Playstation 4 and your real name

[hobbsyoyo]

That's exactly what I don't want, though, hobbs. I specifically don't want 'normal social pressure' because I don't do well under social pressure. Is my problem completely meaningless? I should have to be completely exposed or just not play online games?

Gaming attracted a lot of people like me. Are we supposed to just go walk off and die because the social butterflies demand it?

Who says you have to be a social butterfly? :\ The point is that social pressure would apply to make people less douchie, not that you'd somehow be under pressure to open up, share your secrets with the world and make 50k facebook friends. Your taking entirely the wrong point from what I'm saying. Black and white I suppose.

 

[AlpsStranger]

But I don't want to deal with highschool classmates sending friend requests. Even rejecting them puts me on the spot. Is that wrong?

I don't want someone being like "I remember you from xxx, you fat f*ck!" when I'm trying to relax and play a game.

Yes, big parts of my life were miserable and embarrassing. If it starts to follow me into gaming I'm done gaming.

 

[Oruc]

Hobbs, come on. Don't be a dick to me man.

I'm not the f*cking unabomber just because I'm freaked out by all this. Just five or six years ago I felt like my life was mostly private and now I don't. Do I have to be full on crazy to find that disturbing?

Not at all I find it disturbing also (although coming from me that may not be comforting).
I'm also getting the same feeling about bowing out of video games.

There is a difference between privacy and anonymity and I think society would be well off with less of the latter and more of the former.

I think it's quite the opposite.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

But I don't want to deal with highschool classmates sending friend requests. Even rejecting them puts me on the spot. Is that wrong?

Turn off the 'friends' feature.

I think it's quite the opposite.

So less privacy and more anonymity? I guess it's cool to be watched while taking a dump so long as no one knows who I am.

You're too clever by half dude.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Or that some random idiot telling me, on Garry's Mod, "tits or gtfo" is somehow more severe than this? (Names are blurred out, including my own.) (Also, I got over a hundred messages like these. They're stored away in my email program.)

Any answer, anyone? This was at the bottom of the page so maybe got missed.

 

[AlpsStranger]

My name is not very common.

Any answer, anyone? This was at the bottom of the page so maybe got missed.

No, you have the right to game without people knowing that you are female. You absolutely have this right and expectation, and I will always think so. This panoptic craze is wearing on my nerves.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Any answer, anyone? This was at the bottom of the page so maybe got missed.

What do you want me to say? I don't know what you're asking or what the emails are supposed to show.

My name is not very common.

I edited that out, it was a stupid point.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I was asking if some random anonymous jerks on video games telling me 'tits or gtfo' were somehow worse than the nasty messages in the emails, which were specifically targeted to me, was to the post as an attachment.

 

[AlpsStranger]

Turn off the 'friends' feature.

I also don't want someone joining the game and dragging my highschool life into a game I'm playing. I don't want the people I'm playing a game with to know my freaking name, man. Not negotiable for me even the slightest. It's already gone further than it should, if it gets worse I'm walking out of the hobby.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

No, you have the right to game without people knowing that you are female. You absolutely have this right and expectation, and I will always think so. This panoptic craze is wearing on my nerves.

She also has the right to voicechat on a game without being threatened by faceless asshats because she's a female.

 

[AlpsStranger]

She can use a voice masker then. It's a far better solution than forcing her real name to be on the screen at all times.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

She also has the right to voicechat on a game without being threatened by faceless asshats because she's a female.

.... Except I don't voicechat (except once I forgot to turn off my microphone and was humming in Portal 2 coop).

Actually, I'd rather people not know my gender at all, to avoid being treated differently from anybody else who games.

 

[Oruc]

So less privacy and more anonymity? I guess it's cool to be watched while taking a dump so long as no one knows who I am.

You're too clever by half dude.

Get ed you know what I meant.

Spoiler :

Mainly for Downtown: Okay, I'll confess to what's "up with" me just so there's no doubt. I'm not that sociable, guilty as charged. I'm prickly, paranoid, socially awkward, and I like to keep my socialization down to levels I can manage. I'm hypersensitive to what other people think of me ( though I try to work on that. ) Gaming has, for much of my life, been a way for me to be social without being exposed. I've used it as a form of social interaction that didn't freak me out as much as chatting on Facebook all day would. Okay, so you got me. I'm that horrible guy you all think I am.

So I now feel like my little private space, the part of my existence that let me recharge and temporarily take respite from what is probably something like social anxiety disorder, is starting to slowly crack. Do you see what I mean Downtown? If you're comfortable in your own skin and are super sociable and socially networked then hats off to you. I truly envy you.

But can you at least try to imagine it from my point of view? I can't live up there under the stagelights, it's just not in my nature. It's beyond me entirely. If gaming becomes part of the "social network" then I will just have to walk away from it entirely. Surely it's not wrong of me to want a place where I can unwind without feeling stressed out and yet still have some level of interaction with others.

You should become a prepper and go innawoods

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I was asking if some random anonymous jerks on video games telling me 'tits or gtfo' were somehow worse than the nasty messages in the emails, which were specifically targeted to me, was to the post as an attachment.

The common thread here: random anonymous jerks

I also don't want someone joining the game and dragging my highschool life into a game I'm playing. I don't want the people I'm playing a game with to know my freaking name, man. Not negotiable for me even the slightest. It's already gone further than it should, if it gets worse I'm walking out of the hobby.

So you have personal reservations against loss of anonymity and therefore you can't concede there is any possible benefits? I'm not asking you to accept an anonymity free system, I'm asking you to at least question your own black and white approach to the issue.

 

[AlpsStranger]

Besides, anonymity doesn't actually make everyone act nice. Most people with a sense of shame are already nice.

I've talked trash like 3 times the entire time I've gamed. I do get rough on forums a bit, but I usually don't go after people on a personal basis even then. Removing anonymity will add a great deal of risk for vulnerable people while doing surprisingly little to improve the atmosphere.

EDIT: There are benefits with any change, hobbs, but I think the downsides are worse. I think they are infinitely worse for me, and overall worse for many others. So yes, there might be thing X and thing Y that will improve with no anonymity, but there are many downsides you're just talking your way around.

 

[Farm Boy]

I think you are vastly underestimating the resilience of people being intentional, miserable jerks online even if their real names are being used. People are jerks all the time in person, to people they physically run into regularly. To people online you expect to never meet? It's not going to control it. "Public shaming" or whatever the supposed reason is will not stop it. What it might do, and almost certainly will do, even if hopefully in drastically small amounts of cases is open people up to real harm offline which they were less susceptible to before with greater online anonymity.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

She can use a voice masker then. It's a far better solution than forcing her real name to be on the screen at all times.

Not really imo.

.... Except I don't voicechat (except once I forgot to turn off my microphone and was humming in Portal 2 coop).

Actually, I'd rather people not know my gender at all, to avoid being treated differently from anybody else who games.

It was a hypothetical to make a point.

Get ed you know what I meant.

Not really, the words on the page say one thing but apparently they meant another.

I have to run guys and gals. sorry

 

[AlpsStranger]

I sure as hell wouldn't let a 10 year old kid play on a Playstation under his real name. Not in a thousand years.

I think you are vastly underestimating the resilience of people being intentional, miserable jerks online even if their real names are being used. People are jerks all the time in person, to people they physically run into regularly. To people online you expect to never meet? It's not going to control it. "Public shaming" or whatever the supposed reason is will not stop it. What it might do, and almost certainly will do, even if hopefully in drastically small amounts of cases is open people up to real harm offline which they were less susceptible to before with greater online anonymity.

I absolutely agree. I also think that 'shaming' isn't automatically a positive thing. What if someone is publicly shamed in their Jr. High social environment, for instance, and it follows them into the game. Now your school bully will be able to laser target you on PSN even after you manage to get home for the day.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Actually, I'd rather people not know my gender at all, to avoid being treated differently from anybody else who games.

I'm not joking about this, by the way. People sometimes think because youre female, you need more assistance than others. I can hold my own if you let me. I'm not as good as people who've played for years (that, and the problem with my left eye doesn't help alot), but that's entirely different than not being good because of which sex organs I have.

 

[Akka]

There is a difference between privacy and anonymity and I think society would be well off with less of the latter and more of the former.

That's a completely pointless reasoning considering that when it comes to information, anonymity and privacy are exactly the same - what allows someone to keep his privacy IS to be anonymous.

Also, you're pretty clueless when you think that removing anonymity is going to ends up with less jerkassery - that's the opposite. The ones who have to lose the most when everything is laid bare are the preys, not the predators.

And anyway, thinking that the BASIC RIGHT of having our own privacy is trumped by "let's shame someone who made a bad comment online" is seriously f'ed up.