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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Where's the Shower?

I was in Isle of Conquest, having snuck up from the Quarry to the Hangar, when it happened.

The Horde had taken the Hangar and left, leaving a lone undergeared Hunter to guard the place.  By the time I'd arrived, a Worgen Feral Druid was circling his prey, waiting for an extra body to strike.  I closed and we struck, wiping out the Hunter.

As I captured the Hangar, the Druid whispered, "Can I ask you something?"

It's not the first time I'd gotten whispers like that, so I barely batted an eye.  "Sure."

"Can I have a touch?"

That wasn't what I expected.  Well, whatever I was expecting, it wasn't that.  Surely I was reading the wrong thing into that whisper.  "Um, what?"

"We're too undergeared to do anything, so why don't you pop out them titties and we can have some fun?"

No, that was exactly what he was thinking.

I snorted, both in-game and out of game.  "We can have some fun" really meant "I want a cheap thrill playing with the virtual breasts of a stranger."

Really?  We're in the middle of a battleground, we're actually in the process of capturing a base, and THIS is all you can think about?

I was about to say "You DO realize that I MIGHT be a guy," but stopped.  For this person, it probably wouldn't even matter, and it might actually encourage him further.

Before I could say a simple and blunt "No," he was jumped from behind by two Horde.

I crept away, leaving him to his fate.  Never had I been happier to see a Warrior and DK combo in my life.

***

I've been playing MMOs for almost four years now with a mix of male and female toons, and that was the first time I'd been propositioned like that.  My male Blood Elf bank alt had been wolf whistled at by female toons when he made the journey to Silvermoon, but this was something else entirely.

My first reaction to that encounter --aside from revulsion-- was bewilderment.  How on earth could that person think such a crude come-on would work?  His toon isn't in a position of power over mine, so what made him think he could attempt to dominate me like that?

Oh wait.  Real life.

We all bring our experiences to the table when we login to an MMO, whether we like it or not.  Some people take advantage of the anonymity that an MMO provides and use it to satisfy their own sexual urges.*    Just like how some people take advantage of Trade Chat to spew racist and sexist crap, others just wait for situations like this.  If you're on the receiving end of it, you simply can't win, either.  If you refuse, you're an uptight bitch who won't loosen up; if you report you're a crazy bitch who can't take a joke; if you say nothing that's tacit approval.

Four years without being harassed like this in-game is a fairly long time, but for my mind, not long enough.  My only regret was was that I didn't take down the toon's name so I could report him.  I know kids who play MMOs, and the last thing they need is an encounter like that one.




*In a mutually agreed situation, that can (probably) work out fine, but this was anything but that.

13 comments:

  1. Wow, that... just wow. Yeah, that would've left me bewildered too.

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    1. I've replayed that encounter in my head several times, and I still can't quite believe it. And the thing is, every other reaction I could have had I could easily see making the situation worse.

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  2. I can't believe you wrote this. I have been playing female toons since launch and never had anything disturbing like that happen.... until a few months ago when I picked the game back up. I was questing with my little noobie blood elf, and some male blood elf comes up to me and very bluntly asks if I want to have sex. I responded "lol, no." He then follows me around for a few minutes with some dirty talk (nothing too horrible, and it did make me laugh a bit) before I had to log anyways as the baby woke up from her nap.

    But you're right. What do you do? I guess I should have reported it, like you said, in case that player does that to a child. Whether or not Blizz actually acts on that report would be on their conscious. For me, it was so hard not to respond back. I am a bit of a sarcastic person, and I kept thinking of really funny things to type back, but I knew that by responding, it would just encourage the behavior, and most likely escalate the situation.

    It does make you think wtf are these people thinking? The worst part is, you can't rely on that person just being a dumb kid. I have seen some very questionable in-game behavior from people who I KNOW are adults....

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    1. I really really hope this isn't some sort of new trend, but when it came out in The Big Bang Theory a few years ago that you can "have sex" in World of Warcraft, I'd been kind of dreading this moment.

      It really does make you wonder what the hell these people are thinking, in that they expect they'll be able to get away with it indefinitely.

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    2. To be honest, I really had to write this to get it out of my system, because it had been bothering me so much. When the kids logged into LOTRO later in the day, I made a point of keeping an eye on any chat that scrolled by the screen. I shouldn't have to keep that close of an eye on them by now, but after what happened....

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  3. Reporting would be the way to go in my opinion.

    Honestly I have never run into that myself and I have a few characters that are females. The worst I ever got was someone whispered me and asked "are you really a female" to which I replied "should it matter" and I left it at that. He said "I guess not".

    Personally I would have just laughed at him and said, "I'm not into dogs" and left. Then again I guess that is the role player in me that would just roll with it and have some fun in my own way turning him down.

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    1. I really regret not taking down his (?) name and reporting him. If he came on to me, I'm sure he's come on to plenty of others. And if he did it only because he felt I was a woman, then that was some bizarre compliment to my RP abilities.

      I guess that the bluntness of the come on shocked me out of immersion in the game, which was why I switched from in-game thinking to the firm "no" you teach your kids when someone wants to do something inappropriate. Of course, the Horde unwittingly took care of the problem for me. Which isn't something that happens every day.

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  4. I've only had one come on, I think it was back in Wrath. I was asked if I were a girl, I said sorta and they said let's go to Goldshire and you know.

    I said sure, this Granny hasn't bee kissed in ages, lets go.

    Needless to say that got rid of him. All my characters are female so I feel lucky that I haven't run into too much of this, but it would really concern me if I had children playing.

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    1. The magic word "Granny" is your secret weapon; I'd have to remember that one. ;-)

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  5. When I played a blood elf female toon, I had an alliance toon just stare at me for hours grinding away. It was a little weird, but he didn't do or say anything...just watched.

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    1. That's.... Odd.

      And more than a bit stalkerish, as my oldest would say.

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  6. I'm surprised that so many people haven't had this experience. Within my first 30 minutes of ever having logged into the game, some stranger /licked me and another asked me if I wanted to cyber. And I've had more experiences like that over the years. I'm not sure why me, I don't purposely wear revealing armor or anything else that could be construed as "asking for it" (which is another matter entirely). Maybe I've just been on the wrong servers?

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    1. I only very rarely frequent RP servers, so I couldn't tell you if there was anything different there, but I've never been as unlucky as you have been, Faeldray. The worst I ever got as a new toon was being wolf whistled at moving my bank alt to Silvermoon. Come to think of it, I never really got hit on much at all --Ally or Horde, PvP or PvE server, or even on other MMOs. I seriously doubt you were giving off vibes of asking for it, so that one's a big puzzle.

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