Meeting people ingame is like meeting people in real life. It’s not a mystery and it’s not even a little bit different. The “anonymity” of the internet and game world is no different than people putting their best face on for the first date or saying “I was only joking” to brush off bad behavior.
Building a relationship takes time.
We know three married couples who met in WoW, but all of them knew one another for a long time before they got married. It doesn’t happen overnight, and that’s the primary issue. Dating apps have changed the way people go about building a relationship. It has made the entire mindset perfunctory like a fast food order and completely transactional. That is the poison you’re now dealing with.
Because you have a wide range of ages in the game, and a lot of men (in WoW or in the bar or in a place of work) are acutely aware of being considered “creepy” if they say the wrong thing or jump to the wrong conclusion.
Guys who are truly socially awkward or socially inept exist in every social gathering place. Gals who are navel gazers and deep as a puddle exist in every social gathering place. To wade through that water to sift out the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, is no easier in WoW than it is on an app or in a social group that gathers in person.
We still have to talk to people. We still have to spend time with people.
A lot of people are passive and emotionally immature. WoW is a microcosm of society at large, and all of the issues that exist out there will also exist in here.
Be kind.
Be realistic.
Give people a chance to know you and make honest effort to know them.
It takes time.
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