Groom Met His Groomsman IRL For The First Time On Wedding Day After 15 Years Of Playing Xbox Live

[malyse]

Charles Powell is a 28-year-old from Cincinnati who just got married to his wife, Myra, on Saturday. The happy couple met on OKCupid a few years ago, he told BuzzFeed News.

However, Myra was not the first person that Powell met online who became important in his life. When he was 13 he met three other guys while playing Xbox Live. The four of them had been friends for 15 years, but never met IRL.
It all started in 2003, when Powell was a teen playing a game called Phantasy Star Online on the original Xbox. Players could communicate with each other in the game if they were in proximity to each other.

One day, he struck up a conversation with another player, "Sinjo," aka Joe Walters from Detroit.

"We just happened to walk by each other and I asked him for an item," Charles said.

Through Walters, Powell met two other players, William Brown, aka "Free2spin21" from Tennessee, and Joey Morris, aka "Grimmjo" from Baltimore.

The group had a lot in common, and soon began chatting and playing all the time.

"I would come home from school and they would be online and I would be online," he said. "We just liked the same things."

Their friendship has lasted 15 years, but the group had never been able to meet, until now. Last weekend, Powell's three online buddies (and their dates) traveled to his wedding and they all met for the first time.



https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/online-friends-are-real-friends

 

[Toadette]

Honestly reading stuff like this makes me so happy. It's just amazing how online gaming can go so far for people.

 

[rebelcrusader]

Most of these "gamer wedding" stories are usually cringe as hell. This is a really cool story though, met cool people gaming.

 

[Deleted member 14002]

Met my wife on ME3 multiplayer. She's pretty cool.

 

[atomsk eater]

Met some online friends for the first time like right before we all hopped on a plane to Japan. The internet can be really great for connecting people, and I'm glad his friends could be there for his wedding.

 

[Einbroch]

Met my wife on ME3 multiplayer. She's pretty cool.

Click to shrink...

I would hope so!

Nice story. MMOs in particular are amazing for this kind of stuff.

 

[Jonbjohns]

This is a great story, but I unfortunately need like 100 of these to erase the Pokemon wedding from my mind.

 

[LossAversion]

That's awesome!

 

[NintendoMariah]

this is so sweet and amazing!

 

[Ra]

And it was Phantasy Star Online.

My brothas.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Apparently the guy who caught the garter belt teabagged a wedding guest afterterwards.

 

[xxracerxx]

I can't get over how the dude is holding his phone in that picture.

 

[malyse]

And it was Phantasy Star Online.

My brothas.

Click to shrink...

*inserts a plug for the Star Hunter Society*

 

[Deleted member 19218]

I don't really have anything to say but that's so cool.

Also, online gaming with your friends after school was one of the best ways to spend a Friday night.

 

[Monster Zero]

A true feel good story.

 

[Argyle Shepard]

I have a friend IRL who plays a ton of XBL games with a group of friends who live in Colorado. He's actually gone there and hung out with them, gone to Broncos games etc. I mean, you have lots of time to actually talk while the play for hours, so those friendships are probably even deeper than real life friendships where interaction aren't as verbal or prolonged.

 

[Micro]

I've got a few friends I've known only over Xbox Live. I mean, they were friends-of-friends IRL, but I've never met them before. It all started with Halo 3 back in early 2008, and I'm still regularly playing online with the ones who stayed on Xbox!

Such a cool story, shows how much mutual interest in something helps people bond, even if it's not in person.

 

[Monogatari]

Friendship is friendship. Doesn't require face to face contact.

 

[Cryptosporidium]

This is damn sweet, put a smile on my face

 

[Lord Brady]

Thirteen years ago they met playing a console MMO with better matchmaking than Destiny has.

Great story.

 

[topplehat]

Great story! I always wondered what happened to the people I used to play PSO with on Dreamcast.

 

[New Fang]

Cool story!

 

[Deleted member 16657]

That pic is so swag. A feels good story all around.

 

[Mik2121]

Anyone who's played PSO can only be a cool kid, so this is great.

 

[ThEoRy...]

Not surprised they met on PSO. I've met some really good friends there as well. Two of them actually got married a few years back. It was such an awesome community.

 

[Sun's Resting Place]

A friend of mine that I met playing online Melty Blood and on 4chan's /jp/ & IRC almost ten years ago - I was living at his place as a roommate a few years later, in another country.

The game that got me to end up meeting people offline and become decade plus long friends ended up being Melty Blood. It wasn't just him, either.

 

[stinkyguy666]

It all started in 2003, when Powell was a teen playing a game called Phantasy Star Online on the original Xbox. Players could communicate with each other in the game if they were in proximity to each other.

Click to shrink...

Yeah and just imagine how many more people missed out on meeting their soulmates because SEGA refused to localise PSO II

Now do you see what you've done, SEGA?! You've decreased the love levels in the world. Smdh.

 

[ChrisJSY]

I'm still friends with someone on-line after almost 18 years, should probably meet the dude .. :(

 

[Deleted member 28461]

That's a really nice story. I don't have much time for multiplayer gaming these days, but have a couple people I've never met before that I would call friends. It's easy to get to know people while playing Street Fighter or a co-op game.

 

[LegendarySkitch]

One is from Cincinnati and the other is from Detroit...? Took 15 years to meet with that little distance. Shit, meet up for lunch or some shit in Toledo or something.

I mean I have an online friend I've talked to for over 10 years and we've never met but he's on the opposite end of the continent

 

[Sun's Resting Place]

I'm still friends with someone on-line after almost 18 years, should probably meet the dude .. :(

Click to shrink...

I have one of those sorts of longtime friends, too, although that recently changed. it's been about 14 years. l've fallen out of contact with him because he's been converted into an alt-right shitposter. Everytime I try to strike up a conversation with him these days it's always something about Jews or black people.

This isn't the same person I mentioned above. This guy here, we haven't met, but I don't feel much of a desire to anymore.

 

[Rocco]

Yea thats cool. I have a few Xbox Live friends like this. Have gamed together since the early days of the 360 until now...never met. Im sure we will someday tho.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

 

[LooneyLMD]

That's a nice story. Met a lot of amazing people online through gaming. Met a few in real life, too.

 

[DarkLegion]

Pretty cool story. I made some friends over PSO, but nothing long term.

 

[Vic Damone Jr.]

I wouldn't doubt that many people have similar stories in that we made really good friends during the earlier years of 360 and PS3.

 

[Jared]

This is awesome. One of my groomsmen I met playing Halo 3 online and we never met in person until the day before the wedding. He was one of my best friends cousins which was a little different from this situation but it's always cool to see how friendships come to be.

 

[aerie]

Thats kinda nice. Honestly one of my better friends these days is someone i met playing online, we've never met in person.

 

[MisterShine]

Not too surprising. Friend of mine had a groomsmen we've been playing WoW with for nearly 10 years. First time we met him in person was for the wedding as well.

 

[Fart Master]

I'm sure they enjoy phantasy star online 2

 

[Lucini]

One of the first times I got to play online with voice chat was Halo 2. I remember playing with a dude from England who added me, and when I got out of school late from practice or rehearsal this dude would be on. We stayed online friends for something like 8 years until my schedule normalized a bit and I stopped seeing his gamertag online.

The level of trust you can build with genuine people is remarkable.

 

[skeezx]

something about early 00's MMOs really seemed to bring people together. maybe it's still like that but it seems like you hear about this sort of thing less and less

 

[Tecnniqe]

something about early 00's MMOs really seemed to bring people together. maybe it's still like that but it seems like you hear about this sort of thing less and less

Click to shrink...

Early MMOs had no realm connections and match making tools. You had to find people, communicate and build a reputation to progress. Most of that is gone, as the servers are inter connected and you have tools for everything, from dungeons to raids.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

Thats awesome. I have people I've known online now for literally over 20 years who I have never met face to face that I very much consider to be actual friends. Like, talked on the phone sort of deal. I would love to meet some of those guys.

EDIT: Also, a few of my IRL friends, like Bill from Zeboyd Games, I met online about 15 years ago.

 

[MrH]

I have a few gaming friends who I've known for over 10 years, close to 15 years in one case. I definitely consider them real friends.

 

[Shoes]

I was a groomsman in a wedding with someone I met from Xbox Live/another gaming forum. We were able to meet up a few times prior to his wedding so it's not quite as cool as this story, but I still get a lot of interesting looks when I tell the story.

 

[HStallion]

Met my wife on ME3 multiplayer. She's pretty cool.

Click to shrink...

Hopefully your kids turn out better than Mass Effect Andromeda.

 

[MajorBritten]

Really nice story and makes a change from the usual negative stories that get published about online gaming (especially Xbox Live).

 

[Puggsly]

Met one of my best friends playing Everquest, and he was a groomsman in my wedding. Very cool story!

 

[AlexBasch]

I remember having online friends in an old forum I used to post. Then it went dead and never knew what happened to them. Huh. Became kinda reclusive after that.

Those stories are really cool as hell though. :) Glad people have good experiences in online gaming.