Girl Meets Guy - Guy Saves Girl

I don’t often post twice in the same day, but I came across a story that is truly remarkable. I was browsing a couple stories on wow.com (formerly wow insider) and found an article “Breakfast Topic: When your gaming get emotionally charged”. In the comments were many sad stories of people who were treated horribly by other players, most of the time because they were trying something new. In their quest to learn they found other players who had zero tolerance for anything less than perfection (in their minds).

Some may say this is the exception to the rule, that most WoW players are friendly and understanding, but there are more comments on this article than I’ve seen in a very, very long time. Maybe bad behavior is more prevalent than we think? Anyway, that’s not what I want to talk about. On page 5 of the comments (I usually don’t scan past page 1, but so many of the stories related were extremely compelling) there was a story that made me think “Fairy tales still do exist”. Let me relate it here, it was posted by Chrissie C. a.k.a Akamiya of Feathermoon:

The most emotional moment I have ever experienced in WOW was the moment I met him. I was actually thinking about quitting the game after getting to level 41 all by myself with very little social interaction. I was lonely and felt very alienated due to the fact my internet connection was so poor. Then I was invited in a group to help them with quests in Stromgarde, in the Arathi Highlands. Eager and praying an internet DC wouldn't occur I went with them.

It wasn't long before I ran into difficulties. A warrior in the group mocked my hunter for wearing the mageweave clothing set (I was such a noob had no clue I could've worn leather, let alone mail armor since I was lvl 41). The mage mocked my use of a bow and said guns worked better, I simply remarked that I liked the bow better with my night elf. For some reason an elf with a gun did't seem to strike a chord with me. The only member of the group that didn't say a word was a dwarf paladin, named Mcallen, who instead of saying stuff in group chat, quietly whispered 'your very new to this aren't u?'.

It wasn't long before we were striking up a conversation and all the ogres started charging the lower lvl players in the group. The mage didn't know how to aoe damage and the tank just ran around in circles while the ogres continued to beat down on the paladin. I sent my wolf in to help him wittle down the ogres health until finally they were gone. Frustrated we didn't complete the guests, the group disbanded, leaving me alone and very lost inside Stromgarde.

Just when I was about to die the second time trying to retrieve my body from that wretched place a bright glowing sphere enveloped me and I saw the paladin charging into the mob that was fervently attacking my wolf Tsubasa. After a scary few moments, and several bandages later, he led me out of that hell and onto the road. I couldn't thank him enough and apologized for being such a noob and that I was quitting. He asked me to stay and follow him.

We flew all the way back to Darnassus where I trained for the very first time, learned about my talent points, bought my very first tiger mount which I promptly fell in love with, and the paladin upgraded all my armor to mail making me look quite formiddable. He asked me to stay and come back on tomorrow night so we could talk some more and hang out. I was so touched by this act of kindness that what became one night quickly became everyday. Soon we were talking whenever we had time over the Internet on AIM or Skype. After a month or two the friendship quickly blossomed into a long distance romance.

Six months later after meeting Mcallen a.k.a Timothy for the first time, visiting his home in La Verne, California, and staying with me for a month he proposed to me at his parent’s home in Colorado Springs. We are now getting married this year on the island of Kauai, Hawaii on the very day we met in person for the first time. If I had quit that night, I would've missed out on meeting the wonderful human being I am marrying in just a few months. So you could say I am jumping for joy and the happiest I have ever been in my entire life!

This may make me look like a softie, but I don’t care. My wife fell in love with me because I wrote poetry and sang to her. I think this is a wonderful story that should be shared with more people. Now I know I don’t have the following of wow.com, but who’s going to wade through pages and pages of comments to read this story?

I certainly don’t think that people regularly find their soul mates playing computer games, which makes this story even more remarkable. But a lesson that I take out of this is when you find yourself in a group where everyone seems to be picking on one person, giving them grief for whatever reason, you – the individual and one singular person – have great power to influence the life of the oppressed.

It only takes a little whisper “hey, don’t listen to those idiots…I’d like to help you, would you have a few minutes after the run to talk?” Anything will do, any phrase or words of understanding and encouragement may be the one thing that can change a person’s desire to play this game that you and I love so much. And in the case of Chrissie, it may even alter the entire life of that one person you were kind to. Try it, just once, and tell me that it made you feel like a worse person for doing so. I dare you!

Good luck, Chrissie, wherever you are, to you and your fiancé. May the stars shine on you and guide your way.