(TL;DR at the bottom) While this is a thank-you to all EQ2 Devs, this is specifically written as a thank you to Holly and Nathan. Your kindness and generosity with you time in person was always amazing to me. I have been a gamer for almost as long as I can remember, I think my first gaming experience was on the ZX81 playing a sled game called “Slalom” that I entered by hand. Of course, I say sled game but it was more of controlling the letter ‘V’ in between two lines, because, you know, early 1980’s computing power. As the years went on the hardware got better and the games became many. Having never played online games I was intrigued when I heard about this game “Everquest 2”. I picked up a copy of the game on April 1st, 2005 and was hooked as soon as I stepped off the boat onto the Isle of Refuge. I told my girlfriend about the game because whenever she would call I would always be playing the game so she was naturally curious. You see at this time I was living in the UK and she the US, natural-born citizens of our respective countries. We met online in 1995 and first met in real life in 1996 and had been traveling back and forth since that time. On my next trip to the US I installed the game for her, set her up with an account and her first character “Fastalio”. It’s important to point out that while I was a gamer, she most certainly was not at this point. The closest thing to gaming she got involved with were those PopCap games like bejeweled etc. So I didn’t think it would stick but I at least wanted her to try it. She, like I was instantly hooked and the rest, as they say, is history. EQ2 would give her and me a way to be “together” even when we could not be together in person. Even better when voice chat came along as while phones were getting cheaper they still were not as cheap as free. In the end, she would play significantly more EQ2 than I owing to the fact that we were playing on US servers and thus the population favored her. During our travels, we grouped with a couple that we found out were living in the UK and after playing with them for months and month they actually invited me to their house for the weekend (don’t try this at home kids) I wanted to give myself an “out” so agreed to come for a single night since, you know, internet randoms. I went and instantly regretted not staying longer. The guy (In-game ‘Farnet’) and his good lady wife (I forget her in-game name) were just about the nicest people I have ever met and its a friendship that has endured and flourished. Anyway, fast forward to 2010 and I just cannot bear to be away from my girlfriend anymore and suggest we move one way or the other. She was perfectly prepared to move to the UK but she had a great job and as it turned out I was able to take my job with me so it just made sense for me to move to the US. So we started the immigration process and in November 2011 I was approved for a fiancee visa (this allows you to enter the US with the intention of getting married within 90 days and converting it into a green card. So that is exactly what we did. We were married twice, once for the legal side of things and then later the next year so that our friends and family could celebrate with us. Fast forward to 2018, July specifically and my wife of nearly 7 years comes down with a severe cough, so much so that shes actually coughing up a little blood in the mucus (sorry, I know that’s not great to read, trust me it’s more disturbing to see). We get her to the Dr who takes blood and gets a chest x-ray, the x-ray confirms she has pneumonia so gets prescribed meds and that, we think, is that. The next day the Dr calls and asks how she’s feeling and if she’s been passing out. She says she actually feels a little better and no shes not been passing out. Dr says she needs to get to the ER stat….. Her red cell count has nosedived since her last checkup a couple of months ago. She gets a transfusion and a bone marrow biopsy and after a couple of days, we get sent home. We had a follow-up appointment with an oncologist a few days later who confirms that she has leukemia. At this point, I am not going to recount what followed because it’s harrowing and I doubt she would want me to but needless to say, I lost her a little over 2 months after initial diagnosis. A little over a year on I miss her so much my bones ache for her, and I wish to [insert your deity here] that it had been I instead of her, something I know she would would be PO’d at me for saying. After I lost her I canceled out EQ2 subs for 2 reasons, firstly I did not know how the finances would land and secondly EQ2, all of it was ‘our place’ it was a place we could be together even when we were not. I actually reached out to you guys (Holly and Nathan) after I lost her to see if I could impart this story personally but I guess you guys didn’t see the message or just didn’t want to talk to this random guy (both perfectly understandable). I wanted to thank you guys for caring deeply about what you do and care for the folks that play your game, for helping to provide a place where her and I could spend so much time ‘virtually’ together, from the bottom of my heart, thank-you. Having just resubbed it has still been hard to come back to, I keep half expecting to run into her, or maybe just irrationally hoping! But everywhere I go in-game (apart from the new content we didn’t play together) there are memories, all very good memories. If the name Fastalio rings a bell, know that she enjoyed the heck out of playing with each and every one of you, thank you for spending each and every second with this amazing woman. I spent 23 years with her and enjoyed each and every second. Just so that someone doesn’t get into a flame war for saying it, because yes, I have seen “that WOW post” and appreciate the similarities, no, she didn’t drop any loot. I am pretty confident she would be OK with me making the joke because it’s not at her expense it’s a reference to the game which is something she loved deeply. To finish I would like to share my favorite quote which I think fits with the above and also the people we meet in game. “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.” - Brad Meltzer TL;DR (too long, didn’t read) This is a thank-you to the Devs for caring about what they do and also to recount a story of getting my wife into the game, something she loved up until I lost her to leukemia in 2018.
My sincerest condolences to you on the loss of your wife and life partner. Edit: I have sent a private message to Dreamweaver and hopefully he will pass your letter on to the team and Holly.
I'm 1001% behind you and I love your post more than you can ever understand. My wife and I started playing in 2005 until she passed away in 2006. I made a commitment at that time to keep her main updated through the expansions when in 2008 I met another player in Jarsath Wastes who would soon become my second wife. We have been together ever since. I truly believe that it was destiny that by honoring my first wife's character that I would meet my wonderful new partner. Since then I have moved 1500 miles away, retired and adopted 2 sons a daughter and 12 grankids. All of which would not have happened without the community structure in Norrath. This year I was blessed with 3 great grankids and when I'm not killing Gnolls i'm busy glowing over my family. Gninja you know me but probably not my story because I have never shared it. Kander you're a bit arrogant but well within your rights to be so. As for the rest of the dev team,Thank you for shaping MY life to a place I never dreamed it could be. We run zones, do quests ad nauseam for rewards but it's what is behind the scenes that many devs might miss.....you help shape our futures.
OMG ok I read the long version, it was very hard to read, for some reason my eyes kept getting blurry. Wonderful story, and you have my deepest sympathy.
I know, right there with you Breanna. Had to have the box of tissues nearby for both of these stories. My heart goes out to both of you.
