Just now I thought I would Google my user name to see what came up for shits and giggles, and while scrolling through the results I came across this article on some site called The Escapist that was sourced back to this article on mmorpg.com about a post I made on the Star Trek Online forums just before the game launched. I have no idea if the sites are big or not, but I was taken a back that some one had taken a post I made on a game forum and turned it into a news article. I had no idea that this had ever been done, and it left me stunned to say the least.
I was once linked to in a blues news article to a post here on giant bomb about a fix for a problem with the PC version of Mass Effect 2, but this just seems different for some reason. I was being championed on these sites as the instigator of a call to arms against this game and had no idea that anyone beyond a few people on some game forum would ever see it.
This discovery has kind of changed my outlook on posting online. While yes it was just my username that I use, it wouldn't be hard to track down my real name and from there more info about me personally and not just the me that's a username on a website. Not that I have ever been secretive about my true identity, but it's rather sobering to see things you say online being quoted and put on display for others to read and comment on. When I was put in these articles I stopped being a faceless person in the huddled masses of the internet and was singled out and put on center stage for a split second and never even knew about it. That's kind of a scary thought to try to process.
I don't mind the fact that I was quoted, but it made me realize that you never really know who is out there reading the things you write or just what becomes of it after you hit enter and move on to the next thing to comment on.
Why are you surprised somebody read it when you wrote it as an open letter addressed directly to the game developer? Surely that was your intention? You should be glad that it got as much recognition as it did. Well done!
@9cupsoftea: I am glad that it got all that attention if it helped someone who hates that kind of thing as much as I do, but at the time I wrote it I was just kind of venting and didn't expect it to go beyond a few replies that consisted of people telling me to go fuck myself with a few people that agree interspersed. Let alone turn into a 100+ page thread and being quoted on news sites.
I was just surprised to stumble across it while hunting around the internet. I had honestly never imagined it would have taken on the life that it did.
similar thing happened to me when the church near my house burnt down, guy from the news was interviewing a lady about how the community would cope and just near the end of the interview you can hear me in the background saying "fuck yeah it did" i got my ass tanned for that.
@crusader8463: I got an entire article on kotaku, 4playerpodcast, and other places because of a video I posted on youtube. Now it says "As seen on kotaku" or some shit below my video.
I've gotten some old Youtube videos linked off because of finding a glitch in a game around 2007. Got an article I wrote linked on Bluesnews too, that was cool.
Not aware of / Can't remember anything else in terms of being linked by gaming news sites.
" @crusader8463: I got an entire article on kotaku, 4playerpodcast, and other places because of a video I posted on youtube. Now it says "As seen on kotaku" or some shit below my video. "
I don't think you need to worry that much about your personal privacy since these websites are just doing their jobs, reporting what they see fit and referencing you as their source.
@ZeroCast: I'm not worried about my personal info getting out, it's just that after years of being nothing but another faceless person on the internet it just feels strange to have sites point to something you did and bring it into attention. It just feels weird thinking that some one thought that something you started was worth taking the time to read, write about and bring to the attention of other people.
i dont see a quote on the MMO RPG page. am i missing something? there is a link back at the bottom to forum posts where you were an original poster, but i see no quote.
i never noticed that. maybe i should be more careful on what i do on the internet. all you know the government can be watching us right now and our web browsing.
" @crusader8463: Just to let you know, The Escapist is a pretty popular site. Its home to Ben "Yahtzee" Crawshaw and his Zero Punctuation videos. "
Its awfulness is second only to Kotaku. "
That's unfair. While Zero Punctuation is gimmicky tripe, The Escapist as a whole is very forward-thinking, wonderful website. Months ago, then even dedicated their entire site to covering LGBT video game topics, foe an entire week.
If anything, I wish more sites were like The Escapist, working with an editorial mindset as opposed to sensationalism.
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