The freedom of privacy – 4 reasons to make your game private

I’ve noticed often in our hobby that many people like to keep themselves an enigma. Using usernames instead of real names, and keeping details about themselves on a need-to-know basis.

A number of people asked for private games to be a feature – which is now an option (see here). Here’s some reaons why you might want to have a private game:

• If you’re nervous about your quality of writing – A private game will be seen by other members in your game, but nobody else. Allowing you to develop your writing skills with trusted people.
• It can’t be found by your collegues – Probably the biggest reason people give for writing under a pseudonym, because their work collegues or friends might give them a hard time about what they write. I actually think you should be totally proud of what you write, but some people have jobs where what you post online is a sensitive issue.
• You can write whatever – Whatever crazy stuff you want to come up with without being judged, keeping it private means nobody else needs to know. Whether it gets sexual, or just… odd.
• Protects minors from content they shoudn’t see – Some people want to write erotic stuff, or really gory stuff. That’s fine, there’s no limits right now on OngoingWorlds (we had a vote on this a while ago & most people DIDN’T want games to be content-rated), but you might want to protect minors from seeing your writing. A private game will do that (as long as you only allow over-18s to join of course).

Not every game should be private though of course. Otherwise potential members won’t be able to read up on your game before joining. I’ll do a 2nd article soon with reasons why NOT to make your game private.