#Can we have an option to have a multiplayer game anonymously?

17 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

past sun
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Currently it always shows our names.

violet portal
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@past sun can you read over that other post and see if that proposal would cover what you're looking for (if so we can close this down to avoid duplicates).
Or do you feel like they're separate enough?

For your proposal would you just want an option for hidden multiplayer names, and have humans just be labeled like "player 1" "player 2" something like that?

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also @past sun can you clarify when you want the anonymous aspect to apply.
do you want the lobby part to be names visible (so you can verify if your friends got into the game, or if some troll from last game isn't rejoining so that you can boot them) and the names are just hidden in-game OR do you want the lobby itself to also be anonymous?

past sun
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Thank you, but it seems a different option.
What I've meant is to make the steam (or other platform-specific) identity of the players hidden throughout the game. If I joined such a game, it would be immediately revealed that I'm a non-AI player and the civ/leader that I select would also be shared in the lobby but people just would not know who I am.

violet portal
tropic sundial
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If you "random" a leader+civ, do people get to see what you ended up with before meeting you? I'm not sure how it makes any sense to pre-select a leader+civ in the lobby and not have this disclosed.
For random though, I would see the argument to hide that until they meet you.

Also I'm not really sure why you'd want to be mistaken for an AI. People should play against AI and humans entirely differently. I don't think the AI passes the Turing Test, lol.

violet portal
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@past sun ... actually it would be helpful if you could describe a little more why you want this feature (not in the sense of saying it's not a valid suggestion and you need to defend it) so we could get a better understanding of what you're looking for (in case there are ways to alter or enhance the feaure suggestion to better meet your desired experience)

past sun
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Off the top of my head, I come up with two situations that the option would work.

  1. When someone wants to have a one-off multiplayer game with people found on anonymous textboard or other online forums (these types of forums are more common in Asian cultures so could be difficult for Western people, I think 4chan is somehow close to what I meant). Players are not friends or they neither want to be friends each other through the games but they just need to find someone to play with.
  2. The option could be used for a more competitive-multiplayer setting, where players should not know who they are playing with to prevent them from having several types of meta-behaviors (e.g., "Let's kill this player first because he has a higher rating than us"). Although, I'm not sure if Civ7 will ever be good for such competitive multiplayer experiences at this point.
    It is fine that the player pool is confirmed but each player is anonymized (e.g., "I know players who can join this game are these 7 people but don't know who are who").
violet portal
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The option could be used for a more competitive-multiplayer setting, where players should not know who they are playing with to prevent them from having several types of meta-behaviors (e.g., "Let's kill this player first because he has a higher rating than us"). Although, I'm not sure if Civ7 will ever be good for such competitive multiplayer experiences at this point.

there is no "official" Firaxis/2K competitive multiplayer scene for civ series BUT there is competitive multiplayer scene via 3rd party organization very much depends on non-anonymous because that allows them to enforce "no quit" policies, player bans, and leaderboards

tropic sundial
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I don't think many multiplayer scenes has the ability to anonymise yourself
It's important you can be identified so if someone had a bad experience with you, they can ID you and not play with you again.

violet portal
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It is fine that the player pool is confirmed but each player is anonymized (e.g., "I know players who can join this game are these 7 people but don't know who are who").

That's why I was linking to the Shadow-pick mode idea (which hides player names and their picks until you meet them on the map ... or could have an option to still keep the usernames hidden even at that point): https://discord.com/channels/1307104947426295818/1377343841400787116

past sun
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Certainly there could be some options to report other players or kick them by the host in the game. If it's a competitive setting, it is fine that the identities are revealed after the game completion.
Isn't player name revealed in the shadow-pick mode you linked? I thought it just hides the civ/leader pick but shows the name of the player in the lobby.

violet portal
past sun
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Then mine is still different from that one, I think. I aimed to hide the player names in the lobby. In other words, in my idea, civ/leader do not need to be hidden (I think the shadow-pick mode will prevent players from knowing even which civs are in the game until they meet others, right?).

tropic sundial
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What does a username tell you?
Are you worried about your privacy?

If you don't want people to find out who you are based on your public account name, then change it to something generic.

I'm struggling to see any valid use case to conceal your account name. Stream snipers? Twitch steamers often use alt accounts for this purpose.
Doxing? Maybe don't use your real name as your account username.
Adding you on other platforms?
You could have a user name that doesn't match your other profiles, like "genericuser123"

There are plenty of ways to hide your identity. I think that's up to you.