RealID to come to the Official Blizzard Forums

[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]

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 to get a sense of it's purpose. It's a much more straightforward when you read the article at USAToday's Game Hunters entitled "Blizzard and Facebook's friendly social networking deal launches with 'StarCraft II'."
If I thought I could top this comment 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 - 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.

[Toned]

My response to REALID

[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/2010/0...-internet-age/

[MiRai]

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

http://seewhatyoudidthere.com/2010/0...-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...37164&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