Many people are worried when it comes to meeting someone online. I don't blame them, they should be worried with the mass amount of crime and crazy people there are in the world today. You won't catch me meeting someone over some social network or an email. After hearing about all the horrible things that happen to people because of someone through Craigslist or another, it is enough to make anyone fearful. That being said, I have to admit something to you guys...
I have met over 10 different people that I only knew online, in real life. That's a lot for some and I didn't just meet them by chance because they lived down the street. I have met some that were 7 states away from me.
The first time that I met someone from a game was when I was 16. I flew to Michigan, by myself, and spent Thanksgiving Holiday with him and his family. I gotta tell you, it was so much fun and I had never felt so welcome.
A few years later, a friend of mine in World of Warcraft flew to Ohio from California to stay with me and help me get my life together. After staying in Ohio for awhile we decided to move to Tennessee to where his family was and try our hands at a different approach to life.
I then moved to Texas and met the majority of my online gaming friends, friends who I knew back when I lived in Ohio. I actually planned a New Years get together with one of my friends, who is now my fiance, to meet up for the first time and just party. My friend and I drove 5 hours south to Houston and met 3 more people we had never seen before aside from pixels.
Crazy isn't it? I have enjoyed every moment that I had with all of the people that I traveled to meet, and I don't intend to stop there.
That is so dangerous... how could you do it?
Dangerous, yes. I'll tell you how I did it. All of the people mentioned and many more are gamers that I have been talking to for years before I ever intended to meet them. After meeting my friend Lindsey, we would go together to meet new people and we always had back up plans, not that we ever needed them. I am a rather good judge of character and can spot faults in people. Another thing I take into consideration is the requirement to pay for online games like World of Warcraft or Everquest. The subscription tends to weed out a lot of the ill intent that comes from other people. Don't get me wrong, there are many crazy people all over these games. However, I feel it is a safer bet then meeting someone off of a social network.
