MJ’s coverage of the new gravedigging mechanics in Path of Exile (bury corpses of whole families together for a stat boost!) got me thinking about some of the macabre things we can do in MMORPGs. My first real experience with this kind of weird taboo stuff came from watching gankers in Ultima Online murder player characters, cut their corpses into body parts, and then cook said body parts into meat. And then eat it. Gross, but also kind of hilarious, especially when the PKs ran around with titles like “The Dread Lord Bob, Grandmaster Chef.” (Extra hilarious when I learned how to fight back and eventually put together my own box of chopped-off ganker heads! That box of heads was one of my most prized possessions in MMOs, and I’m still sad I sold it along with my old account way back when. But I needed a car more.)
And then there are some memories that make me question things more deeply. In the first year of UO, a buddy of mine used to collect rare-colored sandals, and the only way to get them was from blue NPCs. So he set up a character explicitly to go from town to town, looking for quest NPCs with desirable sandals, then he’d take their escort mission, gate them to the middle of nowhere, and then… murder them and take their sandals. In other words, he was kind of a serial killer? But I got a sweet pair of natural black sandies out of it back before we could just dye them. So I guess I was his teenage accomplice? MMORPGs are weird, guys.
What’s the most macabre thing you’ve done or seen in an MMORPG?
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!
