WoW player plans meet-up, finds (the bad kind of) secret Santa

A user on the WoW subreddit elaborated on his Holiday season adventures meeting up with a fellow player, only for the turnout to be awkward in several ways. With the thread titled "Be very careful when meeting someone in real life," user u/ImportanceLimp6201 described chatting with another player on the voice chat platform Discord, with the latter convincing them to meet up since the two lived in the same area.

While this would have been a red flag for most people, the OP (original poster) seemed too happy-go-lucky at the moment to think about more concerning outcomes. Here's how it went down.

---

WoW player's first meetup with fellow player turns out to be weird

A tale full of hilarity and weirdness (Image via Reddit)

The OP decided to catch up with this new friend because they seemed cool, so they decided to meet up at a local crowded pub. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the experience was less than enjoyable for the OP due to the friend's many "weird" traits. For one, the person was dressed up in a Santa costume head to toe, which, while in fashion for the holidays, certainly stands out among the public crowd.

Bewildering the OP further, the WoW acquaintance's many jokes and acts were pretty juvenile and creepy. Turning out to be something of a Bad Santa instead of a pleasant surprise, he joked about having "gifts in his sack," which he wanted to give to random women in the pub.

Further jabs ensued concerning poop jokes at the OP's expense and apologies in the form of awkward hugs after each joke. If they went to the meetup thinking they would find a friend for life, they sure ended up with a sock full of coal. On that note, plenty of comments under the Reddit thread admonished the OP for being foolish enough to meet up with a stranger.

User u/K1ngofnoth1ng lambasts the OP, pointing out that he should think before acting:

"If you are old enough to go out for drinks, how are you not old enough to know not to meet up with someone you met on the internet that day? I have met several people I played wow with… but never just the first day I met them. Even the ones who lived in the town I did that were on the same server because of mutual friends I didn’t even go hang out with for several months after raiding with them."

User DollarsAtStarNumber said that the game's demographic is weird in general, citing his experience via the following comment:

After having attended a few Blizzcons, I can confirm, there are some really weird people who play this game. Some FFXIV players are even weirder though.

Others, like user Fvzzyyy, found the situation unbelievably hilarious due to its absurdity:

"Surely this can’t be real? This is maybe the greatest post ( sorry op ) I’ve ever seen on this sub. Meeting a guy with a s**t fetish dressed as Santa at a busy pub is actually on my bucket list.

While it is not uncommon for people with similar interests, even in WoW guilds, to become close friends in a relatively short amount of time, meeting up with someone you barely know on their whim is a red flag on both parties' end; after all, it is hard to say how a stranger will act or behave in a vacuum. If nothing else, this scenario was certainly a learning curve for the OP to not trust strangers easily.

This is far from the seedy underbelly of World of Warcraft, though: a WoW content creator reports an entire Taiwanese botting Mafia making millions off the game.