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Take Anonymity away
thafireball
Member Posts: 200
Take it away. Make everyone play with their real names. That should help cut down on the common "ninja" or the trade-chat-tough-guys! Shitty community = shitty game. Why you may ask? Because I know of no one that wants to log into a game and see words like asshat, lolumadbro, l2pnoob and the many other derogitory comments and expressions used to start drama or arguments in games. Then it would be more like...oh hey there Julio Rodriguez from TX you say you did what to my mom? Well isn't that special. Hey Julio don't you live at ***** *** street...I'll be right over with a msg from mom.
It may take several things in the news before people start realizing that talking to people like that only provokes hatred and negative feelings towards others. You can't just walk down the street calling people asshats and then when they confront you about it saying "lolumadbro" like you're some kind of Mortal Kombat E-champ that could whip his ass. You will eventually run into someone that will face stomp you.
Vote yes to real names
Vote no to anonymity
Comments
Terrible idea. While this may cut down minutely on the asshat effect, they are still there. Now they know my name and can use their interweb knowledgery to track me down? EFFFFFFF THAT. Let's face it, you don't need to do anything to upset people to have them screw with you. Screwing with my character PewPew Blastorfist is one thing. Screwing with the guy playing it is a river of crap I won't swim in.
I refuse to play any game integrating RL into it. I play games to avoid that. And let's face it, its not going to cut down on the overall smack talk. Things will just degrade into a "who can creep each other out/internet stalk the most/best" contest. Whenever I hear a game is planning or considering intergrating facebook or things like battle.net (was that the real name thing WoW implemented?), I just move along.
When its all said and done, yes we have to deal with asshats being asshats. But when it comes down to it, you can log out, turn your computer off and its gone. Take that away, and the crap to fun ratio just starts smelling like a dog park on a hot day.
I really hope that *insert game name here* will be the first game to ever live up to all of its pre-release promises, maintain a manageable hype level and have a clean release. Just don't expect me to hold my breath.
Oh. My. God.
Talk about most horrible idea possible.
Go forth ! Post nude pics of yourself and all your bank account data on Facebook !
Anonymity is all that protects me from some really awful people you can meet in the internet. Yeah they are anonymous too, but I really dont want to know their address, either.
Besides, the MMORPG company will always know your identity, so anonymity in MMOs is, if it comes to it, nonexistent.
Yes, that is pretty much one of the reasons why anonymity is a very good thing.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Who do you think would be scared off by having to use their real name? 14 year old brats wouldn't. Mature adults with a good job who would rather their employers not know that they play online games in their free time might, though. Think that would lead to a better community?
I really want to believe the OP is being sarcastic, I really do. Unfortunately, I believe the OP is not being sarcastic. Which is a real shame considering this the worst idea I have ever seen.
Yes, anonymity is the only thing saving uber_sauce_01 from getting smashed in the face.
That may be partly true...it does help the person doing the pecking(bird reference) but it does nothing for the person getting pecked(bird reference). It provides a channel for one to express uncouth behaviour.
I'm not really like that IRL...if a buddy of mine says something about my mom I just fire back a joke about his because we all know we are just messing with each other but there comes a point...a line you could say that is drawn...possibly in some sand. When you cross the line and move into my edge of the sandbox is when we have problems...granted everyone's sandbox may come in a different shape, size and have larger or smaller lines but there are lines...its when people cross those lines is when problems arise. For example...in UO I called someone a "jew" b/c they stole my kill. This must have upset the guy a bit because he reported me and the GM's decided that calling someone a non-derogitory or demeaning name was enough to suspend them for 3 days. (this happened about 8 years ago...im grown up enough to not call people names in game now)
I started rambling so im going to stop until I can get myself back on topic
From a comercial perspective trying to enforce something like this would put you out of business. Just look what happened with Blizzard Real-ID's and how quickly that backlash had them backpedaling.
TS - Perhaps more games whould make an effort to enforce better community rules, I mean people in billing have your susbscriber details. So if someone wants to say PWNT or Noob or abuse people in chat I say let them go right ahead but dont complain when their account gets suspended or they get banned for violating the community guidelines you agreed to in the TOS you clicked OK to when you installed/last patched the game.
Most of your complaint can be addressed by game companies taking some proactive action and does not require people being forced to use their real identities in games and expecting some sort of community vigilantes to force people to play nice.
I love irony.
Look kids will just create false names , untill you tie up social security number to the real ID .
You only harm the good people , that is currently the problem .
But battlenet for example Real ID would have solves the tons of anominity trolls.
Cause that simply means people could do a ACCOUNT WIDE IGNORE !!
no more dealing with stupid level 1 grievers and other idiotic crap or trolls .
So oh they are asking why ? they cannot speak to me , tough luck .
Actions carries consequences .
My name is Dick McLargehuge. What's yours?
In all seriousness, it just sounds like you want people to engage in vigilante justice if someone slights you in game. Thats precisely why we need to stay anonymous. The situation can be even worse for women who somehow manage to pick up a cyber stalker, who would then have their name and be able to track them down. No thanks. Besides, as someone has already mentioned, maybe younger people don't care what info of theirs is out floating around the intertubes, but many older people with jobs may not want it known that they're avid video game players. Believe it or not, admitting to being a gamer is still often seen as a negative and potential or current employers may not share you enthusiasm for games. Most of them will think its a waste of time and take you less seriously as an employee and a person. Sad but true.
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
Sadly very true. With the average age of people currently filling upper management roles most of them still think gaming is for kids as can be evidenced by the stupid decisions of government policy makers (who are generally of the same generation as entrentched upper management) who continue to treat gaming as an exclusive passtime for children.
So yes advertising that you are a gamer in a professional work environment (even in the IT field) is not a great idea if you want to advance.
This trend will eventually change but not in the next 20 years or so would be my guess.
didn't wow try this idiotic idea awhile back? and that just blew right up in thier faces , everyone was against it from the start. remember the player that had posted stuff about the devs and other blizz employees lives, like how the one was getting married and where its was going to be and the date/time? yeah this was deffinitly the worst idea i have ever seen....
OP....you could have used your real name as your forum name....yet you choose to remain unknown to us.
Why?
Such a terrible idea (As Blizzard found out with Real ID) that would only hurt those who have a good reason for wanting to retain an element of anonymity. The asshats will always be asshats, removing the veil of anonymity would do nothing to stop that because they either don't care if they post and play with their real name, or they would just find ways to create fake ID's, spoof the system etc. But just think of the negatives.
1). Instantly affects the gameplay of many female gamers, many of whom don't disclose the fact they are female because of the amount of griefing they get from hormonal teenage boys and creepy guys. Suddenly they are not play as Geoffry the grizzled barbarian, but Katie the magnet for every weirdo sex starved douche bag out there.
2). The professional office worker who lets of steam by playing mmo's, it's sad but there are many companies out there that don't want employee's that play computer games. It could make it much harder for someone to get a job if the employer does a quick search and finds out a prospective employee is spending most weekends raiding.
3). The GBLT players who often form guilds in MMO's in order to play with people who aren't judgemental about them and where they might not have to put up with the constant stream of homophobic abuse often prevelant in games. Especially if a player has not come out to friends or family etc. Imagine the fear of being outed to their loved ones because they beat the snotty brat from the other end of town in PvP, but that kid knows they are in a GBLT guild and tracks them down and tells all their friends and family.
4). Issues with account hacking. It's bad enough if you get a game account hacked and striped bare as it is without the worry of waking up one day to find your account hacked and locked and a history of abusive posts made by the hacker that will forever be tied with your real name, sure they might get removed once it is sorted out, but as many know, nothing is ever truly removed from the internet not to mention what other damage they may cause now they have access to your true identity.
I get why on paper it might seem like a good idea, but when you actually sit down and think it through it would completely fail to meet the objective of stopping the asshats and do nothing but harm the genuine, polite, and friendly gamers out there, so definately a dreadful idea imho.
There will always be people who think it is a great idea to resolve verbal conflicts in physical ways.
There will always be people thinking that the girl they play with would love to get intimate with them in real life.
There will always be bosses, parents and partners who wouldn't like to see some people play games that much.
There will always be marketing folks very interested in what things you do in your free time.
There will always be governments taking an unhealthy interest in what their citizens say online.
Also think of the Justin Biebers of this world: they too, have a right to casually grind some mobs without the server crashing because of the thousands of fangirls following him wherever he goes.
"FU Justin Bieber! Go play on another server a$$hole!"
I agree that people WOULD be more polite to eachother without anonymity but the sacrifice is far worse.
My brand new bloggity blog.
This is obviously a stupid idea, other then the already mentioned problems of stalkers and stuff, what would stop me from bashing your face in just cuz you won against me in PVP?
What would stop me and my ENTIRE GUILD to beat you half to death rape your kids, and wife just for teh lulz?
See, there are people out there that do this in RL already, providing them with an another plane to hunt for people whom they can easily do these is plain stupid.
Also what would you do with underage players? If I can see some kids info and shit, what would stop me from ninjaing said kid and do whatever hell am I please to do with em?
Anonymity is a MUCH needed thing for the interwebz. The moment you have to log in using ur personal data, will be teh moment when the interwebz will die.
Also why are you so offended with kids talking crap? They do in RL as well!, Hell even if you bash their face in they will still talk trash! So yer problem? Its the same crap like with violent video games shit.
Only ignorant shitheads believe that its the games, and internet that is to blame for this generation or degeneration chose whichever suits you best. its IGNORANCE!!! And a generation of "parents" who should have been SHOT for stupidity before letting them mate and reproduce.
Just go out and see for yourself, watch the news, like how some dipshit whore let their 6 month old kid in a bathtub while reading FaceBook. Of course the kid died in the process. You can say its FaceBook thats evil, sucking in people and shit. But its obvious that this bitch wouldve ditched the kid for TV, Joga, Phone, Gawking at the guy next door and masturbating at the thought of cheating on her husband/boyfriend, or simply cuz she forgot that she has a kid. HELL I bet she wouldve ditched the kid just so she could watch the wall and be all engulfed in "emotions" like "Woooo WALLL, sooo prettyyy". And theres and entire generation of these kind of people. They distort our society. And they have the same rights as any other SANE person. These kind of people have the humane right to LIVE!! Hell they can even vote. Hows that justice?
And you'd have people who wouldn't post at all, but just look up peoples names to mess with them.
But I am sure you are just trolling us!
Blizzard did this, but it was to make people think the other things they were doing to the forums were okay.
I don't think by making people use their real identity is going to stop idiots being idiots no matter what name they use.
If you play MMO's and find yourself becoming offended by the verbal diarrhea spouted in global/trade by the resident morons then you have maybe picked the wrong genre.
I don't like it but I can ignore it which is the way of life but it is a shame as it means my daughter who would like to play cannot as she is too young (at least for the time being that is) to have to read the crap that is often typed in the said chat channels.
But, one thing I have noticed is that it is more common in certain MMO's than others. One in particular is a rampant hive of morons (we all know which one) than compared to a certain F2P which has virtually none of that in it's chat channels.
And it will also be like...
"oh hey there Joey! I see you're a thirteen year-old boy who lives just down the street from me. Do you like movies about gladiators?"
Yeah dude. Let's make it easier for predators and real-world creeps because you're tired of being told l2pnoob. Great idea.
I'm sorry but did I read the title right? did you do a typo and was meant to type "Take privacy away"
You certainly have a valid point in having a better community, but your method would be like compromising freedom of speech to do so? You can't guarantee idiots won't use this real name information to harass gamers, or gold farmers using this information to bombard you with terrible shitz.
Another way to go around this is to create some sort of centralized social hub for all mmoplayers, like facebook for mmo-gamers, but you have to link this to all MMO you are playing, so when you meet a d!ckwag ingame, simply look at his profile and give him a thumbdown, kinda like ebay sell ratings. guild leaders and other social activities can simply restrict conversation with those people. Therefore you can keep your anonymity whist keeping track of your online profile movements. Surely this kind of system can be abused as well, but if people wants to force exposion on others, socialist aren't far away
Also this is gonna cost bajillions to keep up, enforcing this on all mmo isn't gonna be easy either, but hey, freedom cost money. lot of them.
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
BAD BAD BAD!
What name to use with an alt? Your Name_1? Not to mention that in pvP games a lot of sick minds might google Your Name and pay you a visit when you beat them in PvP. Seen this happen before with fictional names, so take a guess what'll happen if only real names are used...
Not to menion, remember the commotion with the real names used on the Blizzard forums? Personally, I'll never visit ANY forum where I have to reveal my personal name or personal data without any protection of my privacy...
I don't think you need anonynimity. You do, however, need to make sure that a single account exists for a single person, and that removal of a right is more of an absolute punishment as opposed to a finite, easily avoided consequence.
@OP
you mentioned sandbox...why don't you enforce whatever rules you want? This is the single biggest reason I play EvE, b/c players enforce their own rules. If someone suicides my ship in hi sec..no worries, wardec them. Continually undercut my trade prices? Track them down and gatecamp them. You are answering your own question w/o having to actually leave the game to do it.
I don't need to know your real name to destroy your ship, and hold your pod at the gate while you either pay me, get friends or log out. Darkfall is somewhat like this as well. No kill stealing, loot whores, none of it. Don't like what someone does? Kill them.
I remember my first trip to an NPC city in DF just after I joined my first clan. A guy was showing me how to use different tools at the crafting station. Suddenly he says."here take my stuff"...and starts beating this dude down who was minding his own business crafting next to us. He later explains, this guy and his clan killed a few of our newbs earlier today. See how that works? Had he not attacked our clanmembers he would have crafted in peace.
Some people call that risk vs reward..but I don't. I call it consequence. If you harass, steal from, endanger my rookies..then you will get the working end of a great axe. I think you should reexamine why you posted this.
Playing: BF4/BF:Hardline, Subnautica 7 days to die
Hiatus: EvE
Waiting on: World of Darkness(sigh)
Interested in: better games in general
This is absurd. I will never provide any personal information which can be seen. No way. Let alone my security number as someone pointed out. This information is confidential and not for public display.
I am strongly against it and my name is super common. I just checked there were over 100 people with my name on Facebook!
If a company ever does this move, we will start hearing epic tales about their failure. Cause this is what will happen. I will NEVER play a game which shares my personal information. There is a reason you keep your personal information to yourself even in real life. You don't share it with everybody.
On a side note, you're poll has duplicate answers - what's the difference between needed and good lol.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
If you are anonymous as well, then why does it hurt you so? This is a terrible idea. I don't wish to reveal my real name to anybody on the internet. That is just called common sense and being smart. Why take that away?
"Man is not completely himself when he speaks in the first person, give him a mask and he'll tell you the truth"
Anonymity doesn't turn people into space monkeys and clown trolls, it allows the cowards to openly express their true selves, uninhibited by society and the fear of isolation.