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I used to play this MMORPG game when I was 14 with some school friends on voice chat. But there was one guy I made friends with in-game who I'd quest with when

by kypro 4y ago

I used to play this MMORPG game when I was 14 with some school friends on voice chat. But there was one guy I made friends with in-game who I'd quest with when my real-world friends weren't online. One day when I was playing with him I invited him on our voice chat and he started playing me some songs and asking what I thought. I never really listened to music back then, but some of the rock songs he played me really resonated with me so I downloaded them and would listen to them when I was gaming. I think that might have been the only time I ever spoke to this guy with voice, but when I think about the songs he played me that night it's crazy how massive of an impact they had on the direction of my life. After liking some of the songs he played me I started listening to more and more rock music. And back then teens were quite segmented by music taste so I found myself gravitating towards different friends who were more into my music taste. To this day I think this change of friends has had a noticeable affect on my personality and fashion sense. Also those friends were more "academic(?)" than my existing friends so that probably resulted me in studying computer science which resulted in a whole host of career opportunities that otherwise wouldn't have occured. But there are some more subtle ways in which I think it altered the direction of my life. For example, when I was at university I used to like going to rock clubs and it was at one of those clubs I met my current partner. And then when I think about all the things I've done with her it's crazy just to think about how massive of an impact simply being at that club on that night had by itself. It's funny though because I doubt he even remembers me, but I think about him a lot. And in turn it makes me wonder how I might have impacted people I don't even remember both for better and worse. I'm sure everyone has a story like this, but I've always thought it was interesting how a moment seemingly so unremarkable with a guy across the Atlantic ocean had such a dramatic impact on my life.

srcreigh 4y ago
What were some of the songs? And which game was this?
- kypro 4y ago
  To be clear I was a cringey teen lol, I don't listen to this stuff anymore... But the song I liked was "Move Along" by the The All American Rejects. I think he also played some songs by Linkin Park too, but I remember Move Along because that was the song that got me into that genre of music. Then from there I started listening to Indie music which was more of a thing here in the UK in the late noughties - The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, etc. That later progressed into stuff like The Smiths and Joy Division, and to this day I listen to a lot of music which derives from the late 80s indie scene. I guess you could argue I'd have found the same music another way because these were fairly common bands at the time. But I still think it's interesting that I can trace so many things in my life today back to that specific moment in time. The game was Conquer Online. It's not great anymore but around 2006ish it was a pretty decent free MMORPG.
sublinear 4y ago
No offense intended, but it's worth noting these are all examples of coincidence, not cause and effect. The same music and personalities would not have resonated with someone else, many people dislike computer science and switch majors, other people didn't match your partner as well, etc. These life events were driven by you, not your environment. It's likely that in a different environment you would have found the same things, or moved somewhere else until you did. The heart wants what it wants.
- kadoban 4y ago
  Just because it's conditional, depends on the person or the time of day or phase of the moon, doesn't mean it's not causality. Otherwise almost nothing is cause and effect.
  - sublinear 4y ago
    Coincidence can still have conditions. Independent choices can still agree without implying causality. If you like someone and they like you back, that's a coincidence.

by kypro 4y ago

srcreigh 4y ago

What were some of the songs? And which game was this?

kypro 4y ago
To be clear I was a cringey teen lol, I don't listen to this stuff anymore... But the song I liked was "Move Along" by the The All American Rejects. I think he also played some songs by Linkin Park too, but I remember Move Along because that was the song that got me into that genre of music. Then from there I started listening to Indie music which was more of a thing here in the UK in the late noughties - The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, etc. That later progressed into stuff like The Smiths and Joy Division, and to this day I listen to a lot of music which derives from the late 80s indie scene. I guess you could argue I'd have found the same music another way because these were fairly common bands at the time. But I still think it's interesting that I can trace so many things in my life today back to that specific moment in time. The game was Conquer Online. It's not great anymore but around 2006ish it was a pretty decent free MMORPG.

sublinear 4y ago

No offense intended, but it's worth noting these are all examples of coincidence, not cause and effect. The same music and personalities would not have resonated with someone else, many people dislike computer science and switch majors, other people didn't match your partner as well, etc. These life events were driven by you, not your environment. It's likely that in a different environment you would have found the same things, or moved somewhere else until you did. The heart wants what it wants.

kadoban 4y ago
Just because it's conditional, depends on the person or the time of day or phase of the moon, doesn't mean it's not causality. Otherwise almost nothing is cause and effect.
- sublinear 4y ago
  Coincidence can still have conditions. Independent choices can still agree without implying causality. If you like someone and they like you back, that's a coincidence.