How a virtual marriage in Maple Story turned these gamers into a real couple

Dennis Yeo and Hailynn Amin from Singapore are in their late twenties. They’ve been dating for eight years. These days, work keeps them apart most of the time, but they still manage to have virtual dates online—gaming together. These days, they play title like AuditionSEA and Mstar, which have couple-oriented modes. They also find time for Left 4 Dead 2 and Guild Wars 2.

And so it wasn’t surprising to learn that they had met through a game.

Dennis met Hailynn in MapleSEA. “We’ve been in the game since beta, but we just didn’t know each other,” he said. Though Dennis had met Hailynn in-game before, he didn’t think of adding her to his friend list until one day when his brother needed heals, four months after their first encounter. He took a portal over to his brother and there Hailynn was. “That’s where conversation started to flow,” Dennis said.

It wasn’t love at first sight. Though they talked a lot, they were still just online friends. At least, until the day MapleSEA introduced the marriage system.

Dennis took the opportunity to ask Hailynn if she would “marry him”. Not in real life, of course, but in the game! “She said yes!” he recounted. “‘Sure, why not? It’s so cute and there are effects and stuff.’ She was more into the game than I was.”

At first, Dennis didn’t think much of their ‘marriage’, but as time passed the ‘couple’ started to ease into their roles and give each other pet names. “Feelings started to deepen then,” he said. They became a couple officially when he accompanied her to collect her exam results; even then, the gamer in Dennis still prevailed. He found himself too shy to pop the question in real life, and only did so when they had gone back home to chat on MSN Messenger.

“Games allow me to understand my girlfriend better,” he said, of why they continue to play. “We are able to talk freely over the internet, and there aren’t barriers like being why. [Through games], we learn more about differences between us and how to handle each other.”

We asked Dennis if Hailynn and him would ever stop gaming.

“I think the time we stop gaming would be when we have our first kid,” he said. “Then, we will be training our little one to be an avid gamer.”

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone, and have a great time tonight!

Dennis and Hailynn 🙂