Quote Originally Posted by Jessica_VS View Post
Out of curiosity, is in-game stalking common? How does it start---with (now-former) friends, or strangers? I'm guessing that this is happening more often to women?

I feel fortunate because I've been gaming online since I was a child (so, for about two decades), and although I've encountered all kinds of "interesting" people, I have never been stalked/harassed to this sort of magnitude. Not to make too much light of things, but I feel left out here. Tell them they can stalk and harass me so I can sell them books and workout advice, or at least consider them a legion of adoring albeit confused fans.
I honestly don't wish it upon anyone because the whole 'I don't feel safe anymore' isn't a great feeling to feel and irl stalking usually ends up in the death of the victim because it's not really taken seriously until something 'happens', so in a sense it's a pretty scary thing.

Not on this game but another and it persisted for 4 years on social media. Someone who apparently got attached to me despite only knowing me for maybe a month, decided I was the only love of his life, he followed me around, he'd spam my inbox, he'd create new accounts to try and pretend he's someone else and 'trick' me into talking to him without me knowing. Prolonged messages about if I didn't talk to him he'll game end himself, he infilterated my friend circles and I essentially had to leave it all.

Another in GW2 when I was younger and new, someone took fancy to 'helping' me, I thought he was being really nice then he started to get abusive and obssessive and when I tried to put some boundaries and that didn't work (I blocked him) he started stalking me ingame until I quit for months (luckily he didn't have any social media because I stopped using it).

I really miss the time when I was really social but it's good to remind myself that danger isn't always around the corner. It's really hard for someone who has recently dealt with such things or is currently dealing with it imo...It's nice that SE is trying to give us agency over how our information is displayed; I think it's a step in the right direction.