I have been playing World of Warcraft for 10 years now and it's become a very important part of my life.  It's more than just a game played for fun - it is an entire social experience!  I have made friends in the game from all over the globe.  Some have come and gone, but many are still a part of my life to this day.  And while that may seem a skeptical claim, I'm not the only one who feels this way.

 

I first began raiding when I was 13 - about a year after I had begun playing.  When I began, end-game raiding required a group of 40 players raiding on a regular schedule, all coordinating with each other.  Often times, there would be designated members in charge of coordinating with other players in the same class/role.  If you only had one raid leader attempting to coordinate 40 people, the raid would have fallen apart.

 

Back when I did my first 40-man raid ever, I remember how excited I felt just to be there.  Raiding this particular raid felt like a secret club and I had been worthy enough to receive an invitation.  I remember being surrounded by 39 other players and feeling real, palpable nerves that I wouldn't be up for the challenge; that I might make some mistake or another and get kicked out.  (Thankfully, that never happened!)

 

I also remember how comfortable I felt socially, despite the age difference between myself and the others.  There I was, a teenager, hanging out with 20-and-30 something year-olds and I felt right at home.  Sure, some of what they said was mature and went over my heard, but there was a distinct lack of awkwardness that one might have expected from such an experience.  Behind the computer, it didn't matter how old we all were or what we did for a living or what school we went to - the only element that mattered was that we were all coming together and doing something we loved to do: play the game.

 

I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. that first raid - later than I'd ever stayed up playing the game - and the next morning, one of the first things I did was tell my best friend aboout everything that happened.  I told him how cool it was to just be there; how staying up that late didn't even register; and especially how much fun I had and how funny I found the rest of the raid team to be.

 

It's hard to accurately relay how it has felt to play this game for so many years, with so many people to someone who has never played.  It becomes increasingly difficult when you account for the fact that gaming has a tendency to be stigmatized - why play a game when you could see people face-to-face? Why don't you go out and socialize?  Don't you have any real friends?

 

To me, though, this is real and this is social.  And it is important to me that, as eSports become more and more popular, people begin to realize that there's more to all of this than just nerds sitting in front of a computer screen.  This is who we are, it's how to have fun, and, at times, it can be some of the most meaningful or memorable interactions possible.

 

And I'm not the only one who feels this way!