Blizzard Triggers a Different Kind of Cataclysm

[Weaver]

I don't like this at all. Blizzard has no right to give away my name publicly. For most people this is probably not an issue, but I have a very, very rare last name. In fact, the only people with my last name in my entire Provence listed in the phone book are my family members. Why should people be allowed to track down my family just so I can post on their forums?

edit: I just checked the Canadian listings and I'm the only person in the entire COUNTRY with my specific name. Fuck you blizzard. I demand names be k-anonymous.

 

[Manicotti]

It will kill level 1 trolling, that's for certain.

The rest? Remains to be seen...

Possibly, but not likely. My "main" account was banned because the majority of new people on the WoW forums can't tell the difference between "constructive criticism" and "trolling;" afterwards, I posted from an alt account on a lvl 1 with no less credibility and even writing a stickied guide for new rogues. [http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25026453001&sid=1]

My real question is, "how do you define trolling?" It doesn't make an insipid/offensive post any less so if the poster is using his H-LK-killing main, and it doesn't make a factual and well-reasoned post any less so if it comes from a level 1. The most contributing posters on the WoW forums, in my experience, are the ones who were banned on at least one account due to having an unpopular (albeit correct) stance, and are relegated to "lvl 1 troll" status.

Honestly, putting a BNet ID behind every avatar sounds like a godsend in this context. If it kills "level 1 trolling," it's because it'll have killed trolling altogether as well as the bias for/against posting from any level toon, thereby forcing everyone to stay accountable for their universal posting history, be it idiotic or constructive.

 

[Kasawd]

Just use a pair of fake names. Seriously, Blizzard is forcing you to forsake one big-ass right since we hit the internet. Being a total jerk without anything to trace you to your real name or whatsoever.

We will see how this works out though.

They're not "Forcing" you to do anything. It's not as if you have to post so many times on the forum to dodge a permaban.

They're not forcing you to use RealID to acquire ten in-game friends in order to enter IceCrown Citadel.

The forum is seperate from the game.

EDIT: Although, to tell you the truth, the trolls often amuse me on the forum XD. I'll be sad to see some of them go.

 

[wfpdk]

this should be a very interesting experiment. I can't wait to see how it turns out. my guess is that people are going to start becoming afraid to post and many good questions will go unanswered.
edit: i just had a thought... putting myself in the mind set of one of those Japanese scammers, i see your real name, I check facebook and find your email, and spam rape your face... thx for posting, i'll never have to leave you alone now.

 

[Keava]

See, the interesting part for me is where I see people saying they won't buy the products. Er... how about you just don't post on the forum? This won't change how you're seen in game, only attaching a name in a forum which is, right now - face it - a cesspool of filth. A hive of scum and villainy.

In other words, I really don't see how this could possibly make the B.net forums WORSE

Edit: That said, I wonder if the Blue posters will have the same thing happen to them. If they'll have to post with their real names too...

So according to you, John, it is fine to say all the people who throughout the years of World of Warcraft contributed positively to the community that they can either make their personal info public, or GTFO?
I played the game for long time, i played on PvP-RP server, i was active in our community since the servers start, we organized and held RP events, tournaments, BattleGrounds before they made it cross-realm.
Forums were not only and always just bunch of kids waving their e-peens left and right.

For all that people tend to complain about Warcrafts community i always disagreed, there was plenty awesome people i met during my time in WoW. Now this whole RealID deal gives them simple choice, they can either stop their work for server community, or reveal their personal info to widespread public, exposing themselves to even more idiots, and trolls with too much time on their hands.

The only people against this are people that troll and flame I'm guessing.

What people have a problem with is that they aren't man enough to hate on people with their real name right on the page.

*snip*

I talked with my friends that still play WoW and still try to keep the community going, providing actual RP content on RP servers. They are against that. Obviously they must be trolls and flamers. Grats for ignorance.

 

[ThePlasmatizer]

The only people against this are people that troll and flame I'm guessing.

What people have a problem with is that they aren't man enough to hate on people with their real name right on the page.

*snip*

I talked with my friends that still play WoW and still try to keep the community going, providing actual RP content on RP servers. They are against that. Obviously they must be trolls and flamers. Grats for ignorance.

Oh please, if you're so shy about RPing then, why do it? what are you embarrassed for some reason? are you worried you real life friends will see "John Smith likes RPing"? You are blowing it way out of proportion and if you have a problem with it that much what do you answer when someone asks for your name in RL?

Take a look at Amazon, people display their real name on there, why? because it's brokers trust between members, are they worried someone sees their comment on a man hair groomer or a self help book? are they scared they are broadcasting that they bought a massive TV and someone might track them down and rob them?

Paranoia is not a good thing to have, my friend.

 

[Kandon Arc]

Also I think Facebook has fairly conclusively proved that anonymity is not an essential part of PA's internet F-wad theory.

 

[Psiboom]

I can see this working, hell, I wouldn't mind having my name as my user name, I don't see the big deal, not that I use the forum anyway, at least that way there'll be less trolls and more names that i'm actually able to read, and pronounce.

And for those who say they won't buy any products because of something like this, just don't use the forums? And if you do, use a fake name, they're not gonna hunt you down for it, using it doesn't change the enjoyment of the products themselves.

 

[Kandon Arc]

The only people against this are people that troll and flame I'm guessing.

What people have a problem with is that they aren't man enough to hate on people with their real name right on the page.

*snip*

I talked with my friends that still play WoW and still try to keep the community going, providing actual RP content on RP servers. They are against that. Obviously they must be trolls and flamers. Grats for ignorance.

Oh please, if you're so shy about RPing then, why do it? what are you embarrassed for some reason? are you worried you real life friends will see "John Smith likes RPing"? You are blowing it way out of proportion and if you have a problem with it that much what do you answer when someone asks for your name in RL?

Take a look at Amazon, people display their real name on there, why? because it's brokers trust between members, are they worried someone sees their comment on a man hair groomer or a self help book? are they scared they are broadcasting that they bought a massive TV and someone might track them down and rob them?

Paranoia is not a good thing to have, my friend.

Or maybe you don't want any future employers who google you to know that you play WoW? With it's reputation in the mainstream media, it's something that could easily count against you.

 

[Tourette]

Sounds like a good idea to me. Only ones who will not like it is the trolls.
Then again, I wonder how many Ivor Biggun's and Max Power's will be doing the rounds.

 

[The Philistine]

See, the interesting part for me is where I see people saying they won't buy the products. Er... how about you just don't post on the forum? This won't change how you're seen in game, only attaching a name in a forum which is, right now - face it - a cesspool of filth. A hive of scum and villainy.

In other words, I really don't see how this could possibly make the B.net forums WORSE

Edit: That said, I wonder if the Blue posters will have the same thing happen to them. If they'll have to post with their real names too...

Indeed, Blizzard employees will be posting with their real names as well:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374892&pageNo=1&sid=1#16

One thing to consider with the forums is that the change will most likely reduce the volume of posters. Sure, there's slews of absolute garbage. But there's also a number of regular posters that contribute positively to the environment. Privacy concerns affect everyone. While a cut in volume might stifle a good number of "white noise" posts, the number of contributors to quality posts won't be the same either.

 

[John Funk]

See, the interesting part for me is where I see people saying they won't buy the products. Er... how about you just don't post on the forum? This won't change how you're seen in game, only attaching a name in a forum which is, right now - face it - a cesspool of filth. A hive of scum and villainy.

In other words, I really don't see how this could possibly make the B.net forums WORSE

Edit: That said, I wonder if the Blue posters will have the same thing happen to them. If they'll have to post with their real names too...

Indeed, Blizzard employees will be posting with their real names as well:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374892&pageNo=1&sid=1#16

One thing to consider with the forums is that the change will most likely reduce the volume of posters. Sure, there's slews of absolute garbage. But there's also a number of regular posters that contribute positively to the environment. Privacy concerns affect everyone. While a cut in volume might stifle a good number of "white noise" posts, the number of contributors to quality posts won't be the same either.

Well, at least they can't say they aren't willing to bear their own cross.

I'm curious to see how it'll turn out. I'm pretty neutral on this at the moment, it has its pluses and its minuses, many of which are balanced out by the fact that if you don't want to post on the forums, nobody is making you do it.

 

[Keava]

Oh please, if you're so shy about RPing then, why do it? what are you embarrassed for some reason? are you worried you real life friends will see "John Smith likes RPing"? You are blowing it way out of proportion and if you have a problem with it that much what do you answer when someone asks for your name in RL?

Take a look at Amazon, people display their real name on there, why? because it's brokers trust between members, are they worried someone sees their comment on a man hair groomer or a self help book? are they scared they are broadcasting that they bought a massive TV and someone might track them down and rob them?

Paranoia is not a good thing to have, my friend.

It is not about RPing. It is about the right to keep your private info, private. People have their lives they want to keep far away from their gaming. In my guild only 5 people i trusted knew my real name, only 2 knew how i looked like. They earned my trust over 4 years of playing together.
When i meet someone in real i am able to judge the person i see, if i don't like him/her i can say "Get lost, none of your business". It is simple. Now why would i be denied such basic right on game forums?

During my playtime in WoW i was even careful with revealing my gender. Thank god for the "There are no woman on teh internets" theme going on i just played along whenever someone i didn't know treated me like a guy. It helped me avoid stalkers and pestering whispers, like i wouldn't get enough of that playing a priest. Some of my friends that made a mistake of revealing their gender had to actually deal with plenty of idiots.

You really under estimate data mining possibilities, as i said, ever since e-mails became logins for battle.net and thus WoW accounts the amount of hacked accounts increased because the the hackers did not have to bother with guessing your login name anymore. Any community site where you used your e-mail to sign up was a resource. I used separate e-mail set up for that and it got flooded with about 200 phishing attempt email in 2 weeks. For about 6 million players in NA/EU (rest is supposedly Asia), there was plenty of casual enough to not do such thing. People tend to be careless if they are not internet-savy, but there is no reason a service they pay for should punish them.
When you know how to connect the dots you have pretty high chance of finding out things about others, they wouldn't really want to give you out.

Then you have people with original names, names pointing at their nationality, suddenly more and more info you can gather from all that. Imagine that world doesn't consists only from Joes and Janes and not everyone has American name.

With sites like Amazon or any other trading site on that matter they are doing actual business. When you are selling something the name makes sense, because of legal reasons. On game forums, where you come to talk about events or just to simply discuss builds or strategies it doesn't. There is nothing that would warrant displaying real name.

 

[IxionIndustries]

A great idea for the Escapist perhaps?

(Don't bother me, I have my name in my profile)

Why? It'd make no difference. Somebody could easilly make a fake name, and they would still be able to troll. They wouldn't care if "Dickleton von Rapiststein" is displayed onscreen; they'll still flood the thread with spam and gay porn and shit.

Besides... I like to think we have fast-acting mods around here, don't you?

Anyways... I hope they don't implement this in Starcraft 2, because I for one, really like my fucking username.

 

[Kikosemmek]

Blizzard just ensured that I'll never use their forums.

 

[Firia]

I'm sort of ambivilant about this decision (even though it in no way effects me).

On the one hand, the abundance of anonymity has bred a world of verbally abusive asshats that speak online in disrespectful ways. On the other hand, strip that anonymity away, and you expose the person. Now everyone knows who you are, and that may be deterant enough.

Although... in the real world, we keep each other in check pretty well. I see you, you see me, and our natural day-to-day conditioning runs its course. With Blizzards RealID system, it's kind of like that (in theory), except you can't tell who's looking at you (until they talk/post to you). Sort of like a one way mirror.

I cannot tell if my discomfort with the idea is from possible rampant exploitation that could take place from it, or just being stripped of my internet anonymity.

 

[tehroc]

I feel really bad for battle.net's female customers. Anyone whos played any time of online games knows females are either swooned over or harassed. I expect cyberstalking to rise.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Will they check the name against your credit card info or something, or are there going to be a lot of people named "Guy Incognito"?

My real name is on my profile, and it's not hard to track it down in the age of Facebook.