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@Norna: Yeah. A lot of people will say that they're cautious and that it could never happen to them but I've been unfortunate enough to experience three separate cases of major harassment over the years that I've played MMO's.
In one case someone I spoke with at length over six months and role-played with frequently ended up turning out to be very manipulative and unstable. So even people that are considered reasonable friends may not be who or what they seem.
Luckily I've had the pleasure of making some genuine friends online that I've met up with and now consider them to be best buddies in real life. Heck, I even met my partner through WoW. Sharing information with people you're comfortable with is generally a good thing, but even then it can work against you if you later fall out with them or they turn out to be unhinged.
On a side note I don't believe that women have it worse online. Sure, at a glance they may get a lot more sexual and upsetting messages but it's balanced out by guys being manipulated by nasty women who can quite easily use flirtation to secure a legion of white knights to gang up on someone unfairly and effectively drive them away from a community. Of course this works both ways and you can get girls who send inappropriate messages to guys and guys who use their charm to turn people against each other. I've lost a couple of online friends to that sort of nonsense so I feel pretty strongly about the issue(s).
In one case someone I spoke with at length over six months and role-played with frequently ended up turning out to be very manipulative and unstable. So even people that are considered reasonable friends may not be who or what they seem.
Luckily I've had the pleasure of making some genuine friends online that I've met up with and now consider them to be best buddies in real life. Heck, I even met my partner through WoW. Sharing information with people you're comfortable with is generally a good thing, but even then it can work against you if you later fall out with them or they turn out to be unhinged.
On a side note I don't believe that women have it worse online. Sure, at a glance they may get a lot more sexual and upsetting messages but it's balanced out by guys being manipulated by nasty women who can quite easily use flirtation to secure a legion of white knights to gang up on someone unfairly and effectively drive them away from a community. Of course this works both ways and you can get girls who send inappropriate messages to guys and guys who use their charm to turn people against each other. I've lost a couple of online friends to that sort of nonsense so I feel pretty strongly about the issue(s).