Now I know the gaming community is a rather Net savvy bunch, so please don’t perpetrate a negative stereotype that we are all conspiracy theory touting fear mongers…

I’m happy to discuss this situation because from my viewpoint this is:

A) Nothing new
This is the same old boring, beat-a-dead-horse issue that pops up under any change or new social media technology. Remember when Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace started? Many many people were ready to get the pitchforks, tar and feather, and harass all of these people online because it was dangerous. Flash-forward and we see the same thing when Twitter started. One last jump to the present, and we have Blizzard doing it. It isn’t new.

B) Let’s have innovation and change within the business and throughout the culture.
Let’s bring MMO gaming up and even above the socially excepted level of movies and national sports. Let’s stop WANTING to hide in our basements behind a nickname.

C) That closed door doesn’t exist.
There’s no secret steel reinforced door that protects you, because you’re using a handle instead of a real name.

There’s a very real change in societies where something that used to be dangerous becomes less so because of a shift and move toward open use policies that allow all within a society to safely take part in an act that previously would have been much more risky.

Social Climate Change

Here’s some ways of seeing how this social change happens: It’s as simple as a small town with many back alleys being less dangerous due to an Iphone app bringing people together in that area. Yeah, there’s still dangers, but not near what it was before. How about: just about every 80′s awkward teen movie in existence – where one person is bullied for doing something one particular way that singles him out in a society. By the end of the movie, he is accepted and maybe even a lot of other people are doing it too, suddenly that previous danger is gone.

Crowds (especially crowd-sourcing and other net applications) coming together for a like-minded purpose can actually disperse dangers and risks that were previously there – YES, even if the dangers still exist under technicalities. With RealID, there are no new technicalities. All it is, is an integration of social media application that’s been around for 5-10 years now, and if you own a Facebook or a Twitter, or use Reddit, Digg or any other site that required you to sign up, or especially a LinkedIn account…. all social media – then you are already as exposed to the present dangers as your going to get. RealID does not add to that.

There was a time when no one would have allowed Facebook, Twitter, or any of the hundreds of other social sites to run and ask for your name, address, and so on. But now we tweet what we are doing, when we are doing it, and exactly where we are any given second of everyday. That still has its dangers, yes.

What does this leave for us to do?

The result is what we are seeing, which is kind of disturbing. Imagine all the social media marketers out there looking at these sites. I can only imagine them laughing and saying “Really? they act as if they’ve never seen the internet.”

I wrote some long comments over at MMO Voices. It’s only a handful of small pages where you can easily and quickly identify my comments. In them, I discuss some ideas that build on what I’ve mentioned here.

Fear-mongering

Tammi posted a well thought out argument against RealID. I like and respect Tammi but I’m using this to disagree with her. In it she posts bad things that happened to people because of identity leaks. These things already happened. They will not increase with Blizzards addition of RealID. These things happen because there are bad people who will find out who you are irregardless.  RealID is not opening a door wider. It may seem like you are more exposed by your real name showing. But, you aren’t being exposed anymore than you already exposed yourself by making a purchase online, or using any social site like Facebook or Twitter.

The fear-mongering is there though. it is there because in light of no real change, we have people trying to tell you that the majority of the gaming community are dangerous people to avoid. It’s more logical to assume someone simply oversteps there bounds by singling out their anonymity and using that in an unkind way, than to believe they are a bad person. They may be your very friendly neighbor or Dr. or the kid down the street that is still learning about respect and integrity.

The one thing naysayers boil this down to is becoming a target of the “trolls” who are being labeled as evil degenerates who would come and rob you blind. Those people will and do exist without the need for social sites or RealID. WoW adding RealID does not increase that, especially when they are creating a new social experience that everyone is a part of.

The people who harmed the victims in Tammi’s post would have done so whether they had Myspace, Facebook, or RealID to help them. That’s why this really is fear-mongering. Because all that’s really going on, is a group of people stereotyping another group of unknown people.

Wrap-up

All this is, is bringing in a Web 2.0 social media that’s been around for many years and everyone uses. If you don’t use it, then you likely don’t use forums either so it’s a mute point for you. If you do take security that highly and don’t use most sites, but still play WoW or other MMOs and like to use the forums then you are in an infinitesimally small minority of people that are protecting yourself based on very individual concerns which – again – makes the importance of this mute, because you take your security to a point above this issue and all the other issues that have already come and gone over the years.

Gaming needs to grow up and sit proudly and publicly along side movies, books, TV, national sports, and other forms of entertainment and business entertainment. Not stay hidden from view to languish in a dark basement forever.

I for one, want to see huge, well budgeted open 3D worlds that come to life like a book to TV translation where the people are collectively writing the story, playing the games, creating the jobs and having fun while networking and growing in a positive new and innovative direction. I would so love to see a TV show that was like the recent EVE live event, but blown up onto the television with very well produced news reports coming from a space station, hearing players interact, and who knows what I can’t think of right now. To top it off, we could one day be paid to create and “live” in an entertaining fictional Middle-earth, Taborea, EVE universe, Vanguard, Everquest, etc….

But, to do it we’ll have to say “Hello, my name is…”

[UPDATE]

I wanted to link to a post by Common Sense Gamer. It’s similar to what I said in the MMO Voices comments about the “fear” is being misappropriated and the levity of it is out of focus. Just some food for thought.

Fear: Some Final Thoughts

Related posts:

1. MMORPG Stereotypes, Etiquette, and Twitter
2. Our Rights Are Being Stripped From Us!
3. Current Online Gaming Plans
4. Where is that Awesome All-in-One Social Gaming Tool?
5. No, I don’t know when to shut up