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

ReverseEngineered

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Apr 30, 2008
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I strongly believe that RealID was a bad idea with good intentions.

Blizzard insisted that they had the best of intentions with RealID. They wanted to quell the hijinx that their community had been known for. It's easy to understand why; just take a look at their forums. You regularly find people being taunted, trolled, and "stalked", with pseudonymous trolls posting everywhere their victim posts, making baseless claims and slandering them, and much worse undoubtedly comes through in private messages. Playing in World of Warcraft is no different; whether people make false claims on public chat, private message you threats, or spam the hell out of everybody, trolls exist everywhere just waiting to ruin the gaming experience that you pay good money for every month. Not only does this give Blizzard a bad reputation, but it seems likely to drive off at least a few paying customers.

So there theory went: take away their anonymity, and the trolls will be less willing to troll. At first glance that seems reasonable, but trolls aren't particularly reasonable. As many a troll will admit (even here on The Escapist), trolls don't care what other people think. Accountability doesn't exist without shame or other repercussions. Unless Blizzard plans on banning trolls (which they could have done without RealID), the thought that you might know the troll's name won't stop the troll, because he knows you are still powerless to do anything about him. Whether his name is Lee Jenkins or uberdude69, he's still free to annoy the hell out of you.

But that anonymity has other consequences. For the people who become victims, it provides a barrier between the game and the real world. Sure, the trolls can annoy their victims in-game, but if their victims quit, the victims are now free from any further trouble; the troll isn't going to follow them home and continue making trouble for them. But if their real names were available, that could quickly change. You could guess their email address, look up their phone number and address, even find out where they work and who their friends are. A name is a universal identifier that links all of the knowledge about us and it isn't easily changed.

The boundary between the real world and the virtual world goes both ways. In many places, or at least by many people, gaming is still seen as a waste of time, and particular games like WoW are often looked down upon. Would a potential employer deny you a job if he knew you had three level 80 characters in WoW? Would your school, or your family, or your friends think differently of you if they knew you played games, or if your avatar happened to be of the opposite gender? Would people in the game treat you differently if they knew your gender, race, or other real-life attributes?

Yes, some people use the anonymous, virtual world as an escape from reality, and some may even go so far as to lose themselves in that world, but most of us just want to keep our lives separate from our hobbies. Life should be lived on a need-to-know basis; our gaming friends don't need to know who we are in real life and our real life acquaintances don't need to know what we do in our games, in the same way that the public doesn't need to know what we do in our bedrooms.

Anything that makes it easier to associate these two worlds brings with it the consequence of allowing the negatives from both sides to spill over into the other. Whether it is bringing the in-game trolls to our doorsteps or it is bringing the real world prejudices into the game, there's a lot of harm that can come from this association.

From a cost-benefit standpoint, RealID would seem to cause more problems than it solves. I'm glad Blizzard listened to the community on this one.
 

RMcD94

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Nov 25, 2009
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Yet I would give it away in a heartbeat if it would relegate the assholes who plague its every crevice back to the tick-ridden, backwoods, flyover, bypassed-by-the advance-of-civilization shitpits from which they emerged, birthed by their daddy's sisters.
Hold on, you'd give up the internet JUST because people say nasty things to you?

Wow, just wow.
 

Wandrecanada

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Oct 3, 2008
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That was very well put and I have to say that it hits some of the more forgotten demographics simply because they are usually the least vocal groups around. Who will stand up for those who's voice isn't heard? Russ Pitts at least!

I'd also like to add that I feel it's disingenuous of Blizzard to simply attempt to force the burden of cleanup to it's paying customers as a form of vigilantism. It's like they think that somehow people aren't willing to ruin other people's day at the expense of their own reputation or "good" name. We've seen this before in real life and these people are called gangs or the mob.

Do you think for a second groups dedicated to harassment wouldn't form and draw together those most likely to offend? It would probably coalesce these people into an even darker nastier organism bent on defaming others who are at the mercy of having their names available to everyone else. It's why we have actual police in the real world and why not enough of them can cause communities to collapse into chaos.
 

Undead Dragon King

Evil Spacefaring Mantis
Apr 25, 2008
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A very well written article, Russ. I admire your writing style.

But, with all due respect, this article carries the stench of hypocrisy. You claim that the "ignorant haters" are the worst possible thing that has happened to the internet. Yet your own hatred of these people sounds irrational. Your generalizing, condescending parade of profanities and insults when describing them is proof of that. In some respects, you have taken on some of the aspects of the people you despise so utterly. Fight not with monsters, lest you become a monster.

I treat people with respect or ignore them. Trolls, both on and off the internet, love nothing more than to be fed. And they're at Thanksgiving dinner right now.
 

Smokescreen

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Dec 6, 2007
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ReverseEngineered said:
I strongly believe that RealID was a bad idea with good intentions.
I pretty much agree with your entire post, but wanted to highlight this because I think that it illustrates the 'road to hell' if you will.

Not unlike Russ's column. It's a bad idea with good intentions. Both cursedseishi and Usagi have pointed out the issues with this column and while I appreciate a good metaphor or simile as much as the next person, it's exactly those kinds of comments that are made toward a specific person (or a group you may be a part of) that makes people hold their privacy so dear. They go online to find communities exactly because they don't want to have to put up with the bullshit they get in the day to day.

Saying that the only people who want to avoid RealID are "Those who have, for whatever reason, come to believe that that their virtual existence is sacred, that it serves to elevate them from the squalor of their daily existence and that by tying their virtual identity to their daily existence would be to sully it with the feelings of insecurity and personal shame that cloud their every step in the natural world," assumes two things:
1) Harassment would drop because your name is out there
(It wouldn't because what real consequences would there be?)
and
2) You'd be safe from other kinds of invasion when in reality
Wedlock49 said:
In real life you could give someone your name with little reprecussions... on the internet they have the tools to fuck you up.
There are enough more than enough black hats out there to ruin your noble idea of cleaning up your forums.

I think the talk given here (here [http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/2010/SXSW2010.html] -warning, text wall) illustrates very well why people don't want to give their real names online and is good food for thought.

I believe that the intension of making your online experience better is good-but I think because Russ doesn't have a dog in the hunt, he's forgotten his empathy people who do and the good reasons for it.
 

Nerf Ninja

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Dec 20, 2008
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I kind of get the feeling this article is following some mild subset of poe's law or at least I hope so.
 

KEM10

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Oct 22, 2008
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Usagi Vindaloo said:
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)?
But the RealID would knock down the trolling because you know who they are as well. Also, foreign names in a world wide community might make those stereotypical people you are talking about realize they are a part of something more than America.

I always thought that Blizzard should just have had a report button on the forums and any banning or probation that you have been given on the forums means you are also put on a probation or ban in game, and vice versa.
 

Nerf Ninja

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KEM10 said:
Usagi Vindaloo said:
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)?
But the RealID would knock down the trolling because you know who they are as well. Also, foreign names in a world wide community might make those stereotypical people you are talking about realize they are a part of something more than America.
Except they wouldn't care because you couldn't/wouldn't do anything about it.

I always thought that Blizzard should just have had a report button on the forums and any banning or probation that you have been given on the forums means you are also put on a probation or ban in game, and vice versa.
Totally agreed, I could never figure out why they don't link a single forum id to your account instead of allowing you to use multiple ids to post.
 

bjj hero

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Feb 4, 2009
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ReverseEngineered said:
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.
I'm aware of the stories of murders over WOW. Yes a tragedy. The sameway shark attacks are a tragedy. I still "risk" entering the water as the odds of it happening to me are laughable. Millions of people take that same risk. Both are very, very rare. I go through life without being attacked, abused, mugged, murdered. It is not the sort of thing that happens to people once a week. I do however get griefed, TK'd, racially abused and cussed at regularly online because people feel brave when they can't be traced. It's the same way people become arse holes when in a mob. Lack of consequences.

Real names would not have caused a spate of killings and beatings world wide like a lot of these posts suggest. People would have to adjust. The same way you have to be sensible in real life. It would not force good behaviour but it would make some people behave better as it is more likely there would be consequences to your actions. I don't get called a **** and racially abused in real life, the consequences is enough to stop most people. It happens in online gaming, quite often.

If people are so afraid that the whiney, foul mouthed 13 year old online will come to their house and kill them, how do they find the courage to cross the road or go into the city?

Having said all this, I would not have used it. I don't play MMOs, I don't do social networking. Its a choice I make as I work with dangerous offenders. I have co-workers who use these and are sensible about their precautions. None of them have died because of their online presence. Its individual choice. RealID would not have been a great evil, if you felt it was too risky or not to your liking you could have gone to play something else. Easy.

Fake names doesn't guarantee poor behaviour. We all use fake names (except for staff) here and it is quite civil, partly by the people attracted to the forums and partly by proper moderation. For some reason Blizzard are either too cheap to hire the right amount of mods or are too scared of their vocal, lunatic fringe community to act.
 

Anacortian

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May 19, 2009
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I do not think "pity" means what you think it means. Pity is a compassionate reaction to an others misfortune. There simply is not room for hate and pity. If you must hate, then you cannot pity. If you must hate, you can also scorn, deride, insult, detest, belittle, or all the other things you (whether rightly or wrongly) do in your column; but you cannot pity.
 

2fish

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Sep 10, 2008
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Yes we know you have nothing to fear Mr. Pitts, we have seen you training your troops for war in your nerf video. You have a private army, most of us don't.

I do think real id takes away from the online experiance, trolls will be trolls no matter what, so why can't I be allowed to adopt my onliner personality? I don't play a game to be me, I play to be who I want to be. That person may be good or he could be eating people. That person may help the group or she may go lone wolf.

Real ID hurts my ability to become a new person, plus it makes it even easier for the crazies to get to me.
 

whaleswiththumbs

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Feb 13, 2009
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Wow. Maybe I haven't been reading Russ right for all this time. It feels like he just told any censor there might have been to go away and come back in a couple hours with a sandwich for himself. Not saying it in an explicit bad way. Just kind saying in.

OT:
I am curious on what they COULD have done instead of this, as many people have suggested..
 

Mantonio

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Apr 15, 2009
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Answer me this: How will Real ID stop trolls? Nobody ever supplies a good answer to this.

How will revealing their real names stop them? Trolls are going to troll whether you know their name or not.

I don't buy any reasons such as 'It will help people become more social!' either. How will it? If anything it makes me want to be less social, since I'm always less inclined to say what's on my mind if I don't have some kind of anonymity.
 

tautologico

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Apr 5, 2010
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Usagi Vindaloo said:
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?
I have lost count of how many I have heard this in the RealID discussion. The problem is that it's utter BS.

Ok, we get it. You're a girl. On the internet. (You know, not that uncommon nowadays). And you play WoW (not that common, but I can't remember any of the guilds I've been in the years I played WoW that failed to have some women in it). Not every place in the internet is 4chan. I've been in countless forums over the years, and it's quite rare that people would treat every girl like this ("SHOW US UR TITS"). Hell, considering it isn't all so rare to find women playing wow, why would trolls do this with everyone of them that appeared in the forums? It would get old quickly and they would go do something else.

As with a lot of the anti-RealID reactions, this one is completely overblown, and I say that as someone who was against the institution of RealID in the forums.
 

tautologico

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Apr 5, 2010
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Mantonio said:
Answer me this: How will Real ID stop trolls? Nobody ever supplies a good answer to this.

How will revealing their real names stop them? Trolls are going to troll whether you know their name or not.

I don't buy any reasons such as 'It will help people become more social!' either. How will it? If anything it makes me want to be less social, since I'm always less inclined to say what's on my mind if I don't have some kind of anonymity.
The idea was not to stop trolling completely, but to curb it. Removing anonymity removes one of the main incentives for trolling, which is to engage in antisocial behavior without any fear of punishment or peer-pressure.

Yes, no one knows if it would reduce trolling to a minimum or not at all. My guess is that it would reduce trolling significantly, but not completely. People are much more weary of behaving as oblivious jerks and assholes when this kind of behavior would be attached to their real names.

Again, I was against RealID on the forums. But saying that there's no correlation between anonymity and trollish behavior is a bit too much. I've been in online communities that enforced real identities, and the level of discussion was kept high with little moderation effort.