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Barcodes on SC2 Discussion - Ban them from ladder - Page 9

Forum Index > SC2 General
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fLyiNgDroNe
Profile Joined September 2005
Belgium4072 Posts
September 15 2017 10:43 GMT
#161
lol
Smurfing is part of the fun of gaming. For some its more for some its less. Every pro eventually would log into some fake account just to have fun.
I would like to live in the world where games, which are for entertainment, would not dictate me what to do.
The only time where having realID is important is online tournaments and WCS ladder challenge. This is like 1% of the whole ladder experience. Let it be.
Drone is a way of living
zenasprime
Profile Joined April 2012
United States18 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-09-15 11:52:23
September 15 2017 11:43 GMT
#162
There seems to be a strange level of misunderstanding of what a barcode, as it is use in Starcraft 2, really is in a lot of these responses.

These are not players with identical names using the "|" character (known as the pipe) such that the username is exactly the same for each of them. For example: This #1 ranked Zerg player...

http://www.rankedftw.com/team/3896868/#td=world&ty=c&ra=best&tyz=0&tx=a&tl=1

is NOT ||||||||||||.

Instead, because of the Font used by Blizzard for Starcraft 2, this players username (lIlIlIllIIlI) is a collection of capital i's (I) and lower case L's (l), which even here on this website, appear indistinguishable. If you past this username into a text editor and change to font to Times (a sarif font) you can clearly see the users name consists of a unique combination of I's and L's:

[image loading]

The reason players did this was because at the time of Starcraft 2's release usernames were unique thus the only method by which a player could obfuscate their unique identifier (not to be confused with identity) was to use a username that was difficult, if not impossible to read accurately. This provided them with a distinct advantage over players who's unique username (even if it didn't identify the player) provided them with information about their opponent and their possible strengths and weakness while denying their opponent the same. In the higher leagues, these player more often then not are playing each other very regularly, so it makes perfect sense to anyone with a little bit of craftiness. Ultimately it's Blizzard's fault for using a font where this is possibility but it's their game, their rules, and for whatever their reasons they have decided to not take any action to remedy the situation.

Regardless, to say that this practices is about "privacy", in that pro players are looking to hide their identities, its naive if not just blatantly disingenuous. These players weren't trying to hide their personal identity, they were trying to obtain an advantage. If it was just a matter of hiding their true identity, players have always had the option to use an alias and more recently a non-unique username.

For some perspective on how widespread this practice is, here is the GM ladder worldwide: http://www.rankedftw.com/ladder/lotv/1v1/mmr/?f=grandmaster

Now whether or not this practice of obfuscation is effective at the GM level is irrelevant. Ultimately it goes against the spirit of the Ladder when you cannot even tell who the players are the are being ranked. It doesn't matter whether or not you believe the Ladder is or is not serious business. It's not fun. It's not competitive. It's just plain silly.
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
September 15 2017 11:49 GMT
#163
You mean the release when everyone was identified by the visible nickname and hidden number identifier? Or different time, because I am pretty sure I wasn't the only Deacon in Wings of Liberty beta or Wings of Liberty.

The players name were never unique in SC2 as far as I can remember, so what time are you writing about?
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
zenasprime
Profile Joined April 2012
United States18 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-09-15 12:00:06
September 15 2017 11:56 GMT
#164
The players name were never unique in SC2 as far as I can remember, so what time are you writing about?


There was a time when battle.net usernames were required to be unique. No, I do not remember exactly when that was but it wasn't until after Starcraft 2 was released that it was changed. Yes, this policy has changed a number of time with a variety of different configurations of the past 8+ or so years.

I remember this because I had to call tech support about having the Collectors Edition applied to my account. During that call it was required that I create a new account with a unique username. It wasn't until a year or so later that I could change that second accounts Stacraft 2 player name to zenasprime. There was a big update that provide the new feature which allowed non-unique player names.
reneg
Profile Joined September 2010
United States859 Posts
September 15 2017 12:02 GMT
#165
On September 15 2017 19:17 blunderfulguy wrote:
So the idea is to ban/remove barcodes and anonymous names and replace it with a form of opt-in anonymity? Choosing your username already serves as that opt-in anonymity for everyone who uses barcodes or "joke usernames" and the like. It could be nice for people who want a break from the norm for a short moment without requiring them to buy or log into a different account, and could let some high level players get their anon ladder practice, but would it really do much more than what barcodes are already doing?

Speaking of multiple accounts, one more reason that many people use anon accounts is so they can play on an account that isn't floating at the same MMR in each region in addition to getting anonymous practice. So, would those players have to log into every single account they own, make new usernames for all of them, and check all the boxes on all of them to keep them anonymous?

Then, if each account would have an "anon/hidden match history" and a "public match history" then anyone who uses the opt-in anon feature would be hiding information which is supposedly what this whole anti-barcode argument was about to begin with and ends up presenting a new issue that may/may not affect a larger/smaller number of players.

And how would an opt-in anon feature be useful to someone looking to stream their gameplay on their single account without still running into the other half of the argument about stream sniping and ghosting?

It seems like a whole of hassle for everyone involved for little to no payoff for the players that would actually be affected.


You're right, I was trying to come up with some idea that compromised for everyone. But I don't think it really has that much value.

Just pick a new name / play on a diff server and be done with it. It's a lot of trouble to go through for something that isn't a real issue.
moose...indian
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
September 15 2017 12:06 GMT
#166
Well, username - sure, that's the point of username identifier. But then when you first time logged into the game you created the player avatar, that was shown across the SC2 from beta. I've never seen anywhere my username displayed in the game. So, your theory is nice and all, but wrong.

From the release of SC2 the names displayed in the game were NOT unique That's why I sent every friend who played SC2 "deacon.620"
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
fLyiNgDroNe
Profile Joined September 2005
Belgium4072 Posts
September 15 2017 12:25 GMT
#167
On September 15 2017 20:43 zenasprime wrote:
There seems to be a strange level of misunderstanding of what a barcode, as it is use in Starcraft 2, really is in a lot of these responses.

These are not players with identical names using the "|" character (known as the pipe) such that the username is exactly the same for each of them. For example: This #1 ranked Zerg player...

http://www.rankedftw.com/team/3896868/#td=world&ty=c&ra=best&tyz=0&tx=a&tl=1

is NOT ||||||||||||.


dude you are like 7 pages too late.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/526731-barcodes-on-sc2-discussion-ban-them-from-ladder?page=3#54
Drone is a way of living
zenasprime
Profile Joined April 2012
United States18 Posts
September 15 2017 12:30 GMT
#168
So, your theory is nice and all, but wrong.


If anything, non-unique player names only strengthens my argument.
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17442 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-09-15 12:45:19
September 15 2017 12:44 GMT
#169
On September 15 2017 19:43 fLyiNgDroNe wrote:
lol
Smurfing is part of the fun of gaming. For some its more for some its less. Every pro eventually would log into some fake account just to have fun.
I would like to live in the world where games, which are for entertainment, would not dictate me what to do.
The only time where having realID is important is online tournaments and WCS ladder challenge. This is like 1% of the whole ladder experience. Let it be.

fun is not allowed. win and crush the soul of your opponent at all cost!

getting serious though,
i know someone who intentionally loses 5 games in a row on the ladder. then the next 5 game stretch he tries his absolute best. he prefers this because by doing this he can usually go 3-2,4-1, or 5-0 in the games he really tries hard.

that is his basic 10 game cycle though. a guy doing that can never really be "caught" or "punished". and you can take a game off the guy when he is in "loser mode" and think u r some superstar.. when.... really he just gave u the game.

On September 15 2017 19:43 fLyiNgDroNe wrote:
Let it be.

yep.
+ Show Spoiler +


Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
zenasprime
Profile Joined April 2012
United States18 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-09-15 14:27:09
September 15 2017 12:54 GMT
#170
On September 15 2017 21:06 deacon.frost wrote:
Well, username - sure, that's the point of username identifier. But then when you first time logged into the game you created the player avatar, that was shown across the SC2 from beta. I've never seen anywhere my username displayed in the game. So, your theory is nice and all, but wrong.

From the release of SC2 the names displayed in the game were NOT unique That's why I sent every friend who played SC2 "deacon.620"


BattleTags were implemented AFTER Starcraft 2 was released. To be fair, it was a "long" time ago, especially for you youngins, so I can forgive you not remembering the order of events properly. :p
Sound1
Profile Joined August 2016
France93 Posts
September 15 2017 15:33 GMT
#171
On September 12 2017 05:37 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 12 2017 05:36 oOOoOphidian wrote:
If only there were some way to find out who barcodes are...

that'd be nice. but sadly no one has found a way to do so.


That's troll !
I can't stop to laugh
Startale Sound Fan boy Forever !
avilo
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States4100 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-09-15 15:56:20
September 15 2017 15:55 GMT
#172
Regardless of people's opinions one way or the other i'm glad this created a lot of discussion Maybe it's a topic that can be brought up at the upcoming SC2 Community Summit as well.

Also looking at this is pretty insane lol:
http://www.rankedftw.com/ladder/lotv/1v1/mmr/?f=grandmaster

Someone here from TL tweeted out something similar with a screenshot of the EU ladder i think - almost all the top spots are dominated by, you guessed it! lllllllllllllllllll -_-
Sup
-Kyo-
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Japan1926 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-09-17 08:40:06
September 17 2017 08:39 GMT
#173
On September 16 2017 00:55 avilo wrote:
Regardless of people's opinions one way or the other i'm glad this created a lot of discussion Maybe it's a topic that can be brought up at the upcoming SC2 Community Summit as well.

Also looking at this is pretty insane lol:
http://www.rankedftw.com/ladder/lotv/1v1/mmr/?f=grandmaster

Someone here from TL tweeted out something similar with a screenshot of the EU ladder i think - almost all the top spots are dominated by, you guessed it! lllllllllllllllllll -_-


csb, u nevered responded to anyone who showed you how stupid a 'ban everyone who is a barcode' would b, but shoutouts to u and this other guy who has all 18 of his posts in this thread; of which, roughly, somewhere around the number of 0 would be the number of those 18 that made any sense.

gr8discussion(?)

should just lock these troll feeding posts ~°°~
Anime is cuter than you. Legacy of the Void GM Protoss Gameplay: twitch.tv/kyo7763 youtube.com/user/KyoStarcraft/
TL+ Member
c0sm0naut
Profile Joined April 2011
United States1229 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-09-20 01:10:28
September 19 2017 23:55 GMT
#174
9 pages, lol

yeah, its shitty. but i think we should respect their name choices even if its not a real name choice. you SHOULD be able to write notes on an opponent that will display during loading screen (like how we currently keep track of barcode names, because i hvae like fifteen barcode friends with thatcher portraits alone, and i have no clue who is who if i come backfrom a few days break)

you could write "cheesy FUCK" and you'd know immediately who it is
or write stuff like "proxied me on abyssal by my 3rd"

there IS a compromise here.. blizzard added it with friends long ago. why not enemies?
BadHabits
Profile Joined June 2012
Canada45 Posts
September 20 2017 08:49 GMT
#175
avilo, you're not even a serious player, you need to get a bit less emotional about the game and just deal with your losses better, you're such a cry baby.

it doesn't matter if your opponent has a name or not, you always do the same build don't you? so who cares who the other player is

also - why you keep dodgin me cuz i'm in vfam ?? are you seriously that pathetic you can't vs anyone related to vibe in any way ?? you need to grow up before anyone will take you seriously.
i'm just here to have fun
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-09-20 09:27:47
September 20 2017 09:21 GMT
#176
On September 15 2017 21:54 zenasprime wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 15 2017 21:06 deacon.frost wrote:
Well, username - sure, that's the point of username identifier. But then when you first time logged into the game you created the player avatar, that was shown across the SC2 from beta. I've never seen anywhere my username displayed in the game. So, your theory is nice and all, but wrong.

From the release of SC2 the names displayed in the game were NOT unique That's why I sent every friend who played SC2 "deacon.620"


BattleTags were implemented AFTER Starcraft 2 was released. To be fair, it was a "long" time ago, especially for you youngins, so I can forgive you not remembering the order of events properly. :p

Lol, I played SC2 from day 1(ok, day 3, it took 3 days to get CE from UK to CZ) and was even the beta, so - can you please give me a link to the patch notes supporting you? Thanks!

edit> I may already forgot that, my memory isn't the best but I really don't remember they implementing battle tags into SC2 later. Thus I would love to see the patch notes for this.
Edit2> again, we're talking about Starcraft, NOT battle.net battle tags that were implemented later during development of DIII
aaand
Edit3> my battle net tag is different than deacon.620 that was my SC2 tag, or whatever it was called in WoL

Just making sure we;re talking about the same thing...
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
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