How An MMORPG Is Now Forever Linked In My Brain With The Birth Of My First Child

Being involved in MMORPG coverage for 15 years, I've seen a lot of heartwarming stories about friendships being created in the forge of difficult raids or love blooming in the middle of epic PvP battles. You likely have, too. There's plenty of "I met my spouse" stories all over the MMO universe. They're great stories and they show the power of a genre that requires players to socially interact while they play.

I have my own such story, however it's a bit different. I did not meet my wife (long-time MMOBomb followers know her as Damina) in an MMO. We met on stage in our high school drama club. We co-starred in a show called Seven Wives for Dracula. The play was a one-act play presented with some other shows in a night of one-acts. I was Jonathan Harker and my wife was Lucy.

Years later, we were married and she was pregnant with our first child. See, no MMO to be found yet. Now, I've told portions of this story on various streams or podcasts, but I figured I'd memorialize it in print today for those that have never seen our streams or the podcast.

As it turns out, my wife and my brother Havek's partner were pregnant at the same time. This was the first child for each of us and was kind of an interesting time. They were both due around mid-June and both of the ladies involved here enjoyed having someone to share their experiences with in real time.

Mike, when are we getting to the MMORPG part? Steady, friend, we're almost there.

My wife and I had our own place at this time, but we didn't have a car. We were broke newlyweds and all. A friend at the time had fallen on a bit of hard luck and my wife and I offered to let him stay with us for a few days while he sorted things out. That friend and I were both huge gamers. We often played NFL2K together and we were both huge RPG fans.

One night, after my wife went to bed, we decided to boot up the Dreamcast, but it wasn't for some football. We were both avid Phantasy Star Online players. We loved that damn game. As a bit of a sidebar, I remember that PSO didn't have the best "trading" system at the time. They eventually fixed this, but back then, you shouted to find someone who had an item you wanted, arranged a trade, partied up and joined an instance together, and then each of you dropped those items for the other to pick them up.

While you could see the type of item someone dropped a bit (money was a yellow diamond on the ground, etc), you couldn't see what the exact item was until you got close enough to it for a name box to pop up. Yeah. This meant you could drop a crap sword, run and pick up the item the other player dropped, then leave the instance and party. What a mess. It has no significant part to play in our story, but yeah, we used to think that was hysterical to do and I just thought of it as I was writing.

Back to my child, though.

PSO is on, we're playing, and yes, we're connected via dial-up. My wife was hanging out with us, but then decided to go to bed. We kept playing and, a few hours later, maybe around 1 AM, we were disconnected from PSO. Hey, it happens, no biggie. We reconnect and start playing again. A few moments later, we get booted yet again. Hmmm. That's odd. Reconnect, continue playing. A third disconnect. I look at my friend and he asks, "Is someone maybe calling you?" For those that don't know, depending on your dial-up service, a phone call while on the dial-up internet (if they were on the same phone line like mine was) can break your connection.

Come on. It was like 2 AM now, certainly no one was calling me. We decided to hold off for a few minutes before reconnecting. Sure enough, a few moments later, my phone rang. It was my mother letting me know that Havek was headed to the hospital as his son was on the way (we already knew that both children were boys.)

Havek's friend at the time was picking my mother up and then coming to get us if we wanted to go. I woke up Damina and we got ready to go to the hospital. My friend, who was also friends with Havek, was going to come along. We all crammed into a small sedan and made our way to the hospital about 30 minutes away.

The next few hours go about the same as they do for anyone waiting for a birth at a hospital. There's a whole lot of "hurry up and wait" going on. We aren't "in the room" obviously, so we're all just milling about making nurses annoyed, I'm sure. Finally, after hours, it looks like things aren't going to progress soon. Damina is tired (and very pregnant herself) so we're going to head home. It's maybe like 5 AM by this point. My wife, my friend, and I all head back to my place and we all try to get some sleep.

At about 8 AM our phone rings. The bedroom phone is on my wife's nightstand and I hear her answer it. I can tell by Damina's side of the conversation that it's my mother and Havek is now a father. Congratulations are given and my wife says we'll be sure to come back and visit later today. I hear the "beep" of her hanging up...and then I hear her say, "Uh oh, don't move." She books it out of the bedroom to the bathroom. Now, I am pretty sure I knew what just happened and I reach behind me to confirm. Yep, we're going to be headed to the hospital, Damina's water just broke.

I do remember saying "you have to be kidding me." We were all on like 2 hours of sleep at this point. I wake up my friend on the couch and then call my mother right back and we head to our own hospital.

The rest of the day ends exactly as you think. We head to the hospital and hours later my first child is born. So yes, Havek and I both have boys as our first children and the cousins were born on the exact same day. It's neat!

I already loved PSO and to this day I have a tremendous soft spot for the franchise. Imagine the agony of having to wait 8 years to get the sequel in the west...and the pain of what PSO2: New Genesis has become for those of us that aren't all about JUST fashion. Hopefully we get something a tad better soon.

Until then, I cannot hear the theme music of the title screen (below) without thinking of my son, and I wouldn't have it any other way.