RealID - Why It Is Not That Bad?

First off, I would like to thank all the guest bloggers from last week, which were Natrii, Samsaric Warrior, Variant Avatar, and Luftitoom.  I would encourage you to go back and read their articles since it contained some great stuff as well as check out their great blogs.

In working with them, I have also been able to add them to my RealID and even some on Facebook. Since RealID has come out, there has been a lot of controversy about how it may decrease privacy since it displays your real name.   In my workings with it, I have not seen such a problem with the system.  Here are some of my thoughts on the new RealID system.

First, I have absolutely loved it.  I have thought it was great to see which characters my friends are playing on currently and see what they are doing, whether it is raiding or PvPing.  I have friends who were working on LK so I can stay on my server and give advice on how to handle LK while still playing my own game versus jumping off my character to go to a character on that server or even jumping in their vent.

Second,  I thought about all the ways I have already given my information out.  Let me just go through a few of them.  I have MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter all through the same e-mail address as my RealID e-mail adddress.  If you go to my profile on Blogger, you will find my e-mail address.  If you go to my Facebook page for this blog, you will likely find out which one is me in just a few minutes.  And I have the same amount of control over RealID as I do Facebook.  If I don't know the person, I don't have to accept them.  If I do, I can add them.

Third,  the only thing that even causes me some pause is the friends of friends feature.  However, it is not the easiest function to find and I have a feeling that it will likely be cut soon.  In the meantime though, I don't foresee this as an issue.  They can see my name, but they still have to request to be RealID friends and so I still ultimately have control.  I also cannot see their e-mail from the friends of friends screen.

Fourth,  this RealID may provide some accountability.  For my reason for this, you have to see John Gabriel's (from Penny Arcade) greater internet dickwad theory.

 
If you take out one part of this equation, you lose the ability to be a dickwad.  In this case, you take out the anonymity.  Again, you don't have to give out your info or accept RealID request from people you don't know.  However, knowing that people in the game do know who I am almost completely prevents me from being a dickwad ever.  I really don't have the personality of a dickwad anyway as anyone in my guild can tell you.  However, it is good to know that I have something backing up the fact that I can't be one.

So, overall, I really like the RealID system.  There are a few kinks that I wish they would work out, but overall, I'm very satisfied.  So if  you would like to hit me up on my RealID, just send me a request through my e-mail, bigdog1862@yahoo.com.  And you have the option to put a note in the request, just drop me a note in there about who you are and I will try to add you.