Breakfast Topic: Do you use WoW to keep in touch?
by Josh Rose 
Sep 28th 2010 at 8:00AM
Most of us have friends and family we don't get to see very often due to time constraints or distance. Keeping in contact can be hard with life getting in the way at times. My family though happens to be a WoW family. My mother, father and sister and her husband, aunt and two of my cousins all have WoW accounts. We each have characters on the same realm and get in touch with each other through the game.
Many people look at WoW as a nerdy diversion or just a game, but for me, it has allowed me to stay in contact with friends and family I would not otherwise get in touch with nearly as often. My aunt lives on the other side of the state, about two and a half hours away; my cousin is in the Air Force stationed in Europe. We use email, phone calls and occasional visits, but WoW is how we primarily contact each other. I hop on my tank, my cousin has his rogue, and my aunt plays her mage, and we run instances or quest together or occasionally level alts all while catching up. We have actually ran randoms with five different family members talking and joking over Vent, catching up on current events in each others' lives.
Do you have family who plays also? Do you use it as a way to keep in touch with them? If so, is it just joking, or do you pass real important news back and forth over the game?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jamie Sep 28th 2010 8:05AM
I found WoW as a way of contact too much hassle, it has a really great addon to it which is this MMORPG which I hear a lot of people subscribe too but the privacy settings aren't really there to allow me to just talk to the people I want to (i.e. I don't want to have to make a character solely to talk to certain people).
Josin Sep 28th 2010 8:11AM
Through RealID, there's definitely some friends who I'm able to keep more in touch with.
Boz Sep 28th 2010 8:34AM
RealID has been especially nice with its Starcraft II tie-in; keeps me in touch with not just friends that have gone cross-server, but cross-game.
Since everyone on the planet worth talking to seems to participate in at least one Blizzard game, once Diablo 3 comes out we can all abandon telephones and Facebook.
shadowdk Sep 28th 2010 8:13AM
I might go a bit off topic near the end, but here it goes.
I use wow to keep in contact with a few friends and family, realid really helped with that, since one of my best friends moved to NH. Funny enough, to meet up and marry a girl he met on wow. So they spent a year on wow trying to get to know each other better.
the sort of off topic part:
WOW, also saved my ass, i was about to become homeless, and a friend of mine from wow, stepped in and provided me a home and a job when i was down on my luck.
so yeah, i use wow to stay in contact with people, and other people i know do as well. I might be a rare case, but i have seen more good then bad come from wow, as far as real life intermixing.
thegatherer Sep 28th 2010 9:33AM
There should be a statement that not all internet relationships end up as happy endings.
I have seen two go up in smoke, and another one ruined a rl relationship.
That being said, I wouldn't mind finding a woman to spend my life with through wow.
shadowdk Sep 28th 2010 10:21AM
Well, there are always risks, no matter where you find a relationship. I even know of one relationship that was claimed to fail over wow, but funny enough, it was just a outlet, because there was a lot of other issues besides that, but wow made a better excuse then saying, i am cheating on my man/women. Now, that being said, i am sure there is some failed relationships out there because of wow, but i seen more gains then losses. I will put it this way, i play wow on Friday night, it cost me 15 dollars one time a month. I used to go out on Friday night, and spend 50 to 100 dollars on "fill in whatever here". so wow even saved me money.
BTW, for the record, i still go out sometimes, I am not the adult in moms basement with the stained wife beater and shorts 2 times to small for me, and soda cans all over the place (u seen the movies)
pancakes Sep 28th 2010 8:13AM
Not so much at the moment, but I'm sure it's going to help once school is over for me next year.
Gendou Sep 28th 2010 8:15AM
Of my family, only my wife plays WOW.
I do stay in touch with good friends via WOW, as well as our guild forums and various social networking sites.
Rubitard Sep 28th 2010 8:16AM
No.
Samutz Sep 28th 2010 8:17AM
I don't play with any people I know IRL at the moment. My sister plays, but on another realm. I tried playing with some old friends on a PvP realm, but I still can't stand PvP realms. One of my best friends was playing on a realm and invited me to go play on his guild, but he's currently unemployed and not even at home, spending time with family, for a few months apparently. I do have a friend that's expressing interest in playing again and joining me in IcftB on Zangarmarsh, but I don't need WoW to keep in touch with him, as I see him every day at work.
Wrynna Sep 28th 2010 8:29AM
My husband and I used WoW to keep in touch while we were dating long distance. We founded a guild together with some online friends way back when, and we would get online every night. Sometimes we would hang out with the guild, and other times we would have "WoW dates" for just the two of us- running vanilla content, working on reps, or grinding for rare mounts/pets. It was hard to explain to non-gamers, but it really made a huge difference to us. We are still in the same guild, and now my sister plays, and it's a really good way to keep in touch and "spend time" with her. We might talk on the phone every week or so, but I "see" her in-game all the time. In some ways, it seems even better than a phone conversation, because we're doing more than just "exchanging information" about our individual lives- we're working together, socializing, and really just hanging out. I love it!
Zhaffa Sep 28th 2010 5:57PM
Honestly, when it came down to it, I kinda wanted to meet a girl on WoW, or at least one who played WoW. I knew a few people who met their future spouse on this game, and they had been pretty successful; there's a couple in our guild right now who is doing the long-distance thing, and they visit each other every month or two. Little did I know that the same thing would be happening to me :) I met this girl while doing a Black Temple run a few months ago, and she ended up joining our guild a little bit later. We just got to talking on Vent and everything and we fell in love with each other. I cant imagine my life without her anymore. We talk everyday now, we play together as often as we can. So yes, WoW is a great way to meet people and keep in touch. You'll be surprised at who you meet on there.
Chetti Sep 28th 2010 8:34AM
My best friend got me into the game, and I do use it to keep in touch with her and her mom (who also plays). I moved from Philadelphia to Harrisburg about 5 years ago, and even though I do go to visit her and we use phones and email to stay in touch as well, wow is just another way we can talk and do something fun at the same time. RealID is helpful too because now I can chat with her while I'm leveling alts on another realm or faction. As for my family, there isn't anyone else who plays, at least, as far as I know.
foster.emma95 Sep 28th 2010 8:34AM
My grandpa (yes, grandpa) Lives in NY aand I love in Louisiana, and we never really talked... till WoW =) One day I created my first character (nelf druid) and about 6 mots later, get her to level 80 with the help of my grandpa the human paladin. I remember him running me through stocks, DM, even mauradon and all the way up to Sethekk Halls. Ive found it a great way to get in touch with him and get to know him a bit better, and I love him dearly
Persephanie Sep 28th 2010 10:31AM
I wish my grama (RIP) could have played wow. I miss her dearly -_-. Cherish every moment you have with him. Ya never know how much you miss them till there gone.
As far as playing wow to interact with friends or family I do. My boyfriend of 2 1/2 yrs plays, almost all of our friends play some of his family plays and in fact his cousin met her future fiance on the game. She was very shy in person and had never really showed interest in getting a boyfriend. We assumed she would just stay single, But when she told us of her fiance we realized that wow allowed her to not be so publicly shy. Ive played wow now for maybe 4 yrs and not once has game play harmed my social life. Ive worked, had an apartment, and continued to have a real life as well, all while raiding, lvling to 80 and playing wow alot.
(( Side note: I do not have kids. That makes it alot easier for me to play.. My sister used to live with me and when she had her kid she had to leave wow, and while she lived here my wow time went WAY scarce because i was always helping with the baby. Honestly it drove me NUTS! I love my sister and nephew but I cant help saying im kinda glad there gone. XP ))
Cale Sep 28th 2010 8:35AM
Yes, oh yes! My good friends are dispersed throughout the country and many of them play wow on my server. Between wow and RealID, I often engage with my friends, or at least chat, when otherwise I would only be able to talk to them on the occasional email/phone call or holiday break. And come Cata, I'll be able to hang out with them even more often than I do now. For me, this social aspect of wow is one of the most important aspects of the game.
Now, if I can just get *all* of my friends to play wow and play it on my server, my geek-life will be darn near perfect.
Moorit Sep 28th 2010 9:01AM
Hi Cale!
Yes, we must continue working on getting those last two friends to our server.
And to answer the topic, I also use WoW to keep in touch with old friends, especially my friends from college who dispersed to the four winds after graduation. It's been great to have that social group intact after moving someplace with long winters. I don't have to go outside to socialize!
Therinor Sep 28th 2010 8:40AM
I do have some friends I met through the game, one of them e.g. visited me last summer, and we do chat in game quite a bit, like when waiting for a dungeon or BG. Sometimes, some of us get together and run instances, which is SO much more fun than a PUG as we joke around a lot, try different tactics etc.
Of course I also might send and email or call one of those people, too, but its cool to be able to start a conversation when you happen to be logged in at the same time, so Id say yes, its a way for me to keep in touch with those friends.
Nalume Sep 28th 2010 8:41AM
Oh absolutely! Not so much family, but friends. Our little guild consists of only real life friends from all over the country (our friend circle moved all over the NY tri-state area and also all the way to Cali) so it's fun to hang out together in game, catch up, help each other out, and pick on one another. It's probably the main reason I continue playing.
Darkdust Sep 28th 2010 8:41AM
My brother and I use it, not necessarily to keep in touch, but to have a way to spend time together despite living more than 400 miles apart. We each have families and lives now, but this way we can still spend time together doing something we both enjoy. Just like old times...