Anonymous #1 said:

Wow, #18... time to stop using drugs for awhile.

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Anonymous #1 said:

Wow, #18... time to stop using drugs for awhile.

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Anonymous #1 said:

I've been playing a text based roleplaying game for almost 20 years. I started playing when I was only 11 or 12 and most players thought I was much older. I've always been a very well read person, mature beyond my years, and many people were surprised when they found out (a decade later) that I was so young when I started playing the game. Some of these people now have children that are the age I was when I started playing, or older.

Around the age of 18, I married a woman in game, who to this day I knew very little of. This is an *extremely* heavy roleplaying game. You can get banned for speaking "out of character". You're only allowed a few OOC whispers per month.

When I log in, I am no longer Anon#1. I am my character.

I've lead a normal life outside of playing a game for a majority of my life... college, post-grad, work a normal 9-5 and have a wife. She knows of the game and has no problem since none of it is real. I'm not flying to, I dunno, Colorado 'on business' every few months, you know?

I've never met my in-game wife in real life. We don't email, facebook, message, send pics of each other, etc. In a way, we're strangers.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have feelings for her, but it's more that my character does. Her projection of herself has been a major influence on me my whole life.

I understand there is a person on the other end, but Anon#1 and Wife have never spoken Out Of Character (OOC) to each other more than a dozen times the last twelve years.

We've had children in the game, we've raised a family, own a home, have lifelong friends, everything. It's a completely separate reality.

Until I found out the other day in her first OOC whisper in years: "Anon#1, sorry for OOC but I'm dying. If I don't get a heart transplant I'll be gone within a month."


I don't know what to do. Do I go see her? I don't even know what she looks like. If she doesn't get her transplant do I go to the funeral? Does she have a husband, kids, family?

I'm crushed that a person is dying. It makes me wish over all these years that we stepped out of character and got to know each other. She doesn't know things like the sports I played in high school and college, hobbies, where I live, what I do for work, or anything else going on in my life. Likewise, I don't know what she does in real life -- if he has kids, what she does for a living, anything at all.

I'm still stunned by all of this. I know this is all confusing to people who haven't "become" a different person and lived that character's life.

I'm just... stunned. Someone who has played a major role in most of my adult life is dying but I don't even truly know her.

I don't know what the fuck to do. She's hardly been playing lately, she's gotta be depressed, she's dealing with end-of-life stuff and could be going through it all alone, I have no way to contact her unless she's in game.

She's going to fucking die and I'm never going to get to say goodbye the REAL WAY.


I realize now that I never even got to say hello


I never thought I'd be in this situation in my life. I really don't care if people want to troll. I just need somewhere to get this out, and it doesn't bother me if nobody responds.

What the fuck

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Anonymous #27 said:

Can't you just type electronic postal me, here's my book of face, etc etc
Number on front of my siding is 543 on lilac, chi town, state of lincoln 54987...

???

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Anonymous #18 said:

Are the mods of this game like deathly afraid that if people on this game actually talk to each other out of character that they might meet up in person and never play the game ever again or something

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At $100/mo per character and paid events (festivals, merchants, etc) for custom verbs, items, homes, furnishings, rooms that you can create/edit, pets, &c. at $50 each...

I wouldn't want to lose that kind of business.

It's hard to understand if you don't play these kinds of games and it may seem like a lot of money. Yet, I've seen people post they've spent $150 a day on heroin.



I'm starting to get really worried. I left a piece of wax-sealed parchment in our mailbox (the one in front of our home) since she is the one who always checks the mail. It's piling up and mine is still in there (flagged to be on top of everything else).

I'm thinking the worst...

Anonymous #29 said:

best of luck

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Thank you so much.