Marriage, nerd-style

October 21, 2006 4:38 PM

NerdProposalFilter: Looking for a creative way to ask my boyfriend to marry me, via World of Warcraft.

(Anonymous because he occasionally reads AskMefi, and I'd rather this be a surprise.)

We both play WoW, and have a few level 60s between us. Unfortunately, we share an account, so that takes out asking him face-to-face in the game. I've thought about finding an appropriate ring on the auction house, and mailing it to him with the proposal, but I'd like something even more creative than that. It'd be awesome if I could create a quest somehow, with the end result being the proposal. Do any of you WoW nerds have suggestions? If it matters, we're Horde, and our mains are an Undead Priest (me) and an Undead Warlock (him).

I know this would absolutely delight and surprise him, so I'd like to make it good. Thanks!

posted by anonymous to Human Relations (8 answers total)

Well, one thing you could do would be to recruit some of your friends to help, and do a real-life quest.

Make several yellow ! and ? marks out of foam and wire, and attach them to hats. Have your first friend stand somewhere where your proposee will be, wearing a ! hat. When the proposee approaches, have your friend hand him a scroll done in the same yellow color and weird font that Blizzard uses, instructing him to seek out the next friend.... and then take off his hat.

Each part of the mission could involve getting supplies or something for a nice picnic lunch, stuff you know is easily available. (Each friend after the first would need ? and !, and swap hats before giving out the next quest.)

The next to last step could be 'deliver supplies to your girlfriend at X'. When he delivers, change to a ! hat. Final quest: propose.

Of course, the whole thing could be a bit embarassing if you're not really sure he wants to marry you....

You could also do big ! and ? signs on cardboard and hold them over your head. Foam would be harder, but would probably look much better.
posted by Malor at 4:52 PM on October 21, 2006 [5 favorites]

Do you have a good guild? You could do something like a hide-and-seek treasure hunt where he has to travel from one member to another, each of whom gives clues as to the location of the next person. When he finds the last person, who reveals the point of the hunt, you pop a ring on him in RL. Of course, you should be watching over his shoulder at the end, at least. "What are you doing? Why are people asking you to run around pointlessly?"

Whatever you decide to do, I suggest you do it before he reads mefi next.
posted by trevyn at 4:52 PM on October 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

(oh, the incantation to get or turn in quests could be to say the word 'right click' to the behatted people. :) )
posted by Malor at 4:54 PM on October 21, 2006

You know, Blizzard is quite responsive to real-world celebrations. There are pumpkins and trick or treat items all over the world right now. Perhaps you could contact someone at the company and see if they'll help you out.

They may decline on the basis of not wanting to create new content for every marriage proposal or birthday that comes around, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
posted by aladfar at 6:50 PM on October 21, 2006

Create a new account and surprise him. Just cancel the account once you get an answer.

You could borrow a friend's computer to do this. Also, there's probably a way to get a free trial account, I think. If not, it's worth the 50-60 bucks it would take to buy a new disk and start an account for one month. That's cheaper than a romantic meal for two.

Just make sure you have a plan that makes sure he will KNOW it's you... lots of details no one else would know. Then if he says yes, call him immediately in real life and ask again.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 9:12 PM on October 21, 2006

It might be a little too late in the timing, but hide a proposal/ring in a copy of The Burning Crusade, and give him that copy during a nice, romantic dinner.

It's WoW-related, yet doesn't require a second account. And it's in person, to boot.
posted by spinifex23 at 9:38 PM on October 21, 2006

I love the idea of a real-world WoW quest line, sounds very similar to the stuff my husband and I have done for eachother in the past. It always goes over very well, and it's so much fun for everyone involved, particularly if your friends play as well.

The guild idea is also fun. We do scavenger hunts in my guild very similar to what trevyn suggested. (Officers are stationed in the game somewhere to give out mini quests, and the locations of the officers are revealed via screenshots, so they have to identify the location based on the in-game surroundings.) I bet there are people who would love to help you do it, too.

For your original idea, perhaps instead of just sending him the ring, make it a game for a while too - if you think he would be up for it. Send him a few rounds of love notes with cryptic poems asking him to do something/send you something, with the expectation of a big reward at the end (say, by hinting that you got an epic BOE drop), but the reward is actually a ring/proposal. That way you could stretch the process out a bit, add a bit of mystery, get him to pester you in RL about what the payoff could possibly be, while you play coy... Something like that.
posted by gemmy at 11:14 PM on October 21, 2006

For your idea of an ingame ring, I just remembered a good one: "The 1 Ring".

It adds +1 to all stats, and has the description: "Not quite as good as the 2 Ring".

It's a very rare drop, and thus usually very expensive in the AH, despite being so useless.

I'll bet not many people have gotten a marriage proposal with The 1 Ring. :-)
posted by Malor at 11:23 PM on October 21, 2006