And situations like yours are the extreme minority. Hence my wonder at why people are so bothered by other people knowing their names, for crying out loud. Besides, in your case, your ex already knows your name. Hardly an issue. If he wants to find you, he can. You don't need to post your name online for your ex to find you.
Here's the funny thing...people can give a damn BECAUSE of other people.
I don't really care. I can avoid using the forums as I rarely if ever use it and I am a decent enough searcher on the web to find answers usually if I have a troubleshooting issue. If it gets into the game its going to be annoying but again, its not a huge thing with regards to me PERSONALLY. I rarely PVP, I don't put together random PUGs much or jump into many, I don't really care to much about gear and have passed things i've won to someone that's badly wanted it, so my likelihood of pissing someone off isn't high. I'm not a minority, I'm not a female, I'm not extremely young, my friends and fiance know I've got my geek tendancy, so I don't have a ton to worry about there. I'd rather it not be available for anyone googling me, and it annoys me, but for just an issue of me, myself, its not a huge deal.
It bothers me greatly however because I can
DEFINITELY see females getting harassed about this. I played on what was essentially a mini-MMO (a Neverwinter Nights Persistant world), that had a community that was incredibly friendly and close knit and due to that private information was more likely to flow. I knew of RL girls that played that had issues of harassment or worse from some of the various male players. in a game of millions I don't doubt this to happen on a much larger scale. There were already copies of posts by guys saying how they disliked the change but hey, on the bright side, he may be able to get the real name of the chick in his guild with the cute voice that he kind of has a crush on but doesn't really know how to talk to about real stuff and maybe see about "bumping" into her sometime or "stumbling" upon her somewhere else online.
I feel for parents who are having to have yet another thing to worry about in regards to their kids. I feel for people who DO care about keeping their hobby somewhat private due to whatever personal reasons they have. I do care about people who are in more professional fields that potentially have potential employers who see their posts and get turned off for hiring htem. I do care about people who enjoy and like the roleplaying aspect of it and doesn't want to have someone searching their name and finding posts that look like a CRAZY person to anyone that doesn't understand what it is. And it goes on and on.
Its possible to be outraged at this on principle, and in regards to what it may do for others, even if it may not be something you're worried greatly about for yourself.
