@Deribus said:
If we make country flags optional then people who turn them off are going to be harassed because the impression is they're doing so because they have something to hide.
Can't say that "that will never happen", but I think that would be more in line with hidding the entire profile (flag, player rating, games played, etc.) rather than just the flag. No one would trust the intentions of someone who hides all, not even me.
The same applies for the Reddit and Overwatch cases you mention below.
@Deribus said:
I really don't think that's true.
I think you missed the "combining" point of it. Separately, each bit of info doesn't offer anything, but once you put them all in a pile, you can 'triangulate' who someone is and recognize it, this applies both for the "hey it's my friend" and the "not this guy again".
I know these two examples sounds like a win-win scenario, but we should look at the other side of the coin too:
"Is it my only option to make a new account if i don't want to play with my friend this time without being interrogated?" (suppose the friend is manipulative, idk)
or
"Do i have to enable a VPN and have my entire connection halved just because they don't like my country or they think I'm the one lagging the rest?"
Now I'll try to clarify each point but before that, remember these points are about player info that have nothing to do with the flag system on their own, but rather add up to each other and allow to build a profile on someone:
@Deribus said:
Username
-- Usernames are already unique. There's no Deribus with a Brazilian flag so flags don't let you narrow anything down within FAF. I suppose if someone uses that same username in a different service which does allow non-unique names then you could get some information, but again you can only narrow down to an entire country.
There are countless examples of people creating account names that mimic the names of others: streamers' names, nicknames they know, and so on. I haven't seen anyone with malicious intent, but these features should also be considered with an eye toward the future.
@Deribus said:
Playstyle
-- I fail to see how playstyle gives you any information you could use to identify someone in real life
This one is actually the hardest to catch. You obviously can't infer in who someone is by how they play, but someone (I've seen this happen several times in other games) might say "Oh no, we're playing with a [nationality], we're going to lose" and such. It sounds absurd, but prejudice often leads players to attribute specific playstyles, mistakes, or bad behavior directly to a player's nationality.
@Deribus said:
Time zone
-- First, that's not something FAF reveals, so this would only affect people who both are uncomfortable sharing their country but also are comfortable sharing their time zone in chat. Second apparently the smallest population country with multiple time zones is Micronesia which has 114,000 people, so even in that edge case it doesn't narrow down a ton.
(reminder again: this is apart from the flag system, so suppose you don't see the flag)
This is indeed information that FAF doesn't reveal, but it's as easy as noticing when someone is on.
If someone connects at -let's say- 4 AM and leaves at 9 AM pretty much every day, you can easily deduce this player is from another continent, which as I said it's not much info on it's own, but it's about stacking different info.
@Deribus said:
Language
-- Not sure how this would work. If I see someone with an Italian flag speaking Russian they could be living there, on holiday, or just using a VPN.
As a fictional example, let's say someone has:
a username that sounds vaguely Eastern European.
plays on FAF between 11 PM and 3 AM UTC.
writes "I play FAF since 3 years" and similar broken English phrases in chat.
usually picks Seraphim,starts the games with a distinctive move, like building land and air factory without making extractors before.
By themselves, these traits mean almost nothing. However, if the user also has a mandatory german flag, cross-referencing it with schedule, playstyle, and language creates a recognizable profile.
The flag is not a privacy problem on it's own, but it's an excellent point of data to pinpoint who someone is.
PS: Relying on VPNs as the only workaround creates a double standard: Users who care about connection quality and privacy are forced to experience high latency on other programs (or pay VPN), while anyone wanting to spoof their location or misbehave can bypass the mandatory flag system in seconds anyway. A client-side toggle solves the privacy issue cleanly without forcing players into VPNs.
