Wedding Bells

I don't often talk about my real life on here, partially because it tends to be pretty boring, partially because I feel it's not what anyone comes here to read about. That said, today I feel the need to make an exception to the rule in order to mention that I'm getting married today. In fact, this post is scheduled to go live at the time of the start of the ceremony (so don't expect me to reply to any comments right away).

The reason this is relevant to the blog is that the person that I'm getting married to is the man to whom I've playfully referred as my pet tank on here for the last six years or so. I'm thinking that once we're married I should maybe give him a more respectful pseudonym... he's ruled out Mr. Shintar, though my suggestion of Mr. Commando was given the seal of approval tolerance if desired (even though he hasn't played his own Commando alt in years).

To illustrate this post, I asked him to pose for some wedding style in-game screenshots with me. I expect that some of our guildies will be surprised to find out that Topek the Vanguard is a Zabrak, seeing how he usually never takes his helmet off.

I first met him when I joined Twin Suns Squadron at the end of 2012. He was an officer and raid leader, but hadn't actually been in the guild for that long either - it was still a tumultuous time for the game and many guilds were falling apart as player numbers were plummeting, with those that remained merging into other guilds in order to retain their ability to do group content. I think the first time I mentioned him implicitly was in this post about my first ever progression ops run - he was one of the tanks who kept yelling at me for all the things I kept doing wrong, heh!

I got to know him a bit better outside of operations though, specifically by doing a lot of warzones together. He provided me with a guard, which was a new and life-changing experience to me (other PvP healers will be able to relate for sure) and was what earned him the nickname of pet tank. Of course he insisted that it was the other way round, that I was his pet healer, but I was more persistent in my use of the nickname so that my version stuck (plus I've got a blog and he doesn't, so nyah).

Only a month later we were levelling new characters together - should have known that nothing good could come of that much banter! At some point we met up in real life because a convenient occasion arose, and we had a good enough time. As we got closer and closer though, things got complicated as I was actually in a relationship at the time. After a few months of painful emotional confusion, I ended the other relationship - and I can't say I've regretted it since, or we wouldn't be getting married!

Finding love in an MMO isn't that strange these days I think - plenty of people have written about it - but it's still not exactly common either. It makes for a great story to tell other gamers, and for a really weird/confusing story to try to convey to people who have no interest in games whatsoever. ("So you met on, like, an app?") We've had to mostly deal with the latter - so I'm glad that I'm also able to share the story on here, where readers will actually "get it".

It also adds an additional layer of affection for Star Wars: The Old Republic for me personally - because no matter what happens to the game in the far future, it will always remain "our game". Without it we never even would have met. Just another one of the many ways in which games can have a great impact on our lives.

As for any effects on my posting schedule, fear not: real life is actually preventing us from going on a honeymoon right away, as we both have to be back at work on Monday. But hey, there are certainly worse things than having to return to our gaming PCs asap!