Do you call game friends by their irl names?

Nightowl_74

I tend to often use people's character names even texting or on the phone, purely out of habit, and if I'm not close enough to someone to be doing either of those things then I just don't use their real name even if I happen to know it. A couple of my friends will sometimes use my real name, but I'm pretty sure they asked whether it's ok first. It's been years, though, so it's hard to remember.

katanagirl1

I want to keep my personal info completely offline, but Sony has this “close friend request” thing and if I am not careful and accept those then the other player can see my real name. Random players you run across will send you those.

PS4 was better, I only saw my username at all times but the PS5 has my real name on there. I wish there was an option to opt out of real names.

Hapexamendios

Some yes, some no

jarcat

depends on the situation
if i were to do some content that would require hard coordination and voice chat, i'd rather use my real name because i naturally pay attention to it
i used my nickname in the past, and only like 10 seconds later i went "oh **** that's my name!"

Katheriah

I have an irl friend that I call by his ingame name.

SpacemanSpiff1

generally I go with a form of their @name. sometimes that includes a part of their real name.

i prefer not to use my real name. boundaries are important.

Janni

I guess I just skip the whole problem by using my actual nickname ingame? But for others I don't refer to them by their real names unless they ask, it just seems unnecessarily invasive. I have personal friends in games that I don't do that with if for no other reason than because I know another random internet person could pop in at any time and suddenly I've exposed something personal about my friend that I didn't mean to.

TaSheen

Nightowl_74 wrote: »

I tend to often use people's character names even texting or on the phone, purely out of habit, and if I'm not close enough to someone to be doing either of those things then I just don't use their real name even if I happen to know it. A couple of my friends will sometimes use my real name, but I'm pretty sure they asked whether it's ok first. It's been years, though, so it's hard to remember.

I know how that is too - friends from guilds in WoW still call me "Jae" (a part of my first character's name in that game) even now that it's over a decade since I've played WoW. I still drop by their forum some.

whitecrow

I think I only know the first name of one friend in this game, but only because it is on her Steam profile. Because we haven't gotten familiar that way and we always used a diminutive of our game names, I never use it. Plus the game name is more fun in this case.

Guildmates & friends call me Crow usually which I like. I wouldn't mind if someone used my first name, as long as it could be reciprocated.

I think I had a Borderlands pal who used my first name and it didn't bother me at all.

Ragnarok0130

No, I've met a large amount of people that I game with IRL (after years of playing together) and even in person they still mostly refer to me by my various in game monikers. There are a few people who use their own first names in those discussions but it is the norm in my groups to use in game names when normally conversing in and out of game when we met in game.

ArchangelIsraphel

Although I have quite a few in game friends, none have ever asked me to call them by their real name. Personally, I prefer the boundaries created by keeping it that way as I have no desire for them to know my real name or call me by it.

People have a tendency to shorten my real name in a way that sets my teeth on edge. Even though it's a name that is easy to say without shortening it, this boundary is always pushed when I tell them to stop. Teachers used to push it when I was a child as well. Frankly, I'm just sick of having my name misused.

I don't want to know the names of my in game friends either. Unless they would really prefer to be called by their real name, I don't want that information. Not because I'm unfriendly or don't want to be friends. I enjoy their company. But after many years, and several bad experiences, I want the internet to stay on the internet with a firm wall between it and my real life.

illusiouk

I would never tell anyone online any personal information about myself nor want to know theirs. You want to use names, use my gamer tag or short it down to what is easy for you but no one gets a name or nickname.

TechMaybeHic

I've had beers with friends I made in game. Hung out doing activities I'd only do with people I trust not to do anything stupid as it could easily be life threatening with an idiot present.

Still call them by their game names. Now; one of them, their game name is the same as their real name, so there's that.

CrashTest

Only if I know them outside the game. If we're grouped with players who don't know us, then I'll use @ names so the players joining us aren't confused.

Cazador

If I know them from outside the game then sure, otherwise no.

CGPsaint

I know the first and last names of quite a few of my online friends, but I would never even think about using those first names in game without them asking to be called by said name. Courtesy and respect don't end when the games begin.

Danikat

I wonder if it helps that my first name is very common. I started going online during the weirdly contradictory late 90's/early 2000's era when you were constantly told not to reveal any personal information because the internet was full of serial killers who could and would hunt you down, but where every conversation started with "A/S/L?" (Age, sex, location).

I quickly concluded that no one would be able to find me from just my first name and country, because that narrows it down to thousands of people (maybe more) so I've never been worried about sharing it. Even now you can't find much info about me just from my first name and screen name (also my screen names are very common so you'd have to know which of them are me and which are someone else to know what info to piece together).

[snip]

If you know my first and last name and one or two of my previous jobs you can find more info, and could probably get current contact details relatively easily, but that's because it was required for the job and I work in a very cooperative sector where I'm sure if you called my previous employer looking for me they'd tell you where I work now and give you either my number or the head office number (and the head office would give you my work number).

Cazador wrote: »

If I know them from outside the game then sure, otherwise no.

Oh yeah, that too.

During the covid lockdowns my board game group switched to doing video games online together and then we'd normally use real names instead of character names. Or just name our characters after ourselves. I still have a Valheim character using my real first name which I used specifically with that group.

But I think that's kind of different to people you first meet online, even if the end result in both is knowing someone both online and in real life.

[edited for personal information]

Katheriah

People are sharing stories about their gamerfriends on a forum about an MMO.

xilfxlegion

my gf and i call each other by out gamertags --- we met in eso

and her parents call me legion even after i have told them my real name multiple times

TechMaybeHic

xilfxlegion wrote: »

my gf and i call each other by out gamertags --- we met in eso

and her parents call me legion even after i have told them my real name multiple times

I was about to say, Xilfx doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Danikat

wilykcat wrote: »

[snip]

It's called an analogy - comparing a situation which has not yet happened but might to one which has. In this case we're telling people who are concerned about sharing any real life info with people they meet in ESO about similar situations where we shared info about ourselves with people online (or had to share it for work) and how that worked out so they can get an idea of what may happen if they choose to do so.

The conversation is still ultimately about ESO, and how people could handle that situation if it comes up while playing ESO, we're just using a wider pool of examples.

But if you're concerned you're under no obligation to keep posting in this topic.

BTW not only do ZOS not prohibit exchanging info or becoming real-life friends with people you meet in-game (I'm not sure how they could honestly), last year they ran an article sharing some of their favourite stories about people who met in the game: https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/61673

[edited to remove quote]

Braffin

There are a few people, which know my RL first name, because we were raiding together several hours a week for years, so we became friends in RL.

But in general I just use my gamer-tag. I also only use RL first names of others in discord, if I'm absolutely sure the adressed player is fine with it.

Xandreia_

No, even my closest friends I've been playing with for 5+ years we always say our @ names unless someone says/does something stupid then it's free game 😂

SilverBride

ESO is an MMO and there is a strong social presence among friends and guildmates. I consider this topic very much ESO related.

I started this thread because a situation came up in ESO concerning my real life name that made me uncomfortable. I wanted to know if others had similar experiences and what they thought of it, and how they dealt with it.

I appreciate all the responses.

zaria

I say in general its better to use character name even if knowing the others real name like she is your wife 😺
If other join the group they will get confused as they don't know her real name. Sue will be back in a minute then forming an group will be confusing as they know her as Sairam.

Ye_Olde_Crowe

I tend to use gaming handles on some of my real life friends. For example, we recently went to a festival in a larger group of 18 people, and two of the lads - a PE teacher and an IT guy - had the same first name. Whenever I meant my gaming buddy (the IT guy) I called him by his Steam nick.

Grizzbeorn

The people I know who play this game are people I knew first outside of the game, so yes, I use their IRL names when talking to them in-game, as they do with me.

SilverBride

As I think about it I realized that all my friends, except for the one, don't usually call each other anything unless we are grouped with others. It's usually just "Hey!" when we see the other log on.

Mesite

Wait, you all have friends in real life?

whitecrow

Mesite wrote: »

Wait, you all have friends in real life?

No, they just have real names.