• MacedWindow@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    It can be easier to open up to UltimateTrollWarrior95 than to someone you know irl who has expsctations for how you should act and show your emotions. I once had a deep conversation about life with some rando on Town of Salem.

    • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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      11 months ago

      I once played 3 hours of modern warfare 2 with the same group back in the day, just because some guy was pouring out his life story and how much life sucked for him around the time. He sent me a quick “thanks for letting me rant” message and I didn’t hear from him again for years.

      Then out of the blue I get a message that’s basically a letter, and it’s all about how life was difficult but some random person taking the time to listen without judgment made all the difference for his plans that night.

      So I will never cut someone off to tell them I don’t have time to listen to their problems, or pull out my phone to play a game, get annoyed with someone who won’t stop talking, whatever… Sometimes all a person needs is someone to listen.

      • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yup I remember going through a phase where it was like “I don’t have time for this person’s jabber” and it would annoy me that they wouldn’t get to the point.

        Meanwhile I could find all the time in the day to do meaningless things to take up my time like playing a game. Which is totally self serving.

        Then I realized this was a me problem. Not a them problem.

        I really hate who I was back then. Now some of my relatives do jabber on but it’s totally ok. I make space for that now cuz jabbering is part of relationships and that’s how some people communicate and listening is a part of healthy interaction.

    • The Picard Maneuver@startrek.websiteOPM
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      11 months ago

      That’s sort of the design of therapy: a neutral 3rd party who you can open up to without the usual conversational rules.

      Except you probably don’t call your therapist “UltimateTrollWarrior” (or maybe you do, I don’t know your life).

      • EatYouWell@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Except an internet stranger can’t send you to the grippy socks hospital if you say the wrong thing.

          • EatYouWell@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Yes it is. Your therapist can absolutely put you in an emergency medical hold if you talk to them about thoughts of suicide. It’s happened to thousands, if not millions of people.

            • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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              11 months ago

              Only if they think you’re an immediate threat to yourself or others.

              I talked about suicide a lot in therapy.

    • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      Exactly why therapy is so useful.

      I could never tell my family and friends part of me hated them because their love guilted me into not killing myself.

      • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Oh man! I tried that game and literally the first 15 minutes was some asshat talking over everyone and getting upset nobody was listening to him.

        Uncertain if the game sucks or people suck. But I uninstalled so fast.

  • Vespair@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Admittedly I was in my very early 20s, not a teen, but I legitimately helped* a woman through her divorce on WoW and then once they separated drove 3 states away to have the best sex of my entire life.

    Great memories.

    Edit to add asterisk: by “helped” I just mean provided a necessary shoulder and ear; obviously I did not provide advice on a relationship I was very much not a part of

  • MuhammadJesusGaySex@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I used to run a very successful server for BioWare Neverwinter Nights back in the early 2000s. A guy started playing on there when he was 15 and met a married woman in her 30s. She got divorced and a few days after he turned 18 he flew out to meet her.

    They got married about 12 or 13 years ago. I was the best man, and they are still married. I talk to them daily and usually see them weekly. It happens.

  • MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    For a while in early WotLK, I sometimes did dungeons with a lady whose husband was on active duty, and she was always halfway into a box of wine. She really liked to share.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I typically avoid multiplayer games because I’m just interested in doing my own thing.

      But sometimes, it’s fun to just goof off with strangers, especially ones venting their hearts out to strangers on the Internet. Kinda like a radio talk show but with just 3-4 people.

      • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I want to experience that some day. Maybe I’ll be the one oversharing once I get my own box of wine and my husband is overseas.

  • dlok@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I remember talking to a woman on the internet back in my teens (14-15 ISH) who I considered ancient

    I’m now that age lol

  • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    a little while ago a kid and I talked lenghthily on Rocket League. We hit it off pretty good in-game, good team. He vented about one issue and it led us into a conversation about neurodivergence. I hope he’s alright

    • ExtraMedicated@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      And I always got stuck with the kid singing along to the shitty music he’s playing at full volume in the background.

  • time_fo_that@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I had a “gf” in Runescape when I was 12. She was like 30, and married or had a boyfriend.

    Shit was wild back then. I’m also gay so this didn’t make much sense for me anyways 😂

  • Zoidsberg@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    At the height of World of Warcraft, a coworker of my mom’s moved from Vancouver to the southern US to live with a guy she had only ever talked to in WoW. Things were not as promised when she got down there. She eventually moved back.

    • Vespair@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Before WoW I played Ultima Online, and the co-GMs of my UO guild were a couple that had only met online. About 6 months after I started playing, they had an in-game marriage, and then about 6 months later both moved to Las Vegas to buy a house together (I think they’d met in person once by this point). Under a year later, they were married in real life too. Last I heard, they were still together.

      If you’re out there Ramirez and Azizza, I hope you’re still happy.

      Post-internet life is a weird place.

      • teejay@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        RAMIREZ! Go to burger town and meet someone online and then get married in real life! Ramirez, live happily ever after!

        • whollyrolypoly@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I see your contextless non-sequitur CoD:MW2 campaign reference in a reply-to-a-reply 15 comments down on this thread. I like to think we all have a tiny Keith David sitting on our shoulder, yelling at us to live our dreams.

          • teejay@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I feel so seen!

            If I made a few people get minor PTSD from that level and hear his voice in their head for a moment, I’m happy.

  • Femcowboy@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    13 year old me being helped through my parents shouting matches by a disabled couple who spent their whole day managing the guild I was in.