Life Imitates Art?

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So, it occured to me a few seconds ago that one of my greatest concerns Re: my gaming hobby is a concern of my fictional character, Robin Smith's, in Becoming Robin...

I won't post TOO much about what's going on because I don't want to draw unwanted attention to Erin's wonderful site here (Google keyword search would snatch it up in a heartbeat). I will say that a gaming company, maker of one of the world's largest online games, has declared that in order to post on their forums after the next big expansion, you must use your real name to post.

The reason this sits wrong with me is because you absolutely can't change the name associated with your game account without court documentation that you legally changed your name, so there are quite a few of us T-folk, both MtF, FtM, and myself, deeply closeted but still "open" about my LGBT status with the safety that playing an anonymous character brings, who are seriously threatened by this.

I comment on it in blog-form because I realized I'm experiencing, in terms of my feelings, PRECISELY the kind of fear of harassment Robin feels pretty often when she's afraid someone will find out her birth sex.

As an aside I find it kind of neat that the other trans gamers who came out of the woodwork to post quoted what I had to say as an example of why they feel upset too. It made me feel really good knowing I could vocalize their fears and concerns, even though we're all pretty much certain we're done posting there (and I've canceled my account in protest.)

I've edited the original quote only to remove keywords that, again, Google would snatch up like a kid in a candy store. :-)

I realize and respect what you're trying to do with this, but honestly, this is the last post I'm ever going to make on your forums. I'll probably switch to exclusively posting on (another website) or one of the other third-party fansites because I happen to value my anonymity. Why? Because I like being able to be myself without the stigma that comes with not having 'come out' offline. I'm TG, but forced to use my given name for official documentation like (official website). If you're going to force me to use the name that means absolutely nothing to me except "lol bur ur not a real girl" and all the abuse that comes with that? Then that's it. I'm through.

It was a nice ride, but just let me off at the next station.

I'll still play as long as the game is fun, and I hope you accomplish your goals, but as of now I'm boycotting this Facebook garbage, and I hope to God you realize the mistake you're making.

And

Exactly why I don't like this. The only time I've ever talked about my LGBTIS status is when posting on (character name) precisely to avoid this sort of situation. This is terrible, and it's only going to be worse for a lot of us, not just T-folk. Exactly why I'm getting off this crazy train and watching the resulting train wreck from a distance.

I mentioned earlier that I was in a really, really bad mood. This is why. I used to contribute a lot to this game forum, helping new players out and answering questions (and heckling the forum trolls - all in fun), but now I think I'm just going to stick to console gaming and writing as my main hobbies.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that little "Oh neat!" moment of realization. I think I just grew a little bit as a writer and as a person, now that I understand her fears a little bit better because of this. :-)

~Zoe

Edit: For context, "this sort of situation" mentioned in the second quote was a girl who was 'outed' because someone found out her real name, and... Well, you can guess how it ended :-/ It was after she told her story that I went ahead and canceled my account. I just couldn't in good conscience continue to support the company after that.

* * *

"Zoe, you are definitely the Queen of Sweetness with these Robin stories!"
~ Tychonaut

~* Queen of Sweetness *~

Comments

My first thought when I

My first thought when I heard this news, soon after it was announced, was "that's horrible." My second was to try to recall the last time I'd posted on the official fora, and could only recall once or twice over the years. I mostly post to guild specific fora, or class specific third party sites. I confess I hadn't really thought of this issue as it relates to us, since all my legal identity was changed long before this game came into existence.

Their current real ID system is poorly thought out and implemented, in general, and I'm only using it with a couple other people I know well. I suspect the ramifications of the policy on us don't reflect any malice on the company's part against us, but rather that they just haven't thought things out all that well. They just wanted a way to stop the trolls and griefers. Constructive feedback might still bring changes in it. Or, one could just avoid those fora once they make the change. They've said it's not going to be retroactive, and I've found little use for the official fora, anyway. I expect there will be some tweaking and fine tuning of this policy, at least, in the near future.

I realized this week that I'm pretty burned out on raiding, right now, anyway, so will probably be spending less time in game until I can start leveling a werewolf. Maybe I'll even get more writing done.

Mir

Stupid decision

Although many sites ask for your real name when registering, most keep it hidden (only accessible to you and the admins), thereby allowing you to use an alias / nickname for postings.

It's not just T* folk, I know several cis-gendered individuals who prefer to keep their real name hidden from online activity (in this case, a BBC blog) and will ask the moderators to remove any posts which refer to them by their real name (or even the three letter shortened version of their first name).

After all, many people have to have an online presence in their real name for work purposes (e.g. parish councillor) or public organisations they're a member of (e.g. prominent fundraiser / campaigner for a charity), and understandably want to keep their public lives and private lives separate.

In these days of rapidly accessible information on the internet, if someone had to use their real name for their personal life as well as their public life, it wouldn't take someone long to find the connections and either harrass them in the public life over what they did in their personal life, or someone who knew them from their personal life web activity gaining potentially misleading impressions of them from their public life web activity.

(As for me, well, since I've used my acronymic nickname on a variety of sites for the past decade, most of which are searchable, and my real name's been mentioned on several; plus I don't have a public profile; I'm personally not that bothered - and nobody has [yet!] quizzed me on my questionable taste in sites... but obviously, as stated above, I'm probably in a minority, and many people have very good reasons to hide their real name from the 'net community at large.)

 


EAFOAB Episode Summaries

There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...

As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

My opinion is that

You should contact Blizzard via mail and explain the situation, I am sure they'll be happy to change it to the appropriate name.

I think that Blizz will likely agree to the whole name-change thing. The reason they put the orig name is to stop trolling , and by having a fixed name set to your account(s)they managed to give nicks an identity. So as long as there a set name they wouldn't mind, Besides Blizz really doesn't need more bad PR over this :)

Anyway I am willing to check if it works , now I don't have a WoW account but I do plan on going back to battle.net and Blizz forums when SC2 comes out ( pre-ordered collectors edition ).

Lily (currently in GIVE ME BACK MY RAYNOR mood :) ).