Dan Riffero: The Debate Rages About Real Names Vs. Nicknames
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The debate rages: Should leagues force their participants use a real name or a nickname? In the major leagues of sim auto racing the tide seem to be turning towards the use of real names for all drivers. For me, after years of online racing, this is a welcome change.
I have always used nicknames. In fact, I've had so many screen names for online racing that I can't remember them all.
The are quite a number of reason for using real names while racing in league races online. There are few reasons not to and for the most part the pros outweigh the cons. Lets start with the cons of using your real name.
Some people really do not want their real name to be known to the whole community. I understand this and can see that it really could be an invasion of their privacy. Let's face it, there's lots of really crazy people out there on the internet and you never know when one will get fixated and stalk you because of your 311music.com car scheme (ok, that was an inside joke). But seriously, some people just are not comfortable with people they do not know being able to get their name.
Another con is that many people use their screenname to convey their image and personality. Screen names like 'CrazyWrecker' and 'fan8Jr' can tell you a little bit more about someone than the screenname 'John_Doe' does. This really is importaint to some people as they see their screenname as their online identity.
I can't think of any more cons (I am sure there are more) so I will move to the pros.
First off, the most useful thing about using real names is that it makes the league admin's job much, much easier. This is not much of an issue when you have a smaller league of say 20 to 60 drivers in 1 or 2 divisions. Now when you are OSCAR and you have 700 drivers, having real names really, really helps make the stat tracking easier. I also makes communication easier as there is less of a need to translate someone's screen name to their real name to find them in your address book.
Another pro of using real names is that people tend to trust and remember you if you are using a real name. Believe it or not most people have an easier time remembering 'John_Doe' (who could forget that name) than they do 'Ih8wrckrs'. People who use their real name when racing online tend to be more responsible drivers when it comes to the give and take that it takes to do well online. Other people realize this and tend to respect those people more also.
Personally (and not to make a bad pun) I would rather someone refer to me by my real name when they are chatting with me online. It makes it easier to communicate and recognize them later.
I guess what I am getting at is if you are in an online league and they ask you to use your real name try to go along and make it easy for for your league admin. They have a lot more important things to do with their time than debate the issue with every driver in the league. Let them concentrate on making your experience as great as it can be.
Using nicknames is an online tradition that goes back well before online sim racing. Historically leagues allowed their drivers to use nicknames because that was the standard. Those leagues generally have processes in place to make the conversion from nickname to real name an easy task.
For those leagues who have decided to make their drivers use their real names I say 'Thank You' because it sure does make reporting on the races easier. Plus we here at SimAutoRacer.net get to print things like 'Mike_Ramsden Wins Again!!!'.
Thanks for your time, see ya on the sim race track.
Dan Riffero