One quirk of some early MMORPGs was that character names weren’t always unique. It was possible to roll multiple characters with precisely the same name and appearance, and whatever unique identification system the game did have was completely hidden from the players.
Hijinks ensued, as you might imagine, when unsavory types rolled characters to trick their fellow players. I was fooled once myself way back in the early days of Ultima Online, when an outcast former guildie rolled up a perfect clone of our recruiting officer and managed to bluff his way into our castle and safehouses until we figured out the scam.
Modern MMOs usually prohibit reuse of character names, or at the least they’ll append some other unique signifier to help players avoid mistaken identity. But there are plenty of scams in MMOs still, particularly in lowbie areas, where naive newbies and trusting kids (like I was back then!) swarm. Maybe the most widespread is the lottery scam, so virulent that some games, like World of Warcraft, outlaw player-run lotteries entirely.
Have you ever been scammed in an MMO? What’s the worst scam you’ve ever seen, and in which game did it take place?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
