Of Butter-Trolls and Cyber-Whores

Time for a bit of blatant stereotyping. There are three types of women who play MMORPGs: those who just want to have fun, those who've been hooked through their husbands, and those who crave attention. This article is about the latter. This is a true story, in which I played a small part. Names have been changed to protect the guilty, and screenshots have been doctored. Now I'll freely admit that I've had my fair share of run-ins with the type, but nothing to rival this ... so I introduce to you my friend Timmie and his nemesis, Cyber Whore:

The game: MxO. The time: April 2006. I think the first time I met Cyber Whore was at a party, can't remember what on earth it was for now. From the looks of the few screenshots surviving from that era, it was probably held at the Polyvinyl on the Syntax instance. When we first met her in the Polyvinyl she was in Digital Reality, although that didn't last for long. At first after the party I paid little attention to Cyber Whore, although later I found that Timmie had gotten chatting to her outside the game. The next I really heard of her is when Timmie came to me to manage her membership application, I was handling recruitment at that stage.

So, Cyber Whore joined up with our faction. And I must admit that I grew to quite like her, getting to know her like I would any other member. She acted quite normal and, in time, her and Timmie started to have deep, meaningful chats over MSN. The relationship soon blossomed into something more, with Timmie and Cyber Whore spending hours on the phone to each and swapping some interesting pictures. There was even talk of Timmie moving overseas from Europe to London, where Cyber Whore lived.

A few weeks later things with Timmie and Cyber Whore seemed to be getting a bit strained. She was carrying on without a care in the world, but Timmie was getting more and more worried when she refused to talk to him seriously about the future. He was supposed to be meeting her in London in just a few months time, but she claimed e-mails from her dad weren't getting through to him because he kept adding .co.uk to the end, or other silly little excuses.

One day Cyber Whore claimed that her MSN account had been hacked, so she started a new one. I never got the details of this one. A few days later, she started talking to me in-game and claimed that she was being stalked and had been attacked. She thought it was the same guy who had hacked her MSN. I listened with increasing agitation, while she told me that she didn't want to talk to Timmie about it. Eventually I managed to convince her (or was this planned?) to talk to Timmie. This is really best explained through chat-logs (edited for privacy and brevity, of course):

Cyber Whore: Theres something we need to talk about

Timmie: Ok

Cyber Whore: Ive spoken about it with rocky and he thinks (as do i) the best thing to do was tell you so i thought ok, was just building up courage. Have you noticed me acting kinda differently lately?Like im not all there or i dont seem my usual self or anything?

Timmie: Well... I didn't like the sound of "there's something we need to talk about"... so there's 100's of thoughts running through my mind.

Cyber Whore: Basically. about a week ago, i got attacked. The guy got away, and said he'll be back, and well hes been back. This guy is stalking me, and i think he may be the same person who hacked into my msn account. This guy knows me, personal details and where i live he knows my friends, he even knew about conversations ive had with you. But i dont know who he is, he could be one of my friends. The guy, every time ive seen him, wears like a mask covering his face, all ive seen are his eyes. My cousin is a policeman he doesnt live far away so he's been here a couple of times making sure im ok and everything

Timmie: You're scaring me... Well, not you.. but what you're telling..

Cyber Whore: Basically a few days ago on mxo i was acting weird and when i tried to talk to rocky i got pissed off and yelled at him and then explained what was wrong and he helped my through it. I dont know if and when this guy might attempt to see or attack me again but its got me acting weird lately and if you've been noticing that im sorry

Timmie: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cyber Whore: Thing that scares me is that it could be one of my friends. I didnt know how to say it and i didnt know how you would react or deal with it. the last thing i wanted to do was scare you off. And I love you too

Timmie: Scare me off? Of course not silly... I want to be there for you... no matter what happens...

Cyber Whore: I'ts just this kind of thing has happened to me before. Being attacked. And this one guy who was the one that stabbed me, he tried to rape me and I've just had that on my mind so much lately and I've been scared. And another thing you need to know. That guy, we got into a fight. And i ended up killing him, it was in self defence and the police found that obvious

Timmie: Is the other fight how you broke your wrist?

Cyber Whore: Yes it is

...

Timmie: Well.. err lemme think.. How does this guy know about what you've been up to? Like what you said about conversations with me? Chat-history, or some other way? Like, what about the emails I sent to your old address? Blegh nvm, I make it sound like it's about me. Did he... did he say anything else? Or at all... except for being back.

Cyber Whore: Hmm well he texted me this morning saying something. just 11: 15............21.... I'll be waiting. Which is scary because I think he means 11 15pm on the 21st, which is tonight, and about an hour and 8 mins away

Timmie: What'd you do about it?

Cyber Whore: i have no idea>

Timmie: Parents are home etc?

Cyber Whore: nope

Timmie: ... You can't seriously be home alone? Can't you like... call a friend? Like, a girl friend

Cyber Whore: None could really get here at this time. and a lot live far away. I'd ask Phoebe but shes in hospital with her Grandmother and staying over night in Bath

Timmie: Hmn. Where are your folks then?

Cyber Whore: Staying over at my sisters house for the night. someone is dropping something off in the morning that needs to be picked up and my sis and bro in law are on holiday for ther anniversairy

Around 1am that night, around an hour after I went to bed, Matt called me and told me to turn on the computer because Timmie needed to talk to me. Again, it's probably easier explained with chat logs:

Me: what's up?

Timmie: i'm on the phone with “Cyber Whore”. all psycho babble. there's a dude in her house. they fought. she got cut

Me: oh shit

Timmie: police on the way

Me: good. how much has she told you?

Timmie: everything. i'm on the phone all the way already

Me: I told her to get in thouch with you earlier. is she ok though, no major blodloss or anytthing?

Timmie: don't think so

Me: thank god for that then. sorry if my typing's to shit, Tax just woke me up. So, is he still on the loose or did she knock him out?

Timmie: he's knocked. they fell down the stairs

Me: parents there?

Timmie: no

Me: Does she at least have some way ofkeeping him down?

Timmie: she's too scared to get up. he's knocked out pretty good. police on the way. but I have no idea

Me: does she know the guy, or hasn't checked?

Timmie: wearing a mask. afraid to check

Me: Right. ETA of polica?

Timmie: now

Me: good. maybe we'll find out just what the fuck has been going on then

Timmie: she's acting so fucking weird. even now

Me: “Timmie”, she's 16. This is the second time someone's tried to rape/attack her. I can't fucking blame her

Timmie: Then why the FUCK aren't her parents over there. Goddammit they're at her sis' house because someone's delivering a package.: While they fucking know what's happened. That's INSANE! I wouldn't leave my kid alone for over an hour!

Me: this's been going on for over a week. Why the fuck did they leave her?

Timmie: And now there's some kid talking. saying to be her cousin. with a voice of a 15yr old

Me: This is so damn unreal.

Timmie: So this being unreal makes me partly not believe it

Me: Let me be brutally honest, and be an utter prick

Timmie: do it

Me: Part of me wants to think this is an utter fabrication

Timmie: amen. That's about 80% of me. But I'm shutting up about it of course

Me: of course

Timmie: Someone on her msn now. may be her

Me: I don't know, I really don't

Timmie: Ok that's it I don't believe it anymore

Me: why?

Timmie: "”Timmie” you there sweety? I can't get through to your phone again". Mere minute after I hung up and she was passed out

Me: hmm

Timmie: I don't know man. This is not how this stuff works

Me: I know your feelings about internet dating, and I also know that she's been feeling like you've been kinda ignoring her except for the whole I (heart) you think lately

Timmie: THey don't let you fucking go your own way after something like what she discribed

Me: so a cry for attention is what you think?

Timmie: no idea man. I'm just... wth

Me: what a fucking mind-job. The night before a major exam when I was trying to get some sleep as well

Timmie: Sorry about that. Since you knew about it you were the only one to contact

Me: don't worry about it. I was probably going to fail anyhow. why now? If thisis a fake, why now? You wanted to meet her in Lonfon in like 2 mionths time

Timmie: yup. still plan to. but her dad isn't emailing me. excuses all over. there's so much stuff giving me the idea it's all fake

Me: I know, and there's no way you can really sort through it. one thing, are the pictues she sent you all of the same girl? just to clear that up

Timmie: I'm starting to doubt that sometimes. expressions and stuff. it's weird though she seems to have an answer for everything. too down to earth. even in shock

Me: So either we're being utter bastards. or just being sensibly cynical

Timmie: She's now saying how her cousin has a deep voice. while I heard a high-pitched 15yr old voice. And now I'm being the suspicious one. It's just all so... 'planned'. How she was exactly describing what he's doing. where he was. how he could get in. how he got in. where she was. where he went. then what happened. describing everything

Me: did she tell you about the last one, a year back?

Timmie: the one she killed

Me: That's what set the bells ringing for me. out of interest, where was this scar supposed to be?

Timmie: killing someone in self-defence is insane. I dunno man. scar?

Me: you're the one with the pics to corroborate it. she said the first one left her with a scar from the knife, I'm sure

Timmie: Oh right. so did this one. in her arm I think she said. Damn

Me: I like the girl a lot, I wouldn't like for it to turn out to be a fake

Timmie: I'm getting more and more doubts about it all. especially with the whole me coming over thing. she can tell anything. she never used her own voice. always whispered. talking about a sore throat. or having to whisper for folks. for months

By the end of this conversation, me and Timmie were trying to get our heads around this fully and it just seemed ridiculous to us. Were we utter assholes, in denial about what had really happened? Maybe. The next couple of days were awkward and kind of disjointed. I think Cyber Whore knew we were getting suspicious, and she really put on the histrionics. After the first few days she just started uttering vapid phrases to Timmie, refusing to answer him when he tried to talk to her seriously. Then came the ultimate 'Attention Whore' sign, as I see it. She made a great hue and cry about deleting her character in MxO. To me it merely seemed like a last ditch attempt to get more attention. After that, we never heard from Cyber Whore again. Or at least I didn't, and Timmie didn't tell me if he did.

At length we decided that a lot of her persona had been simply made up. Although I personally had her telephone number, all the times I'd communicated with her were by text. She never initiated, and never took, and calls. Timmie said himself that when they were talking on the phone, she never raised her voice above a whisper. The 22 year old 'cousin' who sounded like a high-pitched 15 year old. Getting on MSN five minutes after she passed out, despite the probable amount of police with searching questions. The pictures, even, we were never sure of. Not a single one that I possess actually has her face on it. To this day, I'm not sure if Cyber Whore is who she said she was, a 16 year old girl living in London. For all we know, she could be a very convincing 40 year old man still.

Why am I writing this now, coming up for 8 months after the event? Partially, I just want a record for myself, something I can point to and say: 'See, this really did happen.' Also, partly I only just came across the chat logs again. Even now I can't remember everything that went on in those few months, and and so this story is possibly utterly meaningless to most readers. But I also hope that, maybe, it could impart some advice. The craziest people on the internet may actually be the ones who seem utterly normal.