Character name can't be hidden.

[Daremo]

Yes, wanting to control what information about yourself is released into the general public is clearly the hallmark of nefarious intention. Self determination is evil and corporations should should feel free to do what they like with your information, will ye nil ye.

Will this stop trolling? It won't.
Will this open posters to the possibilities of brand new levels of harassment? It will.
That harassment won't develop for everyone, and might not develop for anyone, but it's still a risk without reward.

In fact, this can't stop trolling unless it opens you to harassment. That is the very meaning of the so called accountability this will bring: don't troll lest you be hassled in game, for the club of the mob hangs over your every post. If it's not affecting you in game, how can it stop trolling? The two effects are interdependent, claiming you can have one without the other simply fails as an argument.

So all are to be stripped naked and thrown into the crowd, and we hope only the deserving will be kicked in the nuts... Yeah, right.

[Annahya]

Everyone who thinks this is a good idea needs to put their home address on an index card and affix it to every dollar they give to a homeless person.

This is one of the most ridiculous leaps of logic I have read in quite some time. Thank you for the laugh.

Ultimately, this information belongs to SE - and if they feel that, overall, the experience is enriched by its implementation then they will put it in place. If a significant number of players leave en masse because of it, then they will hopefully get the message that they were incorrect. It is all a numbers game, really. If it does not affect 97%, negatively impacts 1%, but 2% like it, then the 1% loses.

Has SE stated "why" this is? There have been a lot of assertions regarding the reasoning - and I have not seen an offcial statement by SE explaining such; not saying it doesn't exist, I am just curious if these assertions are more than conjecture.

Personally, I am in the hypothetical 97% (or whatever % you want to arbitrarily assign to those who don't care), but I understand that others could feel differently.

And they're not violating anything except maybe this new thing called "human rights"; but who pays attention to those anyway?

I seriously hope this was sarcasm - the rest of your post was so reasonable...

[wildsprite]

I personally have nothing to hide, I could care less if people know who I am in game, most of the people who know me know I'm a bit off my rocker, I tend to think outside of the box, pay attention to details a lot of others wouldn't, and I do expect some will disagree with many of my posts, I try then to see their side and keep the arguments civil

[Raxiaz]

@ Runespider: The issue I want to know is why people are upset over information (that isn't even theirs by law) being displayed on a forum. If it's that big of an issue, start a petition or something for SE to implement a "Profile:Private" feature. There's no sense in arguing against it here, honestly. They're going to do what they want to do with what is rightfully theirs, whether you like it or not.
p.s. I've only ever logged into the forums once, and it never gave me any troubles.

@Arlan: The chances of someone actually stalking you based on what you post on these forums is really low. You have more risk going outside and being stalked than you do posting on the internet. That is of course assuming you're not instigating anybody or acting questionable on the forums. If you're a regular, average person... no one would have interest in you.

That's how I view it. I understand your position and I wish I could be empathetic, but I just don't think in that regard really. I don't care if people know about my pixels. I would like to draw the line at any RL info, which I know for a fact can't be easy to ascertain from information gained from an official forum site. But pixel information? People /telling you on the forums? Who cares if they don't agree with you? /blacklist and move on, and /blacklist again. No human has the attention span to repeatedly recreate characters just to annoy someone else. Same thing in RL applies on the Internet, except it's a lot easier: ignore those who don't like you, and only pay any attention to those who care about you.

"There are four kinds of people in this world: people who like you for the right reasons, people who like you for the wrong reasons, people who dislike you for the wrong reasons, and people who dislike you for the right reasons. The last category is the one you should worry about."

@Annahya: Yes, that was sarcasm, lol.

[Greatguardian]

Pretty much everyone who these boards consider a "Flamer" or "Troll" posts with their real in-game name anyways. Not because anyone's "proud of flaming", but because people believe in accountability. People have always been more than welcome to have me put my money where my mouth is, personally. I'm the only Greatguardian on any server (FFXIAH returns Cerberus and Bahamut only because I was keylogged sometime in '08). This doesn't really change anything for me.

I'm more interested in seeing who people like Dallas and Hordecore are.

[wildsprite]

yeah that is the screwy part, it seems the "Flamer" or the "Troll" wants you to know who they are as if they are daring you to come argue with them in the game or something

yeah many of them believe in accountability but I think some of them are really hoping people will come argue with them in the game

Pretty much everyone who these boards consider a "Flamer" or "Troll" posts with their real in-game name anyways. Not because anyone's "proud of flaming", but because people believe in accountability. People have always been more than welcome to have me put my money where my mouth is, personally. I'm the only Greatguardian on any server (FFXIAH returns Cerberus and Bahamut only because I was keylogged sometime in '08). This doesn't really change anything for me.

I'm more interested in seeing who people like Dallas and Hordecore are.

[Greatguardian]

yeah that is the screwy part, it seems the "Flamer" or the "Troll" wants you to know who they are as if they are daring you to come argue with them in the game or something

Pardon? Not at all. I could care less about arguing with people. But if I'm going to make some outrageous claim like "I know what I'm doing", or "I can do this, it is not hard", I know that I am held accountable for those claims.

I am not irresponsible enough to run around saying "lol getting Empyreans and AF3+2 is sooper easy u r all gimps w/o them" and then hide my profile because I'm wearing full Aurore. That is the hallmark of lack of accountability.

Edit: Better example. I'm not irresponsible or juvenile enough to call every Summoner on these forums Gimp and then refuse to post any of my gear or publicize my identity.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

When the time comes, you should totaly list your smn lvl.

[Greatguardian]

67? Because anyone with half a brain couldn't look me up on FFXIAH and see that? What about it? People have to actually have the job leveled to know how it works now?

News to me.

Protip: I've dualboxed on 90SMNs multiple times for all that it matters.

[wildsprite]

Pardon? Not at all. I could care less about arguing with people. But if I'm going to make some outrageous claim like "I know what I'm doing", or "I can do this, it is not hard", I know that I am held accountable for those claims.

I am not irresponsible enough to run around saying "lol getting Empyreans and AF3+2 is sooper easy u r all gimps w/o them" and then hide my profile because I'm wearing full Aurore. That is the hallmark of lack of accountability.

Edit: Better example. I'm not irresponsible or juvenile enough to call every Summoner on these forums Gimp and then refuse to post any of my gear or publicize my identity.

oh no I wasn't referring to you directly, I believe you are one of the ones who believe in accountability

and lol my SMN gear is gimp as hell but I still do fairly decent at the job....I really wanna upgrade my callers set but cant do that without help :/