Guild Wars 2 Friend/Ships Event Winners Announced

Developers of Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet, celebrated the power of gaming to bring people together with their Friend/Ships event, asking people to share stories of their online friendships forged in Guild Wars 2, and now the winners of that contest have been announced.

The winners will receive discount merchandise codes, a commissioned portrait of one of their in-game characters and a trip to the ArenaNet studio in Seattle.

Congratulations to the winners! For the official announcement of the contest winners, check the Guild Wars 2 News Post Here.

Some of my closest friends are people I have never met.

Not long ago, proclaiming something like that would have gained me nothing but weird looks and snide comments, but in an age where the internet brings us closer together than ever before, what better place for a gamer to make friends than in the virtual world you call your own? From in-game guild mates to discord community regulars, I’d say that the people who know me online know the real me far better than any of my non-gamer “real life” friends. These are people I a talk to for hours every day, create a community with, fight alongside, and work with, who accept me for who I am and all the flaws I have, and expect nothing from me but to be myself and to heal them.

I’ve known people who have crossed half world to reach the one they fell in love with in an online game, and I know people who open up about their issues to their online friends because no one in their “real” life cared or understood. The world is a much better place when you can surround yourself with so many friends from across the planet, and I’m glad the “real” world is finally realising this.

What about you? Do you think of the friends you’ve made online as “real” friends? Do you know anyone who’s fallen in love online, or gotten married from being in an online relationship through gaming? Leave a comment below!