Epic Games, please allow more of the Creator programs features to not be locked behind the Creator programs (Island Creator and Support-A-Creator). By the very nature of these programs, they are for monetizing your creations, and this means that I would need to give my social security number for tax purposes. But I want to access some of the Creator programs features that do NOT involve monetizing, and don’t want to have to give my social security number to access those features. At this point, it feels like Epic Games does not want the general public to have access to those features, so they keep them behind a password wall, with the user’s social security number as the password. That is NOT an acceptable situation. A social security number should NOT be handed out for simple things that do not legally require it. And none of the features that I want access to would legally require it. In particular, I want access to creating LEGO islands in Creative mode, and the ability to use custom matchmaking codes to setup matches with my friends.
Yes I can have them join a squad but then it’s coop mode with my friends against other squads. What if I want to play AGAINST my friends? Well I’d need to just be lucky enough for one of them to happen to be put into the same match as me. With a custom matchmaking code though I could be guaranteed to be put into the same match as my friends so I could battle against them. That kind of feature should not be locked behind a Creator program.
And why is using LEGO islands in Creative mode locked behind the Creator programs? All it needs is to have me read and agree to extra terms. Why can’t that be its own feature, instead of locking it behind the Creator programs, which requires I enter my social security number just to join? Clicking on I Agree for additional terms of use is NOT something where a social security number is legally required. It’s only required here because you Epic Games have chosen to make it exclusively part of your Creator programs, which I think is wrong.
Why do I have a problem with entering a social security number? I’ll tell you why. It’s the most confidential piece of information that a person has. If it ever leaked out, it could allow for major incidents of the crime of identity theft. It shouldn’t be treated so frivolously as to basically use it as a password to unlock certain features of the game that actually have nothing inherently to do with monetization of content, yet that is EXACTLY what it is being used for right now. And while I recognize that you Epic Games are a major company with strong safeguards on personal information on your servers, no computer system is 100% hack-proof. And bigger companies are actually more attractive targets for hackers, because to them hacking a bigger company gives them more “clout” in their hacker community. And major companies have been hacked before. I don’t want even the slightest chance of my social security number to fall into the hands of hackers. I would still give that social security number, as a legal requirement, if I wanted to monetize my content. But you see, that’s the problem. I don’t want to monetize my content. I just want access to certain non-monetization features that are currently only available in the Creator programs, and I’m not about to give out my social security number just to access those non-monetization features.
And it is for this reason that I’m asking that you Epic Games provide a method for accessing non-monetization features of the Creator programs that does not require me to give you my social security number. Non-monetization features are all the things like Creative TMNT islands, Creative LEGO islands, custom matchmaking codes, and also publishing islands (as long the person doesn’t make money from those published islands).