Introduction

Hello and welcome to our blog. Anyone that has ever gamed with a wife or girlfriend or ever tried to game while having a wife or girlfriend will be able to relate to this blog as we share our experiences. I’d say that we are both avid gamers. I remember when I got my first Nintendo back in 1987 and spent countless hours playing Zelda. I’ve gone in waves of hot and cold with my games since then and have realized that they will always be in my life.

I didn’t start really gaming while being in a serious relationship until about 2000. I was spending hours upon hours playing EverQuest which drove my girlfriend (now wife) crazy. She hated that game and the time it took that we could have spent together. A couple of years later, I decided to try to get her into the online gaming scene since she had never really experienced it before. I started her with The Sims on my PS2 next to me and then transitioned her into The Sims Online on another computer next to me. Once she was hooked on the online gaming, I got her try EverQuest with me. That grindfest was a nightmare trying to catch her character up to mine, and I spent more time trying to power level her character up to mine than she actually spent playing it. After a few months, we both burned out on that idea, and EverQuest faded away. I tried a few other games afterwards like City of Heroes and Eve but I didn’t enjoy those worlds.

From there we had a brief Halo phase on the then new Xbox Live in our first apartment together after college. She loved that and the time together was enjoyable. She started out filling the walls with holes and moved up to blowing herself up with grenades. After a few months she was a respectable player, definitely a keeper. Around this time, EverQuest 2 was coming out, and the idea of playing an updated version of my beloved first MMO was intriguing. I tried playing it with some of my old EQ buddies, but I just couldn’t get into it. The fact that I still had to group to kill low level bugs was such a turn off.

Some of my other friends were raving about World of Warcraft at the time. My first impressions of the game after playing the EQ games, was that the graphics were too cartoonish. I gave in though and purchased a copy. My first character was a Night Elf Hunter, and it…was…AWESOME! I was hooked immediately. After a few levels, my friend told me to make a Rogue instead, and that became my main character. I was playing a ton and logging on in the mornings before work just to do a quest or two. It felt like everything I had been wanting from an MMO experience.

My wife was curious about the game and was asking questions about it. Then she said those words that changed our lives: “Do you think I would like it?” Oh boy. I told her that I definitely thought she would and that it was nothing like EQ which she was still a little turned off about. The next time we were out, we got her a copy, and she quickly caught me on her Gnome Warlock.

From there we’ve been in casual guilds, created our own guilds, been hardcore raiders, taken breaks, played other MMOs (Warhammer, Age of Conan, probably some others I’m forgetting), and are now back playing casually. We’ve learned a lot about maintaining balance between games and real life and making time for each other as well as our games. And now we’ve decided to share our knowledge and experiences with others. Feel free to comment or ask us questions. We love our games and love talking about them.