PSA: Safe Roleplaying

[Strazio Rockwell]

I've met a few of my online friends in real life. I drove for several hours to meet a guy I had never met in person before. He lived in Detroit and I met him at his house and planned to stay the weekend to hang out. I knew the guy for several years before I ever met him so I wasn't going into it completely blind. It was potentially sketchy, but having played games with him for years I figured it was pretty safe.

I also spent a week up in Canada to spend time with some more internet buddies. Similar scenario as the Detroit one, except I stayed at like four different houses while I was there. All-in-all it was one of the best weeks of my life. I wouldn't have gone had I not been talking and playing video games with these guys for several years prior to meeting them.

Hell I've even gone for drinks with Protoman while I was in Chicago, despite having only been a part of the site for a few months at the time.

Personally I think the internet isn't as dangerous as some people make it out to be. yes there are incidents where things go sideways, but on the whole internet people are just normal people not out to murder or anything. Despite all of my prior experience with this stuff I do recommend meeting people in public places, unless you've known them for several years.