Are your gaming friends exclusivley "gaming friends"?

[francisca]

Alright, since we all seem to be caught up in public self-analysis about out gaming and how open we are about it, here's another question:

When it comes to your gaming friends, are gamedays the only time you spend with them? Or do you hang out together while having fun with other hobbies, work with them, etc...?

I've known people in my life who have several "sets" of friends, and never or rarely do the circles intermingle.

For me personally, I have some friends that I only see when we are gaming, but that is mostly due to distance (they are 1-1/2 hours away in Indy).

I have other friends that I hang out with and do mostly outdoor activities, who don't game, but know I do.

And I have one friend who is the god-father of one of my children that I game with, and Sunday, I will become a god-father for one ofhis kids, so obvioulsy, there is more going on there than just gaming.

And I have no prob inviting all of these people to my house at the same time for a cookout, birthday, etc...

I'm guessing #4 will be the most popular choice.

 

[Altalazar]

I've had a few friends that were only gaming friends. I've had other friends that I introduced to gaming. I've had several friends I met through gaming that became non-gaming friends. I think it is just like with work, only less formal - some people you are only friends with at work, others you see after work, others you don't work with at all.

Gaming's not just an adventure. It's a job.

 

[Lalato]

Well... we try to make it a point to go out to dinner, and do the occasional movie. But overall... yes... mostly just game with my "gaming" friends.

Part of the problem for me is that at 33, I'm the oldest person in the group. The rest are in college so it's difficult for me to just "hang out" with them unless it's for gaming. My work schedule just won't permit it.

That said, I have no problem hanging out with them... and when we do get the odd chance, I'm all for it.

 

[Hjorimir]

I don't have gaming friends, I have friends. Everybody I game with I see for all kinds of things, dinners, movies, just hanging out in general, bar-b-ques, sports, etc.

 

[eris404]

When it comes to your gaming friends, are gamedays the only time you spend with them? Or do you hang out together while having fun with other hobbies, work with them, etc...?

In our group, we do others things besides game together and we often intermingle with "non-gaming" friends. Two of the people I game with now I knew before I returned to gaming. One person in our I've worked with at two different jobs, even. However, there have been people in our group that I only saw at games (not necessarily on purpose) and we pretty much got rid of the people we wouldn't be caught dead with outside of game.

(Just for sake of clarity, that last subgroup of people were individuals who we don't associate with because they were just awful people, not because we are snobs.) :\

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

My friends are my friends, some of them I game with, some I don't, and I have absolutly no problems hanging out with them together or seperately. I have a few that I usually only see while gaming, and a few that don't game, but the majority of them are friends that I game with and do other things with as well. I'm on a softball team, and the core group of the team is also my regular D&D group. Some friends used to game with us, but have taken a break, but I still see them regularly, and I consider all of them to be friends first and gamers second.

 

[francisca]

My friends are my friends, some of them I game with, some I don't, and I have absolutly no problems hanging out with them together or seperately. I have a few that I usually only see while gaming, and a few that don't game, but the majority of them are friends that I game with and do other things with as well. I'm on a softball team, and the core group of the team is also my regular D&D group. Some friends used to game with us, but have taken a break, but I still see them regularly, and I consider all of them to be friends first and gamers second.

I'm in the same boat you are. It boggles my mind when I look at some of the artificial barriers people put up in their lives.

One guy I know in particular keeps his sets of friends separate, I think to cut down on how many lies he needs to keep track of at any given time. He was petrified when he found out I knew some of the people he games with. I don't game with him. Nor do I consider him a friend.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Yes & No. I see them occasionally outside of gaming, but I don't really see ANYONE much outside of gaming...I'm just too busy most of the time.

 

[Goblyn]

Unfortunately, all those I game with ... we just game together. We are all in agreement that we'd likely be friends outside the game, but the thing keeping us this way is distance. Most of us look at about an hour's drive to get to the place we game; it is where we game because it's he who lives about midway between the others.

 

[diaglo]

i try and get things to mesh. but with everyone's hectic schedules it is hard. heck we have a hard time getting everyone to meet on our regularly scheduled game days/times.

so while i would love to do stuff with all of them, all of the time, most often i don't. i have friends from work, from my neighborhood, from my days in other states/countries, from the internet, from my days living on the ashram, from my days in the Peace Corp, from my days fighting crime as a vigilante, from .... oh, nevermind they were all imaginary friends.