RealID to come to the Official Blizzard Forums

[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.

[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 -