Blizzard Triggers a Different Kind of Cataclysm

[deckai]

Being afraid of losing ones anonymity while being registered on facebook/myspace is crazy...

I'm really curious how this will work out. And as long as you interact and communicate like a normal person, you know.. like in RL, why should you have to worry?! Sometimes, the anonymity is more dangerous than the the exposure of your identity.

 

[Vrach]

I probably won't be posting on the Blizzard forums after this change, as I don't have any real reason to post there NOW. But my point is that anyone who does decide to post there after this will be a lot more constructive. And I think that's their ultimate goal in all this, is it not?

Excuse my pretentiousness, but in the words of Confucius: "Don't use a cannon to kill a mosquito". There were far less invasive ways to do this. The mods on these very forums could tell you a thing or two in fact

Besides, if 50,000 people decide to go ahead and use this system, is somebody seriously going to attempt to track down each of those individuals' personal information? And what purpose would that serve?

It's not about 50k people and it's not about tracking all the people who use it. It's about the fact that it's an unnecessary infringement on a player's privacy. As for "would someone track you down for something as silly as a game", that's where the psycho part comes in, and yes, there were cases of people tracking others down for games and similar reasons over the internet.

There's also the stalk-a-girl option, especially once it's so blatantly pointed out through their names in an environment where they're such a minority. All in all, it's just completely unnecessary and invasive.

 

[mooncalf]

This will not prevent anonymous people from being dickheads, this will prevent honest people from having the same layer of protection.

*edit* It's one thing to harp on about great a community you have, but there will always be abrasive people no matter how homogenised you attempt to make a place. Filtering out the word "black" in Starcraft 2 beta did not make people less racist, and filtering IN a user's real name will not stop them from behaving badly, it -will- add an implicit and hostile threat to a 'community' that disputes could spill over into people's day-to-day lives. For me that is a bridge too far.

 

[ItsAPaul]

lol, was wondering if this was posted. If they wanted to kill the forums they could just close them instead of spending money to do so.

 

[Lightslei]

And here I was considering possibly picking up WoW again. Yeah, I'll pass. I have enough crap to deal with in real life, why would I want to add e-drama on top of it? And for the "Not everyone has your name", there's at least 500,000 people currently in the world with my name, yet somehow people still find my facebook <_<.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

...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.

John, there are a number of players who prefer to separate their game identity from their real identity and yet wish to contribute positively to the "collective", or ask questions in an area where they are most likely to be viewed and answered by people with knowledge. I am one of those people. I carefully separate my online and real identities for a number of reasons, none of which Blizzard has any right to circumvent. This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

And if the Escapist did this, I would leave the site.

 

[squid5580]

Lol hell no. First I don't see why they would need this. The Escapist seems to deal with trolls quite well without needing real names. Most regulars probably got a list of trolls they avoid. And I have been able to develop deep meaningful relationships with my handle. Infact it is easier because I always use the same handle so you see my posts here and you might see my posts somewhere else.

It won't stop people being jerks. I know lots of jerks in real life who I know thier names, addresses, phone numbers and workplace. It will open it up to cyber bullying through Facebook. Not to mention all the other issues that can come up when millions of people know your name. If they expect me to use this to play Diablo 3 then I guess I won't be playing

 

[MetalGenocide]

Nothing quite like a company making an "infringement on privacy" move.
No thanks, keep you "new" B.net.

 

[The Madman]

My name is John and here's my the main I played WOW on most often.

That was... refreshing! Hmm, I like this idea. But then I generally try to act like a decent person of regardless whether I'm online or not, so I've nothing to hide.

 

[Yureina]

...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.

John, there are a number of players who prefer to separate their game identity from their real identity and yet wish to contribute positively to the "collective", or ask questions in an area where they are most likely to be viewed and answered by people with knowledge. I am one of those people. I carefully separate my online and real identities for a number of reasons, none of which Blizzard has any right to circumvent. This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

And if the Escapist did this, I would leave the site.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel. I have no problem with people linking my internet identity with my other online user names or game accounts I have used in the past (and here is the one that is the most direct link to this Escapist account [http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Wyrmrest+Accord&cn=Yureina]). Its when a link is made between my internet and real life personas that I would have a very serious problem. I'm not a troublemaker, but other people I have met online are, and more than a few of them probably would like the idea of showing up at my front door and beating me because of how I outclassed them in a game. I honestly could see it happening if they got my real-life information. There are some seriously bitter and sick people out there.

I may not play WoW anymore, but if they actually do implement this, it would permanently kill my desire to ever play my dear priestess ever again. I have a hard enough time with that as is, but a permanent end would probably send me to tears. When I quit two months ago, it was like a sad farewell. If this happened, it would be like a funeral.

 

[The Madman]

I may not play WoW anymore, but if they actually do implement this, it would permanently kill my desire to ever play my dear priestess ever again. I have a hard enough time with that as is, but a permanent end would probably send me to tears. When I quit two months ago, it was like a sad farewell. If this happened, it would be like a funeral.

Why would you quit WOW over a feature in the official forums? RealID is optional in-game, meaning you don't have to use it if you don't want to. The change this topic is about is on the official forums.

 

[MKScorpion]

This seems like a good idea in theory. It might actually have a chance to work in practice.

 

[Yureina]

I may not play WoW anymore, but if they actually do implement this, it would permanently kill my desire to ever play my dear priestess ever again. I have a hard enough time with that as is, but a permanent end would probably send me to tears. When I quit two months ago, it was like a sad farewell. If this happened, it would be like a funeral.

Why would you quit WOW over a feature in the official forums? RealID is optional in-game, meaning you don't have to use it if you don't want to. The change this topic is about is on the official forums.

Because I was extensively involved on the WoW forums for the servers that I played on. I was the type of person who did a lot of interesting things in-game, but would also try to help people out on the forums or to give my support to in-game efforts that were not getting enough attention. In other words, I was deeply involved in the community both in game and on the forums. Without those forums I would end up losing effectively half of the social aspect of the game, which during the last year I played was the only thing that kept me around.

I was not a troll, but someone who tried to do good things. Losing that would seriously cripple my desire to play an online community-heavy game like WoW. Actually, I lost it, and that's why I don't play anymore. This news is just adding a really big and unnecessary nail into a coffin that sometimes wants to open itself.

 

[Lightslei]

I may not play WoW anymore, but if they actually do implement this, it would permanently kill my desire to ever play my dear priestess ever again. I have a hard enough time with that as is, but a permanent end would probably send me to tears. When I quit two months ago, it was like a sad farewell. If this happened, it would be like a funeral.

Why would you quit WOW over a feature in the official forums? RealID is optional in-game, meaning you don't have to use it if you don't want to. The change this topic is about is on the official forums.

Considering perhaps we don't want our real names displayed in the forums. When I played I was a frequent of the Customer Service forums. It was easy and quick to pickup who was who regardless if they changed accounts or not. This is unneeded, and honestly the most pathetic way I can think of to deal with trolls.

My solution: Forum & Game Trolling/Issues are handled equally. Suspension on the forum = suspension in game. Forum ban = Game Ban. There, problem solved.

 

[Plurralbles]

I'm pretty much I hate this. I don't want people to easily find out what games and sites I'm on and what I say online with a quick google search. Imagine I'm running for public office six years from now and my constituents google my name and find all my accounts and find that I made a stupid post and put it completely out of context to throw mud and make me look like shit? NOT cool.

 

[The Madman]

Because I was extensively involved on the WoW forums for the servers that I played on. I was the type of person who did a lot of interesting things in-game, but would also try to help people out on the forums or to give my support to in-game efforts that were not getting enough attention. In other words, I was deeply involved in the community both in game and on the forums. Without those forums I would end up losing effectively half of the social aspect of the game, which during the last year I played was the only thing that kept me around.

I was not a troll, but someone who tried to do good things. Losing that would seriously cripple my desire to play an online community-heavy game like WoW. Actually, I lost it, and that's why I don't play anymore. This news is just adding a really big an unnecessary nail into that coffin.

I once participated on the WOW forums as well, loved getting into lore debates, and as I recall they were for the most part a cesspool of idiocy, trolling, and internet memes with a tiny spark of intelligence only showing once in a full moon. Meanwhile those few 'good' topics were generally just when a handful of decent people got involved and generally ignored everyone elses stupidity within the topic. Glancing at the forums now, I see absolutely nothing has changed.

Frankly I don't mind this change at all. I already gave away everything that RealID reveals in this very topic. It's possible to only display your first name, mine is John by the way(Both the most and least dignified name in the english language.), and your primary character/account for WOW and SC2, again which I couldn't care less if someone knows.

People on forums actually having to take responsibility for their comments is a good thing and the complete oblivion of those annoying lvl3 trolls you'd get from players unwilling to take account for their actions. Hell, if this works, I might just get back into the forums.

My only possible complaint is that there were multiple alts I played in WOW which I purposely didn't let my guildmates know about simply so I could occasionally 'accidentally' forget to show up for raids while still enjoying wow on another character. And that complaint has nothing to do with the forums and, again, is entirely optional in-game. I wont use it except for actual friends obviously!

But then that's just me. Honestly I think most people are overreacting to this.

 

[Lightslei]

Frankly I don't mind this change at all. I already gave away everything that RealID reveals in this very topic. It's possible to only display your first name, mine is John by the way(Both the most and least dignified name in the english language.), and your primary character/account for WOW and SC2, again which I couldn't care less if someone knows.

Only first names? That's somewhat of a relief.

But then it begs the question of will it allow them to try and add last names and make it retroactive?

 

[The Madman]

Only first names? That's somewhat of a relief.

But then it begs the question of will it allow them to try and add last names and make it retroactive?

By default it's first and last name which are displayed, but looking over the FAQ and parental options, there's the ability to remove the last name for privacy reasons.

The main purpose of RealID isn't to encourage stalking after all, but to link all of Blizzards games together over one network. Right now that means only Starcraft 2 and WOW, but I imaging Blizzard have big plans for Diablo 3 and other future projects as well.