content article, I’ve been asked to speak about meeting people in online games and how they can eventually become your friends. This is an especially cool topic for me as I deal in an industry where I rarely see the people I’m dealing with except on rare occasions. So how does one meet friends in an online environment and how is it different from a regular face to face friendship, well read on to find out!

I met my first batch of online friends several years ago when I first started playing Diablo 1 on Battle.net. Back in the days of original Diablo there wasn’t too much of a need for grouping together as cheating was extremely rampant as information was stored on your computer and not client side. My first friends from the old Diablo days were some guildies from my first ever online “guild”. We were a solid group of Player Killing jerks who would collect ears for fun and amusement. There really wasn’t much more to tell then that, and it eventually lost interest and we started moving onto other games such as Starcraft. I still keep in touch with a few of my original Diablo buddies though.

How do you meet someone online and learn to call them a friend? With me it started with anytime I was online and someone who was there whose name I remembered. Having a horrible memory when it comes to names & faces I tend to do a lot better online where I just need to remember usernames, thus my friends list usually started with people who I ‘saw’ online a lot. Even in current online games the people who are online the most are the ones I tend to converse with more, even if all they do is sit around and check out the Auction House and never quest.

There are differences between online friends and regular friends of course. As opposed to going out in person you tend to do online events like raids together as a group with other friends, and most phone calls are replaced with out of game IM programs such as MSN messenger or ICQ. Earlier in my gaming career I spent a lot of time on ICQ chatting back and forth with friends who were gaming with me and this has continued even to now where I have been known to get actual phone calls from some of my online buddies.

Warhammer has always been an interesting game in and of itself for meeting people. Having played in tournaments outside of town, and been to larger events like Conflicts & Grand Tournaments, I have been acquainted with a lot of good people (and a lot of people I could stand never to see again), thus I’ve got a good view of the players that we will be seeing in Warhammer Online. Thankfully a lot of Warhammer players are also involved in MMOs so there shouldn’t be too many “newbie” MMO players in WAR then something like WoW. Most Warhammer Fantasy players are players who are either easy going or a typical closet gamer, so in an MMO environment it should be pretty easy to find those who are sociable and those who aren’t.

With Warhammer I have maintained some very long distance friendships that have gone well. One of the best people I’ve met through Warhammer lives in a town several hours north of where I live, and he only comes down once or twice a year; but it’s always good to see him. In the interim I talk to this person occasionally over MSN and we’ll get a few good conversations in. So in reality a long distance friendship can be established by gaming; be it online or physical gaming such as Warhammer Fantasy or even something like a Collectible Card Game.

Will Warhammer Online be a game where players can forge strong friendships? Of course it will. Much like my opinions on World of Warcraft, I am a firm believer in the players making the game and the game only being a medium in which people can interact. The only way to make the game truly better is to increase the interaction between players so that new friendships can be formed. So if you’re looking for a real good time in an MMO (not the 1-900 kind…) join a guild of people you know and start to learn usernames, get to know the community you game in and there are plenty of players who will be willing to reciprocate.