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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.'"
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.
Now you bastards will know how it feels
- Johnathan Doe
So you like other people not being anonymous, but you want yourself to still be anonymous? That kind of reminds me of this.
I personally think internet anonymity is a good thing. It forces people to attack each other's arguments rather than resorting to ad hominems, and ensures an even playing field, since newbies' arguments are heard on the same level as those of our celebrities (at least in theory).
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.
From the Real ID FAQ Will parents be able to control their child’s access to posting on the forums? Yes. When this change to the forums goes live, parents will be able to decide whether to allow their child to post on official Blizzard forums that use Real ID through Battle.net Parental Controls.
Yes, because trolls would never stoop to using fake "real" names.
Well, they'll find it very difficult to do that unless they figure out a way to spoof the same name on their credit card.
FYI, you can buy 'Game Time Cards' with cash at every big-box store in the United States.
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.
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 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)
Go die in a fire.
RUGBYRUGBYRUGBY
Except, of course, for that time when your boss was considering you for a promotion but chose the other candidate because he doesn't play that "stupid kid's game" in all his spare time.
True story: I moved to a new town and started a new job working at a management level with a few other degree-level pros and also a large group of high-school and GED level workers. I joined an online dating site and set one of my preferences to be for at least college level education. Some of the ladies at work checked out my profile (you can hide your name, but not having a photo means no views), and it got quickly spread that I was "against" only having high-school level education. Oh, well, right? Well, then I got transferred to work under an older supervisor with "only" a high-school diploma who'd gotten his current position by working for 30+ years in the industry. Yeah, lot of fun working under someone who believed the rumors that you don't think people with only high-school level education are worth anything. Maybe it shouldn't happen, but people judge you both on what you do online and what you're perceived as doing online. That's just the way the world works. Forcing people to use their real names will have many effects, but one big one is that it will cause many thinking people to simply not post anymore, good or bad posts.
(I'm preparing for contradictory comments below).
No you're not!
When confronted with one problem, some think "I'll use recursion". Now they are confronted with one problem.
Really? I have two facebook profiles. One with my real name, with very limited details, and one with a fake name where all my RL friends can find me. A google search brings up nothing about me, even though I was convicted of a felony 23 years ago, there are no pictures of me on the internet that I can find, and I use my real name for nothing, including my WoW account. My phone, cable and power bill are all in fake names, and I rent for cash from a former employer. My vehicles are registered to me, at a 10 year old address and my DL shows the same address. Which the banks also have as my permanent address. I use a PO box in the same county as my "official" address shows. Not everyone is willing to let the government or corporations track their where abouts and doings with ease.
The problem is that the degree to which anyone is deterred will be determined by how concerned they are about their online image. People with careers and families will be even more cautious, and probably less like to contribute to a discussion. 13-y.o. dickheads will go right on being dickheads, because they have nothing to lose and it will be several years before they are in any position to worry about an online reputation. So, people who are most likely to say something worthwhile are the most likely to be silenced by lack of anonymity.
A Blizzard employee went ahead and put his name out there as detailed on this site.
In short, a little digging has found the guy's phone number, home address, the names and home address of his parents, his siblings' names, the valuation of his property, the name of his spouse, his facebook account, pictures of his home, pictures of him, his twitter account, his age, and so on.