Been watching some of Ross' older videos and ran into the birthday video. So here's my one good MMO story from ye olde 2008 or 2009
When I was younger (10 or so), I got into the world of MMOs with Runescape. My parents were fortunately to pay for the $5.00/month subscription (RIP) as long as I kept my grades up in school and did my chores. Thinking back on it that was probably a hell of a good deal for them, lol. But this isn't a Runescape story, since a lot of my friends bailed on the game after a couple years. I lost interest since the social aspect was generally why I played those games. So I figured I'd try to find something F2P instead of doing the song and dance of trying to convince my parents to pay for random P2P MMOs I found. Surely there had to be something.
Couldn't tell you how many copy-paste mostly eastern MMOs I played when I was younger trying to find one that fit, but I eventually landed on Rubies of Eventide thanks to a 'top 10 free online games' article. I spent a lot of time just wandering the first area and town hub area, gawking at high level players milling around. Eventually I worked up the nerve to ask one of them how he got his armor, since I thought it looked cool and I wanted it for my character. After I badgered him a bit with follow-up questions, he ended up inviting me to his guild 'Cool Kids Club.' It was a small guild (<50 people). The leader amicably broke off from another group to make their own guild after some vague drama they'd never elaborate on. I wish I remembered their names but it's been over a decade.
Wholesome story so far, right? Well, it only goes downhill from here. There was a rivalry between two of the founding members. For the sake of reference I'll call them Person1 and Person2. Apparently they had known one another outside of the game and grew up together, but some incident drove a wedge between them. Late at night (when the guild officers were asleep) they'd be at eachother's throats about some minor incident that had happened in a dungeon or something. Any spark could set them off and derail whatever was happening in the guild chat, and even the small events they would host. The guild leader thought it was funny so he never banned them outright. It was amusing to watch most of the time but I learned a lot of swears and slurs a 10 year old shouldn't have known. This feud ended up fracturing the guild to the point where 'Cooler Kids Club' guild was formed by Person2 out of spite. They would make alts and harrass members of CKC, myself included.
From this point I only have the decade-old memories of second-hand accounts of others in the guild. Person1 ended up deleting all of their characters and quitting the game, because Person2 found out Person1's irl address and started sending them weird notes in the mail. They both lived in the United States and were a ~2 hour drive from one another, according to a friend of Person1. Many guild members assumed it was a catfish, since Person1 would often talk about their naughty encounters with internet hookups. This is why you shouldn't let kids have unfiltered access to the internet, among other reasons. It all came to a head when Person1 had a brick fly through their window, or someone randomly banging at the door at night on multiple occasions. Then the police got involved and Person1 stopped talking about it with the few people they did stay in contact with.
I recounted some of this to my dad at the time, since we'd always talk about the games we were playing, and that was when I got the lecture of not giving away personal information on the internet. Fortunately I hadn't told them anything personal beyond the fact that I had a dog, but it definitely spooked me enough to quit the game. Fun stuff.