There is definately some weirdness with some of the scenarios described.
Male pirate, real life 38, girl pirate, real life 12. Creepy!
Girl pirate, real-life, 45. boy pirate, real-life 10. Creepy!
Normal adults do not get involved in these situations what you describe falls into the behavior of a predator.
A couple years ago a friend of mine a lady pirate asked me to come to her ship. It seems that she had a guy in crew pestering her to be his girlfriend. She wanted me to pretend to be her husband in an effort to discourage him, Apparently he had been begging her and wouldn't give it up. She is a lady of 35 with two teenage sons. I'm guessing the kid was between 8 and 10 years old judging by the way he was acting. She didn't want to get rude with him because she didn't want to hurt his feelings. When I arrived he started talking about commiting suicide by drinking tonics until he died. After talking to the kid he told me that some other young guys had been teasing and pressuring him to get a girlfriend. Kinda sad really.
Or even a 16 year old and a 9 year old both real-life!
Again not a normal situation and maybe a predator.
Boy pirate, real life is a girl. Creepy!
Girl pirate, real life is a boy. Creepy!
I know a lady pirate in game who was dating someone for a couple months in game and becoming seriously attached, until she found out he was a woman pretending to be a guy. She got hurt.
Real people are behind those pirate clothes, so-to-speak.
True and it might be a 6 year old kid or an 80 year old senior citizen behind that avatar.
I think the whole make-believe stuff is creepy.
Yeah The idea of being involved in a fantasy relationship with someone online doesn't appeal to me either.
quite a few in game playing around with this stuff as a way of cheating on spouses.
The first time I heard about pirate weddings I had unknowingly picked up a psychotic stalker while crewing on a friends ship. Everyone on board with the exception of one lady pirate were all good friends of mine. Normally I decline random friend invites I made the mistake of accepting this one. I sailed around plundering with them for about an hour, joking around with the crew like I usually do in game, then we broke crew and went our own ways. Not long afterwards the lady TP'd to me and asked me to marry her. I was kind of in shock I mean this is pretty much a complete stranger. We got to talking and I found out that she was 35 and married. Living on the opposite end of the country from me.
I declined explaining that fantasy relationships online don't appeal to me. Also that I didn't get involved with married women. I thought that was the end of it. Then she began randomly TPing to me getting hostile and attacking any lady pirates in my crew while accusing me of cheating on her. I'm thinking WHOA this chick is NUTZ. ended up having to delete her from friends. So yeah there are definately some negatives involved with the dating in game thing.
Some positives as well I've met several couples who met in game and later married. My RL fiancee and I both play POTCO. I have mixed feelings regarding the dating in game.