Anonynmity is a defense but also a major contributor i'd guess. Which is not to say that if everyone had their name, face, and social security number hovering above their characters and plastered on their forum posts the problems would disappear, but i do think people would be way more reluctant to harass people online if it was clear to everyone who was doing it, and that that person couldn't just fabricate a new identity when they'd pissed everyone off with the old one. All of the constraints of socially conditioned norms/standards, fear of retaliation or humiliation, need for acceptance, etc. that keep people surpressing their drives for dickheadedness don't apply when you're Sku||FU(KER69 and no one will ever see your face or know you any differently. Some mostly decent people pull this shit just for a casual thrill.
And full disclosure, I've never played an MMO for more than a week or two, and dealing with other people, anonymity or no, is one of the main reasons i avoid online games in general. It's bad enough watching people's pretend-macho verbal sparring during Call of Duty; that's really the limits of my tolerance. I can also see that the enforced indentification thing would drive a lot of legitimate, non-dickheaded players away from the game for fear of more targeted harassment, women especially. So i'm not saying Blizzard had a good idea, but rather that in light of the point in my first paragraph, it's easy to see how you would come by it. Maybe not so much how you could defend it...
Finally, I'm not sure if this is all so much an indictment of MMO players as it is people in general. I've spent a limited amount of time braving the seedy alleys of videogame message boards, and honestly some of the stupidest an well as the most profane, honestly hateful shit i've seen on the internt has been on YouTube comment threads. Hardly empiricism, but anywhere there's a congregation of alter-egos, there will be a high percentage of total jackasses, some just fucking around for fun, some truly unbalanced people unleashed by a consequence-free environment.
I generally avoid forums of any sort other than technical support or how-to stuff, just because the rest leave me wanting to take a shower and/or break someone's nose.
And full disclosure, I've never played an MMO for more than a week or two, and dealing with other people, anonymity or no, is one of the main reasons i avoid online games in general. It's bad enough watching people's pretend-macho verbal sparring during Call of Duty; that's really the limits of my tolerance. I can also see that the enforced indentification thing would drive a lot of legitimate, non-dickheaded players away from the game for fear of more targeted harassment, women especially. So i'm not saying Blizzard had a good idea, but rather that in light of the point in my first paragraph, it's easy to see how you would come by it. Maybe not so much how you could defend it...
Finally, I'm not sure if this is all so much an indictment of MMO players as it is people in general. I've spent a limited amount of time braving the seedy alleys of videogame message boards, and honestly some of the stupidest an well as the most profane, honestly hateful shit i've seen on the internt has been on YouTube comment threads. Hardly empiricism, but anywhere there's a congregation of alter-egos, there will be a high percentage of total jackasses, some just fucking around for fun, some truly unbalanced people unleashed by a consequence-free environment.
I generally avoid forums of any sort other than technical support or how-to stuff, just because the rest leave me wanting to take a shower and/or break someone's nose.
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Yeah. Pretty much my sentiment.
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It's so easy to forget how fucking funny this is. You know what i'm saying, Real Talk.
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