180: When I was a Sex Goddess

[Fuuten]

I'd like to say first that I am very impressed with your ability to mold words. I'm sure those hapless players that fell into your dryad's trap found themselves in a situation unmatched in thier gaming career.

This article is particularly interesting to me because I am extremely interested in the effect words can have on people. I often feel that, if crafted properly, a few words can have an equal or sometimes more powerful effect on a person than a tactile sensation. I'm happy to see people that haven't forgotten that they have senses other than sight.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. It was very interesting. Hope to see more of your work some time. : D

 

[CanadianWolverine]

I used to play a MUD called Adventures in Ancient Wisdom (AAW) as a character named (surprise, surprise) Wolverine, Monk/Cleric, and well, the thing I find most interesting about your article is that I didn't really encounter cybering, though there was a lot of role playing, so I did see other characters get involved in relationships and marriages. Heh, kinda funny now thinking about it, how its like my character took a vow of chastity when I am anything but in real life. Man, role playing is all kinds of fun.

 

[BadXAsh]

A perfect example of leave em better than you got em!

*Bows* Thank you, that's exactly how I like to look at it!

 

[SlayerGhede]

Very romantic way to meet your husband. If you ignore the fact that it occurred in a text-based game of roleplaying, it has a bit of a Greek flavor to it. I'd put some florid description here, but I think I've lost enough man-cards today.

 

[Fugue]

Hmm. I never got into MUDs and RPing, though in retrospect I did have a whirlwind romance where both of us were playing fantasy. It spilled over into real life in delightful fashion (we were both single and looking for love at the time anyway) but when the reality set in we eventually had to call it off.

Still, it formed a very strong intellectual attachment between us and our friendship holds to this day. When it's text, the words are coming straight from another. That forms part of the quality that separates it from images.

 

[bikeninja]

I fist online RP "text sext" (as my friends would mock call it) when I was 13. I was immature and didn't know what I was doing, it was a joke at first. I built a relationship, married, and "honeymooned" with a female character in one day. I laughed the whole time.
But a few years later I started doing it again. But I was serious this time. I built an actual relationship between our characters. I only rarely had sexual exploits, and only after RPing the relationship for awhile.
Now that I have a serious relationship in real life, I RP romances less and less. I build them up with my characters online, but don't get sexual (and I often explain this too the other partner). It's too many emotions running through my head, it feels like cheating.

I understand that others can do this even though they have RL relationships, and this article has helped shed light onto why.

 

[bikeninja]

Haha, should also mention that my girlfriends last relationship was met through a MUD. The guy was really sweet online, and they met. He was similar to his RP character at first, but after they started dating he became a real jerk (oh, and was 4 years older than her too).
Just a warning to be careful when meeting people from online (but I'm sure everyone is mature enough about that.)

 

[Sewblon]

No one has ever hit on me online or in real life. What am I doing wrong? should I play as a dark elf on WAR?

 

[Unholykrumpet]

No one has ever hit on me online or in real life. What am I doing wrong? should I play as a dark elf on WAR?

Honestly, I have no idea why sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. I had a friend over at my house for a solid week, and one day when he was out I had a girl I was kind of in the process of dating over. She played a really old free MMO that I had never heard of, and wanted to try World of Warcraft. I called up my friend and he allowed her to make a character on his account so I could create a new character with her. When we were choosing realms, I made a joke about how we'd just get hit on a lot on an RP server, and she laughed and was like "let's play a game then. Let's level up individually in different zones, and we'll see who gets hit on more." It felt awkward, but she convinced me into it. My now level 51 Shadow Priest Night Elf named Strawberry was born.

By the time I was level ten, Strawberry had already been hit on at least a dozen times by various guys, and a high level character kept following her around giving her gold to dance in a seductive dress he gave her. My friend, who had created a rather attractive female human named AngelWing had been hit on about eight times. The fact that we both had so many within three hours of character creation shocked me, but the idea that having an attractive female avatar can actually get you ahead in the game (that weird pervert gave me twenty gold total, which was quite a bit for such a low level to have) shocked me even more. I enjoy playing a shadowpriest, so I have kept playing Strawberry from time to time, and she's gotten a free mount, many free runs through places when she was looking for a group, and a lot of free profession materials...my male warlock never received jack shit.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

No one has ever hit on me online or in real life. What am I doing wrong? should I play as a dark elf on WAR?

she's gotten a free mount, many free runs through places when she was looking for a group, and a lot of free profession materials...my male warlock never received jack shit.

I can relate to that. Happened to my friend when she made a character on my account. She has recieved more free stuff for simply being a female Nelf than any of my male characters.
Probably more than all of them together to be honest.

To the article: I can also relate. I'm currently playing on a popular browser-based MMORPG.

I've seen alot of people live out romance stories, and even gained myself a bit of a reputation for favouring romance.

 

[Girlysprite]

Hm, I know some funny old stuff when it comes to gender and sexual roleplay.

My bf and I play on MMO's together. However, I often play male avatars, he likes female avatars (no particular reasons). Sometimes people get to know we are a couple, but they always make the wrong guess on who is who.

I have played on roleplay servers of neverwinter nights. There was a no cybering rule. Didn't stop people from doing it in the weirdest of places. Dungeonmasters often found such couples in crypts and forests...but the funny part is; people undress, so they don't wear their powerful gear anymore. All you need to do as dungeon master is spawn some monsters.
On another occasion, a dungeon master discovered a couple going at it, and alarmed the complete DM team and told them to log on. Avatars are invisble to players. They made screenshots of the couple, with all the DM avatars around it, who emoted things such as eating popcorn and passing along the cola.

Also, I have seen people at a rl meeting of this community who planned their character weddings...that is...2 guys sitting together to plan their characters wedding. It was kinda sweet actually.

Weirdest thing ever; My male character got a romance with a female character...who was played by a male. But it was actually the most fun roleplay relation I ever had

 

[Chilango2]

To this day, I have yet to find any modern MMO that felt as magical as the MUD I got sucked into in the late 90's early naughties. For good or for ill, roleplaying seemed to just *occur* there, rather than having to creating a perserve whereing the endangered species could survive..

 

[Greyhawk]

To this day, I have yet to find any modern MMO that felt as magical as the MUD I got sucked into in the late 90's early naughties. For good or for ill, roleplaying seemed to just *occur* there, rather than having to creating a perserve whereing the endangered species could survive..

That is because MUDs required the player to use their imagination.

 

[Chilango2]

That is because MUDs required the player to use their imagination.

I think that's true to an extent, but it was also because the mechanics of the game (Gemstone 3, to be specific, but these days its Gemstone 4 I hear) actually encouraged roleplay. Basically, when you killed a monster, you didn't get the experience right away, instead it went into an experience 'bucket' whcih then got *processed* at a steady rate of X per minute. You could only fill the 'bucket' to a certain point, after which you could absorb no more experience to process. So you'd head back to town, where there would be nodes where you would recover mana and health faster, as well as process experience faster. This encouraged in game communal gatherings, which in turn encouraged roleplay.

The final element was a GM presence that was serious about coming down hard on people who acted out of character in public. That alone would make things very different. It's honestly sad that in eveyr modern MMO I have played, the roleplaying rules are some sort of elaborate joke: they are practically never enforced, not even on a 'roleplay' server.

 

[vaga_koleso]

The white elephant in the room is that there are really very few people out there who have both the imagination AND the writing skill to pull off the kind of on-line relationship that Amanda is talking about. And, unfortunately, (and in spite of some of the earlier comments in this thread), I find that this is an awfully difficult thing to teach. Most people end up putting their foot in their mouth about 5 minutes into a conversation. That, plus our insatiable thirst for instant gratification (most people don't have the patience for long online conversations) accounts for the replacement of MUDs with graphical MMOs. The latter are simply addressing the needs of the vast majority of the general public.

The really interesting part of this article, at least to me, is not in the thought that text can be more expressive than graphics - I think most intelligent people already recognize that. What's more fascinating is the glimpse into the psychology of attraction - and how it translates into online communities. The bottom line, it seems, is that in the end, the difference of on-line vs. real-life becomes immaterial. In both cases you end up with a lot of duds before you meet someone you actually like, and in both cases that special someone can evoke real emotion and ultimately, real love. What's different is just the mechanics of the experience. Online, meeting new people is extremely easy, but establishing a relationship is much harder because you need extremely strong written communication skills. In real life, much more effort is required to actually meet people (you have to get yourself dressed, physically go to places and introduce yourself to people), but then establishing [an exploratory] relationship is much easier because you can use a much wider variety of communication mediums. So in the end, it's really two different paths to the same place. All roads lead to Rome, as they say.

 

[Cadren]

This is the kind of article that I just don't see on other sites, well done. Never read anything from you before, but I certainly think it takes something to put your name to something that some people could see as embaressing. Good work.

Agreed.

It's interesting to see discussion on the topic that isn't ashamed of it.

 

[Spacelord]

I was just thinking: how awesome would something like this be in a blog format? The adventures of the MUD succubus. Okay, it needs a better name. Also, great material for a short story. I recognise a lot from OP's description of the seduction-induced drama she started, and it makes me almost nostalgic. I'd really love to hear more about your exploits.

 

[Smokescreen]

What this article reminds me of is this not-so-simple fact:

We all want some kind of community.

And communities mean relationships of various levels. If we cannot find them in the world around us, we will reach out for them wherever we can find them.

Falling in love or making friends online might seem weird to some (and in my opinion it has to be followed up with the ability to meet up occasionally and give someone a hug) but eventually we all want to be with a group of people who are actually interested in how we're doing today.

 

[AnGeL.SLayer]

Hmmm I must say this is a very different and yet dangerous artical. It's more or less summing up the darker nature of women....or better yet the nature of a girl to a women. I see your all reacting to this in the context of love and romance but its far from just that. Why would she be ashmed of love? online or not. Shes ashamed because this is what all women face at some point or another. The personal drive to dominate men...in every possible way. The need to know you control them from every angle and they cant do anything about it. Cold hearted, yes, but I'm not claiming it isn't.

Whats even more interesting is the way all you guys are reacting to this. She didn't come by that title by accident, it was purpose and drive to know she could get what she wanted from any guy she crossed paths with. The need to control anyone she wished to. Thats why shes sorry and why shes ashamed of her past. Sex was just another tool to use.

I must say, I've been down this road a time or two and I'm not proud of it either. You see an agronant guy with all his friends and you want nothing more than to crush him for it, knock him down a few notches you could say. Though its something you have to face and even writing a blip on it is hard to do let alone admit. A darker side where you exploit the nature of men. (sorry guys, you make it easy >.<'') Hopefully most women grow out of this...though some dont and all you guys know the ones I'm talking about. Honestly, you see them ALL the time on gaming forums like this. Just another tool to be used.

All women want to be adored, some are willing to do more to get what they want. No matter who gets hurt in the end. Sad but true. and yeah I realize not all girls show this trait so clearly, but its there and they all have done something or other to test themselfs.

Keep in mind I mean this all friendly...perhaps as a wake up call to some guys out there.

And any girl who denies this is a lair. lol just trust me on this one, I beg you.


^_^