Should the player's country be shown before match?

[Plrsvek]

I'm not sure if I should post this here or in the Community Developer Area section, but since this is a question instead of a request I'll put it here.

Subject:
Showing the player's real life country before (and maybe during) the match starts

Description:
In my past when I actively played a lot of ranked games, in games like Red Alert 2 and Warcraft 3, there were always tons of people who asked when the game started ''from?''. This is easily the same question as ''where are you from?'' or ''in which country do you live?'' in a short way.

I think it was kinda annoying to answer that all the time. Sure I don't have to answer, but I'm not the kind of person who wants to look rude to other people. Even trough my answer is just very short, answering ''NL''.

There is an easy way to prevend this however. If the game reveals the player's country before the match starts, they don't have to ask and can focus on playing the game. There could be also some downsides that I'll list in the ''negative effects''. The way to reveal your country is just to show the flag of it next to your name.

Positive Effect:
Curious players who would like to know where you are from can now know it without asking, unless they can't recognise the banner icon. Perhaps people could be more friendly and social if they see you live in the same country as theirs.

Negative Effect:
Very rude people could abuse other players with its nation. There's always something bad to talk about each country, sadly I once saw some people trashing Norwegian people that they ''couldn't take on Anders Breivick with 60 people''... If people like this really say that in Generals 2, they should be suspended.

I've added a poll, feel free to vote what you'd like. And I'd like to hear what you think about this idea.

[[GR]Agm]

I don't see why not. Yes it will lead to flaming, but at the same time it might give people some cultural tolerance.

[CrazyGDIfan123`]

can you be more specific?
pretty much every cnc game has shown players' "country" next to their name/rank.
only thing is those countries are entered by the players themselves so... not everyone is necessarily truthful about their country


so i guess youre talking about the game automatically detecting and displaying countries via IP check?

[Lauren]

Yes it will lead to flaming, but at the same time it might give people some cultural tolerance.

Tolerance like in HoN towards Russia and Brazil? No thanks.

[Commander_McNash]

No thanks, aside from ping there shouldnt be any kind of info about the country of origin, this can only end bad, you either have people getting banned for discrimination bcs the matter was put over the table, or people telling everyone else EA dont care if you get insulted by your nationality, in fact I believe asking someone else's nationality is against the game TOS since it's personal information.

[=LEVIATHEN=]

I don't quite see any reason not to, other than the possible flaming. I don't really understand how people are idiotic enough to argue about that, but apparently, some are.

[Klandri]

If it's togglable I don't see anything wrong with it. But they should include all 194 UN recognized countries (and the Republic of China, Palestine and so on) instead of forcing people from small nations, like myself, to select "other location".

[Beinrangel]

If it's togglable I don't see anything wrong with it. But they should include all 194 UN recognized countries (and the Republic of China, Palestine and so on) instead of forcing people from small nations, like myself, to select "other location".

Agree

Would be a nice option to be able to show your nationality if you desire.

[Revanchist]

I'm almost always in favor of "options."

Make it democratic. If someone wants to put up their flag, let them. If they don't, don't make them.

[Plrsvek]

I can't believe I mispelled country into ''countrie'' in the poll options. If I remember, mods have the power to change the text. If so please do, it looks so stupid

But personally, I'd atleast like the option to toggle your country on or off. I can understand people being afraid of showing their country, God knows how rude people can get. It shouldn't be hard or expensive at all to add this feature in game trough.

Who knows, people might even make friends a lot quicker if everyones country is shown. They could have a social talk after the game (mostly not during the game because it would just distract them from playing).

Also, if the game asks the player ''Do you really want to reveal your nationality in the game? If you accept, people will be able to see what your nationality is. If you choose yes, you are still able to switch to no if you change your mind'', then perhaps its not against the game's TOS, but I'm not sure how that works.