Playstation 4 and your real name

[AlpsStranger]

I won't spill out the details of my life, but I have good reasons for wanting to avoid entanglements with people I used to know. It's just way outside of my comfort zone. I would stop video gaming altogether in a second before I would consent to constant social networking.

Anyhow, rumor is that the PS4 will absolutely require you to use your real name. Is this true? If that's the case I simply won't be getting one. I would give up gaming entirely before I would do this, so I can definitely give up gaming on the PS4 specifically. It's a damn shame, too, because it sounds like a pretty nice console.

What is known about this so far? I've been searching around and I can't quite figure out what is rumor and what is fact. Will I be able to use the PS4 anonymously or must I socially network in order to play online?

 

[ace99]

 

[Akka]

I'm pretty sure that requiring the real name to be used would be in direct clash to many privacy laws in civilized countries.

Anyway, if true, it's yet another step toward the dreadful 1984-esque society that is creeping through copyright laws.

 

[AlpsStranger]

Google glass peeping in your windows and watching you eat at McDonald's. Mandatory Facebook everything.

I'm ready to drop out of life now. I'll be the crazy person cooking squirrels in that log cabin.

 

[Phrossack]

First Facebook, then YouTube, now this. Why are they so keen on getting our names?

 

[ace99]

If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.

 

[AlpsStranger]

You'd better be saying that to be funny ace99

EDIT: It's not like I have a bunch of bodies in a cooler. I just don't want to broadcast my life to everyone I know/used to know 24/7.

 

[Perfection]

I'm guessing they'll require to you register your real name, but they won't show it to random opponents if you don't want them to.

 

[illram]

I agree with Perfection. If that's not the case then that's lame. Possible solutions include: not buying a PS4.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Crap and I was going to get one instead of the new Xbox because the new Xbox won't allow you to play used games. (Every game I buy is used)

I am ready to give up consoles and gaming completely. Only games I play on a regular basis anyway are Football Manager, Europa Universalis and Civ IV.

 

[Perfection]

There's no reason they'd do the later; they're not complete morons.

 

[AlpsStranger]

I'm currently planning on not buying a PS4 for at least the first few years its out. They might be trying to "boil the frog" and start out with decent privacy settings and just keep "updating" them down to nothing. Once I am convinced they are willing to let me play fully and anonymously I will happily buy one. I basically quit playing Diablo 3 for the same reason ( I shouldn't have bought it. )

What I've read: They're going to let you turn off your real name in most contexts ( at least in the initial version of the software ) but they have every incentive to "push the envelope" and go as far as they can. They are also saying your real name will be exposed via a "real name search" that may not be optional. So they're clearly trying to make it so you have to bend over backwards not to be "networked" and I suspect they will start playing hardball almost immediately.

I don't buy the "privacy free" society argument. It's an opiate they're trying to sell us in order to target ads better. Nobody actually believes it's for our own good.

EDIT: And honestly, my PS3 and Xbox wasted my money and mostly gathered dust while I played yet another game of Civilization 4. The Wii got used even less. Perhaps it's time that I just quite buying consoles. If PC gaming dies I guess I'll just double up on reading/watching movies.

 

[downtown]

If forcing people to use their real names means fewer people will be total jerks in online play, I'd go out of my way to buy a ps4.

Depending on how that data is used, I'd have no problem with it. Xbox already has my credit card on file, so if they wanted my name it wouldn't be that hard to find.

 

[AlpsStranger]

You don't see the significant downsides, though?

Look, I'm just not up for it. If there's an option to game anonymously that always what I'll choose. I understand what you're saying, I just don't want my real identity tied to my gaming any more than absolutely necessary. It's not even so I can flame or something like that, it's a question of comfort for me and it's not negotiable.

EDIT: And Microsoft technically having access to your name and every person you've ever known in your entire life being able to easily know you spent 4 hours playing God of War on Saturday are not the same, downtown, and I think you'll have to concede that point.

 

[KMRblue1027]

What downside? It's all going to be hidden information anyway, PSN and Xbox Live already have this information when you created you account or used a credit card if you decided to lie. It changes nothing.

 

[AlpsStranger]

It's probably not going to be hidden information.

If Billy from school wants to know what Tommy's username on PSN is he'll be able to use the "real name search" to find out that Billy is Tomahawk92.

If it were just what you were saying nobody would care because it wouldn't be new. We're talking about something awfully close to mandatory Facebook for Playstation.

 

[KMRblue1027]

Sony cannot force you to revival it publicly, it violates numerous countries privacy laws. I have no idea why your freaking out considering you own a PS3 already Sony has known this information for a long time.

 

[ace99]

I think it might be time you went to live in a cabin in the woods with other survivalist black helicopter sovereign citizens.

 

[AlpsStranger]

That's alright. I'm not going to ruin anyone's party and probably just won't be buying the system.

 

[KMRblue1027]

I will highly enjoy the PS4 when BF4 launches. Enjoy living in a hole, you're already at more "risk" owning a cell phone anyway.