So it would seem that the real reason we want to solo in MMOs is because, deep down, we suspect that every other single player in our MMO du choix is, in all likelihood, a sociopath and will plot dire……

As for your “YOU ARE SAFE, stop QQing.”?
You are “QQing” over their supposed “QQing”. You must have read all of 2 lines of the OP since your 2 rants had nothing to do with it.

On the flip side, at no point did I ever feel my anonymity was necessary to that. The fact that there was a common ground of the love of a game and a shared objective of a boss or emblems or completing a quest was enough for me.

Watching the Real ID thing unfold was fascinating to me, because while I was willing to acknowledge there were some legitimate concerns there for some, I watched it explode and exaggerate itself into a completely new fiend. As a Denver, CO resident who had a fondness for trenchcoats (I like having 9 big pockets and the warmth) during a certain incident in April of 1999, I will say this is not the first time I’ve seen such behavior in people.

It’s interesting for me because I am a cynical optimist. I believe that people act in their own interests, but are generally good people that won’t hurt others to do so, with the occasional bad apple tossed in the mix. So you tell me someone on the internet knows my real name, I’ll just smile, nod, and say “It’s a pretty weird name, isn’t it?” (My name is August.)

Ultimately, fear spreads and grows in a mob mentality, which for a few solid days is all the internet was in relation to Real ID, and it was far more frightening to me what people were thinking about it than the actual idea of my real name on a forum.

Why would any stalker that isn’t utterly retarded use Real ID over the social networks that have exponentially more targets, and the far more likely targets?

If a WoW player is so insane that they are driven to actually want to murder or otherwise hurt somebody, do you really think Real ID being in place or not is going to stop them?

The blogosphere is either completely retarded or actually the most foolish pussy cowards in existence. YOU ARE SAFE, stop QQing.

People know the identity of everyone who fucks them over in their REAL lives and don’t go insane, and despite stereo-typing and sensationalizing media gamers are pretty much like everyone else.

You people going all bomb-shelter crazy about Real ID are becoming the sensationalist media that most seem to hate. Even if there were some sort of incident, the odds of any of you being affected are laughable.

The true reason most people are afraid of Real ID is that they are closet gamers, which is fine. But anyone trumpeting the “dangers” of Real ID is either a moron or a deceitful media whore.

What’s the point? And by that I mean what’s the point of group content if 7-8 times out of 10 I have to endure it instead of enjoying it?

It’s much easier to change a game than to change people, so I welcome pretty much any and all design moves that free players from being subject to other players.

When I think of RealID, I think of Zaboo from The Guild. I really don’t want someone to hunt me down for any reason: murder, misunderstood affection, whatever.

And yet, I enjoy grouping. I have a horde shammy that I am leveling by sitting in Org and just using the dungeon finder. No questing at all after lvl 15, just dungeons. It’s a blast and yet I still don’t want people to know my real name.

People don’t group because many of the players today have no social skills. They either are selfish and drop group after they are finished, leaving you solo with elites to down or they feel the need to mind your business more than their own (you are doing this wrong, why are you using this ability, your gear is “fail”, blah, blah, blah). Many people just don’t want to have to deal with the bullsh*t when they can just move to another area to quest solo.

It sounds to me like the SWTOR group looked at these games and how people are playing. They looked at the fact that people who start playing when a game is first released don’t have an issue grouping and tend to finish the early group content, but people who start later have a harder time finding groups for this. People are either run through by higher level friends or just skip it completely. So their answer was to just not put as much group content into the game. That sounds fine to me.