Joining Your Online and Offline Lives 42
The Escapist this week is running an article entitled Anonymity is not Enough. The article explores the increasing overlap between online and offline lives. From the article: "Freed from accountability for their actions, some players seek to experiment with the more annoying sides of their online identities, becoming in-game griefers or forum trolls. On a more serious level, some use the protection of the screen to pull off scams that can cost unsuspecting players real money, or to stalk other players online (and sometimes offline as well). And for those honest virtual businessmen out there, anonymity can sometimes make it difficult to build the kind of solid reputation of trust that any smart customer looks for."
Re:Forum trolls? (Score:2, Funny)
Sounds fun!!! (Score:2)
Hmmm could work (Score:1)
I must now do this.
Re:Hmmm could work (Score:1)
Visible impact (Score:2)
Offline life... (Score:1)
How DARE you. (Score:2)
Re:How DARE you. (Score:1)
Obligatory Penny Arcade (Score:1)
Re:Obligatory Penny Arcade (Score:2)
Re:Another interesting effect (Score:2)
I don't think so, really (Score:3, Insightful)
I dare say that if someone's line of thinking is "muahahaha, I'm anonymous and have an audience, now I can act like a total fuckwad" (like in the PA comic), then that's their _real_ personality: a total fuckwad. It's not as much something they've picked online, it's something that they really were all along.
Maybe fear of repercursions kept them from doing that offlin
Re:I don't think so, really (Score:2)
Personally, I've always thought the same about alcohol.
Basically, yes (Score:2)
Basically, yes, that's the idea. If alcohol "made" someone go punch the neighbour in the face or tell the boss a heartfelt "fuck you", chances are that's what they wanted to do when they were sober too.
And more importantly: they would have done it without alcohol or the internet too, if a time came when they thought they can get away with it. The history is full, for example, of times of anarchy when a whole bunch of people decided to go take vengeanc
Re:Another interesting effect (Score:2)
Perhaps this skew starts to happen because, freed from simple accountability (that is to say that as it becomes harder to associate you with your online identity, the bar is raised for holding you accountable, thus lowering the bar of what behaviour is safe for you to engage in)... people realise that some of our social norms, like not using phrases like "sloppy seconds" is well... silly.
I mean, these rules of social norms really serve no purpose. However in the
What offline lives? (Score:2)
It would be interesting to see some research done with regards to various forms of sociopathy and other psychological disorders that are expressed and / or magnified through "living online" (and this isn't being all holier-than-thou - there aren't a w
Re:What offline lives? (Score:1)
Re:What offline lives? (Score:2)
What I've found is that people who I considered my closest friends, I really don't care about so much as use for company and entertainment, and validation that I'm a good enough human being to be their friend.
Even if I get off my addiction at some point, I really doubt I'll go back to partying and
Re:What offline lives? (Score:1)
I'm starting a new life now, and once I get a few more levels, I'll powerlevel people in real life for gold.
Re:What offline lives? (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:What offline lives? (Score:1)
I'm online, that's it. (Score:2)
What scares me is not people's anonymity, but usually two other things associated with it. The first is lack of anonymity, which can ruin a perfectly good game
Bad title (Score:2)
The anonymity between your online and offline life can be important. If i'm a gay-leather-fetishist or a homophobic-neo-nazi i may want to be able to express myself online without having to deal with the negative social repercusions in my real life, and i think that's an important aspect of the net that we shouldn'
If you have 20 minutes... (Score:2)
juggling act (Score:1)
Try explaining to your wife that "YES... I KNOW I told you we both could go out for dinner this evening. But that was before I found out the healer (or DD, or puller, or Tank, or whatever) had a flat tire and couldn't m
Re:juggling act (Score:1)
I used the scenario to describe what schedule conflicts you're presented with, when playing an MMOG. When those types of conflicts came up, and the wife and I had other plans? Tough luck. And my buddies online understood and we adjusted game schedules accordingly. We did it numerous times, both for me and for each other. Some of them had wives or husbands, or wives, or kids, and job changes, too. Real life always came first, for all of us.
But that's my point, though: When you'r
Using a web-based service to bridge the two (Score:2)
Re:Using a web-based service to bridge the two (Score:2)
2 cents,
Queen B
Re:Using a web-based service to bridge the two (Score:1)
Re:Using a web-based service to bridge the two (Score:2)
On second thought, considering the age and computer literacy of the people I work with, I'd be more likely to spot an orc by the water cooler.
-Eric