......But at Night I Deal Death

I'm an introvert.

That may not be the best way to describe my personality but it's probably the easiest way.

Anyone who knows me outside of my family would probably never use this word to define me. In groups of people I tend to either be a complete wallflower or insanely over the top. But left on my own I would rather not be around people.

I am a gamer.

In high school my best friend Jeff and I would head to the arcade during lunch and many times wouldn't make it back till last class.

Later in life my brother in law and I would burn entire days playing video NFL 2k 4-6 and Halo.

Games were a way for me to develop friendships.

When Nikki was born I found that I had a ton of free time between late night feedings. And taking care of Nikki and then later Jessie during the late night, early morning hours became pretty much my responsibility, This was partly due to the fact that I really wanted my wife to get a full nights sleep as she worked all day but also she is a complete grouch if she has to get up in the middle of the night. So I found myself staying up till 2am pretty much every night killing brain cell after brain cell in front of the tv.

Then one day a few months after Jessie was born I discovered Guild Wars.

Not to get too technical but Guild Wars is an online game (similar to World of Warcaft which some of you may have heard about). The simplest way to describe it is that your character goes on quests killing monsters and collecting gold, new weapons and armor. The backbone of the game is that you do all this with groups of other people. These groups are called guilds and every guild has it's own name, hall and capes. So this defines the game.

But the truly great thing about this, especially for me is that when you have the same group of people hanging out, sharing a common interest, you tend become friends.

As hard as it may be for those who haven't experienced this, the people I have met and played with online have been as close to me as anyone I have met face to face. I think the reason for this is pretty simple. Online you only have to care about someone if and when you want to.

Through my Guild I have become friends with people who live all over the world. I can get online right now and talk to people in Canada, Sweden, Mexico, The UK, Australia, Thailand, New York, Georgia, Washington, California, Illinois, Florida and a dozen other places. As a group of friends we have been each others support through divorces, births, deaths, illnesses of loved ones, lovers quarrels, graduations, and going off to fight in Iraq. Killing the big bads takes a back seat on most nights. We prefer telling dirty jokes and relaying all the cute things our children did that day.

My online friends have been a huge source of support through this separation/divorce. Most of the comments left on this blog are from them. 75% of the emails I receive are from them asking if I'm ok or if I need to talk. They are there for me because they care about me. I never thought that when I spent the $40 bucks to buy this game 3 years ago that it would give me so much. I would do anything for these people and I have no doubt that that would do the same for me and my girls.

TEC..... /bow