Have you ever met an online friend?

[Pink Panda]

I did about 6 years ago. A good friend from a wow guild. I was nervous at first but he was as cool as he seemed online. He did use the arrow keys to move his toon though. Still healed awesome.

Anyone else have stories they want to share?

[Deleted]

u dated a clicker? shame on you

[Deleted]

No, but i'm not opposed to the idea.

Granted most of the people i'd consider that i'm on friendly terms with are horribly shy... I'd be frustrated a little meeting them for a drink

[PuppetShowJustice]

Is it 1999?

People meet up from the internet all the time. Lots of websites and online communities have meet-ups. I have ended up dating guild members from FFXI way back when. Some of my best friends are people that I met initially online back in the days of AOL and such.

[Crissi]

I met obdigore!

also a few WoW guildies a few years ago

theres a few people here I wouldnt mind meeting too.

[wfredlund]

I have once. A guy that I raided with for a long time. We had a lot in common. Sports, music, food. He came out for Blizzcon and I couldn't so so we met up half way and got lunch.

[poser765]

Sure. I was involved in a Myst community on AOL way back in the day. met a couple people from there. Met a guy I played Falcon 4 online with. Met a couple of people I played SWG with. Also met my wife online.

[Tradewind]

Yes. The WoW ones, were weird. But the old Team Fortress ones, totally fun and they were all normal people with wives/husbands/kids/jobs etc. Most of us all lived in the same city anyway, so it was actually rather frequent.

[Aqueous]

My first girlfriend I met via an online forum.

My second girlfriend I met through WoW. Played Druid, always a good sign

I've also met two friends from online in the flesh and continue to on a regular basis now.

So yep.

[Cruxial]

I haven't but I talk to some old WoW friends all the time and often talk about meeting up, some of us live only 2-3 hours away from each other. I dated a girl on WoW for some time, it was odd but pretty awesome lol

[BHD]

Back in wrath I joined a guild with an IRL friend. My friend knew one of the two GMs since earlier and I really hit it off with those two. Played together for about two years and then I flew over to meet them (they met through wow, recently got twins!), had a blast hanging out with them for a week. They came down to Liseberg (theme park in Sweden, they're from Norway) so I tagged along for that too. Great people, but due to getting kids they're not really that active gaming-wise anymore.

I'll probably head back to Norway to see them again in the near future

[cFortyfive]

Plenty. A lot of the people I played cs with are still good friends.

[Xargoth6634]

I've met a couple of people from WoW and a few others from a MUD I used to play. Really great experiences all around.

[Tziva]

Yes, too many to count. I've met a number of people from IAM/BME, World of Warcraft, Fark, MMO-C, and other online communities. Many have ended up as close real life friends.

One of my best "real life" friends was someone I meant on an AOL forum back in '97ish. I actually made a number of friends through that forum that I meant in person at some point, and a handful I still correspond with today. Aforementioned good friend is someone I see a couple times a month nowadays for various shenanigans.

I didn't meet my spouse online but through a mutual friend that we both had meant in an online community.

I still go to a local BME[zine] BBQ annually, even though I think very few of us are still active on the site. I think this year was like... the 14th consecutive year.

So, yeah, yes. A lot.

[Osoroshii]

I had a girl I knew from IRC show up on my doorstep one evening, completely unannounced. It was a bit creepy; she had driven from Oklahoma to Tennessee to see me and hadn't said a word about her plans, and I had never even given her my address. Yeah...

More recently, a guild member a friend and I used to run around with expressed an interest in coming to visit us; she had been in the army, had come home fairly recently, and all her friends had moved away, leaving her with virtually no one she knew other than people online. Since the three of us ran instances and raids together all the time and talked on vent and she was only a few hours away geographically, she wanted to come down and hang out one weekend.

My other friend urged me to not come around while she was in town because he thought he was going to get lucky; he was completely convinced she was coming to town purely to see and screw him (he has a very disturbing history of thinking any woman that speaks to him wants him). Even though I had serious doubts based on his track record, I obliged and stayed away during her visit, but she called several times asking where I was and why I seemed to be avoiding her, which forced me to lie and say things like "I'm feeling sick" or "something came up."

After she went home, we were talking over vent one night long after Don Juan Dumbass had went to bed and out of curiosity, I asked if anything had happened between them. Conversation went like...

"No, why?"
"...no reason."
"I wish you'd been able to come hang out with us; this trip was supposed to be for the three of us to goof off like we do in wow. You're coming with him to visit me in a couple of months and we can try again, right? I want to show you guys around my hometown."
"Visit you? Uh...I have not been informed of this."
"He was supposed to tell you for me...he must have forgot."
"...yeah, he 'forgot.' Sure."

So yeah, long conversation with my friend about his "memory lapse" and it was agreed that in a couple of months, we'd both come and visit her for a couple of days. My friend says he'll make the reservations for us both and I make the mistake of trusting him. About two weeks out from the trip I ask if he's made the reservations yet and how much it'll cost me, and he begs me not to go...again; turns out he's still convinced this girl doesn't want to be friends, she just wants the D. We argue, I can't make him listen to reason, and I give up and say "fine, go. Whatever."

The first night he's gone, I'm farting around on wow and see our friend logged on. With our vent server down, we do the text chat thing for a bit and I mention I'm surprised to see her on since numbnuts is visiting. I ask if he's retired to his hotel for the night.

"No, he's right here, in the floor, asleep. Turns out the hotel 'lost' his reservations and he begged me to let him stay here."
"...of course he did. Look, time to come clean; I didn't hang out when you visited because he begged me not to, and he did that because he was convinced you wanted him. He begged me not to come on this trip for the same reason. I don't know if there's something more between you two or not, but you should be warned that he apparently thinks there is."
"There's not, and I've pretty much figured all that out; he's been acting really weird and creepy all day. I'm not comfortable with this. I've already had to tell him I'm not interested in him like that, but I don't think he believes or understands me."

So yeah...shortly after that trip, she just severed all ties with both of us in-game; moved to a new guild, would not speak with either of us... I guess I'm guilty by association.

[Notdev]

I met some of my brother's IRL friends that I met through the game first. That doesn't really count though.
I also met our guild's holy pally when me and my IRL friend who also raided with us were in his town for a wedding. Wasn't awkward at all. Though he was high.

[Deleted]

Loads. On different continents, even. It's rather odd when I think about just how much of my sex life I owe to the internet.

[Shakadam]

Yes, I've met a friend a few times who started out as a WoW guildie. I live in Finland and he lives in Netherlands so it's a bit of a distance.

[WskyDK]

I met some Vanilla-WoW guildies at the start of Wrath.
Pair of brothers and sisters.

[drwelfare]

No, well I also seem to have no friends.