Virtual meets real

Online gaming is asocial!!! Whoever says that is definitely wrong. And I am not just saying that…I have real proof. My virtual online experience became a social reality.

I have been playing Destiny and Destiny 2 now for the last 2 (or is it already three) years and joined an online Clan, called the Belgium Lunatics. With my clan members, my virtual friends circle has grown, and I shared joyful and frustrating moments with them, going through challenge after challenge, fighting bosses in PvP and other players in PvE.

But, all this time, those voices were only virtual friends, with an icon attached to their names. Of course, I knew their real names after befriending them, and instead of their nicknames/aliases, I greet them by their given names when we meet online.

Yesterday, this changed and the virtuality became real. The clan leaders had arranged a new years drink in a local pub and invited all the clan members to join for a drink and a good time.

And suddenly, the virtual voices and the virtual faces, that my imagination had attached to them, were replaced with the real people and real faces and bodies. It was a surprising and exciting experience, to finally meet with my online friends after 2–3 years of playing with them.

I have to admit, my imagination did not come close, at all, to the reality of my Belgium Lunatics friends. And I can definitely say that online gamers are not just nerds, hugging their controller and eating pizza. They are people with friends, girl/boy-friends, wives and kids, that like to be social as much as any of us.