Have you made in-game friends that you've met in the real world?

I actually have made a few friends that I’ve met in real life.  A couple have played various other games with me as we moved from game to game.  As well, one of them has become a great friend and we have taken turns over the years going to visit each other.  I went and helped him prepare his new house when his wife was pregnant with their first child.

The majority of these friends I’ve met in real life have been friends I met years ago playing Counter Strike and/or Condition zero back in those days.

I’ve made friends in WoW over the years I played that, and have played with them in other games, like (I’m ashamed to admit) SW:TOR, but I haven’t met any of those friends in real life like I have from the days of the FPS games I’ve played.

Of course, in CS, I was a clan leader and it helped to create those same sorts of relationships you can create with guilds in the MMO worlds.

I actually started a Web Design business with an online friend from WoW and we shared a house for about a year. The business has taken a bit more of a back seat now but he is still one of my best friends IRL.

I also am part of a GW2 Guild known as Somnium and we hold meet ups. Two have happened so far and I have met about 6 or 7 members of the guild from all across the country. One of them has become a very close friend too.

My husband and I met our (then future) best man while playing Guild Wars. FTR, we live in Quebec, so while going from end to end could take you about 12 hours, we are a smallish community in MMO worlds, since most of us speak French and live in North American time zones. It means that everyone knows everyone at least by handle and organizing meetups is more about availability than distance.

Again, I’m another that can say *Yes* to
this. I’ve been a long time player of WoW and over its course I’ve been in
numerous guilds, but from those various guilds I’ve gained many people that I
can more than happily call *friend*. Just this year gone, one of my previous
guilds that I have always kept in touch with, had a guild BBQ at the guild
leaders home in sunny Cornwall (UK for those that don’t know their geography).
The guild itself consists of members from all over Europe and had a turnout of
about 15 or so from Norway, Belgium and Germany. Alas, I could not make it, I
was in Finland at the time visiting my girlfriend, whom although we did not
meet directly in WoW, we have always played WoW together when we were both
interested in it and have used it more recently as a form of social interaction
with each other after she moved from the UK back to Finland to finish her PhD
studies.

Another guild of mine also this summer headed to another part of Finland for a
guild “holiday” meet up – spending a week in a Finnish holiday villa
that one of the members kindly donated – again with a turnout of people from
the UK, Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Being a gamer for so long, I have to say that WoW has been the only game that
I’ve taken such strides to meet the people I play with. No other multiplayer
game has provided that sort of drive. Perhaps its because WoW and MMO’s are
games that have the most social interaction. You work together with these
people as a team, you play alongside them on a regular basis and essentially
you are all tied together by your server and its community. Its not as if you
log off one day and its a completely new set of people. They are constant
throughout your time playing and something that makes it so enjoyable.
Looking at games like CoD, Tribes, MW3, there isn’t that personality provided
by players. People go into the game and often log straight into a different
server after the game they were in has finished. You never get the chance to
get to know the people, they are simply running and gunning avatars that are
obstacles in the way of victory.

Nope

I live in Florida and I’ve travelled as far as Canada to meet friends I’ve met in WoW.

I’ve met a few good friends of mine through WoW and as embarrassing as it is one of my girlfriends, I met in WoW as well and we dated for almost 2 years, we’re no longer together and I don’t think I would do it again. 

I’ve not actually met anyone from WoW (That I did not know before I started playing) But I have met people through social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace through the app games they have on there. I am not against meeting anyone who I game with it becomes more of an issue of location.

I play on a US Pacific server but I am located in the Eastern timezone so without traveling across country to meet I don’t forsee this happening anytime soon. However I do have some great friends I’ve met online by gaming.

I hang out in a TeamSpeak server with people I rarely play games with. They mostly all play LoL, DOTA 2, or StarCraft 2. I don’t even play RTS-type games. I just hang out cause we’ve been e-buddies for so long. Met them in WC3FT and EQEmu. I was recently robbed, and they took some of my crucial gaming equipment like my Razer Naga and my wireless headset. These guys all chipped in and got me new stuff! People I met online!!! I will visit NJ as my first time in the US, soon™.

I also recently switched back to Horde because of old friends from my best time in WoW came back to the game. We were just a good bunch of buddies on an incredibly BAD and low pop server having as much fun as possible. Sometimes, you really find the best kind in the most unlikely places!

I started playing Everquest in 1999 and formed strong relationships with the people I played with. We of course had a guild and such. We all played EQ together for about six years before many of us either got too busy IRL or moved to more “casual” games like WoW. 

One of my best friends made during that time lived in England. We had always talked about meeting up “at some point”, but I live in Michigan and it isn’t super cheap to make that flight either way. Due to a fortunate trip for work I finally got to meet up with him in Greenwich a little more than a year ago. 

It was a blast and I hope we can do it sometime again. Maybe this time without me trying to keep drinking pace with a Englishman. 

Met my wife in FFXI, and 1/2 of the wedding guests were actually friends from our Linkshell (Guild) from the game.  Some of which traveled half way across the states to attend.  A few we’ve met up with again from time to time.

I have not met any of my in-game friends IRL however we do a lot of stuff outside the game.  Foundation guild is mostly a guild of writers and novelists, so we read and edit one another’s work and chat off the game in instant messengers and voip.  We fully plan on meeting one another someday though!  Probably at PAX.

I have met some from WoW and GW2 (my irl friend invited me to guild, I knew him before GW2) I’m old gamer so we played mostly with ppl from same neighborhood, couch co-op, vs or in internet cafe :> (Don’t know if you call it in english)

i had a guild meeting where i have met most of my guildies, we were a team for around 3 years and around all cataclysm we broke apart, i am not playing wow since then but i still follow gamebreaker and tankspot videos and news little less since… i wonder if it a therapy for my wow addiction… 

There is a group of people from my guild in LoTRO who I would consider “couch friends”, as in, if they were passing through I’d let them crash on my couch. I’ve met one of these in real life before, though that was mostly by chance as he was only in my city visiting his girlfriend who was only passing through herself. Then there are a number of people from my WoW guild who I’d be up for meeting at a convention or something, but I don’t think I’d make a special trip just to see them.

The Gentleman that was the Justice of the Peace for my wife and I’s wedding was someone we met while playing WoW. We raided with him for roughly four years and became great friends. Met him a couple times prior when he was in our area visiting family.

Well that explains why you are learning Swedish.

I have met a few people that I’m met through WoW; two who live relatively close to me and a bunch who I met up with at the last Blizzcon.

I met the love of my life in a classic raid. We were both healers in a raidgroup doing BWL. She was from Germany and I lived in Austria. Today we are a couple for 7 years and married for two. We both live together in Austria and still play the game (though not as intensive^^).

I would! I haven’t done so yet, but I’ve gotten somewhat closer than normal with some lovely people.

Not lately. I have one MMO friend that I have met in RL but that’s because I used to work with him and we met before we both knew we played MMOs. The only people I have net online in game and then met them irl was way back in the early 90s playing pen and paper WoD games run in chats. 

In my past 10 years of playing MMO’s, I have met people from my guilds many times. There have been times of casual get togethers in my area, being a couple people crashing at friends house, as well as group get togethers for extended long weekends. I personally have driven 4,000 miles over the course of two weeks to meet various people (Boston to Philadelphia, to Savannah, to Miami, to Atlanta, to Clevelend, then home to Boston). I went to my guild leaders wedding in May 2009. I recently put together an event for my most recent GW2 guild Arcanix to meet up at a Foxwoods in CT, where we had people fly from Arizona and Florida. I’ll include a picture of our last breakfast together before we split. 

These are the reasons I keep coming back to MMO’s. The reason I helped with a podcast of our own. The reason I still help with a community website. These people may be “friends from the internet”, but there is always something special about these friends. Conquering feats that seemed impossible at one point. Sharing moments that no one else from RL would quite understand to it’s full extent. That’s why these bonds grow so strongly. The time you put into your MMO’s is also the time you put into growing with these people. these friends. That’s what makes them a bit different than any other friends you have. 

This is a great Chat Bubble Olivia!  I love reading how everyone has met people from their games.  Here is my story.  

  I started playing WoW about 7 years ago after I told my little brother(he was 20 at the time) that paying a monthly sub was stupid. “Why would anyone want to keep buying a game over and over”. He gave me a 10 day trial and my wife and I have been hooked since. Back then he had started a guild with a real life friend to which we are still a part of. Every year a bunch oif us(which ever ones can afford to) all meet in Atlantic City for some fun in the spring.  Then in the summer we get together again.  One year in Philly and the next at our house here in Ontario Canada.  Wew have guildies from BC to Cali to Texas, all over. I really consider these people to be some of my best friends because I do talk to them almost every day. We have been trying to hook one guildie from Sacramento up with another in Connecticut but they say it is to far. 

  Anyway. that is my story. I think relationships with the people you play with is a good thing. It keeps it almost “real life” so to say and keeps you knowing that there is a life after WoW.

It completely depends on how you play a game. I’ve met a few people IRL from CS 1.6.
MMORPGs are generally played very socially, so it’s easier to find/meet people.

I met someone over Xbox Live who lived in Holland (I live in England) and we used to play Halo, Borderlands, Saints Row ect almost every day. 3 years later he took a ferry over here and stayed at my house where we then went to Global Gathering music festival in the summer. Was epic! That’s not all, my Dad plays Xbox A LOT, Call of Duty constantly, and he met a group of guys that lived down in Bristol. They all knew each other IRL already and some were related but now they have become family friends. Even my Mum and their wives are all friends! Amazing really.

Yes I have !

I stopped playing Everquest in late 2008. Since that time, I have continued talking with one of my EQ buddies on the phone once or twice per month. We have a group get-together every year in August which includes 8-10 of our old guildees in drunken debauchery. I stay in fairly close contact with the remainder of my guildees via Facebook (although we no longer game together).

this pertains to my other post..my first wife left me for someone on second life..then I met my second wife in second life. crazy shit happen in SL