A self rant here.

I have noticed how much ever you think of UX by yourself and try to think u are a genius for coming up with it, users are going to shit over your idea anyways.

I recently thought of this genius idea of forcing users to put their "Full Name", cause it elevates the gaming experience, as it's a group party game. For that I thought of adding two boxes: "Full Name" and "Nickname". So users will be forced to put a silly name in the nickname box but in full name they would add their real name.

To my surprise out of everyone who has played my game only 4-5% of people have added their real name, I have had people enter random characters in both the boxes.

I have even mentioned that this information is used to enhance the game experience.. still!!

It's the "choose gender" that bugs me, how's it relevant to your game?

like, I'm sorry for pointing that out. It's just that the info asked on the form, nickname aside, is kind of a bit too valuable nowadays

@kobenz that, and real name. Who gives that to an online game

@kobenz so there's a lot of things that have to be implemented yet that involve personalization, including gender.

The idea with that I had was to provide gender specific questions/prompts. Using the "gender stereotypes". The platform is for silly party games. So nothing to be taken to heart, and it's played within your own friend group.

There is also an option "Other", with the idea to completely ignore gender specific prompts.

Also I was thinking of doing "Girls VS Boys" for auto selection for games where the players have to be divided into teams.

@retoor I know.. but it's only played within your friend group, like there is not going to be any public profile. Maybe I didn't get that idea across very well. People are probably just used to thinking that way.

Like there can be really fun prompts that can come out of using the real name, like

"What would John name their pet robot if they had one?"

But cause people enter random stuff, it gets harder for the group to understand who it's talking abt.

It’s because the users have learned to (rightfully) mistrust everything that asks for your personal data (real name).
How can I be sure that you won‘t sell my private data? And even if you won‘t, your service can be hacked and the data will be leaked. It‘s just not worth the risk.
It’s not about UX.

@ahmednr123 users will find out that the name is important for dialogs. Make it changeable later

Well maybe this helps you to in future design. But for me this is privacy thing. I don't put my full name even into offline names. I don't trust any data that leaves my keyboard. I think a lot of gamers will think in this term too.

Besides, the name isn't really important. Whatever the player types in, he's going to identify with that name. By forcing player to choose both fullname/nickname you only forced them nickname and random garbage for the full name to obfuscate their identity. I assume you wanted to break the 4th wall by using their name or something, but many gamers are too much versed in internet privacy to actually put in the full name anywhere. First name maybe, but Last name you're not getting

I suggest you design your game in such a way that you can get this information from the player in a more manipulative way though... Instead of forms, try using character dialogues or indirect quizzes to ease the player into giving the info without even knowing. Make it gameplay

@Hazarth that actually sounded like a better idea.

Thanks!

@ahmednr123 a lot of my friend groups do not know my name

actually even people in real life don't know my name, but a nickname and not my last name

but specifically online people don't know each others' names, especially if it's a party game

the only people to know my name are the people I'm dating, the government, companies who hire me who have to talk to the government about me

@Hazarth lmao wow why did you suggest that to him and why did he think that was a great idea

100% this guy is legit not gonna use this info for good. he's too set on it in a way that doesn't make sense. fucking gross

Real name? Bob Trucker
Because fuck data collection.

Some genius idea, right there. Gtfo

… I’m sick and feeling bitchy.
But fuck everything that asks for real personal information. I’ll provide BS every single time.

users shitted on your form because your form ui is shitty at the first place.
username and full name are analogues. its confusing and as a simple minded user i will put full name and first name in them .
why not use full name and avatar name/ handle name(as in Twitter handle) ? also, why not add placeholders to represent the meaning, like john doe for full name and johncool1234 for nickname?

I’ve never used my real name in an online game. Even in random services I don’t care much about I rarely input real data.

@jestdotty what? Asking it in a game setting makes sense right? The idea of full name was mainly to get the group understand whom they r playing with. What's gross abt it? 🤔

@Root tbh.. I actually dnt care if they put their real name. 😂 I jst want them to have a fun time.

I personally find prompts like, "John, is Peter really your true friend?".. Extremely hilarious.

But I do understand how it can come across.

@dotenvironment okay. I gotta test out a few things. See what works, I haven't added many games yet, so there's a lot to learn on the way.

@jestdotty the platform was meant for already known friend groups. And was to be played over offline on a couch, internet was a means to make the connectivity easy. So you are not really meeting anyone new.

I was surprised how many people actually asked me to make it open, so that they can queue with random people.

If I add that, it would totally make sense to not use the "Full Name" then. I personally wouldn't promote something like that myself.

@Ozutku42 You have a hot date with a train. Don’t miss it. Fucking spammer.

@Root 🤣🤣🤣

can't tell if you're a) trying to be funny and fail or b) seriously dumb enough to believe that anyone gives a shit about "full names" except scammers.

@tosensei It's the latter.. I genuinely thought people would put their "Full Names" cause the platform is like that, closed and private.

I think it's fine to call me stupid.. 😂 but I guess I was so involved in building the platform that I overlooked the implications of asking for a Full Name on the internet.

Goes in line with why users didn't add it in the forms. 🤷🏽‍♂️

That's why it's a rant on myself..

@ahmednr123 I suggest to also remove the date of birth field. If you need it to check for >18, make it a checkbox. If you need the age, make it an integer field.
Date of birth is private data that you should never ask for unless it‘s legitimately necessary.

@Lensflare so there are prompts that are applicable for people who were born in 80s or 90s. Which most of the GenZs wouldn't really relate with.

The DOB helps decide to show these prompts to that specific age group.

@ahmednr123 then ask for the age as a number (like 40 years old)

@jestdotty You just don't like that I used the word "manipulate" but it's not meant to be nefarious. If it's used to enhance gameplay it's a good trick to blow peoples mind. It's not worse than what phone games and social media do already, except they actually sell your info to the highest bidder and you have nothing to show for it. In this case at least it's to improve the fun. Besides, using an indirect approach like this you're not going to get important personal information, only what people are comfortable to share in chunks, which is more than they are willing to share all at once. But it's not like someone will suddenly dump their social security number there. You gotta chill a little bit, this is a game design discussion, not an indian scam instruction

@ahmednr123 rule of thumb - never ask for any data that you do not _actually_ need.

@jestdotty hmm, maybe I shouldn've used the word "manipulate". The point is to just ask for the information in pieces rather than all at once, there's no active manipulation taking place, it's just the same form properly built-in into the actual story and gameplay, which is good design