One of the pieces of news that came out yesterday is the decision by
SOE to
fork over all server logs for the last four years of
EverQuest II to a group of researchers from the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. In saying "server log" one would assume that this means not only your combat log, what you've stuffed into the bank or sent through the mail,
but also the entirety of your chat logs; public channels, guild chat, and private tells. The question today is - even though it is completely acceptable for MMO companies to do so per their TOS/EULA, how would you feel were you to find out your MMO company forked over all their information - including all your private discussion - to researchers? Would it cause you to seriously reconsider your membership in their games, if not cancel outright? Or would you be entirely OK with it, so long as it were only being used for scientific research?
Updated to reflect new information from SOE stating they did not release chat logs.
Feb 17th 2009 at 8:00AM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
nevin said on 8:27AM 2-17-2009
Maybe a knee jerk but I'm cancelling my account today.
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smi04 said on 8:57AM 2-17-2009
Yea, a handful of researchers with 60 Terrabytes of data and I'm sure they can't wait to read your private messages about your ingrown toe nail, what you had for lunch and why you think class X is broken.
For Science!
Havok said on 8:36AM 2-17-2009
Its not so bad if they don't include your logs of chats; but including your private discussions is complete BS.
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torak said on 11:24AM 2-17-2009
Nothing is "private" in an MMORPG. The company owns everything
Havok said on 5:12PM 2-17-2009
Just because you can doesn't make it right.
karmafeast said on 8:41AM 2-17-2009
They're not doing it with malign interest in individual steamy adolescent e-romances or to track guild drama. More likely heuristics and metadata analysis by software they wrote to munge through the data.
People are very quick to cry that their privacy is being invaded without reading the EULA. Its like posting your revolutionary manifesto on facebook and being surprised when you don't get hired by the government.
To look at the positive... It is good that MMOs as an medium for social aggregation and expression are being considered seriously. Perhaps the research will yield interesting results.
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Jeni said on 10:34AM 2-17-2009
As a researcher of online personas, this is EXACTLY what I will be looking at. Interpersonal communication and relationships in online environments is my specialty.
Pingles said on 8:49AM 2-17-2009
This is stuff that happened in a massively multiplayer GAME. Please don't tell me there are people out there who expected privacy! A CSR could be monitoring everything you're doing real-time anyways!
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jiriza1859 said on 8:55AM 2-17-2009
Meh thats why i dont play soe games anymore. Goodbye WOW if i hear they did this also. Goes to show "research is greater than privacy".
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carbonduck said on 9:09AM 2-17-2009
Your premise (that you have any privacy when you play an online video game) is flawed.
jiriza1859 said on 5:18PM 2-20-2009
in someways you still have the right to privacy in an online world no matter what, your name, your chat files, but meh. We all know pretty soon everyone ,will think they are being watched, while playing their video games.
PatrickO said on 9:07AM 2-17-2009
Does anyone know if the logs will come back to bite you? If your boss, friends and family doesn't know what you say do you really care?
The big thing that would come out about me would be; I cuss a ton more online than I do offline. I blame Gnome rogues for that.
Nice article, it's an interesting development to say the least.
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smi04 said on 9:23AM 2-17-2009
Unless you've been masterminding a child porn ring through EQ2 chat, you have nothing to worry about.
Thats even assuming they find it in such a huge amount of data, or that they are even bothering to read chat word for word. There isnt much statistical data to justify the time spent reading so much droll. Not to mention the awful 'signal to noise' ratio in MMO chat; Barrens chat anyone?
James Taylor said on 9:09AM 2-17-2009
What Karmafeast said. If you don't agree with this, you better go read your EUAL/TOS or stop crying. Ignorance is bliss?
I personally don't care and don't think it's that big of a deal. Do you really think they're going to go find YOUR whisper log and use it against you in court or something? Seriously?
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hailin said on 9:11AM 2-17-2009
You will be happy to know that WoW also records everything you say and do Jiriza.
Really don't see the big deal here. As far as I can tell they are turning over chat logs not CC info and personal information.
What are you people saying in game that you need to be concerned?
Afraid they might come across that nerd rage moment you had over a bad roll?
Canceling proves nothing because they still have your logs. Cancel all you want. Going to chain yourselves to a tree next in front of a bulldozer? Go internet hippy.
Read the EULA's you have no right to privacy. What you say in game becomes the property of the Blizzard or SOE.
The only thing I am concerned about is crap game speex/L33t speak they are going to have to cut through. Hey maybe it will force governments 10 years down the road to force more literacy into school programs. I feel sorry for the scientist not the gamer in this situation.
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JP said on 9:20AM 2-17-2009
Invasion of privacy. lol. I love people's sense of entitlement in ~~everything~~ nowadays.
If you did nothing criminal, you have nothing to worry about. If you did do something criminal, you deserve to be called out/arrested/made an example of. Doing something morally wrong isn't "ok" b/c you didn't use your real name or are playing in a fantasy settings.
GET
A
GRIP
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sephirah said on 9:21AM 2-17-2009
I think we'd see less cyber in lolshire if blizz should release their logs...
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lethality said on 9:58AM 2-17-2009
I'm guessing all of the people against this have had multiple episodes of homosexual cybering that they don't want exposed.
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Tbone said on 10:08AM 2-17-2009
Sending this information to a third party to be "researched" is bullshit.
For all you geniuses that think "privacy" is not important and that if you" didn't do anything" you have nothing to fear. You really need to stop playing games and go read history and learn a thing or two.
It amazes me how naive you are.
It is childish notion like " you have nothing to worry about" that allows your freedoms to be stolen and trampled. Many a good person DIED on far away beaches and so forth so that you can have these freedoms. For you to toss them away as if " whatever" is just a sad statement on your grasp on reality.
Here, try reading a paper and learn something. Just today
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601131.html
Our beloved government spying and labeling innocent americans as "terrorist".
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Ada said on 10:19AM 2-17-2009
Government spy programs are slightly different than you choosing to give personal information through chat in a game that told you *up-front* whatever you said was their property. Take responsibility for your own actions instead of pulling up inconsistent parallels that show how little you understand about your own world.