Aryse Andenter
12-18-2005, 05:01 PM
/RANT ON
I am sooooo sick of the retards over at eqlive posting that all info should be public because they have never been harassed by having their info posted, and their friends have never been harassed, so they just don't believe it is possible! They don't see why anybody would so.... nobody must, right?
*grrrrr*
I encourage people to contact me in game and people do.
I rarely mind when someone asks questions about some quest or piece of gear or so on, and I like to chat. (I only mind when they get snooty if I was AFK or raiding/kiting and couldn't respond - or if they want me to step-by-step walk them through it instead of just answereing a few questions about it.)
However, if you want to know if I have an extra copy of Words XXX for your spell, I want you to ask me, not look me up and root through my bags to find out.
I do get cross-server tells about stuff I post on messsge boards (so there Rawlden and Nolrog and all you others saying you don't. Oooops, did I just offer proof it might actually happen to some people? Oh well, doesn't matter cuz it wasn't you, right? Must not happen if it didn't happen to you, right? *sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm*).
I'm not one to care for the roleplay aspect of the game in most things, but this seems to go to far. And, instead of helping socialization, that kind of situation kills it - people don't even have to ask you any more, they can just go check your profile. Someone's anonymous? Just look them up. Someone's naked? Just look them up. Want to know more about that cool weapon they're wielding? You don't even have to ask them anymore, just look them up.
Now let me clear something up. There ARE mean-spirited people who play this game. Harassment DOES occur. When people post that is has happened to them on that forum, the response is 'I don't believe you". Excuse me, but WTF?
When I left Zek I had several reasons. I didn't like the server, I had just had an issue with an officer in my guild - and there was a guy allowed into my guild who had a long history of causing problems with me - most of it was not directly to me in game, so CS couldn't help. When I left the server I didn't tell anyone where I went, and I basically stopped playing and didn't look to join a guild or anything on the new server for months. He eventually found out where I was, but it took him a long time, and luckily me being on another server and the time that passed before he found out seemed to cause him to lose interest. With eqplayers, however, he could simply have searched my character name, and there is only one server with a toon with my name and level.
Let's say I had gotten a name change and really tried to disappear on him. But he knows a few things about me - he knows my race and class. He knows I have my epic 2.0. With just those three common pieces of information he can now search server by server and come up with a pretty short list of possibilities - hell, for my class and race there are some servers that show not a single result for epic 2.0. With his pretty narrow list it wouldn't take him long to find me.
Now, there are stories a lot worse than mine. And I don't blame those people for not wanting to step up and share their story with an audience who is screaming 'It doesn't happen' and 'I don't believe you' - most people who have seriously been harassed will want to just step into the background and not surface again.
Okay, let's look at something else. Bank and pp and the possibility of wealthiest player leaderboards and so on. Recently on Maelin, and on several other servers as well, there has been someone trying to gain access to toons. He specifically targets people by their guild tag - this is probably his best easy measurement of what toons are most likely to have the most pp/most valuable items.
However, now with eqplayers he has specific information - both to make his story more plausible, and to better narrow down who his primary targets are - who the most valuable toons would be in terms of quick turnover. Now, most people are smart enough not to get scammed by this guy. But do we really need to put more ammunition in his hands just in case?
So that was an example of someone looking up info to target a player. It can go the other way around. People who decide they don't like someone, can look up their info. Do you really care if people discuss your INT skill and shout it around to everyone? Not really. But think how far someone meanspirited can take this. He can begin advertising your tradeskills everywhere. He could follow an Enchanter and advertise they will be offering KEI. He can /ooc that a cleric will be MGBing virtue. Ignore doesn't work for any of these things, and this person is messing with your reputation when you refuse or are not available. You can /ooc that you are LFG and have him immediately /ooc your AA/hp/mana/missing spells. Okay, so you don't care most of the time. But, this could get damn annoying. And the discussion that follows his /ooc every time will feel like harassment before too long. That's all pretty casual and usually possible already anyway. EQPlayers just makes it easier to get someone's class/spell and other info - even if they are anonymous.
On a PvP server, players have a really legit reason for not wanting their skills displayed. Through a leaderboard search, you now know who has the weakest resists and who to target first, even if all profiles are private. This information vastly changes game play and PvP. And on Zek, people defiantely do look this stuff up - I know players there who refused to make magelo's or made fake magelos because of this specific problem. Now, just using this information is bothersome. But imagine if a player harassing you is following you to different zones and /oocing your weakest resist? People do go and look it up, anyway, but now harassment was just made even easier - and you have no way to hide this information now.
There are a lot of tradeskillers who don't want to do combines for strangers, who don't post their skill anywhere, and who are now open to be targeted for their skill from any leaderboard search. On top of this, people can now look through their bags and bug the person fo use some item for them or check their additional skills. Can this person just ignore requests or say no? Sure. But ignore lists can get pretty long. And a lot of people wind up feeling guilty or silly and end up doing the combine. And then another one, and another, and their playtime gets completely disrupted because they are too kind to say no to an insistent stranger. I don't want to punish the nice people in the game.
There is currently a leaderboard malfunction when you search the top necromancer AAs. Akephalos displays on that board as having 2,336 AAs (despite him having a private profile you can check him in his guild list for a more accurate AA number). Let's say as an example he's being accused of hacking/cheating (the way some people were with display problems in tradeskills). Now someone sees their chance and decides to start shouting to PoK and general channels that he is a hacker. This kind of rumor can be very difficult to disprove or to quiet - just because of a display error he now has a ruined reputation.
I do not have any reason to hide. My gear on my magelo is accurate. My AAs and skills, while a bit out of date, are not being fluffed up (since they're out of date, the reverse is true). I don't keep much pp or valuable items on my main. I don't hack, I don't have illegal or stolen gear.
Yet I would rather if most of my profile was hidden. Apparently, some people can't believe that this is true. They continue to accuse that the only people who want complete privacy must be hiding something big, must have falsified info - must have some cheating reason.
In truth, I don't even think I would care that much for the most part about having my profile private and unsearchable/unviewable on the leaderboards, but I very very very much want the option. I might feel like being private today, next week being public since I have more time on my hands and don't mind sharing my skills, and then going back to private while my workload increases a lot through January. I want the option to not be found on the leaderboards - to not have my information searchable and viewable. I may or may not use it - but I want choice! Yes, magelo and eqrankings exist. But they provide choice in being included and what information you share.
Now, you can look at all my examples and think, that won't happen often. But don't deny that it could happen! Don't bury your head in the sand and think that every person who plays the game is a lovely nice person who would never do anything just to be mean. If even one person is seriously harassed because of information on the site, then in my opinion, that is too many. And the absolute denial that harassment does happen, and could be worse because of the information on this site, is absolutely ridiculous and makes me want to scream. Pull your heads out of your asses people!!!
I am sooooo sick of the retards over at eqlive posting that all info should be public because they have never been harassed by having their info posted, and their friends have never been harassed, so they just don't believe it is possible! They don't see why anybody would so.... nobody must, right?
*grrrrr*
I encourage people to contact me in game and people do.
I rarely mind when someone asks questions about some quest or piece of gear or so on, and I like to chat. (I only mind when they get snooty if I was AFK or raiding/kiting and couldn't respond - or if they want me to step-by-step walk them through it instead of just answereing a few questions about it.)
However, if you want to know if I have an extra copy of Words XXX for your spell, I want you to ask me, not look me up and root through my bags to find out.
I do get cross-server tells about stuff I post on messsge boards (so there Rawlden and Nolrog and all you others saying you don't. Oooops, did I just offer proof it might actually happen to some people? Oh well, doesn't matter cuz it wasn't you, right? Must not happen if it didn't happen to you, right? *sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm*).
I'm not one to care for the roleplay aspect of the game in most things, but this seems to go to far. And, instead of helping socialization, that kind of situation kills it - people don't even have to ask you any more, they can just go check your profile. Someone's anonymous? Just look them up. Someone's naked? Just look them up. Want to know more about that cool weapon they're wielding? You don't even have to ask them anymore, just look them up.
Now let me clear something up. There ARE mean-spirited people who play this game. Harassment DOES occur. When people post that is has happened to them on that forum, the response is 'I don't believe you". Excuse me, but WTF?
When I left Zek I had several reasons. I didn't like the server, I had just had an issue with an officer in my guild - and there was a guy allowed into my guild who had a long history of causing problems with me - most of it was not directly to me in game, so CS couldn't help. When I left the server I didn't tell anyone where I went, and I basically stopped playing and didn't look to join a guild or anything on the new server for months. He eventually found out where I was, but it took him a long time, and luckily me being on another server and the time that passed before he found out seemed to cause him to lose interest. With eqplayers, however, he could simply have searched my character name, and there is only one server with a toon with my name and level.
Let's say I had gotten a name change and really tried to disappear on him. But he knows a few things about me - he knows my race and class. He knows I have my epic 2.0. With just those three common pieces of information he can now search server by server and come up with a pretty short list of possibilities - hell, for my class and race there are some servers that show not a single result for epic 2.0. With his pretty narrow list it wouldn't take him long to find me.
Now, there are stories a lot worse than mine. And I don't blame those people for not wanting to step up and share their story with an audience who is screaming 'It doesn't happen' and 'I don't believe you' - most people who have seriously been harassed will want to just step into the background and not surface again.
Okay, let's look at something else. Bank and pp and the possibility of wealthiest player leaderboards and so on. Recently on Maelin, and on several other servers as well, there has been someone trying to gain access to toons. He specifically targets people by their guild tag - this is probably his best easy measurement of what toons are most likely to have the most pp/most valuable items.
However, now with eqplayers he has specific information - both to make his story more plausible, and to better narrow down who his primary targets are - who the most valuable toons would be in terms of quick turnover. Now, most people are smart enough not to get scammed by this guy. But do we really need to put more ammunition in his hands just in case?
So that was an example of someone looking up info to target a player. It can go the other way around. People who decide they don't like someone, can look up their info. Do you really care if people discuss your INT skill and shout it around to everyone? Not really. But think how far someone meanspirited can take this. He can begin advertising your tradeskills everywhere. He could follow an Enchanter and advertise they will be offering KEI. He can /ooc that a cleric will be MGBing virtue. Ignore doesn't work for any of these things, and this person is messing with your reputation when you refuse or are not available. You can /ooc that you are LFG and have him immediately /ooc your AA/hp/mana/missing spells. Okay, so you don't care most of the time. But, this could get damn annoying. And the discussion that follows his /ooc every time will feel like harassment before too long. That's all pretty casual and usually possible already anyway. EQPlayers just makes it easier to get someone's class/spell and other info - even if they are anonymous.
On a PvP server, players have a really legit reason for not wanting their skills displayed. Through a leaderboard search, you now know who has the weakest resists and who to target first, even if all profiles are private. This information vastly changes game play and PvP. And on Zek, people defiantely do look this stuff up - I know players there who refused to make magelo's or made fake magelos because of this specific problem. Now, just using this information is bothersome. But imagine if a player harassing you is following you to different zones and /oocing your weakest resist? People do go and look it up, anyway, but now harassment was just made even easier - and you have no way to hide this information now.
There are a lot of tradeskillers who don't want to do combines for strangers, who don't post their skill anywhere, and who are now open to be targeted for their skill from any leaderboard search. On top of this, people can now look through their bags and bug the person fo use some item for them or check their additional skills. Can this person just ignore requests or say no? Sure. But ignore lists can get pretty long. And a lot of people wind up feeling guilty or silly and end up doing the combine. And then another one, and another, and their playtime gets completely disrupted because they are too kind to say no to an insistent stranger. I don't want to punish the nice people in the game.
There is currently a leaderboard malfunction when you search the top necromancer AAs. Akephalos displays on that board as having 2,336 AAs (despite him having a private profile you can check him in his guild list for a more accurate AA number). Let's say as an example he's being accused of hacking/cheating (the way some people were with display problems in tradeskills). Now someone sees their chance and decides to start shouting to PoK and general channels that he is a hacker. This kind of rumor can be very difficult to disprove or to quiet - just because of a display error he now has a ruined reputation.
I do not have any reason to hide. My gear on my magelo is accurate. My AAs and skills, while a bit out of date, are not being fluffed up (since they're out of date, the reverse is true). I don't keep much pp or valuable items on my main. I don't hack, I don't have illegal or stolen gear.
Yet I would rather if most of my profile was hidden. Apparently, some people can't believe that this is true. They continue to accuse that the only people who want complete privacy must be hiding something big, must have falsified info - must have some cheating reason.
In truth, I don't even think I would care that much for the most part about having my profile private and unsearchable/unviewable on the leaderboards, but I very very very much want the option. I might feel like being private today, next week being public since I have more time on my hands and don't mind sharing my skills, and then going back to private while my workload increases a lot through January. I want the option to not be found on the leaderboards - to not have my information searchable and viewable. I may or may not use it - but I want choice! Yes, magelo and eqrankings exist. But they provide choice in being included and what information you share.
Now, you can look at all my examples and think, that won't happen often. But don't deny that it could happen! Don't bury your head in the sand and think that every person who plays the game is a lovely nice person who would never do anything just to be mean. If even one person is seriously harassed because of information on the site, then in my opinion, that is too many. And the absolute denial that harassment does happen, and could be worse because of the information on this site, is absolutely ridiculous and makes me want to scream. Pull your heads out of your asses people!!!