You probably don’t know this about me, but one of my hobby subjects is pseudoscience and conspiracies and why people fall for them. I’ve been fascinated with the topic since I was a kid, and it’s personally motivated; I’ve had family and friends be mentally and financially swindled by cults, alt-med, occult, and even 9/11 truther conspiracy nonsense.
Of course, those are genuinely harmful lies. Here in the MMO world, our conspiracies are more benign and dumb, once you clip away the Kickstarter and crypto scams. For example, I’ve seen MMO players cling to repeatedly disproven theorycrafting (anyone remember “eating makes you skill faster” in Ultima Online?), stalwartly maintain conspiracies about City of Heroes’ and Star Wars Galaxies’ sunsets that developers long since debunked, and float the idea that Tencent is on a secret government mission to take over the world. Just a few months ago while doing research for an MMO, I stumbled into a whole conspiracy about a certain warmongery country using gaming influencers for tactical propaganda. Actually that one might be true, but I backed right back out of that rabbit hole.
What’s your favorite MMO conspiracy? Let’s hear some of the wildest ones you’ve heard, whether you buy into them or not!
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!
