How much do you care about digital id in your game services?

[Kovlak]

This is rarely talked about, but independently of backlash, we all feel digital id is coming everywhere. PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Steam, GOG, Epic Game Store and others will have to put it in their systems to gate their services by political mandates.

How much do you care if they do it? Will you be giving them your govenmental id and/or biometric data?

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I care about it very much.

They never asked for my ID to buy games physically. GOG never demanded to know who I was in order to let me play. No gaming site ever cared and gladly took whatever bullshit I offered when I signed up for them.

This is a huge step backwards.

 

[Vreeves]

I do. I mean, if I start to slowly give my id to stores, social media and other services then when will it stop? This is the beginning of a Dystopian era if the worst case scenario does indeed come true and honestly we are not that far from it already.

Any kind of bypass or "faking" that I can get my hands on without risk of something worse, then I will most likely do that.

 

[Kovlak]

This is the beginning of a Dystopian era if the worst case scenario does indeed come true and honestly we are not that far from it already.

This is the beginning of something worse than a dystopia. Of social systems and an Internet that are completely broken.

This week both Anthropic and OpenAI announced that AI agents with their patented tech got out of their sandboxes and hacked Hugging Face, an Internet portal for AI developers, and there is the idea that both companies are getting into a publicity competition about their near-future public stock offerings. And to add insult to injury, Anthropic and OpenAI instead of promising to update their security, pushed the blame to security systems not prepared for Agentic AI.

When companies act this reckless with the digital security systems in place, I can only see a future where your digital ID is routinely leaked and is bouncing from database to database in the Internet, being traded and sold over the darkweb and the poor sods who trusted the laws get shafted and suffer the brunt of these insane decisions, while companies and governments wash their hands of any wrongdoing and get little to no legal repercussions. "We have investigated ourselves and cleared ourselves of any wrongdoing."

 

[HydraSavior]

Someone used the name I used on a different gaming forum to make messages attacking an indie developer you're probably heard of. I got an email from the indie developer yelling at me to stop; I had to explain that the forums I went to had their share of, uh, nutcases might be the best word, I suppose.

I use like five different Internet Handles and a fake real name to maintain my security, Just In Case. When we get Digital ID...then what? People angry about videogames on forums can just go and kill people?

There's two main classes, as far as I'm concerned, of people pushing for Digital ID. Those who want to control people better with more information about them, and those who have never spent an appreciable amount of time on the actual Internet to know *why* it's a bad idea.

 

[Burzuru Burzuru]

from what im aware, ID verification costs websites a lot of money to support. smaller websites won't be able to pay that. newgrounds for instance, i think checks the age of your account and if you used a debit/credit card to assume your age.

this shit isn't even financially viable, except for the largest websites that rake in money.

 

[iamthemilkman]

I'll quit and just sail the seven seas entirely. I stopped selling on Ebay once they wanted too much info like social security #.

This isn't about protecting kids, the Epstein class trying to implement this worldwide were the ones endangering them. This is about the coming global social credit score system that must be rejected wholesale.

 

[lestagio]

I care a lot. Realistically, there is NO need for it whatsoever. "It's about the children!" IS IT?? I'll be the old man yelling at the clouds till the day I fucking die, but parents should do the parenting. The government doesn't need to sit here and try to take my ID just to verify my age. That's personal data.

We already know that these databases they're storing said data in aren't exactly secure. Even IF the people who need my ID for "verification" aren't doing anything malicious with it, I'm not offering it up on a silver platter for a worse person to steal at a later date.

I use this username in only a couple other places. But some other places, I use a different username. I think there's a mix of people who want control, and old fucks who don't understand what the hell they're doing.

 

[bombatomba77]

I care enough to completely reject the idea of it. Forcing this will 100% end my purchasing and even playing of ANY digital content, especially since I don't believe any of the bullshit surrounding the supposed reasons. This is nothing more than an additional cash grab and opens up an additional vector of attach by bad actors. I rarely get passionate about things outside of Reddit, but screw this. Screw this right in its ass.

 

[lestagio]

I care enough to completely reject the idea of it. Forcing this will 100% end my purchasing and even playing of ANY digital content, especially since I don't believe any of the bullshit surrounding the supposed reasons.

Agreed here, I'll sail the seas if I'm required for ID, lol

 

[Kovlak]

I care enough to completely reject the idea of it. Forcing this will 100% end my purchasing and even playing of ANY digital content, especially since I don't believe any of the bullshit surrounding the supposed reasons.

Agreed here, I'll sail the seas if I'm required for ID, lol

What if governments make it necessary to insert your ID to connect to the Internet?

 

[wobblysquidwobblysquid's icon]

from what im aware, ID verification costs websites a lot of money to support. smaller websites won't be able to pay that.

That's true. Many smaller websites I frequent are stripping their social features in an effort to get around having to do checks, but I don't even know if that is actually a viable solution. I know the UK's Online Safety act also targets websites, forums, and search engines--even abroad if there are a lot of UK users. I understand what the end goal is, but this isn't the way.

There's enough data tracking as is. We don't need to be in a database tied to our government id where they have every place we frequent. What's next? Monitoring everything we say online and implementing consequences? If I wanted to live behind the great firewall and lose my freedoms, I'd move to China.

 

[lestagio]

What if governments make it necessary to insert your ID to connect to the Internet?

Honestly...? I don't really know? But I think that would be total bullshit and obviously corrupt because, you know, I'm paying for my internet? Having the ability to do that should be proof enough that I'm over the age of 18.
There's a part of me that's like "Fine I just won't use the internet." But I use the internet for a lot of things including my job, so maybe I would eventually fold when I had no other option, but I'm not really sure. Hey, all of the shit I've hoarded on my hard drives will finally come in handy though!

 

[wobblysquidwobblysquid's icon]

Hey, all of the shit I've hoarded on my hard drives will finally come in handy though!

I was just staring at my NAS before reading your post.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

What if governments make it necessary to insert your ID to connect to the Internet?

Imagine if the wider internet just starts using fake IDs like at bars

 

[wobblysquidwobblysquid's icon]

Imagine if the wider internet just starts using fake IDs like at bars

Hrmm. Sounds like potential side hustle material......

 

[Serotonin]

Fuck that shit. And fuck the Online Safety Act too. Google asking me ID for my 18-year old YouTube account, Microsoft asking me ID for my 16-year old Xbox account, as if they think I made them when I was in the womb, what kind of ridiculous shit is this? Thank God for VPNs.

It has nothing to do about 'protecting kids' and everything to do with control. And even if you trust the government, what happens when the data is leaked, or people you don't trust gets into power? There is no good argument for it.

 

[Generic Edgelord]

I think it's a bad idea and I don't like it, but honestly it doesn't really affect me that much as an individual. It'll just be one more annoyance imposed on me by society. There's plenty of those already. The wider implications are unsettling, but what isn't nowadays? We're living in the future. Everything is fucked. Might as well learn to adapt.

 

[Burzuru Burzuru]

Imagine if the wider internet just starts using fake IDs like at bars

people already have been using the guy from death stranding during face scan.

 

[Kovlak]

Honestly...? I don't really know? But I think that would be total bullshit and obviously corrupt because, you know, I'm paying for my internet?

This is just something to think about. And we're at a time when mass corruption is getting to be obvious.

 

[4C374552A1CA2638]

I am extremely, vehemently against this shit in any form. This is another step on the road where nobody will ever have privacy ever again. Well, outside of the privileged few as always.

What's next? Monitoring everything we say online and implementing consequences?

I can easily believe that's part of it, but not so much what we say as what we do, what we consume. There are some states where you have to submit your ID to use sites like Pornhub, so everything you search for and watch are now tied to your real name, address, etc. In the event PH has a breach or worse, starts selling your data, who's going to know your viewing habits? How ruining would this be for people at large if this information became public knowledge? If this happening is threatening enough, wouldn't you want to stop using the site?

And it's not even extreme things like porn--what about your search history or purchase history? Imagine if you ended up on a list because you watched or rented Joker which then cost you job opportunities because "we don't hire you unstable types here."

You won't be able to live freely behind closed doors.

 

[Kovlak]

I think it's a bad idea and I don't like it, but honestly it doesn't really affect me that much as an individual. It'll just be one more annoyance imposed on me by society. There's plenty of those already. The wider implications are unsettling, but what isn't nowadays? We're living in the future. Everything is fucked. Might as well learn to adapt.

For now it's not threatning, but eventually you know they'll most likely age-gate entertainment. You'll have to verify your age to watch or play mature entertainment, not just porn.

 

[Generic Edgelord]

For now it's not threatning, but eventually you know they'll most likely age-gate entertainment. You'll have to verify your age to watch or play mature entertainment.

That is very annoying, but won't affect me as I'm already an adult. I feel bad for kids missing out on that entertainment though. I was playing/watching M/R rated entertainment since early childhood and a lot of those games/movies are still my favorites. It should be up to the parents to decide what their kids have access to and to enforce that; it shouldn't be the government's job. If you're going to give your kid unrestricted internet access, they're probably going to be exposed to the dark underbelly of the internet at some point. There's no shortage of parental control software available, so the only reason to age-gate entertainment is parental laziness.

That said, we're only really affecting technologically unskilled minors. The smarter ones will be able to figure out how to use a VPN and still access stuff like porn. You can't control teenage hormones no matter how hard you try. If they want porn, they'll figure out how to get it. End of story. You think I let my family's parental controls get in my way? Fuck no. I took the internal battery out of the computer to hack the administrator account and restore my privileges on day 1.

 

[Dyne]

Call me old fashioned, but I feel like the whole point of the internet is anonymity.
Fuck digital ID in all its forms.

 

[Vardalis]

I care about it a lot and won't be partaking. I know what these evil people want and I'll do everything I can to limbo underneath it while still maintaining my way of life, including exploring unique or smaller solutions like Meshnets if it gets too bad. Fuck them. They wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire so to hell with what they think is morally right and just, and that's not even counting the cases they flatly ignore or call you words for noticing in tandem with saying in this instance "this is to protect children" and you're bad for not wanting to comply with their orders.

Call me old fashioned, but I feel like the whole point of the internet is anonymity.
Fuck digital ID in all its forms.

Exactly, yeah. We were always brought up on the idea of "never say who you are online" and such, and for good reason. Now it's "you must tell us who you are online".