Harrassment on World of Warcraft
Recently, I (and by “I” I mean, my female night elf druid on WoW) was taking the boat between Auberdine and Menethil Harbor when two guys hopped into the boat as well. Nothing odd there.
But then I see the following text on my screen:
“I’m gonna rape u bitch.”
At first I just blinked, and then stared in confusion. Were they talking to me? Or just being idiots with each other? At first I thought the latter, and just rolled my eyes, but the text just kept on coming.
“I’m gonna rape u bitch.”
“I’m gonna rape u bitch.”
And then the two male characters moved up on my character really close and skept spamming similiarly disturbing commentary.
It was probably the most unsettling gaming experience I’ve ever had. I meant to screencap the text so I could post about it with evidence but my computer lagged out at that moment and I lost it all. When I logged back in, I saw the guys doing the same thing to another female character who had gotten on the boat. I thought I screencaped that but for some reason I can’t find the image. If I do, I’ll come back and edit this with the picture.
The odd thing about the experience is that even though it was in game, and they couldn’t actually do anything to me, I still felt helpless. I couldn’t get off the boat, I couldn’t do anything but sit there and wait to land on the other continent so I could get off and away.
It made me wonder how a guy gamer playing a female character would have felt in a similar situation. Because as a female, you experience these things much differently than I imagine a guy would.
It’s strange because when you play a video game you do it to escape reality, and yet after a while you start to realize that nowhere is truly safe. You can get the best armor, do 3K crits in damage, and still feel utterly helpless in the face of things like this.
Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else out there? How did you handle it?
Me? I just got off the boat and got away. I regret that. I missed their names (thinking I had the screencap), and I meant to report them. But at that moment, all I really wanted to do was run.
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POSTED IN: Culture, MMORPG, WTF, World of Warcraft
18 opinions for Harrassment on World of Warcraft
KumoriJinsoku
Feb 8, 2007 at 3:25 am
What server are you on? What time did this happen?
Also, when you are in World of Warcraft and you take a screenshot, it saves the picture under a different format. If the screenshots are there but you can’t open them, try Irfanview. It’s a program that reads many different picture formats and you still might be able to report these guys.
what
Feb 12, 2007 at 10:45 am
You know what they always say: “people don’t kill people, text kills people”
Bobby
Feb 12, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Yes! This exact same thing happened to me too! Two Nightelf girls boarded the zappelin and I looked at the chat and could not believe my eyes. It, it said said…
“Take your chest piece off! Right now!”
I was a little bit shy so I told them I don’t want to do it, but they kept nagging me to do so. Their comments became more and more inappropriate, eventually (oh my) they they called me me a “naughty boy”.
Which I am not, so I reported them. I hope those girls get banned, it was a terrible experience.
amy
Feb 13, 2007 at 4:12 am
One time this guy moved really close to me while I was at the auction house. I think he wanted to touch my virtual boob.
I politely told him that he should move back a little because he was invading my personal virtual space, but he just stood there for a few minutes without any emotions, didn’t even react to what I said at all!
Finally I figured it out… I moved away myself and what a relief! I never want to go into that twisted place again.
Ringmaster
Feb 14, 2007 at 3:34 am
If this is the biggest problem you have in life, you’re doing just fine. Being offended by children is just plain stupid.
Darren
Feb 14, 2007 at 2:34 pm
“I still felt helpless. I couldn’t get off the boat, I couldn’t do anything but sit there and wait to land on the other continent so I could get off and away.”
Um… you can always jump off the side of the boat, you’ll just be stuck in the middle of the ocean. Makes you think what was more important, getting to the other continent, or feeling helpless while 2 virtual characters had fun at your expense.
There’s always another option.
Oh, and if it was so devastating to you, you would’ve taken a screencap and turned them in to Blizzard.
KumoriJinsoku
Feb 15, 2007 at 7:31 am
@ 6: She TRIED to take a screenshot. When she left, she couldn’t find it.
“I missed their names (thinking I had the screencap), and I meant to report them.”
Another thing you can do is /ignore them. Then put an in-game ticket. Hopefully some high level rouge on the opposite faction will gank them. :)
Ingrid
Feb 20, 2007 at 3:35 am
lol if only it were a PvP server, Kumori, no ganking for them. :)
Boris
Feb 20, 2007 at 3:26 pm
If it was a PVP server your would of gone to the graveyard long ago in char n IRL.
Sian
Mar 31, 2007 at 3:50 am
It’s a little sad to think that someone would behave like that but there’s always the ignore button.
I know of someone who was being bombarded with in game mails of an unsavoury nature and I believe that was reported, but if it was an isolated incident I’d chalk it up to experience.
As you said, it’s suppost to be an escape from ‘real’ life and I wouldn’t let something like that spook me, definately not.
Alison loves Warcraft » Blog Archive »
May 27, 2007 at 10:55 pm
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@,....,@
May 29, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Two Nightelf girls boarded the zappelin and I looked at the chat and could not believe my eyes. It, it said said…
“Take your chest piece off! Right now!”
I was a little bit shy so I told them I don’t want to do it, but they kept nagging me to do so. Their comments became more and more inappropriate, eventually (oh my) they they called me me a “naughty boy”.
You should’ve played along. I know I would…hehehehe!
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May 25, 2008 at 4:58 pm
[...] saturated electronic gaming from before Dibbell’s MUD times, right through to Second Life and Worldof [...]
satine
May 26, 2008 at 9:24 am
I agree with you, Ingrid. It was harassment and very, very offensive.
There is a big difference between “take your chest piece off” and “I’m gonna rape u bitch”.
“If this is the biggest problem you have in life, you’re doing just fine.” Sure, because putting up with sexism isn’t a big problem.
robienne
May 26, 2008 at 9:37 am
some of the obvious, privileged asswipe douchebags commenting need to put down the cheetos, and the Mountain Dew get out of the basement and check out the Real World Graphics Version 2.0, and while doing so, might take themselves to Feminism 101, a blog or to the women’s studies section at the library.
Shitheads, let me try to explain it to you in simplistic terms. Harrassement, Rape, or other unprovoked verbal assault, is NEVER,EVER OKAY, either in a virtual world, or in real life. This may very well have been two dickwad 13 year old boys who have watched too much Misgoynistic rap/hiphop videos, but the issue remains the same, these doucheasses wanted to control a woman’s experience. Yes, by making her hit ignore, or jump off the boat. These asswipe dickwads wanted to control her and her experience in WoW. And you all with your privileged shithead comments reinforce it by blaming the victim that she should have ignored or by making jokes about it by genderbending it with our night elf girls. Which if you think Rape either virtual or not is something to joke about you have more problems than your cheeto stained fingers.
Get the fuck out of the house, read a godsdamn book every once and awhile, you may start with It’s a Jungle out there by Amanda Marcotte.
Psycho
Jul 17, 2008 at 6:58 pm
You know, I do like cheetos, and I do live in the basement. However thats cause im 17, and I take offense to what you said. On a different note, if you let something so simple as that online get to you, your gonna have a lot of problems in real time. Get over it, get off your high horse. Not saying I do what those guys did, but really, its ONLINE. Your body wasnt touched, all they did was whisper and type, ignore them, jump off the boat, heck LAUGH IN THEIR FACE. Some people need to be more like fighters and less like more people are turning into, complaining, do nothing about it lazy talkers.
DJ
Dec 15, 2008 at 6:21 pm
first u did nothign wrong, but should def report from now on stuff like that. the rest of u who act like its her fault and blame her for not doing whatever, ur a bunch of idiots and ur the type of person that promotes this bs, real men will put u in ur place in this world, and to the one that said the gy in real life, u best be very careful not to find urself around me in real life.
Aaron
Dec 18, 2008 at 6:19 am
Hey Robienne,
Wow, what vulgarity! It’s feminazis like you that make it difficult for anyone to have any freedom whatsoever. How can I take you seriously when you cannot state your opinion without such asinine language? Obviously it’s not okay to say your gonna rape someone, but when you are confronted by such immature behavior, why feed it with comments like yours? Then they win, they have made someone a “victim” yet again. I am in agreement with those who say that if that is the worst thing you have to face, you’re doing well. Make a report to Blizz if it happens again, but whining about it on a blog to rile up feminazis like yourself is unproductive. I was not going to comment, but after reading your literary diarrhea, felt compelled to respond. I am, by the way, someone who lives in the real world, holds a good job, an education and a family. I have had to deal with people like you for far too long and will not let your comments go unanswered.
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