WINCHESTER — A group of Winchester teens have been playing online video games with a boy from Birmingham, Alabama, for more than four years.
But until recently the kids had never met.
The Winchester gamers finally met their online friend when Trey Thompson, 15, flew nearly 700 miles from Alabama to Winchester to meet 10 new friends. Trey said the meeting, which took place a little more than a week ago, was a “surreal” experience since he’s been wanting to visit Winchester for the past two years.
“It’s just really been kind of like a dream of mine to come up there and meet them,” he said.
Once they met in person, the boys (and one girl) wore face masks due to COVID-19 precautions with no more than eight people gathering indoors at a time. During Trey’s visit, the group walked and drove around Winchester and played video games at several of their homes.
Trey first met the Winchester gamers through a game called Rocket League, where he began chatting and playing online with Lang Kulton, 15, a sophomore at Handley High School. Lang then introduced Trey to the rest of his gamer friends in Winchester through a gaming server known as Discord.
For Lang, it was “really cool” to finally meet Trey in person.
Trey is particularly close to Handley students Jake Burton, 16, and Campbell Walker, 16.
Jake estimates that he’s played online video games with Trey for at least 2,000 hours over the years. The two have spent many late nights talking and playing video games. Jake said Trey has always been good to talk to whenever he feels sad.
“A bond has definitely been created over the past four years,” Jake said.
Meeting Trey in person was a highlight of the year for Jake, who said he hasn’t had many opportunities to spend face-to-face time with friends this year because of the pandemic.
As for Trey, he said Campbell has helped him through all of his breakups, adding that he was once chatting with Campbell at the same time someone else had just broken up with Trey. Campbell helped him get through it.
For Campbell, seeing Trey in person “showed me that relationships that you make on games can last a while. They can be just as real as meeting someone in real life.”
“Gaming is just as much as a medium for social interaction as it is a medium for entertainment,” Campbell added.
Campbell also noted that he and his friends, including Trey, have grown closer throughout the pandemic since they have more time now than ever to chat through gaming because they are always inside.
“If there’s one takeaway, gaming itself can do a lot more good than it does bad,” Campbell said.
