MetaChat - Online Privacy Issues

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

09 July 2010

Online Privacy Issues - There was a bit of a brouhaha at World of Warcraft regarding their forums. It seems Blizzard (the parent company) was going to (or did?) post forum users real names instead of their toon/player names. Read this first (or maybe this), this second and last but not least - this.

post by: deborah at: 14:27 | 8 comments

I have a kid* who's a big gamer. I scored points yesterday when he and his mom took me out for lunch (he's interning with me this summer) and mentioned this.

*when I say I have a kid, that means it's a kid I work with. I have no children.

posted by Stewriffic 09 July | 15:02

There's a sidebar entry about this over at mefi. I read a good part of the thread for amusement, without knowing much of anything about WoW. It's interesting to me because i try to keep a generally low profile on the net, a goal which the corporate world seems to dislike.

posted by DarkForest 09 July | 15:56

I didn't know it had made it to Mefi. The mister sent me an email with the first link.

posted by deborah 09 July | 16:18

Might make the WoW forums somewhat readable. Maybe. 99% of the forums are flaming and trolling.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 09 July | 17:06

At first I was 100% behind this idea. Then I started reading posts from female gamers who said that the only way they manage online is by hiding their gender, so that they don't get relentlessly harassed. As sad a statement as that is, I think that's reason enough NOT to require real names online. Blizzard was trying to do the right thing, as far as I can tell, but they didn't factor in this aspect of what it's like to be a female gamer online.

posted by BoringPostcards 09 July | 22:48

As a male who has played many on-line games, this is not just a bad idea for women, this is a F-ing stupid idea for EVERYONE. Blizzard has a history of playing fast and loose with people's information, data-mining before it was cool. I can't say I'm surprised, but this is really stupid, even for them.

posted by King of Prontopia 10 July | 00:20

If there's one thing this whole thing has done, it has done this:

INTERNET DRAGONS

posted by WolfDaddy 10 July | 01:19

BoringPostcards +++++++++1

Yeah, now, it's been quite a while since I was deep into gaming, and my username 8at least I thought) being 'gendered' and should have given me away more often than it did. Once the dudes figure out that you are actually a real girl there are a large group of gaming guys that will.not.stop.with.the.harrasment.

Luckily, I was a better gamer than any of them, and "words can not hurt me.." just pissed me off enough to get even more vicious. Die, fuckers. Die. And die again. What, leaving the game server so soon pencildick?

posted by dabitch 10 July | 15:59

← Do you crochet? || Interspecies exploration →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN