The Scrabble-like device game Words With Friends has likely ended a few friendships before but none quite like this. Megan Lawless and Jasper Jasperse were strangers before they met through the game on their phones and eventually became friends. Now? They’re married! (and probably still friends too)
Lawless and Jasperse were paired in the game by becoming random opponents but what turned out as time-killing fun evolved into an actual relationship. They slowly began chatting – with a hi’ and a ‘hello’ their first simple exchanges. On Jasperse’s birthday, they started talking a little more, eventually emailing and Skyping,” writes RedEye Chicago. “After a few months, they decided to take the plunge and meet. They were soon engaged and got married a year later in July of 2011.”
Words With Friends, developed by Zynga with Friends (formerly Newtoy), has a whopping 14.9 million monthly, active users so these two finding each other is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
“Most people think, when we tell the story, that we right away started a very intimate conversation,” said Jasperse, who said it was not like that at all. “It very gradually built up to finally meeting each other… At one point, I spoke to Megan more than anybody else around me.” Jasperse even relocated from his home in the Netherlands for his sweetheart.
Lawless mentioned that she had some trouble explaining apps and smartphones to her 75-year-old grandfather when telling him about her relationship.
“I think he still doesn’t quite understand how we met,” she said. As for others, most, she says, have just thought it was a cool story. “I guess I thought people would think it was really geeky or weird.”
“This is the first [marriage] we know of,” said Paul Bettner, VP and General Manager of Zynga With Friends, the studio that makes Words With Friends. “I think that’s an awesome story.”
(image by Lenny Gilmore, story via Kotaku)
Published: Jan 4, 2012 12:36 pm