Quantcast
Channel: Armaggedon's coming! » RealID
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 8

It’s Optional

0
0

We know RealID is here to stay, both ingame and in the future in relation to additional optional features.

I need to point out that I don’t mind the concept of AnID, I’m just not all that keen on RealID, still, in it’s current form.

This comes from the “optional” part of RealID.

  • It’s an option to use it or not.
  • It’s an option to apply parental controls to your (maybe adult) account, or not.

Which really comes down to:

a). use it, or

b). not.

Currently I choose option b).

There are other options in the game that don’t effect gameplay in the same way.

  • You can choose to purchase trading card in game novelty items – or not.
  • You can choose to buy ingame pets – or not.
  • You can choose to buy a 310% speed mount – or not.
  • You can choose to pay $2.99 per month to additional features of the remote auction house – or not.

These are all options and while the mount and the AH feature DO impact on the game, do give an advantage for people with real world $$ to spend out of game, neither require relinquishing personal liberties or privacy.

The now revoked changes to the forums gave an option:

Use them with your REAL name (because although you could fake your account name, that is against the ToS, so no law abiding person would do that… Right?), or not.

To me this is either:

  1. Not a (good) option, or
  2. Not enough options.

Options, Options, Options.

At the root is the lack of options of RealID itself, whatever is built on top of this needs to have its options at this level.

Let’s step through the privacy options as I see could work.

1a) Don’t use AnID features
1b) Do use AnID features

If using AnID:

2a) Use AnID features with RealName
2b) Use AnID features with AliasName

3a) Allow FriendsOfFriends
3b) Don’t allow FriendsOfFriends

If using FriendsOfFriends:

4a) Use FriendsOfFriends features with RealName
4b) Use FriendsOfFriends features with AliasName

When using AnID:
5a) Choose to appear offline at login
5b) Choose to appear online at login
5c) Choose to appear online/offline at any point of your choice to your (groups of) friends.

With respect to characters:
Choose which characters participate in AnID, so you can maintain your getaway zone, the place just for you.

FriendlyGroups

Privacy settings should be controlled via groups. You may have your:

  • Family group – your choice to be always online
  • Guild group
  • People I’ve met group
  • Roleplaying group
  • Nasty nasty PvP group
  • etc

I know it can be complicated, but I believe it should be optional to make it as complicated as YOU wish.

It should be optional to turn on, not off

By this I mean that when a new feature is introduced that uses AnID, it should be optional to use AnID, whether RealName or AliasName.

It should be optional to relax privacy, rather than increase it.

By this I mean that when you first activate AnID, and when you first accept a friend request they should automatically be in the tightest privacy group, which you can choose to reduce for as long as you feel comfortable.

It should be optional for a feature in the first place.

None of the “you can’t have this wonderful, exciting, maybe game changing feature” unless you revoke your rights to privacy.

Yes you can use it, but you have the choice of whether you use it as Gnomeaggedon, Snowy, or Bob Rhubarb.

Parental Options <> Privacy Settings

I know I have splattered this around in comments, including a comment to my own post, but Parental Options are NOT Privacy Settings – They are CENSORSHIP settings.

They are settings that you as a parent choose to censor the big bad Internet from your young impressionable charges.

It’s incoming censorship.

I want outgoing censorship, where I can choose what other people see of me.

Just because I don’t want other people to know my RL identity, doesn’t mean I want to have a profanity filter imposed on me, channels of communication restricted to me, Beta participation removed from me.

By using parental controls as privacy controls important parts of the game are made… Optional?

Needless to say I still feel very strongly about this and as things stand, where AnID is still my Real(How stupid and I to follow the ToS and use my real-real legal name)ID, then I figure if I have to use my RealID, I am left with only two options.

  1. Give up my privacy and use RealID, or
  2. Leave the game, and all games using RealID, forever.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/07/14/its-optional/


Filed under: Misc WoW, Rants, RealID Tagged: Mis, Rants, RealID

Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 8

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images