Blizzard Triggers a Different Kind of Cataclysm

[Savagezion]

Haha. Sucks for anyone who is in witness protection program that enjoys WoW.

People will get around this, it isn't hard.

 

[The Madman]

Frankly I don't understand why they don't just allow people to use an alias, perhaps only displaying the real name to those on a friends list. It would achieve the same goals; unifying Blizzard accounts under one name and forcing players to take responsibility for their actions, but without all the current controversy.

I'm not really against the idea like some people are, but it's still puzzling. Especially considering the whole 'slew' of issues revealing peoples names brings up such as privacy laws for minors and the like.

 

[tkioz]

This seems like a good idea to me. Not sure why anyone would have a problem with others knowing their real name.

Well for one, some of us already post online using our real names, representing our employers at times, I for one would not like a future employer to google my name and find rather then me being professional to customers finding out I once had a 3 page long debate on the merits of X talent over Y talent.

I keep my personal and professional life separate, someone online might know what industry I work in, but that's all they know about my professional life.

 

[T3chn0s1s]

Yeah, the big problem here for me would be the wonderful escapism that is my video gaming being thrown back in my face like, "Wat Wat? You want to play a video game to forget that you had a rough day at work for a while and just relax? Bullshit."

From a WoW player's standpoint, this works well, right? My guild leader wants everyone to friend ID him so he can see if your punk ass is off on another server playing when raid time pops up. Find another guild right? Well most progression guilds are turning to that as a way to enforce attendance. Good thing for the guild, bad thing for the player. You know that age-old debate about where does a video game stop being a game and become work? This is it. Still, that's not what bothers me. You know what bothers me? Brian Jackson isn't supposed to be in that guild. Brian Jackson is supposed to be a professional young Engrish teachar with a sour disposition and a passion for thematic fantasy. I'm not supposed to have a kid in my class look at the raid roster and go, "Dude I have a teacher by that name!" and send me a message on facebook asking if it's me. I can deny it, so that I don't have this tidal wave of students next year that want to ask me about 'j00r ub4r 1337 palandin' but seriously? Why should I have to do that?

"Oh come on, stop be a drama llama, you can just not add people to your friends list in game if you don't want them to see your name." Yeah? Man, that's a good idea. shit. It's a darn shame you can't actually enjoy the full depth of the game if you never make friends. I'd be cool with that alternative though, even without being able to keep track of people I like, since WoW still offers the conventional friend list to know who you need to keep track of on your server... But what about that pretty cool guy you just played a scrim with in Starcraft 2? Oh man, that witch doctor you were just busting demon skulls with in Diablo III? That guy was pretty cool. Shit, why are both of these people my students?

It's a great idea, and I actually really like some of the things it has done so far, but you know what I think would be great? It has been suggested several times now, and I think it would be fantastic if they did it. Make the option to put up one single unifying nickname. I wouldn't mind being 'T3chn0s1s' forever. Hell, for any of my students who took the time to look up T3chn0s1s, make it past the DJ, get to me, put together the pieces, determine to a degree that they'd feel comfortable confronting me that it's me... I'd probably give extra credit on some silly assignment they didn't quite get full marks for (unless it was this post that they found - so remember kids! Don't mention the escapist if you want the marks!). I'd call them creepy little bastards, but that's cool too.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to stop playing video games in my spare time, nor even trolling the wow forums. I am however pretty upset that I've lost even more of my anonymity in the name of bringing the community closer. Personally, I'm more scared of the community getting closer than of someone's suspicions about my identity being more firmly rooted - I mean, has anyone here SEEN Something Awful, 4chan /b/, Ebaums World, YTMND...

 

[Deofuta]

Like I said in the other thread, if you cant stand by what you say with your own name, then don't say it.

+1 Blizzard

 

[conflictofinterests]

It is a bad bad idea. It pretty much ensures i wont bother with any future Blizzard projects involving Battle.net. I don't need every random jerk knowing my name, i don't like the idea of any company announcing it for public view.
Along with e-mail address being used as login name ever since battle.net rework it can only bring bad things, and result in serious breaches of privacy.

QFT

 

[Tony2077]

It is a bad bad idea. It pretty much ensures i wont bother with any future Blizzard projects involving Battle.net. I don't need every random jerk knowing my name, i don't like the idea of any company announcing it for public view.
Along with e-mail address being used as login name ever since battle.net rework it can only bring bad things, and result in serious breaches of privacy.

QFT

its optional unless you use the forums at least that's what it sound like to me

 

[warmonkey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiauaGbxipA

NSFW; hitler. But it's been a long time since I've seen one of these, and it's funny.


This is just a terrible, terrible idea. I think everyone's gone over the reasons why. Those of you who say it's a good idea: Why isn't your current user name your real first and last name? If you think it's a good idea, put up or shut up. pr0tip, it's not a good idea, don't do it unless you REALLY, REALLY REALLY FUCKING LOOOOOOOOVVVVVEEE some pizza. Just ask that poor chap that works, and for the next few days probably will be living, at Blizzard.

Some people do put their names out there on the internet. People who produce content, for one. Yanno what? Good on them, and sometimes they just sort of have to. You know who doesn't have to? Anyone playing video games. I don't need to know, and no one else needs to know, the real names of anyone else playing any game ever. Use a handle! That's why we picked a damn account name / character name / unique moniker in the FIRST place! What the hell, Actiblizzard, what the hell! All I can assume is that they've got a lot of people in charge who have never used the internet.

 

[Lightslei]

It is a bad bad idea. It pretty much ensures i wont bother with any future Blizzard projects involving Battle.net. I don't need every random jerk knowing my name, i don't like the idea of any company announcing it for public view.
Along with e-mail address being used as login name ever since battle.net rework it can only bring bad things, and result in serious breaches of privacy.

QFT

its optional unless you use the forums at least that's what it sound like to me

And if they wanted to use the forums, there is repercussion from simply having your name displayed. THAT'S THE PROBLEM.

 

[Tony2077]

It is a bad bad idea. It pretty much ensures i wont bother with any future Blizzard projects involving Battle.net. I don't need every random jerk knowing my name, i don't like the idea of any company announcing it for public view.
Along with e-mail address being used as login name ever since battle.net rework it can only bring bad things, and result in serious breaches of privacy.

QFT

its optional unless you use the forums at least that's what it sound like to me

And if they wanted to use the forums, there is repercussion from simply having your name displayed. THAT'S THE PROBLEM.

hmm?

 

[Lightslei]

It is a bad bad idea. It pretty much ensures i wont bother with any future Blizzard projects involving Battle.net. I don't need every random jerk knowing my name, i don't like the idea of any company announcing it for public view.
Along with e-mail address being used as login name ever since battle.net rework it can only bring bad things, and result in serious breaches of privacy.

QFT

its optional unless you use the forums at least that's what it sound like to me

And if they wanted to use the forums, there is repercussion from simply having your name displayed. THAT'S THE PROBLEM.

hmm?

If I saw your full name on The Escapist forums right now, how fast do you think I could track down everyone you're related to, where you went to school, where you live and where you work? Same concept. We don't want other people to know about us hence the point of a Username/Nickname/GamerTag. This just throws that out the window.

 

[fundayz]

I am in full support of this change. While some people might have small inconveniences with the system(such as the teacher above), the benefits of making people accountable will only help create more useful forums and a healthier game community. While internet anonymity is a great thing, it is too often abused and enables people to throw general decency and thoughtfulness out the window without any repercussion. I would like to see this system implemented in more game forums.

@ those complaining about privacy and rights: Providing a real life name when posting does not break any privacy rights in anyway, the only information being given is that somewhere out there exists a person with a certain name that speaks a certain language that plays a certain game.

edit:

If I saw your full name on The Escapist forums right now, how fast do you think I could track down everyone you're related to, where you went to school, where you live and where you work? Same concept. We don't want other people to know about us hence the point of a Username/Nickname/GamerTag. This just throws that out the window.

David Rodriguez. Knock yourself out.

 

[Tony2077]

It is a bad bad idea. It pretty much ensures i wont bother with any future Blizzard projects involving Battle.net. I don't need every random jerk knowing my name, i don't like the idea of any company announcing it for public view.
Along with e-mail address being used as login name ever since battle.net rework it can only bring bad things, and result in serious breaches of privacy.

QFT

its optional unless you use the forums at least that's what it sound like to me

And if they wanted to use the forums, there is repercussion from simply having your name displayed. THAT'S THE PROBLEM.

hmm?

If I saw your full name on The Escapist forums right now, how fast do you think I could track down everyone you're related to, where you went to school, where you live and where you work? Same concept. We don't want other people to know about us hence the point of a Username/Nickname/GamerTag. This just throws that out the window.

just try it i use my real name as my account name and last name well its around here somewhere

 

[Lightslei]

I am in full support of this change. While some people might have small inconveniences with the system(such as the teacher above), the benefits of making people accountable will only help create more useful forums and a healthier game community. While internet anonymity is a great thing, it is too often abused and enables people to throw general decency and thoughtfulness out the window without any repercussion. I would like to see this system implemented in more game forums.

@ those complaining about privacy and rights: Providing a real life name when posting does not break any privacy rights in anyway, the only information being given is that somewhere out there exists a person with a certain name that speaks a certain language that plays a certain game.

Don't complain when you get prank calls or death threats to your house after you irritate someone on a forum then . You don't seem to realize how dangerous this is.

 

[Lightslei]

snip

I don't see your last name anywhere, only your first.

 

[fundayz]

Don't complain when you get prank calls or death threats to your house after you irritate someone on a forum then . You don't seem to realize how dangerous this is.

Easy there Anonymous

 

[Miumaru]

So Blizzard are using fear and peer pressure to control their forums. Great. Me, I am more myself online than off, so Id rather not give chance of combining the two yet. I am against this.

 

[Tony2077]

snip

I don't see your last name anywhere, only your first.

hm i may not have added it on this account

 

[squid5580]

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.

I don't think we are overreacting. I have a daughter who will one day want to use the internet. I still have a few years before that happens but I am pretty sure it will. It is one of my many jobs to teach her about internet safety. That in a nutshell is not give out personal information to the general public. This contradicts all of that. One of the thread titles on the forum last time I checked was called "Welcome to Pedo.net". It is stupid to do this because of that reason alone. Unless Blizzard is going to have some sort of security measure to keep pedophiles and stalkers out I don't see how this can be good.

 

[Ekit]

I like the idea, but it seems like alot of people don't...

And if Blizzard continues to make changes that don't sit right with the masses i think they will lose their monopoly on MMORPG-players.