MANILA, Philippines — I’ve mentioned before that I have been playing the famous Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcaft since early 2005, a few months after its launch. I try not to think about how long ago that has been because I always feel ancient when talking to a lot of the newer players reminiscing about the “old days”.

Over the years, I have come across a lot of fellow players who eventually became my online friends. Some of those friends stayed within the game but a few others are people I keep in touch with even outside the game.

It’s a bit sad that a lot of those friends I met in the game no longer play, either because they found something else to play or just don’t have the time and money to go on.

It’s because of this reason that I’m really grateful for the internet. The internet has allowed me to continue to keep in touch with the people I met in the game through things like email and social networking sites like Google+ and Facebook.

A few years ago, I met an American couple in the game who live in Oregon because they were in the same guild as I was at the time. They still didn’t have a kid when I met them but now they have this cute little girl they nicknamed the Bug. Even if they know stopped playing, I can say that I have kept in touch with them and seen pictures and heard stories of their little Bug because of Facebook.

Right now, my best friends in the game are my guild mates. We’re a very small guild and generally don’t do any of serious gaming stuff like raiding but we have fun in our own ways. In the more than three years that we’ve been together, we’ve gotten to be a pretty close knit group that’s almost like family.

Some of the core members are actually a family of four from Queensland, Australia where even the mom and the dad play. When the flood hit Queensland in 2010, my thoughts were with them and thankfully they were all fine.

When I got my Android phone, my brother introduced me to the application called WhatsApp Messenger. For those who don’t know, it’s an application that allows you to send messages, videos and pictures to your contacts through the internet. It’s very much like Yahoo Messenger, except it uses phone numbers instead.

I use WhatsApp to chat with the mom in that Aussie family and also her elder son, aside from keeping in touch through Facebook. WhatsApp has allowed me to keep in touch with them even while I’m not in the game and Facebook isn’t the most effective way. The elder son is a big pasta freak so whenever I order pasta at a restaurant or have some at home, I usually take a picture and send it to him to make him jealous.

I guess this piece is yet another testimony on how the technology is making the world a smaller place where people around the world can interact and maintain friendships. It’s great that our Smartphones are also helping a lot by allowing us to do these things at the palm of our hands.