Predators and Roleplaying Communities

[Rucket]

I’ll add to this thread.

Back in 1996-2000, I was RPing in AOL chat rooms and starting my MU RP journey. I had a number of cyber/TS scenes throughout that time when I was 15-17 with people who were admittedly in their 20s and 30s. There were people who knew I was not 18 and would still engage. They presented as female.

At the time, I thought it all very fun and exciting but I was also a horny ass teenage male, so you know, my brain wasn’t thinking of whether or not such things were appropriate. My brain was very much like sexsexsexsexsex.

I lived in rural Atlanta at the time and I even had invitations to see some of these people at Dragoncon. I never went, and over the years I’ve wondered what might have happened. Now, I just look back on it and am kind of like “What the fuck”

As an adult, I’ve strictly tried to keep any RP with people who are 18 and up. I think 18+ is generally the best policy for a MU or RP game simply because there ARE people who would do creepy stuff. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that I think RPing as underage people is super borderline to me and I will never play someone who isn’t at least 18 or 19.

[Adora]

I know no one is meaning to undermine the experiences of those of us who didn’t grow up as girls, but I just need to address this.

Spoiler

Current numbers place roughly 1 in 6, or about 16.6% of men as having experienced Child Sexual Assault as a child. I’ll be referring to it as CSA from here on out.

That number goes higher with bisexual and gay men at roughly 1 in 4 or 25% (though some studies suggest as much as 59%) experiencing CSA.

Two in three trans girls, 66% experience CSA. As a trans woman, myself, I am absolutely one of those numbers. I didn’t “grow up a girl”, but I definitely didn’t grow up a boy. Society did everything it could to make sure I knew I was not and could never be a ‘real girl’, but my experiences still more closely resemble those of my elementary and middle school girl friends than they did any of my cishet male friends.

Plenty of people who didn’t grow up girls know what it’s really like, even if we’d desperately like to forget.

[Arkandel]

@Cobalt I am really sorry this happened to you. We only crossed paths over the years sporadically but I still had no idea. I don’t know what to say. I am glad you are in a better place now.

The early years of this hobby were absolutely wild. Everyone was discovering what being ‘online’ meant; games were spawning under every rock and there was no supervision, no precedents or other people’s mistakes to learn from, unchecked anonymity for predators and very few consequences for truly vile behavior.

[Popes]

@SpaceKhomeini I have been. My membership is expired now because they swapped to Discord during Covid and it sucked and I found out I enjoyed having my Saturday nights back.

When I joined, it was fuckin bad still. Not in my area, but at cons we never let the women from our domain, or any of our friends from elsewhere, go anywhere alone. I will say that it’s vastly better now, they’ve yeeted a whole mess of creepos in the past five years or so.

[Gashlycrumb]

@L-B-Heuschkel said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

I don’t really care to go into details either. Suffice it to say I’ve been trapped in friend-relationships at least three times who turned out to be narcissist abusers. Apparently, I’m a sucker where these people are concerned – too autistic to tell that they’re lying, I guess.

Autistics are often targeted by abusers, but it’s probably more because we come pre-isolated and pre-groomed to accept the idea that our feelings and behaviors are inappropriate. We’re also probably extra-satisfying, because our attention can be extra-intense or something.

But often nobody can tell when NPD/BPD abusers are lying, because they don’t think they’re lying themselves. I used to have to take notes about shit that happened because ex would say it hadn’t, or had happened once ever when it happened twice weekly. What he’d tell and what he’d omit to his therapist projected his own emotionally abusive shit onto me.

This is just how it goes. I did a couple years in support groups about this stuff, and all of these stories would get yes, this is how it goes reactions there. Nobody here is alone.

Emotional Support Wolf says, “If they think you’re their territory they’re gonna piss all over you.”

(It’s way more complex than that, but they is lil puppy.)

[L. B. Heuschkel]

@Gashlycrumb Thank you. All of this is something I am only in the process of learning about now – at the age of 52, finally getting assessed for ADHD and autism. Turns out I very likely have both.

All those years of being told I’m just depressed or stupid. Sigh.

[Cobalt]

@Arkandel I appreciate the support but there is no need to be sorry. Very few people in the community knew the details of what was going on. You get conditioned to keep things quiet.

I have other thoughts about stuff re: trans women, male, and neurodivergent victims but my brain is a touch mush right now.

[Rucket]

@Cobalt said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

@Arkandel I appreciate the support but there is no need to be sorry. Very few people in the community knew the details of what was going on. You get conditioned to keep things quiet.

I have other thoughts about stuff re: trans women, male, and neurodivergent victims but my brain is a touch mush right now.

Yeah, abusers get off on things like control, and gaslighting people into keeping quiet is a big part of that. I am sorry you went through everything. My mom has been talking more about her experiences dealing with my dad and I think not only is it helpful for her to be doing so but I believe she has found some peace in trying to warn younger people about signs to keep watch for.

[MisterBoring]

Predatory behavior in RP communities is terrible. I hate that it happens, and I try to be there to support the victims where it’s appropriate. I’m lucky in that I haven’t had to deal with it, but I super hate that all this shit happened to all of you, and wish nothing but horrible things on your predators.

[Artemis]

Yo @Cobalt , just wanted to appreciate you for expressing this here. I feel like, had things gone just a little differently for me, I could’ve ended up in a similar situation with one of the online people I played and flirted with. I really relate to your bit about not having much of a social life in your teens and leaning on rp as a surrogate. Also got labeled slut/whore/whatever as a 14yo, though I did typically keep my age private. Anyway, though I’m no longer much a part of it, I do commend this community for how quickly and thoroughly they act on allegations of this nature, and you for your post.

[Gashlycrumb]

@L-B-Heuschkel I hope you get joy of it. Figuring out that I’m autistic and connecting with autistic community has been very good for me.

I don’t want to derail or dismiss the sexual abuse aspect of this thread, but it might be good to talk about this kind of thing in non-sexual friendships. That can be very damaging too. Also, the patterns of behavior tend to include manipulating entire friend-groups to turn on and isolate victims, and not getting lassoed into participating is probably one of the best things a person can do to prevent abuse of others.

[L. B. Heuschkel]

@Gashlycrumb said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

I don’t want to derail or dismiss the sexual abuse aspect of this thread, but it might be good to talk about this kind of thing in non-sexual friendships. That can be very damaging too.

There are many kinds of emotional abuse and manipulation. I have been fortunate enough to only experience sexual abuse offline (‘fortunate’…) but I have walked blind into co-dependent online close friendships no less than three times and gotten very badly burned all three times. Anything that helps us spot abusers, whatever kind, whether they’re self-aware or not, is good advice.

[Pavel]

@Gashlycrumb said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

it might be good to talk about this kind of thing in non-sexual friendships.

I agree. And, again, not to derail or diminish the impact of sexual abuse.

Many of you are aware of my past association with someone of such ill repute that they’re essentially persona non grata, with that association in part leading to me making rather immoral decisions in a position of authority.

It’s been a long time since then, but I’m fairly sure that counts as a predatory relationship. Like abuse of a sexual nature, it’s often so difficult to tell when you’re being preyed upon or manipulated that you don’t really know if you should, or indeed can, turn to anyone.

[Rinel]

@Pavel said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

someone of such ill repute that they’re essentially persona non grata

This ranges from “Rinel in some places” to “SpiderVA” and you’re gonna need to be way more specific

[Coin]

@Rinel said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

@Pavel said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

someone of such ill repute that they’re essentially persona non grata

This ranges from “Rinel in some places” to “SpiderVA” and you’re gonna need to be way more specific

He means VASpider.

[Pavel]

@Rinel said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

@Pavel said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

someone of such ill repute that they’re essentially persona non grata

This ranges from “Rinel in some places” to “SpiderVA” and you’re gonna need to be way more specific

I absolutely do not.

[Rinel]

@Pavel
I just wanted to know if we were friends

[Pavel]

@Rinel said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

@Pavel
I just wanted to know if we were friends

I don’t see any of you as friends.
I see you all as future clients.

[Cobalt]

@Pavel Don’t lie, bb. you know you crave my friendship

[Rinel]

@Pavel said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

@Rinel said in Predators and Roleplaying Communities:

@Pavel
I just wanted to know if we were friends

I don’t see any of you as friends.
I see you all as future clients.

Wait what do you do