What a horrible experience. Unfortunately, all games I have seen have some sort of harassment. I am always thankful, and remind myself, that at least it's online and that not only are the harassers more or less anonymous, but so too am I. However, instead of devolving into a name-calling war, I find it is much easier to distance myself from harassers. Most games have ignores, reporting, and ways of avoiding harassers or at least minimizing their presence.
So a few things:
First, of course, ignore each and everyone of these players, after you ss their pm to you.
Second, email to sts, explaining your situation and how this is harassment. Then refer to your reports of people for harassment. Also, send a forum pm to a couple devs with your background
Third, and only if you want to, take a break by playing an alt for a week to a month. You can still log in your main, but the idea is that unless people see or are constantly reminded of you, human brain cells are generally incapable of recalling anything more current than the last week or so. Once in awhile, long term stuff from many years ago comes through, but in general, the only thing people recall is what is immediate. So if you make yourself scarce, they will begin to forget you and start confusing other people for you, etc. Amazingly enough, you can still play your main. Just try not to bring too much attention to yourself and maybe curtail your daily play to less than 5 hours. If you can change your patterns at all of play, then do that. I have no idea why this works, but it doesn't take more than a week to a month before people start asking if you are an old player, if you are <some other player>, or how you get old stuff, etc., i.e. they no longer have any idea who you are, even if you have been around for over 7 years.
Unfortunately, the only way to protect your own sanity, besides game admin taking an interest, is to distance yourself from these people. They are not on in every part of the game at every hour.
Lastly, attempt to minimize their effect on your psyche. Part of this is for you to change locations, log off or otherwise remove yourself from these types of people's presence when you encounter them. Part is to acquire allies, so when something or someone distresses you, you have a shoulder to cry on. This really helps a lot. The ally should also be sympathetic and be willing to lend you a ear. After all these years in this game, you should have some good friends. Rely on those. Part is to try to stay positive in your own mind. This will probably require a mantra of some sort, such as "these are bullies. stay strong" or some other words to bolster yourself.
Originally Posted by ___Dexsie___
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