Life as an online gamer.

MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game is very popular in our generation. Online gaming is not just for kids, professionals are also engaged in online gaming. It does not only involve one player but an interaction among players of different kinds from different places. With this, people get to know more and more people across the globe. Some players cannot stay long as an online gamer but most of them are playing for years now.

I for one is an example of an online gamer. I started playing MMORPG last December 2004 when I encountered this game called Khan Online. I became curious about this game because I used to play Diablo 2 and the names of the different characters are somehow related with each other. I only plan to play Khan Online as my past time not knowing that I will encounter really nice people online. Early 2005 I became close with some people whom I can only talk to only when I'm online. I then enjoyed playing not only because of the game but also because of the people I met online. Because of these people, I learned a lot of things online, even how to use Yahoo Messenger. Months passed by then we planned to have an eyeball. That was the very first time that I will experience that and felt excited and nervous during those times. Then we had EB regularly and we always met new one everytime. We got along very well and have been playing Khan Online for quite long until some inevitable things happened and we tried a new game called Perfect World Online.

I thought that my experiences with the people I met because of Khan Online was already the best but with Perfect World Online it was way too good than before. With this game, those whom I played with before also transferred and we got to meet a lot of new faces. And with those people, my online gaming experience became very very nice and they became part of my social life. I do not go to bars as my way of socializing with other people. Instead, we had regular EB and we eat outside, watch movies, attend birthday parties and a lot more. They have been my family here at Manila since I am living alone because of studying in college. Online gaming for me is not just for playing the game itself. What I value more are the friends I met and they are not just friends online, but real friends in real life too. Maybe that is why when I try other online games I do not last long on that game because my friends are playing other online game.

Involving in such made some difference in my life as a student. Because I am very lucky to have groupmates who do not have vices and are really serious in studies, I do not have problems in studying. We study as a group, discuss things as a group and helped each other a lot. The only difference we had is outside school. Outside school, what they do is that they go to the mall to shop (most of the time to window shop), watch concerts or just stand by on a coffee shop while talking about their experiences in life. But for me, outside school is my life as an online gamer. The people I am with are those with the same interest like me in playing online games particularly Perfect World Online. Sometimes my groupmates would wonder what am I doing because they cannot relate with me. That was quite uneasy at first, but the good thing is that my girlfriend became an online gamer too not because that she's addicted to online games but because of the society I got involved with. We now had the same interest and we never ran out of things to talk about.

Even though I am an online gamer, I managed to finish my college degree without any problem compared to those who failed some subjects. I think I'm lucky with the people I met along the way because I never got involved in anything that will ruin my life. And with that, I want to thank everybody because I managed to have a good academic life as well as social life. There is balance between work and play which I believe everybody should have.