i do not think irl means what you think it means
So while waiting in the turn lane to turn into my parking lot, we were startled to discover the car suddenly died. This continues as we speak; it's not coming back. While still trying to figure out wtf, a vehicle came at us at the speed of stupidity and belatedly realized our hazard lights might mean we were like, stuck. At which point we exited the vehicle and ran for safety.
ETA: Vehicle stopped abruptly and turned into parking lot. After two comments and a re-read, I realized I left out the climax and jumped to the aftermath. Coda: AAA came for the vehicle about ten minutes ago or so. God it's been too long since I wrote fic; I forgot the structure of a story.
The very moment imminent doom approached, I was texting![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
svmadelyn for sympathy and has she answered? No. That could have been my last text ever and resounding silence.
Not bitter or anything.
However, to take the edge from the bitterness, Blizzared of WoW is shucking the shakes of pseudonyms and embracing RL names only!
This won't end badly. Or like, even just tracking down your digital footprint inch by excruciatingly personal inch.
Oh, wait...maybe it will.
How can WoW, which is played online and designed and run by people who theoretically know what a computer is, possibly think this is an idea of genius? This is an online game. Which begs the question if Blizzard is actually run by people who know what the internet is, and just as likely, are not women and boggle at the idea that this could be like, IDK, kinda not good.
I mean, I'm mad, but I'm also filled with this sort of weirdly protective feeling, like I need to lead all of them out for juice and cookies in a quiet room with no windows but some large primary colored blocks so the grown-ups can go, you know, do sane grown-up things, like not expose their female members to IRL sexual harassment, stalking, or murder, and all their members to serious IRL danger as well.
And introduce them to the web. Because wow, are they going to be surprised what it is WoW is running on.
"This is google. It sees all, knows all, and this is the route to your children's school and your home phone number and recent electric bill. Not very green of you there, sparky. So. Let's talk why random online people knowing this shit is bad. Have another cookie. You'll need it."
Now I really want a cookie.
ETA: Vehicle stopped abruptly and turned into parking lot. After two comments and a re-read, I realized I left out the climax and jumped to the aftermath. Coda: AAA came for the vehicle about ten minutes ago or so. God it's been too long since I wrote fic; I forgot the structure of a story.
The very moment imminent doom approached, I was texting
svmadelyn for sympathy and has she answered? No. That could have been my last text ever and resounding silence.Not bitter or anything.
However, to take the edge from the bitterness, Blizzared of WoW is shucking the shakes of pseudonyms and embracing RL names only!
This won't end badly. Or like, even just tracking down your digital footprint inch by excruciatingly personal inch.
Oh, wait...maybe it will.
How can WoW, which is played online and designed and run by people who theoretically know what a computer is, possibly think this is an idea of genius? This is an online game. Which begs the question if Blizzard is actually run by people who know what the internet is, and just as likely, are not women and boggle at the idea that this could be like, IDK, kinda not good.
I mean, I'm mad, but I'm also filled with this sort of weirdly protective feeling, like I need to lead all of them out for juice and cookies in a quiet room with no windows but some large primary colored blocks so the grown-ups can go, you know, do sane grown-up things, like not expose their female members to IRL sexual harassment, stalking, or murder, and all their members to serious IRL danger as well.
And introduce them to the web. Because wow, are they going to be surprised what it is WoW is running on.
"This is google. It sees all, knows all, and this is the route to your children's school and your home phone number and recent electric bill. Not very green of you there, sparky. So. Let's talk why random online people knowing this shit is bad. Have another cookie. You'll need it."
Now I really want a cookie.
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And yeah...privacy may just be a thing of the past. I'm not a gamer, but I'm sure that there's waaaaaaaay more info available about me - digitally and otherwise - than I'd be comfortable with if I really thought about it (any more than I already do, damn it).
But. You were not physically damaged (thank goodness!!), and that counts for a lot!
*hugs*
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I'm so glad that you weren't hurt! Sheesh! Such an awful thing to have happen...did the idiot actually crash in to your disabled vehicle, then? *sigh*
No, eventually they figured it out? But it was weird. I mean, it's the turn lane. Hazards plus turn lane generally are a sign of no-movement, but they kept speeding toward us until an eventual sudden stop. It was bizarre.
And yeah...privacy may just be a thing of the past. I'm not a gamer, but I'm sure that there's waaaaaaaay more info available about me - digitally and otherwise - than I'd be comfortable with if I really thought about it (any more than I already do, damn it).
God, yes, this. That never not makes me nervous.
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ps. How is the home-soldering coming along? Did I miss a post?
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My friends that follow such things (and play WoW) have been muttering about nothing else the last few days. I just keep believing it can't be true. I mean. Like. Just when you think people can't get any dumber. I am not an expert about the internets. Or gaming. Or computers. And yet. *blinks*
This, this, this!
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Just 1/2 hour ago, over here in the UK, my teenage son came out of his room indignant over this violation of privacy. He'd cancelled his facebook account because of how people's details are easily obtained.Now Blizzard wants to be able to give WOW players' details whilst they're playing and when they post on WOW forums.
What is this growing public and private sector obssession with surveillance??
In the UK we already have a higher than average incidence of CCTV, we have the RIPP legislation which enables Govt to target/get hold of your emails if they wish, and various acts to prevent terrorism which the police have admitted they're using on ordinary citizens without crimnal records. As are town halls/local (city)government for foolishness like what's in our rubbish bins.
ENOUGH, I say!
Enough with the paranoia and using 'security concerns' to actually encroach on our privacy and autonomy!...
*foaming at the mouth*
Its getting to the stage where black, middle aged, lady professionals like me are starting to think of forming militias, armed with our knitting needles...
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I canceled my account. It's a token gesture, because I'm OCD and it'll drive me crazy if I don't complete a few things that I have to play through the end of December to do, but if they don't reverse this, I'm outta there after that.
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Yeah, my RL name is not particularly unique, but everything that comes up in a targeted google search is actually me, and it gives more than enough info to find me IRL. Also, I've been exceedingly careful to not have my screennames connected to my real name, and with a single exception I've actually been pretty successful. Why would I want to participate in something that would basically destroy all that caution?
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Also, wow. I can't believe they're so clueless they think real-naming everyone without their consent is a good idea. *facepalm*
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It was very sudden.
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So....what happened to your car?
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It was icked up by the AAA (AA?) and taken to Pep Boys (I think) for evaluation. It was really just--odd. Eveyr time you turned it on and wnet ot drive, boom, dead.
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Bets of luck and I hope it's something not terribly expensive.
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"The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well."
-is the very reason the idea is SO VERY BAD. Those people on the Blizz forums are effin' CRAZY and the last thing I want them to do is have my (well, technically, my brother's) real name and information. It's just another reason why the reasonably sane people will not post.
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[boggling helplessly]
So much for my embryonic interest in WoW. I wouldn't join now if you paid me. Sheesh. (Although it's nice that apparently they've decided their employees can remain safely anonymous after all.)
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Anyway, it is a bad, bad idea, as is the current implementation of RealID within the game, where if you share your real name through the friending system all of that person's RealID friends can also see your name.
I don't know how Blizzard cannot see the privacy concerns and real world dangers in these changes.
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And, I'm with you about sitting TPTB down for a nice juice and cookie chat.
Also, I was reading some of my gaming lj comms and someone speculated Blizzard may be trying to confirm to Chinese and South Korean net rules for forums in this post (http://community.livejournal.com/wow_ladies/13563450.html).
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I had that happen to me last summer when I had an alternator issue that was sucking the power from my battery/electrical system/what not. Car died just a few yards past the end of a school zone during morning drop-off time, so you'd think that those nice slow-moving drivers would had ample time to spot my stopped, blinking car and move over to the next lane.
Which mostly happened, except for one wench who just had to slam on the gas as soon as she exited the zone and only noticed my stalled car barely in time to slam on the brakes. (In an SUV, of course, and I'm probably just misremembering her as being on a cell phone at the time as well because it's SUV-drivers-on-cell-phones responsible for most of my near-accidents on the road.)
Mind you, at that point I realized that the low-power issue that had stopped my car had also affected the brightness of my hazard lights (which might have been adequate when I first turned them on, but had been getting dimmer and dimmer, with the blinky noise inside the car being noticably weaker and weaker) and so shut the lights off and got out of my car to stand behind the trunk and make it blatantly fucking obvious that my car was in fact not going anywhere. No more near-misses that morning.
Also, ran across that WoW story yesterday evening on the BBC news website while winding up my browsing for the day. Very amused, and all the more so by a quote or comment about this being a clear-cut case of someone who thinks Facebook is an accurate representation of social networking not understanding why so many people hate the way FB works and avoid it.
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I totally agree! Being able to talk to my friends, regardless of faction and sever, that's awesome! Telling all my hundred and some guildies my real name? OMG, NO. WTF WERE THEY THINKING?
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(The last time I ever got on one, incidentally. I already knew that clutches and I would never be good friends, but it had never actually imperiled my life before. I stick to scooters - and automatic transmissions - today.)
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Their latest thing short of the forum overhaul was the introduction of Real ID. Real ID makes it so that you give close WoW friends your e-mail address for your Battle.net account, and you can see statuses and talk to people cross-server, cross-faction and even across games. Real ID friends are identified not by a handle, but by their actual name. That requires both an invitation and an acceptance before you can see each other's names.
Real ID was when I started getting nervous, because that was the point where someone else could see your actual name and connect it to your online activities, even when you were the one granting access to that information. There are hackers out there who can hack WoW accounts tied to authenticators--the supposedly "unhackable" account. There are also addons which accidentally showed your name to people you hadn't given access to until Blizzard fixed the bug. Either of these flaws make it much easier for someone else to gain access to your identity and use it against you in different ways, whether for identity fraud or for internet stalking.
The conversion of forums to Real ID is the final straw for me. Do I use the forums? No. I use 3rd party content to help me figure things out and don't go anywhere near the forums, because I've heard too much about flame wars and trolling. However, I completely agree with people worried over privacy issues. Those forums are going to become ghost towns, because no one wants to give other people their real names in a troll-centric area. Every single forum I've used gives you the option, at least, of creating your own handle even if you choose to use your real name. Taking out that basic privacy firewall is a horrible, horrible idea.
One player in an article (can't remember if it was BBC or WSJ) pointed out that this is an especially bad idea concerning female players, who already have to deal with plenty of gender issues when playing WoW without giving people who may hate/resent them access to their real life name and information.
I've been a player for several years, and I've dealt with people who have hit on me, not stopped people continually hitting on me, disregarded what I had to say, used extremely derogatory and misogynistic language in chats or over vents, or assumed I was ugly, unmarried and housebound because obviously if I was pretty and had a boyfriend I wouldn't be playing WoW. I want no part of a game which gives immature assholes my personal information, and if they take this issue beyond chat forums I'm quitting that very same day.
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I sometimes play a different thing - it's (partly) free, I'm cheap - which regularly includes handy hints in the 'welcome' screen along the lines of 'never tell anyone in-game your RL name or contact details'. Asking someone their RL name may be considered a bannable offence. Think they might have a few more members soon if Blizzard keeps up with the stupidity?
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