Get your grimaces and side-eyes on: Kotaku put a piece out last week about “sugar daddies” in MMOs, proving once again that this genre is the mainstream’s favorite whipping boy. The publication interviewed a handful of MMO players across a number of MMOs who have been propositioned or simply creeped on by people offering in-game stuff in exchange for various… let’s call them “services.”
Now, I’ve been playing MMOs for 19 years now, and I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m female (even when I was a teenager and should’ve), and somehow I’ve managed to avoid the bulk of this. I have dude friends and guildies, but we all share a lot of our stuff. I have been propositioned by both people I liked and actual stalkers, but never in exchange for loot, not even in Star Wars Galaxies where I played actual entertainers.
I don’t doubt the players’ stories one bit — they are anecdotal data points as legitimate as mine — but do you think the genre actually has a widespread problem to the degree that MMO studios and communities should do something about it other than cluck their tongues in disapproval? Have you ever been propositioned in an MMO for loot? Do you think it was because, as Kotaku suggests, you were playing a female character?
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!
