Smile and Nod: RealID and Why Hate Speech is the Least of Our Worries

[Russ Pitts]

Smile and Nod: RealID and Why Hate Speech is the Least of Our Worries

Russ Pitts examines how RealID would destroy the very people it was meant to protect.

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[Nimbus]

God, this is the most depressing thing I've read all month...

I find it hard to believe that there are people like that.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

You really made a good point about this... it's actually kind of scary.

 

[cerebus23]

well we already had the case of a guy that tracked down his real life rival in wow and stabbed the guy in real life mind you.

then we got sp many people that post their real ids on social networking sites and using real ids for games could lead to online "stalking" nevermind if someone has the same name as you and gets the hate male creepy stuff that is meant for you.

there is whole host or real info you can find on someone armed with a real name, many people blindly put info out there on fb, twitter,ms and personal web pages. do we really want a community of 12 million nerds borderline sociopaths and mal adjusted meta gamers to have access to your real life name via your character profile? yea they are a small percentage of the whole but you get 12 million people or a few million doing anything your going to have any number of them that you probably not want to meet in real life nevermind if you happened to tick them off by pwning them in a game.

already any number of incidents of people using less than legal means to track online rivals down and seeking them out in real life. tieing realid to any massive game is a bad idea just for the pontential abuse from online to real life that can occur.

 

[Jandau]

I live in the corner of the world where by and large gaming is looked down upon and gamers are steretyped to the extreme. I do not feel the need to broadcast my gaming habits to prospective employers and people I meet. It's not a matter of shame, it's a matter of not wanting other people's crap on my doorstep. I don't have a problem with gaming, they do. So please, keep your generalizations to yourself, they apply far less than you might like to think.

 

[Jared]

That is certainly the mosr grim outlook on it I have read...and, its scaery to think it could be reality too

 

[BlindTom]

I was under the impression that the sense of a seperate digital identity being "sacred" was more about escaping the constraints of your real world identity rather than the "failures."


You don't speak out about your bosses sexual advances on your Facebook account. You don't express level-headed views on racial equality when you live in a crazy hick town. I have many friends whose identities are unknown to me. We don't know each others full names because it is unnecessary. Our personas might differ when we are freed from previous social constraints but the overall effect is that we are in fact more honest with one another. The lack of ulterior motives to our opinions guarantees that we are expressing what we genuinely believe. Rather than what we know will butter the other person up.

The problems Russ is highlighting are also related deeply to the perception of an audience, context collapse and throwaway identities. If you use a fairly consistent handle online then eventually it will essentially become your second name. You will feel ashamed if you sully your good name, even if it's not the one your parents gave you. If you are not held accountable from post to post thewn chances are you will just drool all over your keyboard, but there are viable solutions to this that are nowhere near as brutish as RealID.

 

[Wedlock49]

RealID is and was a terrible idea... for one, your name is all you need to find your personal information.

From reading this article it seems that you look down on people who enjoy their anonymity which I can't really understand, it's nice to take a step back and not have your friends know what you're doing online.

In real life I could walk up to someone and say my name was Terrance and I would be Terrance to them and I'd still be me, I could introduce myself as Wedlock and that would be my name, telling someone my real name doesn't change anything other than what they call me. I troll on the internet under a number of different names and I troll people in real life using my real name.

Under older previous names I've asked embarressing questions and I've aired opinions that have been volatile and not fully formed. If Real ID were the case after one incident I would have people banging on my door accusing me of being a neo-nazi just because I expressed the opinion that Hitler did a lot of good for Germany.

In real life you could give someone your name with little reprecussions... on the internet they have the tools to fuck you up.

 

[Nightfalke]

In real life you could give someone your name with little reprecussions... on the internet they have the tools to fuck you up.

Exactly this. The RL equivalent of giving someone on the internet your real name is walking up to some random on the street and saying "Hi, my name is Nightfalke. I live on 1337 Uber Lane in Fargo ND. I work at Pwn Inc as a systems analyst. I am married and have a beautiful 12 year old daughter who goes to school at Ogrimmar Middle School..." etc etc...

 

[JaredXE]

Like Russ, I don't have a vested interest in RealID, but I do have an opinion on it.

I think it was a great idea. I personally want to remove some of the cover that assholes use to hide themselves from the idiotic and hate-filled messages they spew. Remove the anonymity from the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. Kids don't have to worry since it would be posting the name off of the credit card attached to the subscription, so it'd be their parent's name. As well, it's rather easy to not have your full real name posted if you think about it.

What's the big problem? It engenders a much more polite society since you can be held accountable for your behavior. Why is that a bad thing? I get the idea that most of the people who are objecting to RealID are people who are acting questionably and are simply trying to preserve themselves.

 

[Nightfalke]

Like Russ, I don't have a vested interest in RealID, but I do have an opinion on it.

I think it was a great idea. I personally want to remove some of the cover that assholes use to hide themselves from the idiotic and hate-filled messages they spew. Remove the anonymity from the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

The problem comes down to fuckwads will be fuckwads even without anonymity. And when they are, those of us who are not fuckwads will take it like we always do. So what if we know the fuckwad's name? Are you going to track him down and make him "account for his actions"? Are you going to stalk his facebook or find his address?

No.

Because (I am making an assumption here) you are not a fuckwad.

However, the fuckwads out there CAN do all that because they have your name.

And they have no problem doing it.

 

[slackbheep]

The main issue I have with RealID is Blizzard already has a massive problem dealing with goldfarming,account theft and the phishing mess that comes with it. Having our real names so easily available with a small amount of social engineering is just empowering the scammers.

 

[SonicWaffle]

The problem comes down to fuckwads will be fuckwads even without anonymity. And when they are, those of us who are not fuckwads will take it like we always do. So what if we know the fuckwad's name? Are you going to track him down and make him "account for his actions"? Are you going to stalk his facebook or find his address?

I'm not so sure that anonymity is even a particularly big part of the fuckwaddery (new word? Hurrah!). If I felt like being a total dick to, say, some random dude in China then it won't matter what name I'm under. He's in China. If I were of that particular mindset it would only stop me when the person I was insulting was within reasonable travelling distance.

These people seem to have a primal urge to be knobheads. Taking away the names they hide under won't force them to stop doing it, it'll just make them more careful who they do it to.

 

[uppitycracker]

well we already had the case of a guy that tracked down his real life rival in wow and stabbed the guy in real life mind you.

the only story like that i remember, it was over CS, although it wouldn't surprise me if there was another WoW related one too




OT: This article seems to talk a lot less about real ID, and seems to spend more time dogging on those whose lives are basically WoW. i don't get it, myself, but some of the bits in this article are downright condescending, which is kind of a shock to me.

 

[AngelBlackChaos]

I will never participate in a game that places my RealID on anything. There are very real reasons for that. I was stalked at one time of my life, and though i have asked for restraining orders and have moved since, its still a very up front thing in my mind. I will not risk that chance to be followed again, or for someone to harm me, for no reason. If it starts being something required for all sites, that is when I will have to find some other way to socially connect with distant friends and talk to people without the stress of some bigoted a**hole will hunt me down.

 

[Usagi Vindaloo]

An interesting article, but I have to say I disagree with most of it.

For one thing, the big issue with RealID is not this. It's the fact that it will encourage MORE hate speech and horrible behaviour. At the moment, when I post, I'm Elfin McPallyface, prot paladin, and as such my opinions and thoughts on paladins, tanking, etc have merit. With RealID, I would be GIRL MCGIRLGIRL and any attempt at rational dialogue would be met with SHOW US YOUR TITS and R U HOT?

What about people with obviously foreign names? Is it right to make people like Luis Fernando or Hamid el Shaddir endure racist slurs and yells to GET OUT OF OUR COUNTRY YOU (insert insults here)?

Transexuals would also be on the chopping block for harassment if their account names were under their old "biological" names (or if they hadn't transitioned yet). Do you think trolls are going to leave someone who identifies as a woman but goes by the name of Steve alone?


Secondly, I find it interesting that you envision the emphasis on dividing real life and virtual life as trying to prevent the "failures" of real life tainting the perfect virtual world. In my opinion, the truth is vastly the opposite; it is that people are trying to prevent *virtual life* from flowing into their real life. As many great strides as we've made, geekdom is still seen negatively by a lot of mainstream people... and some of those mainstream people are in positions of power. I do NOT want a prospective employer to reject me solely based on the fact I play WoW and take the time to post my thoughts and feelings in the forums. As far as I'm concerned, my geek life is no one's business but my own, hence why I keep it out of my Facebook, LinkedIn, etc (or, at the very least, downplay it - I do have some reference to it as I am hoping to get into the video game industry, but I still keep it moderate and vague so as not to scare away other employers). With RealID linking our online geek identities with our real life names, we'd have to deal with a whole bunch of RL annoyance and possibly lost jobs and relationships. And yes, people who judge us based on our hobbies aren't really worth dealing with, but I imagine an unemployed person desperate for work would feel differently when an employer rejects him for a job because Google turned up his theorycraft for rogue DPS.


Also, PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who noticed the irony of the writer decrying hate speech and general dickishness on the Internet, then writing the following:

"a company that's created an empire off the sweat and tears of a very active and vocal community of obsessives who crave the shadows of online anonymity *****the way fat girls crave cake.****"

Okay, it may not be hate speech, but it's still a pretty offensive stereotype and sounds uncomfortably like the sort of thing Russ hates. Please tell me this was a bit of intentional sarcasm?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Bravo, Russ, Bravo.

I may not look in the same way at those that want to cherish their anonymity, but I can appreciate you took the time to think about the victims.

 

[ReverseEngineered]

Also, PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who noticed the irony of the writer decrying hate speech and general dickishness on the Internet, then writing the following:

"a company that's created an empire off the sweat and tears of a very active and vocal community of obsessives who crave the shadows of online anonymity *****the way fat girls crave cake.****"

Okay, it may not be hate speech, but it's still a pretty offensive stereotype and sounds uncomfortably like the sort of thing Russ hates. Please tell me this was a bit of intentional sarcasm?

I also definitely saw that. I can only hope it was a darkly humorous reference to the video game Fat Princess, but the context certainly didn't make any reference obvious. I find Russ manages to disparage several groups in this article through heavy uses of stereotypes. Racially-intolerant hicks? Obsessive WoW players with no life? Fat girls that eat too much? Calling bowling lame? These may be his opinions, and he's welcome to them, but he isn't helping his argument about RealID by expressing his unrelated, offensive opinions.

From Russ' own words alone, I think it's clear why people don't want their real names attached to their online identities: they don't want to be judged for what they enjoy doing. People love to make generalizations just like these, whether you are a girl playing video games or a guy with a female character. In-game, it's as simple as muting anybody that makes a big deal about it, but there is no mute button in real life. Bullies, stalkers, murderers, and all other sorts of people would just love to know who you really are and where you live. Schoolyard bullies are bad enough, but life becomes hell when the bullies follow you home.

The Internet may have allowed all sorts of people to spew hate-filled speech, but it also lets many other people play, communicate, and explore the world that can be dangerous to explore in real life. On the Internet, it's just words on a screen, but in real life, there's somebody at your door. Our online anonymity and distance allow us to do things that just wouldn't be safe in the real world and that's a very important freedom. Remember what Twitter did for political activists in countries in the middle East in civil war? That all disappears without anonymity.