RealID to come to the Official Blizzard Forums

[Tehmuffinman]

SRC: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041


Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Forums

Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature - http://www.battle.net/realid/ , a new way to stay connected with your friends on the new Battle.net. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about our plans for Real ID on our official forums, discuss the design philosophy behind the changes we’re making, and give you a first look at some of the new features we’re adding to the forums to help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.

The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.

We also plan to add a number of other features designed to make reading the forums more enjoyable and to empower players with tools to improve the quality of forum discussions. Players will have the ability to rate up or rate down posts so that great topics and replies stand out from the not-so-great; low-rated posts will appear dimmer to show that the community feels that they don’t contribute effectively to the conversation, and Blizzard’s community team will be able to quickly and easily locate highly rated posts to participate in or to highlight discussions that players find worthwhile.

In addition, individual topics will be threaded by context, meaning replies to specific posts will be grouped together, making it easier for players to keep track of multiple conversations within a thread. We’re also adding a way for Blizzard posters to “broadcast” important messages forums-wide , to help communicate breaking news to the community in a clear and timely fashion. Beyond that, we’re improving our forum search function to make locating interesting topics easier and help lower the number of redundant threads, and we have more planned as well.

With the launch of the new Battle.net, it’s important to us to create a new and different kind of online gaming environment -- one that’s highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. All of our design decisions surrounding Real ID -- including these forum changes -- have been made with this goal in mind.

We’ve given a great deal of consideration to the design of Real ID as a company, as gamers, and as enthusiastic users of the various online-gaming, communication, and social-networking services that have become available in recent years. As these services have become more and more popular, gamers have become part of an increasingly connected and intimate global community – friendships are much more easily forged across long distances, and at conventions like PAX or our own BlizzCon, we’ve seen first-hand how gamers who may have never actually met in person have formed meaningful real-life relationships across borders and oceans. As the way gamers interact with one another continues to evolve, our goal is to ensure Battle.net is equipped to handle the ever-changing social-gaming experience for years to come.

For more info on Real ID, check out our Real ID page and FAQ located at http://www.battle.net/realid/ . We look forward to answering your questions about these upcoming forum changes in the thread below.

[Shabu42]

I love this, no more hiding on a cleverly named alt lol

[Svpernova09]

Blizzard 1, Trolls 0 ?

[Asuka]

anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name Can't say that I'm too comfortable with that change, not all of us are named John Smith.

[EaTCarbS]

Can't say that I'm too comfortable with that change, not all of us are named John Smith.

I agree with this. I for one an not comfortable with everyone who accesses the wow forums knowing my first and last name... Because with that information they can probably find everything else as well. We can only hope that it is implemented as an optional feature rather than mandatory.

[Lax]

Wow. While I could care less about my real name being attached to my own posts, I can tell this is going to be a problem for a lot of people, including some Blizzard employees.

[Kicksome]

I think people are going to have problems now that the game world is merging with the real world.

[Owltoid]

I'm not a fan of this as all, and it would prevent me from posting on the WoW forums. Many of us have pretty serious careers and the last thing I need coming up in a Google search of my name is a video game. It's a hobby of mine, and something that wouldn't be well accepted in my professional network.

Big mistake, IMO. If they link armory to RL names, I may be done with the game for good.

[Svpernova09]

BRB adding realid support to db.com




















just kidding.

[Acidburning]

so the general wow forums will have about 5 posts a day, hehe

[Kicksome]

I'm not a fan of this as all, and it would prevent me from posting on the WoW forums. Many of us have pretty serious careers and the last thing I need coming up in a Google search of my name is a video game. It's a hobby of mine, and something that wouldn't be well accepted in my professional network.

Big mistake, IMO. If they link armory to RL names, I may be done with the game for good.

Yeah, how long will it be until Employers not only do background checks, facebook, myspace etc.. checks, but also start checking video game forums to see how you're spending your time before they hire you.

[Kicksome]

Could you imagine how pissed people would be if they added the realid name to all the OLD posts - lol.

[zenga]

1) I'm going to delete any posts I've made on the wow forum. (about a handful).
2) I'll refrain from posting on the wow forums.

I decided not to jump on the band wagon of social networksites. I decided long time ago to keep my real identity separated from my virtual identity. I decided not to use my credit card online for 'entertainment'.

It's a personal choice to keep my privacy private. Not so much because I have to hide anything, but rather because I like to keep control over such things. It was for me already a huge step to submit my rl information upon creating a blizz account.

While I support the effort they make to keep the forums troll free, with more valuable info, ... it's a bit pointless imo:

One can buy the game in a store with simple cash, as well as a gamecard, no identification needed whatsoever. If one's real name is john doe he can simply make an account under a jane doe name. This while 13 year old kids might post under their real name (even if parents 'agreed to supervise them').

I dunno, but they seem to open new candy stores every other day for people with bad intentions.

[ILikeTwins]

I can tell you right now that this is the sort of thing that will cause me to cancel all of my wow subscriptions. If they want to expose everyone's true identity to internet data miners then that's fine but leave me out of it. I believe this is going to be a HUGE mistake on their part. May people won't care as they already have their names plastered halfway across the internet but I guarantee that there are many people like me that never joined facebook because they are worried about it coming back to bite them somehow (they couldn't care less if your identity is stolen or if you don't get a job because of them as long as they have their adverstisers). Since my opinion doesn't really matter to Blizzard then the only thing I can do to protect myself is not play their game anymore.

[Kicksome]

I think another big problem we'll have... Search engines...

Let's say someone google's your full name. The worldofwarcraft.com is such a "powerful" website that I bet real names will start showing up in results - probably first.

e.g. You meet someone, and they later google your name to check you out. First results come up on the wow.com forums about how Shamans need to get buffed, and how BS it is that Pallys are OP. Nice first impression, even if it's not really you.

[balderrdash]

This is just a terrible idea, I was hoping it was April Fool's. I think I've posted three or four times on those forums, and complain about them as much as anybody, but this is an awful solution.

[Asuka]

Let's say someone google's your full name. The worldofwarcraft.com is such a "powerful" website that I bet real names will start showing up in results - probably first. I just googled my posting alt's name on the o-boards.

1st google link was my armory.
2nd link was all of my posts.
3rd link was some site on threadmeter with my posts.
4th was totally unrelated to wow. Thanks to RealID, I now know that my posting alt is named after a bunch of rocks. I used the random name generator when creating that alt.

[Tehmuffinman]

Bashiok added some clarification

SRC: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1&pageNo=34#667


One important point which I don't believe has been relayed yet is that the switch to showing RealID on the forums will only happen with the new forum systems we're launching for StarCraft II shortly before its release, and a new forum system for World of Warcraft launching shortly before the release of Cataclysm.

All posts here on the current World of Warcraft forums, or any of our classic Battle.net forums, will remain as-is. They won't (and can't) automatically switch to showing a real first and last name.

All posts in the future on the new forum systems will be an opt-in choice and ample warning will be given that you're posting with your real first and last name.

[Daeri]

How long before the real name is shown on armory as well ? :P

The new message notation system will be fun too.

[Fat Tire]

Bashiok added some clarification

SRC: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1&pageNo=34#667


This is insane!

Wonder what would happen when an account gets hacked and John Smith is plastered all over the boards linking to gold/porn, whatever. If the original owner didnt want his name lambasted in public could he/she have a defamation suit? Now a days most employers also include a 'google' facebook,myspace etc. background search on you when you apply for a job.

[Aenar]

I understand that statement "Opt-In", but there is no clarity to what access players have if they don't Opt-In. Are we restricted from posting on the forums, or even reading them? If this becomes mandatory and spills over into my identity being released against my wishes in any form (in game, armory, etc), I will resign Warcraft. No game is worth the hassle of potential stalkers, hackers (more than just robbing gold), and future first impressions that then get googled. It wouldn't surprise me if some people who start dating secretly google their date for background information.

This isn't a threat toward blizzard that "omgz, five accounts canceled, suck on it"... I understand they couldn't care less in that regard. As long as I'm not publicy identified, I'll keep playing. F*#% the idea of social networking while gaming. I never used my full name when networking "Doom", "Quake", & "Unreal". I don't PVP in WoW, but god damn someone who's epeen gets stepped on might well find out who did it and take it too far.

[Fat Tire]

Its kinda Orwellian really and has a huge chance of unintended consequences.

[cmeche]

Screw seeing real names....seems like it would be easier and a little more acceptable to just have all your toon's names show up under your "profile"....for that account.

[Souca]

I'd be interested to know the "opt-in" as well. It could be something as simple as making a post.

After RealID came out, I felt a little foolish for being so upset about it. Like I had made a big deal out of something that had just been intended to be useful. However, I'm now beginning to wonder if some of that concern wasn't well founded. It just seems like Blizzard is hellbent on making their systems a pay to play version of facebook.

I really hope I'm wrong, but at this point I'm afraid to trust Blizzard any more than I have to.

As for search engines and data mining... there are companies that already do statistical analysis to blogs to try and match them to real people they have in their databases. When I spoke with them they were using sites like LiveJournal, so I'm sure they would be very keen on doing the same sort of thing with any forum that lists a full name. In fact, it's a lot less work for them.

- Souca -

P.S. Wonder if Salman Rushdie plays wow...

[daviddoran]

works for me..... not like i could even come up with a creative username anyway......

But I can see blizzard's side. It probably costs them a lot of money in manpower to moderate all the spam QQ, flame wars etc. I'm sure the trolling wont go away, but it will drop dramatically, and IMO that is their primary goal.

I guess they could somewhat increase security by making the forums only readable by players who have an active wow account. It wouldn't keep everyone out, but it should prevent search engines from putting WoW next to your resume...

[Maxion]

Most likely you will still be able to read the forums without your name being shown to anyone else anywhere, it will only show up if you make a post.
And they are not linking armory to realid, everything realid is still going to be an opt-in thing where if you don't want your real name shown anywhere, it won't be. Just don't opt in.

[luxlunae]

What's really terrifying is that this has warped into a "lets cross reference the forums with sex offender databases" thread that someone posted sarcastically... and then some parents got on board and are discussing it seriously.

[luxlunae]

Basically then anyone who doesn't want to be publicly linked to world of warcraft has to just not participate in the feedback systems for the game developers? That hardly seems fair. And while many of the forums are crap, some of them remain useful (I like the addon forum, personally).

[Souca]

Perhaps what bothers me the most is the seeming lack of concern from Blizzard about the paying subscribers that don't like these features. I can ignore the trolls and people that legitimately don't understand my concern or don't share it, but the company line seems to be very much "Deal with it."

- Souca -

[Kicksome]

This is good way to make people who want to remain anonymous, but post on the forums, pay another $15/month. You'd have to create a new bnet account, buy the game, and pay the subscription fee (via time card). And make sure you use a bogus name.

[Mercurio]

Between this and RealID in game, I'm betting we are going to see all sorts of newspaper stories about WoW RL violence.

Ever wanted to kick some jerk's butt in RL when they camp you over and over for hours? Now you will probably be able to figure out their address with a combo of their real name and Google. Then camp out at thier front door and beat the tar out of them when they head to the mini-mart.

I've only felt like I would physically punch another player if I could on a couple of occasions but there are all sorts of unstable people out there playing this game who would probably do it daily if it were convenient (and others who would drive/fly cross-country to satisfy their nerdrage).

This really is crazy.

[suicidesspyder]

Hey if any of you want to add me send me a message with ur email it would be great to keep in touch with all of you while playing too. This way if i need a help on a certain boss i can just ask right then and there lol. I think this is a great way to keep in touch.

[ebony]

next ingame REALID change

"CharName" & "Tite"
"RealID"
"GUILD"

come on they taking this way to far they might as well just rename your toons ingame your RealLife ID.

Then you can really kill someone in RealLife!

[Velassra]

With all the complaints about RealID over the weeknd in several threads, and the fact alot of people were saying Blizzard was silent on the matter of privacy concerns......shoulda seen this coming.

I have too much to lose, personally and professionally w/ my name being plastered all over a game forum for some butthurt forum Troll to turn around Google my name and call my employer or local regulatory board with some bullshit story or complaint. This doesn't even take into account someone showing up at my Home because of a forum post. I have a small child at home.

Don't say it would never happen....how many of us multibox just to escape the douchebaggery that goes on in WoW?

I don't see how Blizzard thought this was a good idea.

[kadaan]

I've supported them in their other less-than-popular announcements like the paid character services, pet store, and Real ID friends, but this is just too far. Even though I rarely post and never troll/flame on the official forums, I don't want someone (such as a potential future employer) to google my name and see all my gaming habits.

I also play games to have fun, not build a social network. If some of my friends play, great! I simply don't care to see a whole network of friends-of-friends nor have any desire to connect with them.

The whole anti-trolling argument is pretty lame as well. So what if John Smith is trolling instead of Trolololo. I still don't know who in-game that is, and any hardcore 4chan-style troll wouldn't have registered their Battle.net account with their real name anyway. Without any way to opt-out of displaying your real name, it's just going to encourage people to create Battle.net accounts with fake names.

[jinkobi]

Sounds too damn intrusive to me... I don't put my real name out there for anyone except where I have to make a payment.

Wonder what they're going to do when the first person gets hunted down for revenge. You could really ruin someone's real life. Would you want some WOW forum crackhead calling up your boss and that's just a mild case scenario.

Very strange how this came about right now. For 3 years I have posted on an alt on the Shadowsong:US forums under the name Porkie. Giving out clues to my identity over the years and finally someone won my 3 year game. Literally just gave them their 5k gold prize an hour ago.

I was never malicious but I would have a lot of fun at others expense. The people bragging about their gearscore or how awesome they were would rub me the wrong way and I'd tear them down. Really Porkie became a bit of an icon. Needless to say those with the over inflated ego's I targeted made many threats including threatening to get at me in real life.

Looks like I concluded my game at just the right time...

I know why they're doing this but c'mon now... They could just leave it as listing all your toons and leave your real name out of everything.

[ElectronDF]

I will never post on the new forums. They just lost my support. I don't really want to quit playing, but if I do, REALID will be 100% of my reason when I stop. Maybe Star Wars, probably SC2, maybe D3. I don't hate the games, just don't like the company.

[Iceorbz]

Wow -- simply put.. F'ing stupid. I will never ever post my name out for the 1000's of forum trolls to get. And the person on the first page hit the nail on the head. HR reps in many companies are being trained to search for their interviewees, and those who come up with "LOL I LIKE WOWZ" and the like have been, and could continue to be put on the bottom of the pile. There was some bad sampling that had went out saying that "video gamers" were less productive and more distracted at work, if there was internet connectivity. Basically they tried to say we do jack and shit but look at forums all day. Sad thing is, people believe that stuff.

There is just to much bad stuff about this, and I think that they should just make one account name ie: "Iceorbz" and anyone that friends you, any forum you post on, ect ect will only have that one character or account. They could have an option similar to ours where you click on the name and see all the other characters if you wanted.

[Iceorbz]

next ingame REALID change

"CharName" & "Tite"
"RealID"
"GUILD"

come on they taking this way to far they might as well just rename your toons ingame your RealLife ID.

Then you can really kill someone in RealLife!


This shit happens in korea... people have died over everquest and lineage 1 and 2. That's all we need is some crazy person going nuts and hunting you down because you map hacked his tournament game and beat him. People waste countless hours on pointless shit, like spamming us in game with foul language and the like. Just because they got gibbed at a quest turn in by 4 shaman... or they got spanked in arena or BG.

Can you imagine, with real names available, what they could do lol?

[Fat Tire]

I've supported them in their other less-than-popular announcements like the paid character services, pet store, and Real ID friends, but this is just too far. Even though I rarely post and never troll/flame on the official forums, I don't want someone (such as a potential future employer) to google my name and see all my gaming habits.

I also play games to have fun, not build a social network. If some of my friends play, great! I simply don't care to see a whole network of friends-of-friends nor have any desire to connect with them.

The whole anti-trolling argument is pretty lame as well. So what if John Smith is trolling instead of Trolololo. I still don't know who in-game that is, and any hardcore 4chan-style troll wouldn't have registered their Battle.net account with their real name anyway. Without any way to opt-out of displaying your real name, it's just going to encourage people to create Battle.net accounts with fake names.


Worse comes to worst blizz'll let us change our names irl for $25

[Bigfish]

Yeah, I'm done with WoW over this. First they give you the option to connect your real info to your game persona. Then they forcibly do it to post on the forums. How long before your name gets tacked on to your armory? Mark my words, it is going to hit the fan over this. Maybe not on day 1, maybe not for a year, but at some point, some kid is going to get raped, some raider is going to get the crap kicked out of him, or something equally or more terrible is going to happen.

What annoys me the most though is that I have to recreate a battle.net account with bogus info for SC2/D3, because Blizz just proved they can't behave responsibly with my info. 10 warcraft accounts I will never sign on again because Bobby Kotick wanted to turn a buck.

You know, I wanted to believe the Activision deal wouldn't mean anything. I really did. And while they haven't really done too much to the in-game world, the meta-game is collapsing, and I only see it getting worse.

[Fat Tire]

LF Tank for heroic Deadmines Must have 10k gearscore and no criminal record

[F9thRet]

LF Tank for heroic Deadmines Must have 10k gearscore and no criminal record


LOL.

I agree with Bigfish above. Time to cancel my accounts.

It is horrible to think, that If I need tech support, and want to sign in on on the forums to ask, I put myself at risk for identity theft. Time to find another game to multibox.

[Velassra]

Honestly, I think I will earn my purple protos at Brewfest this year.....just have to kill Direbrew to get them.......line them up on the fp in Dalaran, screenshot, log off and cancel WoW.

I don't think I trust Blizzard anymore.

[Souca]

But is canceling enough? Not trying to be paranoid here, but they can still give your info away if it makes them a buck. Wonder how hard it would be to sue them into removing my info from their records. Is there any other way to get the info back from them?

And honestly, I'm surprised they aren't adding zip code or city to your forum avatar. I mean, if you are going for that whole social thing, why not add that info. I think facebook and all those other social networks do that. Why not single or looking for sex? Highschool? Favorite movie? Shoe size? All of this info is more useful in creating a social community and yet less dangerous than a persons full name. So are they just failing at privacy and actually creating a social community?

- Souca -

[Fat Tire]

But is canceling enough? Not trying to be paranoid here, but they can still give your info away if it makes them a buck. Wonder how hard it would be to sue them into removing my info from their records. Is there any other way to get the info back from them?

And honestly, I'm surprised they aren't adding zip code or city to your forum avatar. I mean, if you are going for that whole social thing, why not add that info. I think facebook and all those other social networks do that. Why not single or looking for sex? Highschool? Favorite movie? Shoe size? All of this info is more useful in creating a social community and yet less dangerous than a persons full name. So are they just failing at privacy and actually creating a social community?

- Souca -

Its social networking and its huge money!

If you read the new tos/eula this past tuesday it gives you a heads up on the future.






DISCLOSURES; THIRD PARTY FEATURES.

Massive.

Blizzard's Games and the Service may incorporate technology of Massive Incorporated ("Massive"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft"), that enables in-game advertising, and the display of other similar in-game objects, which are downloaded temporarily to your personal computer and replaced during online game play. As part of this process, Massive may collect some information about the game and the advertisements delivered to you, as well as standard information that is sent when your personal computer or game console connects to the Internet including your Internet protocol (IP) address. Massive will use this information to transmit and measure in-game advertising, as well as to improve the products and services of Massive and its affiliates. None of the information collected by Massive will be used to identify you. For additional details regarding Massive's in-game advertising practices, please see Massive's In-Game Advertising privacy statement at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=122085&clcid=0x409. The trademarks and copyrighted material contained in all in-game advertising are the property of the respective owners. Portions of the Service are © 2008 Massive Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Facebook.

If you are a registered user of Facebook you may use your Facebook data to enable you to find your Facebook friends on the Service. Your Facebook account is subject to separate terms and conditions provided by Facebook. Note that if you have a Facebook account, your Facebook friends will be able to associate your screen name with your real name on the Service when they use the Facebook friends feature. You hereby acknowledge that Facebook is not responsible for any liability as a result of your use of the Service.

[Velassra]

Its social networking and its huge money!

If you read the new tos/eula this past tuesday it gives you a heads up on the future.






DISCLOSURES; THIRD PARTY FEATURES.
Massive.

Blizzard's Games and the Service may incorporate technology of Massive Incorporated ("Massive"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft"), that enables in-game advertising, and the display of other similar in-game objects, which are downloaded temporarily to your personal computer and replaced during online game play. As part of this process, Massive may collect some information about the game and the advertisements delivered to you, as well as standard information that is sent when your personal computer or game console connects to the Internet including your Internet protocol (IP) address. Massive will use this information to transmit and measure in-game advertising, as well as to improve the products and services of Massive and its affiliates. None of the information collected by Massive will be used to identify you. For additional details regarding Massive's in-game advertising practices, please see Massive's In-Game Advertising privacy statement at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=122085&clcid=0x409. The trademarks and copyrighted material contained in all in-game advertising are the property of the respective owners. Portions of the Service are © 2008 Massive Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Facebook.

If you are a registered user of Facebook you may use your Facebook data to enable you to find your Facebook friends on the Service. Your Facebook account is subject to separate terms and conditions provided by Facebook. Note that if you have a Facebook account, your Facebook friends will be able to associate your screen name with your real name on the Service when they use the Facebook friends feature. You hereby acknowledge that Facebook is not responsible for any liability as a result of your use of the Service.




So this means they going to deliver me high quality porn in game....like the shit I'm surfing waiting for my LFD random queue to pop?

[Fat Tire]

This explains alot.....

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2010/05/blizzard-and-facebooks-friendly-social-networking-deal-launches-with-starcraft-ii-/1



heres a hint (its about money)

Absolutely. Our goal and vision in this partnership is to really to cross-populate the social networks and to easily find and add your friends from Facebook onto the new Battle.net service as the first step and extending it to other features in the future. … Later on, of course, we have lots of things we are talking about with Facebook. We haven't announced anything specific, but we have lots of ideas about ways to cross-populate and share data between the two services.


Do you expect any push back from diehard Blizzard fans from the Facebook features?
We don't anticipate any. We are going to be very clear and upfront with the user. Once they log in and create a Battle.net account for the first time, if they choose to participate in Real ID, it is of course, an optional set of features that you don't have to participate in. Beyond that we are going to notify them upfront their names could be used to populate via Facebook and how their names could be used via this Facebook feature.

[Bigfish]

But is canceling enough? Not trying to be paranoid here, but they can still give your info away if it makes them a buck. Wonder how hard it would be to sue them into removing my info from their records. Is there any other way to get the info back from them?


Cancelling probably isn't enough. Knowing the corporate mindset, falling revenue just means they would tighten their grip. Grand Moff Tarkin would be proud.

As for legal ramifications, I imagine someone is going to have to demonstrate acual harm from Blizzard releasing their information. You could always send a demand letter to them stating you do not give consent for your information to be published. If they don't agree or respond, you could probably find something under the consumer protection act, since I doubt anyone gave their information to blizzard under the understanding that they were going to turn around and make that information public. Probably have a bit better of a case if they ever printed something along the lines of saying they don't share information.

But I'm no lawyer, and could be talking out my ass for all I know.

[Firstcow]

I'm not a fan of this as all, and it would prevent me from posting on the WoW forums. Many of us have pretty serious careers and the last thing I need coming up in a Google search of my name is a video game. It's a hobby of mine, and something that wouldn't be well accepted in my professional network.

Big mistake, IMO. If they link armory to RL names, I may be done with the game for good.

Agreed. If Blizzard forces in any way my name to show up anywhere in a public place without me knowingly giving consent I will not only cancel all my accounts but I will file a lawsuit against Blizzard to remove my name from all their servers and also ask for a large pile of cash too.

[zenga]

Well you could see this coming. Battlenet, charity pet, celestial mount, remote AH, real ID, recent announcement they will shift towards micro payments and now this deal with Massive Inc. Me and a few others kinda warned for this (were will it end (http://www.dual-boxing.com/showpost.php?p=273465&postcount=75)) 2 months ago. Better and smarter profiling, sold to you as a unique experience.

7 years ago I did a 6 months IT project with the biggest (back then at least) home shopping concern in the world. I was stunned when I saw a quick demonstration of how they pull info out of their customer database. Which basically decides for you what you gonna find cool and what you will buy. It's beyond imagination how far it goes. With todays technology and connected with many social networks it's only getting more insane.

When i was there (as a free lance contractor) I had the ability to check every persons credit record i.e. the same info banks can check. I could see if you were blacklisted or not, for what and how much longer. Every employee with a brain could do this. Which made me do a little experiment: over the next 2 weeks i wrote down every persons name that i met who could come in contact with private info (one has a job in a bank, another one works for the goverment, one for a telecom operator, another one is a tax officer, etc etc). It made me realize that basically anyone with bad intentions could collect all info about me available just by using his/her social network.

I don't believe this is gonna become reality. The user base will voice his opinion, many privacy activists (dunno proper english word), etc ... are going to protest. This is just one bridge too far. I still have faith in common sense and the power of a community when it gets serious.

[zenga]

On a funny note, the role players really gonna like this change.

[Hivetyrant]

Agreed. If Blizzard forces in any way my name to show up anywhere in a public place without me knowingly giving consent I will not only cancel all my accounts but I will file a lawsuit against Blizzard to remove my name from all their servers and also ask for a large pile of cash too.
I tend to agree, displaying my personal info is NOT cool, unfortunately many of us blindly accept the terms of service each time it is updated and may have already given concent.

[Souca]

I love the doubletalk:



...Later on, of course, we have lots of things we are talking about with Facebook. We haven't announced anything specific, but we have lots of ideas about ways to cross-populate and share data between the two services.
...We are going to be very clear and upfront with the user...


So... they don't know everything they intend to do, but they are being all upfront about it. Okay, that makes plenty of sense. More likely they don't want to share if before they have to or they risk losing some new signups and monthly fees. Plus, I wonder how many people are thinking twice about their SC2 preorder. I know I am.

- Souca -

[Khatovar]

I am most displeased with this. I don't post much on the boards, but I do on occasion. Usually it's to help someone in the UI and Mods forum because the rest of the boards are a cesspool. Now I'm not going to touch them with a 10 foot poll, because it's supposed to be MY choice on who knows my real name.

I dropped my maiden name in google. The FIRST hit I got was to a background check website. Without paying a cent, I saw :

My full name, my age, the towns in which I have lived, people I have lived WITH and my entire immediate family, all with links off to providing the same information on them.

That is not information I want every spedster in the world to have. Not to mention it completely obliterates like half the security questions out there for places like your email or banks. I've seen security questions like "Mother's Maiden Name" "Street you used to live on" "First Phone Number".

My married name is pretty much off the grid and I'd like to keep it that way.

[Souca]

Khatovar, have I told you I love your sig? Shame your married, or we could have had little Annalists together.

- Souca -

[Tehmuffinman]

http://www.cad-comic.com/comics/c0a129271278475206.jpg

[EaTCarbS]

Nice muffin.

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/174/trollface.png

[Souca]

Nice muffin.

Thank you. I just baked it.

Oh... you meant... Sorry, nvm.

- Souca -

[MiRai]

This thread is by no means meant to steal people away from the other thread in this forum (http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=30919) by MuffinMan. But after quickly sifting through those pages I didn't notice that what I'm about to post was already in there. For the fact that people have said what they wanted to say in the other thread they might not see this and I believe this is a big failure on Blizzard's part.

I was linked this [only worried about the initial post]:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=13816898792&sid=1

Which suggests we Google "RealID Gameriot" which lead me to this:
http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Americans-are-bad-at-games/Real-Names-on-the-Official-Forums-New-REAL-ID-function?gr_i_ni

And ends here [where it all began]:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374892&sid=1&pageNo=1#16

Now the original EU forum post mentions about people finding felonies and such but the Gameriot post does not mention this. I didn't bother to read anything on that 26 page thread on the US forums except for Bashiok's blue posts so I can't tell you whether people did or did not actually post that information publicly about Bashiok. Apparently Bashiok did end up deleting his own Facebook page. I can only imagine what the population of the Blizzard gaming community and other places [like 4chan :)] are going to be doing to people.

EDIT: Threads have been merged, this post kept intact.

[Souca]

This comment is just so fun:

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/permalink/comment/610830

- Souca -

[Souca]

And as if things couldn't get worse...

http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/security-flaw-allows-addons-to-expose-full-real-life-names-witho/

Now addons can be used to get your real info...

Granted, it's only YOUR info, but do you really want to have to check to see if your addons are safe and don't have a backdoor?

- Souca -

[MiRai]

Now apparently the Gameriot page actually has an incorrect address. People are claiming that all blue posters are from Irvine, CA which that address shows Lakeport, CA. It could be an old address where he used to live or his family's address, I have no idea.

This shows Irvine, CA addresses:
http://www.pipl.com/search/?FirstName=Micah&LastName=Whipple&City=Irvine&State=CA&Country=US&CategoryID=2&Interface=1

As well as the rest of the internet articles on it:
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/blizzards-responses-on-the-real-id-situation/
http://www.binya.org/etain/?p=1106
http://www.coffeedrunk.com/2010/07/06/blizzards-new-forum-updates-no-more-anonymous-posts-bashiok-harassed/
http://solean.blog.de/2010/07/07/the-story-of-micah-wipple-8927339/

On July 7th at 3AM CST this thread (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700) is currently 870 pages long. Will Blizzard realize something is wrong?

Might just ask for this to be merged with the other thread. :)

EDIT: Merged

[Souca]

The meme is already spreading:

Hitler Hears About Real-ID (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiauaGbxipA)

- Souca -

[Hivetyrant]

Now apparently the Gameriot page actually has an incorrect address. People are claiming that all blue posters are from Irvine, CA which that address shows Lakeport, CA. It could be an old address where he used to live or his family's address, I have no idea.

This shows Irvine, CA addresses:
http://www.pipl.com/search/?FirstName=Micah&LastName=Whipple&City=Irvine&State=CA&Country=US&CategoryID=2&Interface=1

As well as the rest of the internet articles on it:
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/blizzards-responses-on-the-real-id-situation/
http://www.binya.org/etain/?p=1106
http://www.coffeedrunk.com/2010/07/06/blizzards-new-forum-updates-no-more-anonymous-posts-bashiok-harassed/
http://solean.blog.de/2010/07/07/the-story-of-micah-wipple-8927339/

On July 7th at 3AM CST this thread (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700) is currently 870 pages long. Will Blizzard realize something is wrong?

Might just ask for this to be merged with the other thread. :)

EDIT: Merged


Get as angry as you want about the RealID crap, but leave the employee's alone, they didn't make the decision, and are doing their best to stay neutral in this fiasco.

I hope all of you that find this funny get to have your families details and photo's put on the internet so nerds can prank call and harass them for months when they had nothing to do with it.

Not sure why this is making me rage, I just don't think it's fair that non-decision makers, just simple employees get picked on.

Unless you won the lottery, I assume most of you have jobs (otherwise you couldn't afford to multibox) so just imagine for a second that your employer made a bad PR decision and some disgruntled customer descides to find out where one of their employee's lives, smashes up your car, and runs.

Yep, you get to deal with the crap and there is little chance you can do anything about it.

Anyways, I know the people that find this funny won't listen to what I said or understand anyways, but I think it's sad.

This is the kind of internet justice that should stay reserved for the people it started with, pedo's, thieves and animal bashers.

[Khatovar]

Khatovar, have I told you I love your sig? Shame your married, or we could have had little Annalists together.

- Souca -

Haha, my husband is already trying to get me to spawn our own Company. I keep a special place in my heart for sticking my daughter with the name Sylith Dorotea.


This whole thing is getting ugly fast. I really cannot fathom how they thought this would be a good idea or that it would go over well. I have no problems staying off the forums, I get my info from MMOChampion and here, but this whole thing is just begging to be a nightmare.

I can't really think of a reason to WANT RealID anyway. Ease of chatting? I run Trillian, people who want to talk to me can use that.


Edit - Hivey, that's the POINT. That Blizz employee volunteered his name to prove Blizzard's point that this is a great thing. It took all of what, 4 minutes for people to start coming back with information on him outside of WoW life? And they ban people for trying to make the point that giving out your personal information is a frigging stupid bloody DANGEROUS idea. Not my problem if Mr. Whipple is naive enough to fall for the company line instead of being security minded.

[Iceorbz]

Yeah just so people know, with a Real name, and an address... we can pull up retarded amounts of information on you.

Pictures, Driver licenses, vehicle information, tax returns, property taxes, child births, marriages, work information ect ect.
This is not tinfoil hat bullshit, I do this quite regularly when looking for people while serving court documents. All this information is out there -- and it only takes a name and real address to find it out.
Please, voice your opinion against it.

[MiRai]

Not sure why this is making me rage, I just don't think it's fair that non-decision makers, just simple employees get picked on.No idea why it's making you rage either. I didn't do the searches. These are links which are already quoted from the thread(s) I linked.


Get as angry as you want about the RealID crap, but leave the employee's alone, they didn't make the decision, and are doing their best to stay neutral in this fiasco.

I hope all of you that find this funny get to have your families details and photo's put on the internet so nerds can prank call and harass them for months when they had nothing to do with it.
Did my post suggest I was angry? I'm not angry, I'm just along for the ride. I don't even post on the Blizzard forums; and for the rare occasion that I do post, I've already made a new BNet account with a fake name anyway. When G4 has their series "Behind the MMO" in 15 years and they air the episode about the downfall of Blizzard Entertainment, I can say I was there for all of it.:)

[drevil]

that's a first degree data security fail.

battlenet login name = account name = billing name = realid = real name = ingame name = forum name

(all linked together)

[OzPhoenix]

Blizzard surely can't be serious about this? Can they?

I like WoW - like it enough to spend the time and money to multibox it. I've played it since Beta, but I'll drop it in a heartbeat if I feel there's any chance of other players, forum posters or the like getting hold of my real (and relatively unique) name.

As a hirer of employees myself, I've for a while now included google and facebook searches on prospective employees, and I'm personally aware of at least one person dismissed from their job for what they wrote on their Facebook page (they'd been claiming to be sick, but were in fact off visiting family in Canada).

I have my own reasons for maintaining my anonymity on the Internet, Blizzard doesn't need to know them or care about them, just respect them. There isn't a service/convenience/product/game or item that would ever induce me to willingly give up that anonymity.

[Fat Tire]

Get as angry as you want about the RealID crap, but leave the employee's alone, they didn't make the decision, and are doing their best to stay neutral in this fiasco.

I hope all of you that find this funny get to have your families details and photo's put on the internet so nerds can prank call and harass them for months when they had nothing to do with it.

Not sure why this is making me rage, I just don't think it's fair that non-decision makers, just simple employees get picked on.

Unless you won the lottery, I assume most of you have jobs (otherwise you couldn't afford to multibox) so just imagine for a second that your employer made a bad PR decision and some disgruntled customer descides to find out where one of their employee's lives, smashes up your car, and runs.

Yep, you get to deal with the crap and there is little chance you can do anything about it.

Anyways, I know the people that find this funny won't listen to what I said or understand anyways, but I think it's sad.

This is the kind of internet justice that should stay reserved for the people it started with, pedo's, thieves and animal bashers.

I am a jaded and cynical person, but I saw the thread where that blizzard employee was basically taunting the RealID bashers and he got what he got.

While it took 5 mins to pull up some old or incorrect info they were pretty close. It was when people got his facebook and he had to shut it down due to harassment this guy had second thoughts and locked everything.

Really a person just has to piss off the wrong person and this whole thing goes up in flames. The very least it does is kill the forums and that is the part that is most disappointing because alot of good feedback/info is shared there.

[Khatovar]

Gone are the days of "LAWLZ@ ur Armory NEWB!" Now it'll be "LAWLZ i will b raiding ur wife in an hour MR. Jake Johnson of 1313 Mockingbird Lane"

[OzPhoenix]

I am having something of a hard time believing that Blizzard will really go through with this. It must surely be the dumbest decision I've seen a gaming company make since NGE.

[zenga]

lol @ khavtovar

Also it has been stated that jenna jameson is playing wow. That's the only good reason i can think to have real iD :D

Gonna been fun if you happen to have the same name as any celebrity ...

[alcattle]

enough is more then enough

WoW accounts x 5 Canceled July 7th, 2010

reason: Personal Issues

Added Text : I refuse to play if you allow real names to be released in any manner

Good bye Blizzard

[Svpernova09]

http://www.gamona.de/games/activision-blizzard,blizzards-bashiok-ist-erstes-opfer-der-real-id:news,1769743.html


For English speakers, Google Translate that.

http://www.dual-boxing.com/images/bashiok.jpg

[Fat Tire]

Thanks for that SN.

This thing has really started to go viral.

[Aenar]

I will be disabling my accounts after work today. I will not log ever agian unless this mess is corrected (not just the script bug: RealID needs to be completely dropped or reformatted). Damn it, was looking forward to the expansion.

[alcattle]

Gonna been fun if you happen to have the same name as any celebrity ...
Actually, I was named after a celebrity. Good news is he is on Google, or would that be bad news? He's dead so I guess it does not matter. Real good news is I do not come up in Google or do I have Twitter, facebook or myspace. My Handle is all over Google, has been for many years it seems for different forums I have posted on.
Anyway, I will miss playing WoW someday and will buy Cata but the rest will have to wait until BlizzTard fixes this mess

[Tonuss]

so the general wow forums will have about 5 posts a day, hehe
If they manually removed all of the stupid shit, there would probably be five posts left anyway.

I'm ambivalent about this. It's not as if people can't find my name and info pretty easily anyway, so I'm not scared of it. That said, I doubt that I'll post in the forums, at least at first. What really irks me is the amount of misinformation being thrown around. It doesn't surprise me (this is the General WOW forum, after all, and stupidity is the rule of the day) but it's aggravating because it doesn't allow for a reasonable discussion.

On the other hand, a few of the people who are posting "my name is John Smith, do your worst" have wound up regretting it, which is funny. But all this crap about legal issues and privacy rights is being posted by people who either do not understand what Blizzard is doing or do not understand privacy rights. It's painful to read. And that's not even counting the people warning that this will lead to mass blood-letting from deranged e-stalkers.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I suspect that real names in-game or on the forums won't be much of a problem with adults (obvious caveats about adults with state-sponsored ulterior motives...) but where this will get ugly is with the kids.

As Fred Thompson said so well in the Hunt for Red October: "This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."

[Tonuss]

Minors can't have WOW accounts, can they? Aren't those under the name of a parent or guardian?

[Owltoid]

Blizzard is on a role with popular decisions this week. Maybe this is what needed to happen to break the habit for good.

[zenga]

Minors can't have WOW accounts, can they? Aren't those under the name of a parent or guardian?

That's the theory but not the reality. You are not allowed to watch porn either under 18. From the people I know with kids (who are decent ppl, giving their kids a decent & loving education) I don't think anyone actually checks the computer of heir13-14y old kid on a consistent basis. All it takes is 75 euros, go to the gamestore, buy what you need and install it.

There is no decent ID/age check whatsoever to create a bnet account. So ignoring reality should be a crime itself tmho.

[Svpernova09]

Blizzard is on a role with popular decisions this week. Maybe this is what needed to happen to break the habit for good.


You know. I've always laughed at the chicken little people that kneejerk react to blizzard's decisions and claim the sky is falling / world ending...



But with all the news this week, even my inner chick little is a bit worried.

[Owltoid]

oops... role <> roll

Nerdrage has my grammar and spelling scewed up

[kadaan]

Get as angry as you want about the RealID crap, but leave the employee's alone, they didn't make the decision, and are doing their best to stay neutral in this fiasco.

I hope all of you that find this funny get to have your families details and photo's put on the internet so nerds can prank call and harass them for months when they had nothing to do with it.

Not sure why this is making me rage, I just don't think it's fair that non-decision makers, just simple employees get picked on.

Unless you won the lottery, I assume most of you have jobs (otherwise you couldn't afford to multibox) so just imagine for a second that your employer made a bad PR decision and some disgruntled customer descides to find out where one of their employee's lives, smashes up your car, and runs.

Yep, you get to deal with the crap and there is little chance you can do anything about it.

Anyways, I know the people that find this funny won't listen to what I said or understand anyways, but I think it's sad.

This is the kind of internet justice that should stay reserved for the people it started with, pedo's, thieves and animal bashers.

I agree. If people want to rage at someone at Blizzard, all the real names of the higher ups have been public in the credits for years: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/credits-wrath.html

[Owltoid]

I feel bad for the sacrificial lamb, but it sounded like he brought it on himself by posting his info to a hostile crowd (I have not read the thread and basing this on heresay). Though I feel bad for the individual, I'm glad the community found a good example of what can happen. His loss may cause Blizzard to wake up and rethink this decision. Stop selling privacy to the highest bidder.

[Souca]

If they manually removed all of the stupid shit, there would probably be five posts left anyway.

I'm ambivalent about this. It's not as if people can't find my name and info pretty easily anyway, so I'm not scared of it. That said, I doubt that I'll post in the forums, at least at first. What really irks me is the amount of misinformation being thrown around. It doesn't surprise me (this is the General WOW forum, after all, and stupidity is the rule of the day) but it's aggravating because it doesn't allow for a reasonable discussion.

On the other hand, a few of the people who are posting "my name is John Smith, do your worst" have wound up regretting it, which is funny. But all this crap about legal issues and privacy rights is being posted by people who either do not understand what Blizzard is doing or do not understand privacy rights. It's painful to read. And that's not even counting the people warning that this will lead to mass blood-letting from deranged e-stalkers.

But part of the problem is that any discussion has been very one sided. People that have said they don't like RealID for any reason have basically been told they are paranoid, Luddites, have something to hide, or wrong for a variety of other reasons. Very few people have accepted that people may just want to keep their names private because they just don't want to use their name in a game.

Now don't get me wrong, I am worried about the privacy implications of this, but I simply don't want to be forced into using my real name for features that have no technical need of my real name. Everything that RealID does in game right now could have been done with nothing more than a character name and a realm. Agree to a RealID friend request and now they can see all your characters. No need for email address, no need for real names.

Do the same on the forum. That level 1 troll now has to accept that you can see all their characters. How does knowing their real name help? If they want to troll, they will get a new account with a fake name and only one character. Nothing changes. Why should I have to share my real name to post on a forum about a fantasy world that is supposed to be separate from the real one? Hell, it's even in the TOS that doing something in the real world can not impact the game world; buying gold is the simplest of examples, but mowing someones yard for in game compensation is just as much a violation.

There is no added benefit to the end users with using their real names. Their is added benefit and revenue to both Activision-Blizzard and Facebook. You have always had the option of telling people your real name. Why would you want or need Blizzard to do that for you on a global scale?

TL;DR: I just don't want to use my real name, that should be enough.

- Souca -

[kate]

The problem with RealID is that it winds up creating an entirely asymmetrical situation between someone who posts and someone who victimizes the poster.

If someone chooses to harass me for some reason, I have absolutely no way of knowing who they are, so there are no checks at all on people going to real-life harassment without fear of being caught.

In no way, shape, or form is releasing people's real names a good idea. There are no possible ways that they can make it so that it can't be abused easily. And it *will* be abused because WoW is huge, and sites like 4chan and other such cesspools have sociopaths who thrive on being assholes simply for the hell of it, and they know they can't be caught.

I don't post on the WoW site because, in general, the level of discussion there is nothing more than a mix of angry children and semi-retarded adults, with a few people trying to occasionally be reasonable. I have no doubt that this step would make the discussion boards relatively troll-free, but I think the cost of doing this will be absolutely ridiculously high for anyone who posts.

It won't affect me - I haven't signed up for RealID, and never, ever would have even before this idiocy - but it's just a dumb move all around and I honestly can't imagine what the benefit is that Blizzard believes they'll get from it.

[Svpernova09]

I'm just waiting on them to announce a $9.99 / month "opt out of real ID" offer.


The whole thing is getting pretty silly.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I'm just waiting on them to announce a $9.99 / month "opt out of real ID" offer.


The whole thing is getting pretty silly.

I'm just waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. I predict when people find out what Blizzard/Activision are really doing with all this, it will actually be worse than it is now.

[Hivetyrant]

I'm just waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. I predict when people find out what Blizzard/Activision are really doing with all this, it will actually be worse than it is now.

Agreed, just like in-game advertising, dlc (the bad kind), etc, once one company does it, the rest will eventually follow.

[OzPhoenix]

The worst thing about this is the lack of control.

What if one of my accounts gets hacked and the hackers post with it?

The only way I can see myself being ok with this is:

1. I never post on the WoW Forums ever again.

2. Blizzard enables some feature that permanently and irreversably disables posting from any of my accounts.

3. Blizzard provides a system for obtaining technical support that works better than reply-bot email service, or an international phone call.

[Zub]

Thinking on it, my real name is already on many of the forums, via links to my wow-ratings website or other sig tools..
It's probably too late but i'll be removing all of them shortly.

If this REALID forum stuff does come live, i know i won't be posting on the wow forums at all.
Having a relatively unique name is a biatch.

[Slats]

This is all because of the Activision-Blizzard Facebook deal.

I do not want my non-gamer friends seeing. SLATTERS HAS GAINED A NEW LEVEL in WORLD OF WARCARFT. 40000 people like this!

Fuck that.


Like seriously.

[alcattle]

Who said this only happens to people who sign in to RealID ? Like the past change, that you must have a Battle.net account or you can't play Bullshit. It was fine before that even though I like the way the login/authenicator works now. I will never use RealID, and if they want it to be that way, I will only use pre-paid game cards. The damage might be done but I will not take any more chances. No one has the right to enable my credit card to be seen on the internet in any manner. I know the CC bureaus are too risky now but they can't be controlled as they "do a service"

[daviddoran]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l1_8wefR7c

this is whats gonna happen. Srsly.

[OzPhoenix]

Who said this only happens to people who sign in to RealID ? Like the past change, that you must have a Battle.net account or you can't play Bullshit. It was fine before that even though I like the way the login/authenicator works now. I will never use RealID, and if they want it to be that way, I will only use pre-paid game cards. The damage might be done but I will not take any more chances. No one has the right to enable my credit card to be seen on the internet in any manner. I know the CC bureaus are too risky now but they can't be controlled as they "do a service"

The problem is none of what you're suggesting will help you. Even if you now switch to game cards, if ever any of your accounts get hacked and the hacker then posts on the forums (once this system goes live) there goes your real name out onto the Web - even without you ever once having used RealID.

I, like most others here, use authenticators on my accounts, but even those aren't 100% fool-proof, besdies which, last time I logged into the forums I wasn't even asked for an authenicator code.

[alcattle]

The problem is none of what you're suggesting will help you. Even if you now switch to game cards, if ever any of your accounts get hacked and the hacker then posts on the forums (once this system goes live) there goes your real name out onto the Web - even without you ever once having used RealID.

I, like most others here, use authenticators on my accounts, but even those aren't 100% fool-proof, besdies which, last time I logged into the forums I wasn't even asked for an authenicator code.
If it goes that far, I will still be gone. If I start again, I will never use my real data, and Blizztard can suckz my Epeen. They will not 1984 me for a game!

[OzPhoenix]

If it goes that far, I will still be gone. If I start again, I will never use my real data, and Blizztard can suckz my Epeen. They will not 1984 me for a game!

What I am hoping is that they'll make an option to permanently and irreversably disable forum posting. If they do that, I could live with it probably.

[MiRai]

Interesting...

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zeroday/2010/07/07/is-korean-law-driving-policy-at-blizzard/

[Khatovar]

I doubt they'd want to alienate everyone else in the world for South Korean rules. That would be better solved with instituting such rules on a S. Korean only official forum.

[Svpernova09]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Blizzard-Ready-to-Hear-Feedback-on-Real-ID-System-146720.shtml


Blizzard has recently announced that it is making use of real world names and other data mandatory on the official forums for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, the long awaited strategy game sequel set to arrive on July 27, and for the World of Warcraft MMO, which should get the Cataclysm expansion. After a rather hostile reaction from the community of players, the studio revealed that it would be continuing to talk to players about the system but that it would nonetheless go ahead with its implementation.

A representative from Blizzard talked to Gamasutra about the Real ID concept and about how it would be implementing, saying that his company “will be carefully monitoring how people are using the service. Real ID is a new and different concept for Blizzard gamers - and for us as well - and our goal is to create a social gaming service that players want to use.”

He added, “It's important to note that both enabling Real ID in game and posting on the official Blizzard forums are completely optional. Players can continue to read the forums anonymously regardless of whether they choose to post in them, and their gameplay experiences will not change if they choose not to use the Real ID communication features in game.”

It seems the company is comfortable with the fact that a lot of players might migrate from the official forums, asking questions and participating in other Internet-based communities. It might have some problems as bug reports from the player base are crucial to the ongoing task of World of Warcraft, the best MMO.

Blizzard is also assuring gamers that the moderating team will be more vigilant than ever when Real ID is being implemented, trying to limit all the incidents that can arise from the use of real world names on a gaming forum with a player base as big as that of World of Warcraft. Still, the potential for abuse is high and the official forums might feel much more empty in a short while.

[Souca]

Blizzard is also assuring gamers that the moderating team will be more vigilant than ever when Real ID is being implemented, trying to limit all the incidents that can arise from the use of real world names on a gaming forum with a player base as big as that of World of Warcraft. Still, the potential for abuse is high and the official forums might feel much more empty in a short while.

Wait, didn't every green poster say they hated this idea and wouldn't be posting anymore? Sure, the paid blues will still be around, or fired, but when the volunteer CMs leave, you know you've pissed off some people.

Either way, I'm glad to see Blizzard taking in feedback from it's customer base and responding to peoples' concerns.

- Souca -

[OzPhoenix]

The more I think this over, the more insulted by it I am.

To be forced into total non-participation on the forums, technical support, feedback, class, realm etc, by a company determined to flog off my real name to Facebook is just simply disgusting.

I've finally found a server where I can multibox, with other multiboxers, even now stepping into raids I would not previously have had an opportunity to see, and this happens. I would say now my chances of continuing with WoW are less than 50/50, and my chances of picking up Diablo III, as a long-time Diablo2 player are now virtually nil.

Absolutely. Disgusted.

[Daeri]

Wait, didn't every green poster say they hated this idea and wouldn't be posting anymore? Sure, the paid blues will still be around, or fired, but when the volunteer CMs leave, you know you've pissed off some people.

Either way, I'm glad to see Blizzard taking in feedback from it's customer base and responding to peoples' concerns.

- Souca -
I don't know for the Americans forums, but in our French forums, the community representatives has already said they're going to choose new green posters when the new forum go live. They didn't even try to talk to the present green posters and imo that's a very mean thing to do.

Also today a fansite published opinion of a former French community representative who had ironically been fired two years ago because he had given his real name to a few players (most probably during a meeting). This former blue says Blizzard isn't trying to act evil or do bad stuff behind our back : people are staying more and more connected all the time via all these social sites and this is the future of all online games. But he agrees Blizzard should not have brought the new system this way.

[alcattle]

This former blue says Blizzard isn't trying to act evil or do bad stuff behind our back : people are staying more and more connected all the time via all these social sites and this is the future of all online games. But he agrees Blizzard should not have brought the new system this way.

Yes BlizzTard did it wrong, and I am not on facebook and I want nothing to do with social networking other than being pleasent to others in a game. I love talking to guildies, but I tend not to talk that much. I am the same way IRL. I don't talk to people unless I know them and like them, no talking to open my mouth kind of thing.
If it was truly "opt-in" fine, but as shown it is broken, and is not worth playing in that case.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Check this out. For the stat-curious among us...

http://static.bwerp.net/~adam/2010/07/08/

Monitors stats on the RealID thread in the general official forums.

As of a few minutes ago:

Posts in Thread

* Highest post number scanned: 40,179
* Total posts: 37,173
* Deleted posts: 3,006 (7.48%)*†

* The script is currently rescanning old pages for newly-deleted posts: 1710 pages remaining. True value is >10%.
† Includes moderated posts (trolling, CAPSLOCK, spam, etc.) and self-deleted posts.
Characters in Thread

* Unique characters: 12,073
* Mean posts/character: 3.08
* Median posts/character: 3
* Top 5 characters:
1. Merisioux of Kirin Tor (251 posts)
2. Tumbles of Wyrmrest Accord (246 posts)
3. Adnan of Garona (167 posts)
4. Dalri of Cenarion Circle (101 posts)
5. Soulez of Area 52 (97 posts)

[Siaea]

Well, the outcry is up to 2019 pages, and by my count moving up at about 5 pages a minute, and I've been watching it at work for 3 days now. Not a single Blue post since about post 600. People are pissed about it, and I can't say I like it either. It's that Kotex asshole from Craptivision that's messing up WoW with his money grabbing schemes.

Edit: it went up 2 pages in the time it took me to write those 3 sentences and hit "post".

[Tonuss]

TL;DR: I just don't want to use my real name, that should be enough.

- Souca -
Yeah, to me this is the main point. A lot of people will not want to use their real names for forum access, and the concern is understandable in a day and age where identity theft and misuse of personal information is rampant.

I would love to have seen that 2000+ page thread full of people saying "I won't use the forums, I value my privacy too much." Instead it's filled with silly arguments (both for and against) by clueless people who are just trying to stir things up. I think the irony is that it probably confirms to Blizzard that if this leads to a mass forum exodus, all the better.

[Velassra]

http://www.cad-comic.com/comics/c0a129271278475206.jpg


I found this the funniest fucking thing I've seen in a long time.

As I work to get my posting privalages permanently stripped from my WoW accounts...to prevent their futere use and spread of my info.....I'll post this w/ some hardcore porn from some of my favorites sites.

[Svpernova09]

Penny-Arcade has a much bettter take on it than CAD.


Blizzard's RealID thing didn't make any sense to me, but that's because I was relying on the official message (http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041) to get a sense of it's purpose. It's a much more straightforward when you read the article at USAToday's Game Hunters (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/) entitled "Blizzard and Facebook's friendly social networking deal launches with 'StarCraft II' (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2010/05/blizzard-and-facebooks-friendly-social-networking-deal-launches-with-starcraft-ii-/1)."
If I thought I could top this comment (http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-my-name-really-is-Deathblood-Blackaxe#3171416) over at MetaFilter, I would do so. I can't. The RealID thing is a bad idea that won't work. If it were merely a bad idea, or merely wouldn't work, maybe there'd be something in it. Accountability is crucial - you might recall our theory on the subject (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/) - and a fixed persona makes the laws of a microculture enforceable. But the idea that this persona must bear your actual name to lend it value (for you, or for others) is ludicrous.
The worst part about the official messaging is how it conflates expanded Battle.Net functionality with RealID, so that it seems as though these things are inseparable, as though your mystically-infused "truename" is a bundle of syllables congealed with a cosmic power. They chose to commingle these things in order to realize Battle.Net as a Social Network, and to develop true cultural currency (also: regular currency) thereby.


http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/928101530_dfXDB-L.jpg

[Toned]

My response to REALID



http://worldofwarcraft.mmocluster.com/img_achievements/1200311_d7ce5330b9824cf3c54a96b600b35851.jpg (http://worldofwarcraft.mmocluster.com/index.php?mod=wowachievement)

[Bigfish]

Oh God, my eyes. Buckley still can't draw.

[genocyde]

Press: Blizz dev team, do you think World of Warcraft 2 will be able to succeed so soon after World of Warcrafts reign was cut down by its own RealID feature?

Blizz Rep: RealID was merely a setback....

[Khatovar]

Apparently someone else put out the "Find me" dare.

http://seewhatyoudidthere.com/2010/07/07/realid-changes-the-very-real-ease-of-stalking-in-the-internet-age/

[MiRai]

Apparently someone else put out the "Find me" dare.

http://seewhatyoudidthere.com/2010/07/07/realid-changes-the-very-real-ease-of-stalking-in-the-internet-age/
Nice read. :)

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Press: Blizz dev team, do you think World of Warcraft 2 will be able to succeed so soon after World of Warcrafts reign was cut down by its own RealID feature?

Blizz Rep: RealID was merely a setback....

NOTE: /run for i=1,100 do if CharacterIsSelf(i)then ApplyTinFoilHat(i);break end end

Kotick: Well, we've learned from the mistakes from RealID 1.0 and we're just about ready to roll out RealID 2.0, with improved user security for everyone involved.

Press: So, what does 2.0 do for you?

Kotick: It lets you chat with friends across the game but it doesn't show you any real names or tie into facebook or anything like that.

Press: So you mean it's more or less like the game was before RealID?

Kotick: Yeah pretty much. But it provides a whole layer of security and added value that is transparent to the user.

Press: What, you're collecting demographics and selling them at auction?

Kotick: No, we're monetizing the leveraged synergy between online habits and WoW/SC2 players. It's a completely different concept.

Press: You mean you're using people as a marketing experiment.

Kotick: No no, we're not sending them any ads or media directly at all. Activision doesn't participate in schemes of that nature.

Press: So, what about the companies you're selling the demographic data to? Will they be contacting players?

Kotick: I'm not at liberty to discuss specifics of business partners' contractual obligations. That would violate their confidentiality and privacy agreements.

Press: ....

[Tehmuffinman]

They are repealing the real names part of RealID

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25968837164&sid=3000

Hello everyone,

I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.

I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you'll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.

In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, ( http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/mission.html ) and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning.

Mike Morhaime
CEO & Cofounder
Blizzard Entertainment

[Khatovar]

*cheer* Was just coming to post.

[OzPhoenix]

Church bells is ringin' - Blizzard has seen the light. ;-)

'bout bloody time too.

[Velassra]

I had just cancelled all 5 of my accounts last night. I think Blizzard made the right decision, but my trust in them is shaken.
I'll always be worried if they're going to whore me out for a dollar. I'll have to give it some thought whether to resubscribe or not.

Anyway, wonder what it was that got them to change their intent.....bad media coverage, esrb complaintsm 45,000+ complaint posts or a significant amount of cancelled accounts. I know they'll never tell but I can't help but wonder.

[Maxion]

They said it was the feedback, so at least it was most likely not affected by any cancelled accounts.

[Velassra]

They said it was the feedback, so at least it was most likely not affected by any cancelled accounts.


500,000 cancelled accounts would be quite some feedback;)

idk, just idle curiosity really. Could really be the 45k of posts too.