For the better part of my dating career I’ve been involved in long-distance relationships. The long distance aspect of the relationship is never fun, but the one that I’m in now seems to have a lot of sticking potential. We survived ten months of me being in Korea through the power of Skype and Google chat and it was far from fun but we got through. So now I’m moving for grad school and he’s moving to a different place for grade school, sticking us with about two more years of long distance.
It is here that the fact this boyfriend used to be a World of Warcraft addict comes in. He has this thing for online games where you get to hit things with swords. This lead him to a game called Spiral Knights, which is free to join and play and filled with enough cuteness he didn’t have any trouble convincing me to join with him. I was sold on Spiral Knights because of the simple way he pitched it “It’s something we can play together, even when we’re on different ends of the country.” So romantic. It sold me on the concept.
I am by no means a gamer. I enjoy a rousing game of Viva Pinata or Katamari Damacy as much as the next person, but the appeal of the online gaming craze has just avoided me. My computer gaming repertoire consists entirely of The Sims 2, and games that involve interacting with other people, people I don’t even know (!), do not sound enjoyable to me.
On a basic review level the game works because it’s complex enough for all those serious gamers to enjoy seriously. At least, I think this is why they play it. It seems to be why Handsome Man Friend likes, and he seems to be a pretty average representation of gamers who function at a fairly high social level. It also works because us casual gamers who just want to spin around with the multi-colored snipes can enjoy that element, along with simple-to-use controls. I figured it all out in about ten minutes, which is impressive because I have been playing the Sims 2 since it was released and am STILL discovering new things about the game (reason number one I will not be moving on to the Sims 3 anytime soon). Handsome Man Friend enjoys making me weapons and armors that he can gift to me in the game so that we can stay at similar levels, and I love having a reason to scream about how much I hate dogs while being attacked by fox-like beasts called ‘wolvers.’ I also enjoy squealing about the cuteness while tiny chameleons and little pink things called ‘spookettes’ try to eat his face. I’ve learned that I work pretty good as a human shield, especially when my shield has an owl on it. I enjoy the whole thing enough that I will actually log-on by myself and run levels, although those stupid foxes usually kill me pretty quickly.
Thanks to cellular technology the two of us are in pretty constant contact, but it’s great to set aside time for this. We hunker down, charge up our cell phones, and then we load up our games, put each other on speaker phone, and beat little ghosty things that throw office chairs at you to a pulp. He talks about all the exciting things he’s learned from actually reading up on how to play the game, and I talk about how I’m still deeply insulted that the leopard gecko screams at me. This usually takes us about an hour and then we finish our run and return to the town so that he can shop for recipes to make new equipment and I can spin with my bird friends.
They say that couples with kids need to make time for just the two of them. Well, we certainly don’t have kids, but it holds true for long distance. We need time for the two of us, real time. It’s so easy to get lost in our days and rely simple on 160 character text messages to say all we need to. It’s just so impersonal to do things that way. We set these little ‘dates’ and are able to talk and do something together that we both enjoy. While I’d much rather be grabbing dinner and a movie with him, it’s impossible when you’re three hundred (soon to be a thousand) miles apart to do those kinds of activities. This works for both of us, and neither of us feels like we’re simply putting up with the other person’s whims. I’ve dissented against both online gaming and advanced technology, but if it gives me face time with Handsome Man Friend, I’m very ok with it… even if that face time isn’t really with him, but with his avatar, which sort of looks like a Thundercat.
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