Nobody ever forgets their first love. It’s a rite of passage that most people experience in their adolescence—and for some, like Twitch star Imane “Pokimane” Anys, it can even happen online in virtual worlds.
“I don’t want to flex, but my first boyfriend was on MapleStory,” said Pokimane.
MapleStory is a free-to-play, two-dimensional side-scrolling MMORPG well past its prime. But, when Pokimane was a teenager in the early 2000s, it was one of the biggest on the block.
Unlike other MMORPGs, which revolved around questing and raiding, it had a stronger emphasis on socializing. People would hang out together when they weren’t grinding and form bonds. That’s what happened between Pokimane and her first boyfriend—and eventually, when the devs made it possible for people to make things official between characters, they did.
“We got MapleStory married!” she laughed.
Sadly, like most first-love stories that happen at that age, the spark between them faded in time. “That happened when I was 12 or 13, and then we stopped talking when I was maybe like 14,” she said.
Pokimane’s first boyfriend still remembered her many years after they went their separate ways, and he even surprised her in chat during one of her streams after she’d blown up.
“I started streaming way later, and like, two years into streaming, he came into my chat and he was like, ‘Oh my god! Do you remember me? I’m ex-guy from MapleStory!’ and I was like, ‘That’s crazy!’” she said.
After that, they followed each other on Instagram—and they still do to this day. “He’s living his life. He’s happy. I’m living my life. I’m happy,” said Pokimane.
And the best part is, it makes for an awesome story—one that evokes fond memories in those who played MapleStory and remembers the old friends from back in the day.
