Slashdot Mirror
Blizzard To Require Real First and Last Names For Official Forums
An anonymous reader writes "Recently, Blizzard Entertainment implemented a Real ID feature for some of its current games and all of its future Battle.net-based games. Today, Blizzard announced that it intends to require usage of the real names of Battle.net posters for its StarCraft II forums before release, and for its World of Warcraft forums shortly before the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. From the announcement: '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.'"
Trying to imagine how kdawson would put a negative, sensationalist spin on this
moox. for a new generation.
I'm assuming it's under the parents name for the account which should be a pleasant conversation at work when your boss asks you why you are trolling the warlock forum?
open source sub sim. I might start coding again for this. http://dangerdeep.sourceforge.net/contribute/
Real first and last name? Full, no initial? Not sure what I think about that one, Blizzard...
Living With a Nerd
Wonder how long it'll be until someone finally tracks down a troll (in real life) and loots their corpse
Images of the ending of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back come to mind ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjWFZPJZTxU ).
:)
And those images are happy, indeed.
Yeah, I can't imagine how forcing minors to put their real first and last names on the internet could POSSIBLY backfire... Brilliant idea.
... with more and more people being forced to use their real names on the Internet, you'll see a lot less flaming, trolling, and defacing. People I believe will be less quick to turn a discussion into an argument and more interested in understanding one another.
However, I do not personally like the idea of my first and last name being made public everywhere, which is why I have generally shunned Facebook and would not use this feature even if I wanted to.
Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
What the consumer actually wanted - the ability to be The Real Them on Failbook, and Someone Completely Different while gaming - doesn't enter into it. *sigh*
My answer to this is the same as my answer to Failbook: a strange game, and the only way to win is not to play.
This is a nice move(( for Blizzard- not for their customers): 1. Require everyone to use their Real ID 2. Fewer people use forums or post anything they strictly dont need to. 3. Lesser costs on maintenance and infrastructure 4. Profit.
The official thread that started this is averaging at least 2 pages a minute of negative comments since I learned of it 20 or so minutes ago. 168 pages and counting. And apparently, they're stock is dropping, but I don't know if this has anything to do with it.'
some can't-stand-loosing person tracks his opponents with this information and starts to harras, or worse : physically attack them ?
Yes, demanding that everyone is known by his true name to everybody else can only be a good thing ...
Fortunately, my real name actually is KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR, so I won't be needing to change my battlenet ID.
If you've ever seen a Blizzard forum, they're some of the worst trolled forums I've ever seen. Blizzard needs to do something. Blizzard looks to be grasping at straws though. What Blizzard really needs is a moderation system like Slashdot.
God spoke to me.
I know i'm not going to use that forum if they make this mandatory.
I must ask this to anyone who really knows what is going on with Real ID and the Battle.net system (in addition to Blizzard politics). How much influence does Activision truly have over Blizzard's day-to-day operations and strategic initiatives? Is the eerily 1984-esque move to Real ID and the Battle.net system in more and more areas a product of the fated acquisition or is it something that Blizzard has implemented after getting more out of touch with reality? At first I didn't mind Battle.net or even the Real ID system as using your account name was optional, but now they are expanding it (presumably to combat trolls or dissenters and to better foster "camaraderie") to their forums. How long until they start implementing it in their game world? This is like the Facebook debacle all over again, only without many options. I am hopeful Blizzard will reevaluate this policy as it is not popular and definitively not a good idea from a privacy standpoint. The more coverage it gets, the more of a chance there is to see it scrapped. Especially now that there are other forums where WoW-related stuff can be discussed. Mass exodus from Blizzard forums ahead? Either way, I still wonder if this whole Battle.net and Real ID system is Activision's fault.
In the old EQ days (I know it's still around but who cares these days), all the forums for the game were run by the fans because there were no official ones. I have a feeling this change will cause similar forums to rise in popularity and Blizzard will accomplish little other than losing control of the conversation and pissing off their users.
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
"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."
I just want all the QQ to stop already.
Now they can ferret out all those prank phone call names like:
Coholic, first name Al
Hyuginkiss, first name Amanda
Butts, first name Seymour
or
I'm a stupid moron with an ugly face and a big butt and my butt smells and I like to kiss my own butt
Azouipe the 3rd, at your service
While a lot of people have gone on and on about how using real names will promote more civility and better discourse, something I seriously doubt is necessarily true, that is no where near the real reason Blizzard is forcing RealID.
It's a means to open up their TOS to allow dataminers access to a vast swath of information. Cha ching! Add to that anyone in game using RealID that then links up friends list? Cha ching! Even more information to datamine. And of course anyone who has played WoW knows that they log damn near everything. You can bet that gchat, party chat, officer chat, raid chat, general chat, trade chat, and every other channel that you type a letter in will be up for datamining. Cha ching!
It's all about the money people. Cloaked in a flag of good intentions.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
1) Did Blizzard ever stop to think that many (most?) people play their games as an ESCAPE from real life?
2) Anything on Blizzard forums goes on Google, and comes up in search results. That means anybody who uses their forums is going to be labeling themselves, forever after, as a nerdy computer game player to future employers, dates, etc...which is not something that is looked upon positively by many people. I would certainly discriminate against potential employees if I saw that they were a WoW geek.
3) People sometimes have bad days, say things they regret later...on a forum this is all saved forever. Luckily only the people who know their forum name can find it. So you protect your hidden identities more securely than you protect your email passwords. Blizzard aims to make all those mistakes unforgivable.
There is nothing that is possibly worth saying on the Blizzard forums that is worth sacrificing one's anonymity for.
eternity PUNITIVE half remembrance licence disturb proffer praiseth again believing displeaseth WARRANTY price begun dispersion breathed lovingly pitiable incorrect writings whispers heated sweat fitting motive architects planets forsakest mad stomachs brighter fever beseech An land groaned spirit humane protracted full KIND scanning surface Seeing steal marketplace harmonising discomfort temperament completed notorious care green supposed he read known adapt frailness reasons Already plunging bear humanity fornication possesseth variable excuse products arts uproar observing Greeks Vindicianus expenses acquire vail created acquiesce directly knows uncleanness seemed corresponding unstayed hunting house equivalent wishing importunity patience exhort Suppose last acute Victim Noah consent payest somewhere steps murmur sour therewith ventures unwholesome commendable detriment dollars dwelleth Didst
When God goes to war, He drops big bangs.
The company may lose business from celebrities wishing to remain anonymous online. Dave Chapelle anyone?
Several posts on the WoW general forums and MMO-Champion's article on the subject raise a valid and somewhat chilling point: while forum trolls are likely to be driven away, removing some of the noise from actual discussions, actual contributing posters are going to be shying away from the new forum system as well. People who would otherwise be helpful, share knowledge about class and game mechanics or even info about interface-modding are going to disappear entirely from the forums because they do not want to be compelled to show their real name to all.
I'm not sure if the loss of signal will be worth the loss of noise here.
.. as if millions of trolls suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
I mean I completely agree, that if you remove the anonymity you'll remove a lot of the asshole factor online. People are much bigger pricks when they don't think it can come back to bite them. So it would remove a lot of that.
However it would also discourage people form sharing thoughts as freely. If I had to use my real name on Slashdot, I wouldn't post nearly as much. I'd make sure to restrict it only to things I was comfortable with all current and future employers seeing. I wouldn't want to screw myself out of a job because I posted something that someone disagreed with.
As it stands though, a pseudonym allows me to do that. It isn't true anonymity, with a bit of sniffing around you could easily come up with who I really am. However it means that a simple search for my real name will not come up with any of this. That is enough to keep it form being a problem. Just removing the direct connection is all I need.
Over all, I think it is good to have things that way. I like to be able to freely share my thoughts online, and I'd like to think some people find it valuable (on Slashdot people seem to at least sometimes as I do get modded up). I wouldn't want to have to restrict some of those because of the worry of retribution. I can only do that so long as I can have a small barrier between my real and online identity.
This is a non-issue. Blizzard isn't forcing you to use your real First Last name, it's just forcing you to provide *a* first/last name. Put another way, with time codes it's impossible to prove your identity to blizzard, so you can pretend to be anyone you want with little chance they can enforce ULA or other contractual obligations.
Seems to me the more restrictions and qualifications for play and participation are imposed, the more likely people will stop playing and participating. After all, it wasn't that long ago that a game company's employee misused his access to do various nasty things... something to do with virtual currency and plans for ships or some such. All of this begs the question of what company employees might do to the customers under certain circumstances were real names and other specific identifiers made available to them. (And I am pretty sure that billing and payments departments have certain rules and requirements placed on them that other company operators do not... its these other operators I am more concerned with... but yes, I know the company "already has this information" in many cases.)
I've posted this else where today, might as well post it here. People are up in arms over this one, most people seem to think that they are safe and/or anonymous behind their chosen internet handle. However this is not the case. As a TF2 server Admin I have seen many trolls get blown away when their personal info is posted in response to their trolling posts. Just by Googling the Handle some people use, you can start to gather pieces of personal information, email, phone numbers, real names, places, jobs, etc can be found in a matter of minutes, one piece of information leading to another, which leads to another, and so on until you have a complete picture of someone. You are not now nor have you ever been anonymous on the internet. With this change, adults will be expected to act as adults. If you don’t want the public to know what you are up to, don’t post it on the public internet, it seems rather simple to me.
Is this going to tag a character on WoW Armory with the Real ID user name of the account holder?
It'd be awesome to find the names of an entire guild.
Worst damned idea ever Blizzard.
I don't understand, how are they going to enforce the whole 'user must use real name'-policy? Are they going to be requiring users to send in copies of their passport/birth certificate/whatever before they'll allow them to create an account?
The whole thing seems to be on a purely honor system, sure the moderators there might be able to prune out all the 'Penis McBoobsfaces' that are going to be showing up over time. But there is no way to actually verify that all the John Smiths on there are actually called John Smith, short of them requiring users to send in proof of identity; I can't possibly imagine that asking users to jump through hoops to verify their identities would classify as a 'sensible business decision'.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
If you've ever been to the Blizzard forums then you'd know nothing of value was lost.
You insensitive clod! My name really is Leroy Jenkins
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
Imagine for a second a 42 year old lonely man (with very little social skills) playing World of Warcraft and he learns that Night Elf Rogue is actually a girl. They chat for a while and become friendly online. He starts to fixate and fantasize that those trips helping her level her alt are "dates" and eventually he falls in love with her. Or at least her character and voice.
Fixation turns into obsession and after a couple failed attempts to woo her into a real life relationship, she turns him down (hell, he's a creeper).
He gets upset and from the personal information he has gathered over their time "together" he is able to locate her using her _real_ name that Blizzard forces you to use (not a fictional "eName" you make up to give out on the intertubes to remain anonymous). Fill in the rest with your imagination.
Or, someone harasses you in game and you look to take revenge. Ninja looters, stealing quest mobs/items, kicking you from group/raid, etc. Maybe they simply want to threaten you (which already happens [NSFW] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUOI7BTmmk0 [NSFW]).
Of course, this can happen anywhere with any site that shows real names (facebook, etc). But forcing people to drop their anonymity is a bad thing overall. How many children play Blizzard's _games_ of which are going to be forced to link their, or more likely, their parents names to their account and be seen? It's not that hard to track someone down when you know their approximate location and their last name.
I guess the short is, anonymity can be bad. People act like punks and you have to put up with it from time to time, I know, it sucks. But the good part is, little Johnny potty mouth won't have to potentially pay with his life. Hopefully he learns to grow up on his own without someone like the chick from the link I posted above hunting him down.
Do I need to do that to play the game?
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Why are there so many John Doe's on this forum? Most have been a very popular name.
What are the chances there will be more than one John Smith on the forum?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
How can Blizzard force you to provide your real first and last name? I mean, I could use any name other than my own so long as it appears to be a legitimate name and not some moniker or nickname.
I just want all the QQ to stop already.
You're going to have to talk to Tencent about that.
I like how slashdot commenters love to use "won't somebody think of the children?!" as a device for sarcastic mockery of various Internet policies. Then this happens, and we get a thread full of ...
"But ... won't somebody think of the children?!"
to:
First: Dick
Last: McPlenty
L'esperienza de questa dolce vita (The experience of this sweet life) - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
No. Sorry. Not going to happen even if it means I never play another Blizzard game again.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
This idea is already a few weeks old
http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=378
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
So when they implement his, why not just use the Blizz forums for tech support? Leave out your character/toon ID and use another forum for your friendly, and not-so-friendly, discussions? What's so special about the Blizzard forums that you must post everything related to the game there?
Anonymous Cowards are at -6...
If there are no girls on the internet now, there won't be any ever once this goes into effect.
There's no quicker way to be harassed, stalked, and otherwise massively annoyed by EVERYONE than to reveal that you are in possession of TWO X chromosomes, instead of the internet norm XY configuration.
And the absolute last thing I want is random assholes that I've pissed off on my server to Google my name, of which the first result is the staff listing on my current employer's website, and then start sending nasty emails to my boss.
creating accounts on these blizzard forums.
While I think that overall this is a good thing for the Blizzard forums (as well as other changes they are making according to TFA, including rating up and down on posts), it completely removes my desire to post on their forums. I don't troll as a rule (but I can't say it’s never happened), but my last name is so unique that finding me on the Google is already ridiculously easy (my first and last name - all of the first page is me). I don't need prospective employers knowing about my gaming habits, and even less so prospective dates. Not that I go out of my way to hide these things from people, but I don't want it popping up as a matter of course just because someone googles my last name.
I come from Wisconsin.
I work in a lumber yard there...
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I quietly await news of the first murder related to "Forum Rage"
I know how it will work for me a 32 year old man who has never used his real name, even on his Facebook profile. I'm not going to keep playing WOW on the weekends to keep in contact with old friends. We have moved on mostly to Star Trek Online, it does not have the massive part down quite yet as the die hards can blow through the game in a few weeks but for anyone with a job it has the community, maturity and game play that makes it a highly enjoyable experience for my long term gaming group of 6 people. We all bought lifetime subs when it came out and we will be there when the last whir of the server fans die in the datacenter.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
I'm wondering how - exactly - Blizzard intends to verify 'real' names. I'm also wondering how they intend to survive the legal ramifications of publishing the PII of minors on the internet.
What is the deal with pouring resources into developing the social networking aspects of an MMORPG? Maybe I'm the only one who plays just because it's an awsomely addictive game, while everyone else is there to make new friends and socialize?? RealID would have been way at the bottom of my list of things to improve in WOW... How about taking care of the vulgar character names or the gold sellers ability to generate characters with garbage names for the sake of flooding chat with SPAM?? Blizzard need to collect themselves and get back to basics with WOW, improve and expand the content, period. Otherwise, I feel the game may have peaked and they're just going to milk it for every drop before it fizzles into oblivion.
Simply put, this is Blizzard's dumbest decision ever. Real ID will be used not only for the forums, but for the upcoming cross-faction / cross-server / cross-game chat system. As I understand it, this system will reveal your real name AND the email address tied to your Battle.net account along with it.
Concerns about minors aside, this is an awful decision for the following reasons:
1. The vast majority of guild leaders I met during my time in WoW were control freaks who try to make up for their RL shortcomings by lording over their guilds as much as they can get away with. Not the type of person that I'd ever reveal my real name to. One time I quit a guild because I got tired of the leader's d-baggery, and he harassed me and made threats for weeks until the GMs actually had to step in and warn him to stop. Not the type of guy I'd want to have my real identity revealed to.
Not to mention the millions of other random dbags in WoW and Battle.net that I'd never want to reveal my real identity to. I actually was threatened by one of my opponents during the SC2 beta when I rushed his base.
Yes, 99.99% of the time these threats are empty even if they got your real information. However, you never know when you're dealing with someone who is completely off the rocker. If seen my fair share of WoW players go off the handle because they lost a roll on loot.
2. Revealing the email address associated with your Battle.net account will, at the very least be:
- Giving your login name to attackers, half of what they need to brute force your password if you don't use an authenticator.
- Giving them your email address so that they can spam you with attempts to phish your password from you.
I utilize a unique email address for my Battle.net account which is used for NO OTHER PURPOSE. So if I get an email saying it is from Blizzard, I can tell it is a scam if it is not addressed to this account.
In addition, giving out real names could create greater social engineering opportunities for those that steal accounts. Since I've never needed to call Blizzard tech support / customer service, I'm not sure how diligent they really are when someone calls up to have their WoW password reset.
I have fortunately stopped playing World of Warcraft, and will likely not play again because I don't like the direction the game has been going for a while. However, I was hoping to play SC2 and D3. From what I can see from the SC2 Beta, Real ID was not going to be required to play, just for cross-game chat. However, if it ever becomes a requirement to play (which I feel it eventually might be), there is no way I would continue playing Blizzard's titles.
I don't want anything to do with you now, because you're willing to share my personal information.
But wait, my personal information is useful to me to secure my account. Why? Because you use it.
Seriously, I'm dropping out and going to somebody else.
This will not do anything ot stop trolling or any other sort of abuse. People that do so are adept at creating bogus IDS with which to have their fun. In fact, having real names publically available, you will certainly see cases of trolls chasing real people through the game servers harassing them wherever they play. Character stats are already publically available via their Armoury portal. I'm sure the biggest benenfit to doing this has nothing to do with protecting people from flame baiting
--My signature is six words long.--
My name on my passport, my name on my birth certificate, and my name on my drivers license are all different.
That said, this won't stop gold farming or account hacking - that's just going to keep sucking up clueless noobz who think my female characters are female.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
While I'm not buying in to the paranoid fantasy of the GP at all (seriously too many Slashdot types are also AFDB types) don't think they couldn't mine the data. While maybe they can't with their current systems, it can be done. Google could do it, they are that good at dealing with that much data. Blizzard could contact them and have a system built for them (or just run something jointly) that would handle mining through the mass amounts of data they generate.
The only thing Blizzard is really able to "require" is that the names in the First Name and Last Name boxes on the site. That does not necessarily have any relationship to "real" first or last names. Even paying for the service can be done with someone else's credit card. So... Good Luck With That. Some will comply. Others will not.
Mr. T? I mean, now we'll really be able to tell if he is a Night Elf Mohawk or not!
"No one will really be free until nerd persecution ends."
Anyone remember a hundred years ago when there was a very real problem with stalkers looking for girl's names in phone books and then stalking them and/or killing them? Phone companies now seem obligated, or at least cooperative, about letting you put whatever the hell you want in phone books. I used to make up the silliest fake names.
Anyway. I'm excited to see what the damages are like when some girls get murdered and raped over their wow forum posts.
Imagine if you weren't allowed to use roads because a bus company complained about your driving 3 times. --skunkpussy
There are some people who do not like using their legal first names in real life, even in formal situations. (For example, a transitioning transsexual who has not yet changed his/her legal name.) Depending on how this Real ID is enforced, one can end up in the unpleasant situation of being referred to by a name that he/she hates. Such people are very likely to leave the forums, and may even end their subscriptions.
In short, this is being done by a ton of really bad people on the forums. This cannot be being proposed by the upper leadership as this has all sorts of legal implications.
If you have a problem with your forums, on such a large scale... it's EASY to fix.
Step 1:
Implement a ranking system. People can give you positive or negative bumps to your posts (think karma here). The longer someone holds an active rank the more "bump" they give to people. You have to be a member of the forum for at least 1 month before you can bump at all, and then give it a progressive growth scale of the strength of their "bump". (1-6 months: 1pt, 7months to 2 years: 5pt, 2+ 10pt).
Additionally, provide some incentive for activity on the forums by offering discounts of productions/services by maintaining a high activity and in good standing at certain intervals. For example "You've been active on our forums for over 6 months with a great rank! We want to thank you for contributing to our community by offering you 25% off any of our old games... or a $5 credit on your next bill!". The overall cost to blizzard is dirt cheap.
Step 2:
Ensure that someone has to been active (logging in) to keep their rank or they start over. You can figure out that time table
Step 3:
If a user gets below a certain rank they are auto silenced. They cannot post anymore but can submit for a review of their "silencing" in case of some exploitation. This is highly unlikely since to even bump you have to be a member for quite some time.
BENEFITS
- Trolls get silenced pretty damn quick
- The community monitors itself with minimal administrative intervention
- You get certain individuals who become leaders in the community from their rank
- People feel rewarded for contributing
I was going to start calling myself Biteme Blizz.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
In a case like that, sure. Though actually in a case like that I'd make sure to get myself fired over a voting issue and then sue the fuck out of them. The voting booth is a pretty sacred right in the US and termination over it would be bad cause in every jurisdiction I'm aware of.
However what I'm worried about is a case of people who generally aren't like that, they aren't the "Everyone must agree with us in every way," sort, but that they happen to see something that they decide makes them say no.
You hear about this all the time, people post Facebook pictures of themselves at a wild party in university and find it hurts jobs later. It usually isn't that the folks doing the hiring are Puritans or anything, they are just dumbasses. They did the same kind of shit themselves when they were young but have conveniently forgotten about it. They think "Well this sort of thing doesn't reflect well for our company," and give the person a miss.
In my case, what I might be worried about is that I've posted stories about my work environment. Now I've never named my employer, mostly because that comes too close to making it too easy to identify me, but still. I'm not worried now, I work for a public institution and thus I have a right to do it (HR specifically says so) as the tax payers have a right to know. But at some time in the future I go for another job and maybe that company thinks "Well we like the guy, but he talks about his employer online. We really don't want that, have to give him a miss."
I just find it better that there is a barrier between my real name and what I post online. Not a strong or impenetrable one, but one that if you Google my name, you do not get results of what I've said in forums.
I know someone who has no last name. Legally. When he encounters online forms that require it, he has traditionally entered his profession when it is inconsequential, although that's not his actual name.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
OK, then be sure to let us, the users know the REAL NAMES of the moderators, business managers, sales staff, marketing gurus of your business and I am sure that openness will be embraced by all!
I put a fake name on my account. Share away Blizz!
The good news for the more honest folk is that the response to this has been overwhelmingly negative. I'd be suprised if they go through with it.
I mean seriously, how do they *know* I'm not John Doe? The bank account info? Surely paypal would solve this, or if nothing else, buying gamecards from a store.. and if it were bank account info, if my granny bought me a month, would my name change to hers?
Either don't buy any more Blizzard products or don't post on the forums. I played WoW for a few years and can't remember anything of value coming off the public forums.
I wouldn't want my full name posted but I wouldn't mind if they put Bob S. there.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
People with very common names will not be impacted in the same way that people with less common names. Real names are non-unique. How does this help? cf. TSA "no-fly" list.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
There are a lot of replies about how you don't have to provide your "real" name. However, most people that already play have almost certainly used their real names to create their account(s). And once an account is created, the name on the account cannot be changed. Further, should your account ever be compromised, the only surefire way to recover it is to provide some identifying information, such as a driver's license or birth certificate. If you don't use your own name, you risk losing it to some scammer or javascript exploit, and no way to get it back because your name is not legally "I.P. Freely".
Nothing will promote civility and mature behaviour on a game forum. Many people are assholes, period. The vast majority of the rest of them are stupid beyond belief. The few who remain can be interesting to have a conversation with, but they are a tiny majority. In any game with PvP involved in it, the ratio of ignorant assholes to intelligent civil players goes through the roof. I have played and still play a lot of MMOs and the smaller the game, the better the level of civility, the bigger it gets, the more the ignorant asshats show up in numbers. What I want is not to see the real names of the other players, what do I care? I think of you as your character names anyways. No, what I want is a game where the minimum allowed subscriber age is about 30. That *might* have a chance of toning down the ignorance a bit, but not much.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
By allowing anonymous posting, Blizzard creates liability. When people post things that are illegal, Blizzard can be forced to either disclose the names, or accept liability for the posts themselves.
They don't want to do that.
So, by forcing everyone to post with their real names, Blizzard can step out of the legal issues created by damaging posts, and further encourage people to avoid posting legally-dangerous material.
I expect they think conversation on the forums will become a lot more civil because of this.
So it shifts the dangers of online communication away from blizzard and toward the users doing the communicating. It absolutely causes the problems the OP is suggesting, and that is exactly what Blizzard is counting on.
I think posting a person's real name is a great idea. I'd never get embarassed by having my real name associated with some lame username that I picked over 10 years ago.
Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)
I was once in a guild where the vent was so racist that new people would instantly quit it. I've seen this happen in just about every guild I've been in. The more hardcore the guild was the more racist the teenage->20something players were. There view towards women were not that great as well.
Now that people are forced to disclose their names, I'm pretty sure guilds would start openly discriminating people based on their race, religion and nationality just based on the names alone. In North America, if you have a "strange name", it's pretty easy to pinpoint exactly what you are IRL. This I think would be the basis for a new form of pretty disgusting discrimination among gamers.
No issues or problems that I have seen.
So let me get this straight.
1) Anonymity currently doesn't exist on the Internet.
2) Trolling is commonplace on the Internet.
3) Therefore, removing anonymity will stop trolling.
Um...
For expressing your opinion:
US SC2 Thread:
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041 (337 posts atm)
US Forums Thread:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1 (4517 posts atm)
EU Forums Thread:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=13816838128 (858 posts atm)
GPLv2: I want my rights, I want my phone call! DRM: What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
Unless you have gone to great lengths to conceal your online identity by never reusing the same pseudonyms, not posting your email, real name or number, etc. What can be found within a matter of minutes for some, might be impossible without ip address logs for others. Sure, you are only one compromised system away from having one psuedonym identified, but if you do a good job, you shouldn't be that affected. Of course a concerted effort involving law enforcement, subpoenas and ISP level logs will probbaly make short work of any anonymity, but these options are not available to most people looking to get even with someone on the internet (or whatever).
Saying that all privacy on the internet is pointless because some people cover their tracks badly is a pretty stupid argument to make. On the other hand, would i even bother posting this if it was tied to my real name? Im sure my employer wouldn't want me wasting company time making this comment, thats for sure. Some people like being anonymous, or at least pseudo anonymous on the internets.
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
Apparently enough people thought this was a bad idea that the thread in which this was announced has crashed the WoW fora. Bets on if it goes through anyway?
All glory to the hypnotoad!
"If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide!" Yes, that IS exactly what you're saying, and yes, saying it DOES make you an idiot.
But WORLD OF WARCRAFT?
A game that is entirely based on people pretending to be something they are NOT?
I could easily see this being done for Match.com, Linked In, or even Facebook. But WOW?????
How about someone get their head out of their rectum and tell us what makes their game so important that this is neccessary?
What, someone got upset about a little name calling?
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
This is hilariously old school. A lot of very common surnames have origins in occupations (SEE: Smith).
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
Lets just get a few things strait: The only reason an MMO has a forum for its own game is so they can control the speech of those in the forum. This is just a further attempt at stifling the speech of those in the forum. If the WOW players were smart they'd flock to some other non-blizzard controlled forum. But its just to easy to use the official forums, and that's why it works.
I have no problem with that.
Jim Raynor
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
With this change, adults will be expected to act as adults. If you don’t want the public to know what you are up to, don’t post it on the public internet, it seems rather simple to me.
And what if the userbase isn't made up of entirely adults? This is wow we are talking about. I bet their are millions of minors who play.
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
Oh well played Blizzard.
If you just turned off your forums because they're a drain on employee time that generates no income and at least as much bad will as good, then you'd cop bad press for the decision. But if you make it so everyone _voluntarily_ abandons the forums, well... thats just letting people do what they want, right?
...where I had previously posted many times with beta feedback.
Excuse me, since when did Mark Zuckerberg work at Blizzard?
I think this is interesting, perhaps a little far but interesting none the less.
It makes an possibly powerful move towards potentially controlling goldfarmers and other 'ToS forbidden actions'.
And for an anecdote:
I remember a couple years ago when I was at the end of my teenager years and I was starting an account, I had to provide my name and they refused to actually activate the account because my account name did not match that of the credit card name (my parents)... This however did not stop them from taking money from the card, just stopped them from giving me the service it was paying for.
-Vant
Prince can just WoW under either his birth name or a pseudonym. Besides, I doubt his Purpleness would want to divulge his real identity anyway.
that tries to make Mr. T give his real name!
... is a cost cutting measure. Very few people, in their right minds, would post on the forums when forced to reveal their real first and last names. As a result, less server overhead, maintenance, admin time, etc. As a result, this will make the forums more efficient and give moderators and admins more time to respond to their actively posting customers.... No, really.
When I ask if WoW will be the new Facebook, I don't mean in regards to meaningless drivel (they are both great at that already).
What I mean is will WoW forums become the new source for posts that provide embarrassment, cause divorces, give ammo to employers to fire someone (or deny employment), and other social and work related blunders?
Sure, this will be likely be effective in making the game forums less of a cesspool, but I personally wouldn't ever post to the wow forums if my real name was attached. I might if I were named John Smith, but there aren't that many people that share my name. I don't want video game forum posts showing up on Google searches on my real name.
This will last until Blizzard gets named as a co-defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit because they required a minor to divulge a real name in a public forum, something that any security expert will tell you is about as stupid as it gets.
I was playing WoWarcraft and made a post on the realm forum that an "elite raider" & 4chan user thought was noobish. It made them angry, they insulted me. I tried to restate my point, but got further and further abused.
After that it followed me to every forum post I made.
After that it followed me to in-game abuse (public channels)
I transfered off server.
it followed me to the new guild forum I'd set up, anonymous posters setting up new accounts and insulting me in the 'guild general' public forums.
I am very happy to hear that real first and last are going to be required. Sure, it increases the chance that they can look me up, and harass me "IRL" but then again... I can look them up too.
That depends on the handle they use doesn't it?
I mean, how much can you tell me about (random made-up handle off the top of my head) BigDog72?
Finally! A way to differentiate between the real girls and the guys playing female characters just to stare and half naked night elves and get free shit from unsuspecting, desperate nerds. Now I know when I have my WOW wedding this time it really will be a chick!
And what if the userbase isn't made up of entirely adults? This is wow we are talking about. I bet their are millions of minors who play.
Since this is Slashdot, I'm 100% sure you didn't read any comments posted prior to yours. Two words: Parental Controls. https://us.battle.net/account/parental-controls/index.html?rhtml=y
LOAD ".SIG"
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
this is slashdot. not everyone here sucks at the internet as much as these anecdotal 'troll's you mention.
image: senses
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
WALSTIB!
"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."
Yep, now there's absolutely no reason to use the actual Blizzard forums. Blizzard employees already regularly review every major SC2 forum for comments, so just choose one of those. I, for one, now have no reason to ever post on Blizzard's forums and no growing desire to do so. This is just asking to get your forum's population pwn't. At least my full name is very common.
All this does is guarantee that I give Blizzard a fake name.
WOW :)
So if i were a stalker ... >.> ,i would be able to find out where this girl i used to play wow with lives? .... i know her server char names and state/city, once i have her real name .....
or not .... lol ....
Anonymous Coward is my handle, you insensitive clod.
Just register your BattleNet account with a fake "real" name. I bet you could even change your name in the profile.
Confirmation bias. Yes, maybe a quarter or even half of the people you encounter can be traced to a facebook page or some other detailed personal profile. But how many trolls has your server seen that are completely untraceable? It's really not hard to have a hard disconnect between nickname and personal information. And what happens when people on that server try and internet detect and run up against a brick wall? They don't post anything. You don't remember it. You only remember the cases where they found the guy's facebook.
This is why anecdote is not data.
Slashdot being the exception, most blog/forum posts are junk.
It costs humans millions of man-hours sifting through this trash heap to find useful or interesting tidbits of information.
Forcing folks to use their real names when publishing information to a public forum is bound to increase the quality of information there.
Even a small increase in information quality would mean an immense worldwide time savings.
On a different note, keep in mind that "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine (published anonymously) was not printed in a large, established newspaper - it was independently printed and distributed.
Folks are still free to publish anonymous opinions today (with paper and on the internet) - you just won't be able to do so on battle.net forums.
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Talk about a precog:
The Noob Comic
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
Very true, that's why some of us take great care in using a different name for every single website they post on. Google my nick and see what you end up with.
We are all God's parents.
Ok, so we're all making a big stink about how Blizzard is going to release our personal information...
But think of it from Blizzard's perspective: Only a fraction of WoW players post on the forums, of those only another fraction are against it, and even then only a fraction will quit WoW entirely over this debacle.
And therein lies the sad truth: If Blizzard makes more money from monetizing your personal information than it loses from people quitting the game in disgust, then it's a win for Blizzard. I'm sure they even did a cost-benefit analysis beforehand and determined that.
And they know you're hooked, just look at some of the above posts who say "I just won't post." Well, as long as it doesn't hit them in the pocket, they won't care!
I play the game off and on from time to time, and I'm not going to renew my subscription. I'm not going back for Cataclysm. Even if I don't post on the forums, this is still a travesty. I just hope the rest of you have the dignity to quit.
I'm not getting my hopes up, though.
Seriously, Blizzard could copy StackOverflow's reputation model for moderation. All these problems would evaporate without needing a RealID
Blizzard just lost my subscription. I WAS going to re-activate my WoW account and purchase Cataclysm when it came out. Unless these changes are reversed, I'm not going to do that. I do NOT want my real name associated and easily searchable by my in-game actions. I might as well name all my in-game characters as my real name and be done with it, because that is what will happen anyway.
No, you CAN be anonymous if you're not stupid. What's required is to use a completely fake persona that is seperate on *every* site.
(Therein is the issue - one must never use the same handle twice).
The issue I have is that a minor mistake by a 12 year old can mean that; years later; the 24 year old will not get employed, ever, due to a post on a forum. See, there are disporportinate repercussions, which is why anonyminity is required.
Also, for many people it's not 'if' they get they get stalked, or even 'when', but 'how often'.
I've played on Team Interrobang's servers before. =) It is a good community; which, I suppose, means that you are a good Admin!
I agree that people are more likely to act with greater reservation and self-moderation in the absence of anonymity. However, I disagree that the sudden and immediate sacrifice of anonymity is enough to necessitate such meaningful change in so large and established a population. The reason I find this conclusion so unsatisfying is that it assumes everyone in the community entertains the same definition and value of privacy; which is, in my opinion, unrealistic.
To get an idea of how the worst users might act under this new Real ID system, we only need to look at how many of them act under the present system, while divulging identifying information such as their "Internet alias" or WoW character name(s). Griefers who are determined enough to cause grief for others typically entertain little concern for the possibility of facing recriminations in the future. Normal users on the other hand might refrain from posting on forums altogether out of fear that that they would become the victim of personally-directed attacks.
Under this new systems, griefers would possess knowledge of the average user's identity. They have the tools and motivation to make hurtful use of that knowledge. That is what unnerves a lot of people, including myself.
I think that this will be a good thing. WoW's only problem that I can see at the moment, apart from poor GMs, is that kids are making accounts to troll and to steal things. Having real names on the forum won't stop this, but it may discourage it. No one doing the dodgy wants anyone to know their real names.
On the downside, females on the game tend to get trolled, and using real names will show people that I am female. :\
Really have to agree.
Small bits of data uniquely identify you w/o a name, address, or region. There's been a story on here about how your FF/ IE/ Chrome / Safari history can uniquely ID you. It's not even difficult.
It's hard for me to describe, but It's like a jigsaw puzzle. The data elements all line up to form a picture for the data miner. The picture is based on what they are lookingfor.
Mining for taste in clothes? sure. Music style? in a heartbeat,
Mining for identity, cake (not the lie cake, the real good sweet tasting kind). That picture will look like either your country, your rough geographic location, your state, county, city, your family, your neighborhood, your imediate family, or your face.
Someone who would look at lots of data, can, just by scrolling through a spreadsheet, see paterns emerge, see trends, etc... Even if you fit a patern that isn't unique... say 300 people across america, there are ways to break that down to scary levels. Hell, I'm sure my hx at /. could point RIGHT TO ME. It wouldn't be hard, 1/2 of us own our names as domain names. Just lookup Whois: Anonymous Coward. Poof ID found.
The reason I normally do post info like my name is that with so many people posting their own data, it creates an ocean to sort through. If my boss wants to search all my tweets of when I went to the bathroom to find out that I slept w/ his wife, then so be it! By the time he gets it, I'll have hit it 6, maybe 8 more times! If he wants to sorth through all my inocuous R/C plane / Vacation pictures to find the one of his wife naked... well that wont' be that hard it's labeled "bosses naked wife" but you know what I mean...
Flood them w/ Data, and they'll develop an algorythm. Flood them w/ more data, and they'll keep developing algorythms, but not really looking at the data. I.E. if you wanted statistics on me, AC, Search for anonymous coward, and you get a 1,960,000 (ish) hits on google, but while my face may be included, you'll not see the individual tree where a forest surrounds it.
To be honest i think they're sick of maintaining the forums, so instead of shutting them down they'll make it so noone will want to troll and half the current posters will stop posting
This is a joke. I am joking. Joke joke joke.
Hi, Micah Whipple!
"To alleviate people's concerns, Blizzard employee Bashiok decided to say his real name on the forums, his real name is Micah Whipple Address: 473 Avenue B Lakeport, CA 95453-6032 Phone Number: (707) 263-0190 Age: 28 Family: Kimberly K Whipple, age: 54 Jason Stephen Whipple, age 34".
It's been years since I played WoW (or Diablo, or Starcraft, or any other Battle.net game). So bring me up to date: is participation on the Blizzard forums required in any fashion to play the game? For example, must you use the forum to raise a support request? Is interaction of any kind with the forum required to enjoy all that a Blizzard game has to offer?
If not, then I don't see what the problem is. Don't want to use your real name, don't post on the forums.
Edith Keeler Must Die
I see no reason to expect this to improve civility of discourse, and it has many downsides that have been posted. The reason of course is that to many posting on a large forum is anonymous feeling regardless of the name they use. Why do some fans act like A-holes at big sports events? Why do people pick their noses openly while driving down the freeway? It's not because they are truely anonymous, it's because they figure they will never see the witnesses of their actions again and don't give a crap what those witnesses see anyway.
Posted as AC, of course
You dodged a bullet there. :)
http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=378 [obligatory, really]
They simply will not believe that Quiet Desperation is my real name. I invited them out to the Desperation compound to meet the rest of my family- Blind, Financial, Final and Raging- but to no avail.
Seems like Blizzard could deflect the main criticism of alot of you if it just didn't allow search engines to crawl its forums. I wonder if they even considered that.
...According to Blizzard's Real ID page:
"Real ID is a completely voluntary and optional level of identity that keeps players connected across all of Battle.net."
Unless Blizzard decides to make the Real ID "feature" mandatory for all account holders, one would simply not post on the forums if they didn't want their real names to be used.
Of course, don't mistake this as my approval of Blizzard's change in policy for their forums. I think the concept of requiring real names to be used on their forums is breathtakingly stupid. While requiring the use of real names may silence the majority of the forum trolls out there, it just gives the more mentally unstable ones access to real names that could be used to "troll" someone in real life.
How will they know that my real name isn't Wernot Questioniort
It really doesn't require a real name. I lied on the Battle.net account so that my friend and I would have the same last name so we could transfer characters between accounts. It only shows the 'real' name that you put in, but because I didn't put in my actual last name, I remain anonymous.
Now I can see if there are any celebrities who are wow nerds. Mila Kunis anyone?
Dear Blizzard Employee,
In response to Blizzard's policy of publishing all users full names in their Battle.net forums, we here at the IRS are pleased to announce that we are changing our privacy policy. As of now, we will be publishing the full name, date of birth, social security number, residential and postal address, taxable income and phone number of every Blizzard employee and their relatives on our web site's front page.
We don't consider this will impact your lives in any way, and no amount of complaining about it will change our minds.
Thank you and kind regards,
DG IRS
Sorry, I don't have a car analogy. And no, I'm not a Blizzard user.
...that has become the norm here at /. . As the story fails to mention, you are free to provide any name you please when you create your account.
Blizzard does not know, nor do they likely care, that my name is not, in fact, "Dreidel Rosenberg".
I hate to say it, but it is evidenced by Mashable posts on Facebook that nobody really cares whether they are attached to a comment by full name or not. People cuss, call each other names, and generally act like the trolls I'm sure they are in other places.
Fun fact, the WoW API has an interesting security hole that's just being toyed around with since this was announced. The new RealID BNSendWhisper() function can be used to send a private message to yourself, whether you use the RealID features or not. This results in your real name being pulled from the server.
Not too big a deal, until you consider any UI addon (And WoW has hordes of them) can do this. Here's a bit of script you can paste into your chat in-game to demonstrate: /script for i=1,100 do if BNIsSelf(i) then BNSendWhisper(i,"Whisper from myself"); break end end
Just a simple matter to store the returned name with an event handler and pass it along via whisper to another player.
Sure, anyone adding something like that to a UI addon would find their addon blacklisted off most of the UI websites, but it's definately possible.
Just say NO to stinky cheese
What we need is a good solid competition for people willing to change their names.
The winner gets a lifetime blizzard subscription!
... then I realised that they're only a game company, and I moved on to something more interesting.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
The law is, at least in all nations I've been to is to enter your single name into both boxes, for example if your name is "Yatie" you enter it as:
First Name(s): Yatie
Last Name(s): Yatie
Yes, some cultures have more then one last name, I personally know a Sri Lankan with 5 and the last one is "the great".
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The RealID chat feature uses your real name too, which would be fine(after all you're only supposed to be setting that feature up for people you actually know and trust), but in addition to exposing your real name to the person you trust, it also exposes it to everyone they trust, which is a whole different kettle of fish.
What they've really needed to do all along was to set up posting in the forums/cross game chat via your account name(which is an e-mail address now), as opposed to character names(which is what causes all the stupid trolling), but they've gotten everyone so paranoid about their account details being used for account theft that it's just gotten ludicrous.
Problem already solved.
Last name: Prince
First Name: Artist Formerly Known As
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Number of posts in slashdot ~ 650. Number of posts in Blizzard US forums ~16,650.
...is that many people create level 1 characters to post on forums in order to not disclose the identity of their level 80, let alone their real life identity.
If you have to use your real name on Blizzard's forums then it can only be because it makes your identity more easily trackable for the purposes of targeted advertising - I suspect some Blizzard execs are getting some serious back-handers from ad companies as a result.
Fortunately, in my particular case, I tried WoW for about a month and it just didn't appeal to me. I do like original Starcraft but I won't compromise the control over my personal identity and information for any company, least of all for one that ultimately *just makes computer games".
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
http://thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=378
Here's a blog about the full names of Blizzard employees, which (at least) they will also be required to use when posting in their company forums.
http://asnowstormbyanyothername.blogspot.com/
Step 1: enforce real name on forum posts Step 2: Observe that the forums are not used anymore. Step 3: Remove useless forums. Blizard doesn't like people typing on keyboards. I figure they'll remove chat from Wow soon. And replace it with a few hotkeyed messages: "#PLAYER_CLASS# LFG!" "Heal plz!" "WTF! NOOB!" ...
As if blizzard has any need or right to know my real first and last name. More importantly my last name. Guess I won't be posting on the forums. Or buying starcraft. Their loss.
Welcome to Battle.net! Please enter your REAL name:
JOHN SMITH
I'm sorry, that name is already in use. Please enter your REAL name:
SIGH
http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=378
I moderate several forums, many of which have been targets for various semi-organized troll groups... I have seen flames FAR worse than anything bliz has had to deal with... we killed off those sprees of spam, pron, hate, and general jerk-wad-ness by doing a very simple thing...
we asked the community for new mods. In one case we had to triple the number of active mods to deal with the issue, but shortly after the troublemakers realized that with the raw number of people watching the threads their crap wouldn't stay up long, and they would get the boot in short order.
problem solved.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
Stop using blizzard's forums!
say it slowly blizzard, role .. playing... game. They are so failing it hurts to watch it. Perhaps they have gotten too big to not fail.
And people are more likely to be pricks when they know it could come back and bite someone else.
I've been running a web forum since 2005 which has a few thousand members; nothing like Blizzard but a good sample study. I implemented the same real first and last name policy in 2007. My problems with trolling immediately and completely disappeared. I have no trolls whatsoever. Meanwhile, the forum has continued to see steady growth and is frequently recommended based on its civility in my field. Even more importantly, many people who I knew to be trolls before the name policy went into effect basically came out into the open and became productive, civil, and interesting participants in the forum. Trolls are usually just bored to start with and then it feeds. Many of them are interesting people, if you can get them to connect. Using real names had that effect; it was the best decision I ever made. Blizzard may lose some traffic over this at first but ultimately this is a very good idea with proven results.
thank god my parents named me Beelzebub deathclaw.. should fit right in with those wow geeks!
I've posted on this before but when they went live with the RSS log I made some good money mining those activity logs for "File and Fire" goods. That is the crap your employer archives about you and when they need an excuse to fire you; they dig it out and show you to the door.
It was easy to correlate Killing Boss X to if those telecommuters were playing WoW when they should have been working. We'd get excuses "that wasn't me that was someone using my account.... " and in some cases Blizzard ended up getting involved. Mental Note: When you VPN into work we can see what IP address you are coming from. The connection log Blizzard keeps also indicates which IP address you are on... as well as the MAC address as part of the data link layer. So telling me it was someone else playing doesn't explain the fact it was the same IP and MAC address and pulling your IM log shows periodic and errante WASD typoes in your IM pop ups. Oh and the fact you accidentally responded to a popup from HR with '/random 100' and 'L2P N00b' were kind of dead giveaways. I had 6 months of WoW paid for by a client so I could monitor a list of character names on specific servers to track play times.
I would not be suprised if this is actually a direct reponse by ActiBliz to expedite those types of situations so they don't want to deal with the hassle of the suits.
-=[Idgarad]=- I Am A Savage In A Brave New World!
Now I know what company not to buy games from!
- A Frog in a pond utters an azure cry. -
It's just a game! If you want real, then look to the online businesses that supply credit, or banking services. They don't get my real name unless they come under certain type businesses, all the rest get a "blow me!" attitude from me, and a fake name, and nickname.
It's just like em to get the public hooked on their games, and then pull a "realID" on them. Those are popular games so.... The question is... "Will the gamers see through the cracks?" Or will they sit idle, like the facebook users did, and ignore what the consequences were to their ID being totally public?
Monday, Blizzard reps were saying "we understand you may not want to use your real name, but the Real ID system is totally optional, use it only with people you know in real life."
They've said they have been planning the newer announcement for a long time.
In other words, they lied. Flat out, direct, lies.
Everyone I know IRL who played WoW on Monday has cancelled their accounts. This is not a coincidence. It is also the only time most of us have ever cancelled even temporarily.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
I wish I was checking /. on Tuesday instead of posting on the WoW forums. As far as I can tell, Slashdot has completely missed the point here.
The forums have virtually nothing to do with it. Blizzard could delete the forums tomorrow and it wouldn't affect the community much, aside from having no way of talking with developers / tech support / customer support. We'd all happily migrate over to mmo-champion overnight--it's not that big a deal. Forcing real names on the forums to "prevent trolling" is a total red herring. What this is really about is Activision's recent deal with Facebook. Face-Lizzard-Vision is not something that people want to see.
Of note: In the past when Blizzard has announced major changes to this game that they felt would make this game better, official posters have been very active on the forums posting to clarify concerns, and outline why they see this change as being beneficial. Aside from a couple posts clarifying major misunderstandings, there have been *NO* posts from official Blizzard posters in the last 40,000 posts in the official threat (plus probably at least 10,000 posts in threads that have been locked and/or deleted).
What does this tell you? Blizzard is not behind this change. This change has been forced down the pipe by Activision to attempt to monetize the player base with ad revenue from the facebook deal.
If you're interested, here's a rough timeline of the changes:
September 2009 interview with Activision's CEO where he says that he will attempt to exploit all Activison's franchises for maximum revenue
May 5th, Blizzard announces a deal with Facebook for Facebook integration with WoW
Two weeks ago, RealID is introduced as an optional feature to chat cross server with close friends and family only
On Sunday, an exploit is discovered which makes anyone with an AddOn installed (virtually everyone) vulnerable to have their name identified in game by anyone.
On Tuesday, Blizzard announces that RealID is no longer an optional service, and will now be required for forum use.
A few hours later, a Blizzard poster on the EU forums clarifies this has been in the works for over a year, and that outrage was expected and planned for.
Can you connect the dots? Here's a hint: the purported purpose (slapping down trolls) could be just as easily be handled by requiring forum goers to select a unique handle, or only one WoW character, with which to do all their posting... you know, like, every single other major forum on the planet? The only reason that first name and last name specifically are required are if you make the connection to Facebook!
Additionally, in the patch two weeks ago, changes were made to the Terms of Use (unannounced) to include a subsection on gathering user data for use with a third party advertising partner.
This Real ID changeover has also been planned for over a year, and Blizzard posters have made no attempts to clarify how this proposed system will improve the forums (after all of two minutes it took forum posters to suggest the alternative solution of merely requiring a unique forum moniker.) Blizzard is clearly not behind this change. This is a done deal, by Activision, to sell out WoW players to advertisers, sharing their personal information with the world, through Facebook.
One WoW fan has co
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1
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 the ability to rate posts up or down, post highlighting based on rating, 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