Sony theoretically endangers our lives :P

When I signed up for PSN and selected my online ID, I pretty much thought my personal information was perfectly safe and my real identities remained anonymous to everyone I felt the need to keep it from.

Every Gamer at some point has refused friend invites from individuals to strange for their liking. I have had messages from sick gamer asking for my address so in his words 'he could rape my mum' because he got a beating on Tekken 6 or another example was a guy on Pro Evolution Soccer who claimed he was going to physically throttle me because I scored a goal(he later went on to win the game, but was still as abusive as ever).

There is a fine line between friendly trash talk and abuse, but again we have all encountered these strange beings at some point that go beyond acceptability, personally I've had several games were I have come away thinking a person is one disturbed individual.

Anyway with Sony recently hacked, I have a theoretical scenario that may justify Sony allowing gamers to change their online ID's :P

Most PlayStation user will know, that their personal information such as Name, address, phone number & email address hes been stolen, but furthermore their Gamer ID was also stolen.

Now theoretically as unlikely as it may be, has this breach put PlayStation gamers in danger?

Like other gamers I use my PS ID on serious other gaming websites and sometimes trolls cause arguments on PSN and gaming sites, leading to members (or the troll)being banned for numerous reasons.

However what if a gamer defeats a psychopathic hacker on PSN or outwits them on the web, if they hold your stolen details? Normally you would think, it does not matter, the only thing they know about me is my PSN ID or Username, butthis is no longer the case.

Could these people be sick enough to cross reference your username with the personal details stolen from Sony and hunt you down like a dog? (unlikely but it does happen).

Gamers travailing across the world to kill others over something most gamers would deem stupid or lame does and has happened, Google it.

You will be greeted with headlines such as 'Online game rivalry ends with real life murder', 'Video game fanatic hunts down and stabs rival player who killed character online' and 'Gamer kills rival game for selling virtual sword online'.

Again while it's unlikely to happen, it could. So as a precaution should Sony allow us to change our PSN ID as a further security measure?

This would further separate our PSN ID from our personal data. If our PSN ID could be changed, Hackers would not be able to match our PSN ID to our personal data and would again give gamers the anonymity they held before the breach.

What do you guys think?

[Christopher]

You can change everything but your PSN id. I see no issue since a PSN id won't lead anyone to your house or your e-mail.

Otherwise, I think your idea that an angry hacker will somehow have your personal information is very paranoid.

[adwyer]

What good is it to change you address when it has already been stolen?

Hacker do in fact have our gamer ID and personal details that could easily be cross referenced if a hacker had our gamer ID from a game/website. like I said unlikely but not impossible.

Allowing Gamers to change their ID would make any cross referencing useless and provide extra security

[bigbomber]

JUST CHANGE IT U CAN DO IT FOR FREE YOU CAN HAVE LIKE 20 DIFFRENT PSN IDs

[jadenkorri]

yes, we can change it and create new IDs, but the problem is trophy's/achievements. I personally on the ps3 trophy up to 1100+ trophies at level 13. I would not want to go re-earn all those trophies again. Go ask any of the top 100 in achievement rank on live if they want to change their live ID and lose all achievements. Guarantee, gonna get a no go on that one.

[PantherDST]

Really.... Maybee people should just start communicating on the internet as if they were face to face with the person they are talking with. If everybody did that there would be a lot less trash talking and threats. It is easy to make arguments and threats when you know there is no recourse from the other side...

[Parapraxis]

Ooh look at the smart guy with the big talk.
(lol)

[rezzah]

Smart guy with big talk?

There isn't anything extraordinary about his comment, its perfectly logical and makes sense, anyone with a brain can understand it without having to go look up a dictionary...unless of course you had to?

The only flaw with what he said is though it would make talking online more "realistic", in a sense that we wouldn't talk like superman knowing fully well that we are not even close. For something like what he said to occur we would need mandatory live webcams of each individual when typing something online so everyone can see who they are. Only then would people actually stop acting like somebody else.

Really its only a dream with what he stated. Because the only way around it would pose a threat to people's sense of safety online. you know, the whole fact that anyone can just see you. It can increase the amount of online stalkers or something along those lines.

[coryok]

steps to changing your psn:
1. remove all personal data from current psn
2. change email address of current psn
3. make new psn

[adwyer]

changing your id is not that simple, I have over £200 worth of sing store content and quite a bit of PSN content or I would change ID no problem, plus what about the games that have been activated with the online pass already? Also it does not matter how civil you are to some people online, they still come across with a psychotic personality :P

[Parapraxis]

You can access all of that content if you make another user acct. on your PS3.

[adwyer]

you can't access everything mate, some games are only licensed for 1 user name, such as your online passes and sing-store content.

[yamzilla]

always lie about your account info online, i have like 5 aliases, you don't owe these lame ass companies shit, i am jim smith, or oliver nipples, whatever, fake address, zip, use the same couple so you can easily remember it or write it down

even at the store when they ask my email or zip, i bullshit them just for fun, make up some number that spells out messed up shit, give them a porn line, fuck those information gathering parasites that wanna get just a little more advertising into your saturated, inundated, manufactured/name branded skull

don't put anything on the net you can't afford to loose, i have one bank/debit account online that i keep bullshit $500-$700 in, my real money isn't ever online