The beggar and other shorts

One day I was in guild chat when a guild member begged for gold in trade chat and when he was refused he then began begging for other things. When we pointed out that he was begging he got defensive and claimed he was waiting for a friend in the guild who would be willing to help him out. As the debate continued he took offense at the fact that people were asking him to stop. In his eyes he was doing nothing wrong and that is what was most galling about his attitude. Begging in WoW is not well accepted because much like in real life most players have to make efforts to amass (virtual) ressources and begging devalues their efforts and more importanly it undermines them. Why bother doing anything if you can have it handed to you for no effort? Beggars simply profit off of the generosity of others and are veiwed as parasites, profiting off of the efforts of others.

Interesting side note when a random stranger begged for gold in guild chat the guild leader pronounced the behavior as unacceptable, when an individual she knew did the same she half jokingly asked him to stop.

Another day I was riding out of the Undercity when I stumbled across a male blood elf in fur covered bikini briefs and a small fur vest. He purred at me "Hey big boy." having checked out his equipment I said " My that's brief." to which he said "How much you pay?", not entirely sure what was happening I asked "Pay for what?" and that's when he told me "hahaha j/k" indicating that he was only joking. I was amused by the encounter but not fully convinced he was joking. Now I don't hate cybersex or think that anybody who does it is wierd or anything like that but in all honesty I would never think of doing that in WoW, the game is stunning graphically but it's not sexy, the graphics don't turn me on. I'm not sure how I feel about the prostitution that was implied in the random elf's sexual advance, that more than the fact that he was possibly offering ERP (erotic roly play) made it seem skeezy.

Interesting both begging and prostitution are seen as social problems in WoW just as in real life for some of the same reasons. Prostitution is skeezy and in WoW can result in players engaging in sexual activity in public areas which is sort of off putting, if you know what to look for it's depressingly easy to spot a cybering couple especially if they are trying to act some of it out. Begging on the other hand is about profiting off of others and laziness, unlike in the real world people don't have a reason to beg other than laziness or maybe stupidity you can get gold through playing the game and you never really need anything in WoW it's all about what you want for your character. What I mean is that gearing a palding to be a main tank in raids, for instance, is a want not a need cause one's life is not dependant on it. Low level characters can simply wear grey or white gear and don't need greens and higher levels get items as quest rewards.Both selling cybersex and begging are attempts to get in game ressources for minimal effort, although cybersex being a minimal effort can be questionnable... >.> in any event these are two short stories of things that I saw in WoW.