All Blizzard Forums to use Real Names

[Hatter]

I posted this on my blog today, but figured I'd make a topic since there's some WoW players here.

According to an announcement (http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041) this morning, all Blizzard forums will be migrating to a new version where posters will all use their Real IDs, that is the real first and last name associated with your account. So instead of your character name appearing, it will be your actual name optionally followed by a character name.

To say the least, the community reaction so far has been pretty strong. Obviously SC2 players can just create a new battle.net account under an alias, but WoW players already have their characters tied to an account that will likely have their real names on them, which means that if you value your online privacy you are effectively banned from the official forums.

Now, battle.net forums have always been pretty lousy, but I don't foresee this move helping them at all.

And just to prove a point, Bashiok decided to post his real name on the forums. I bet you can guess what happened next (http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Americans-are-bad-at-games/Real-Names-on-the-Official-Forums-New-REAL-ID-function?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wowriot+%28Latest+Wowriot+Blog+ Posts+-+Wowriot.Gameriot.com%29&gr_i_ni).

I should mention that this change is not retroactive. So existing forum posts will not be affected, it will start to be the case as each game migrates into the new forum system. For WoW this will happen sometime around the release of Cataclysm.

[Harry]

I have no fear whatsoever in using my real name on the internet.

<-- Frank W. Prokup, Jr. from Cleveland, MS, 26yo, Lutheran, softball coach. The real me.

[Hatter]

I think there's a pretty significant difference between posting your name on a quiet family-style forum and posting it on one frequented by hundreds of thousands of people. It just takes one /b/tard to start harassing your family 'for teh lulz'.

[bunny]

I think there's a pretty significant difference between posting your name on a quiet family-style forum and posting it on one frequented by hundreds of thousands of people. It just takes one /b/tard to start harassing your family 'for teh lulz'.

I just heard about 4Chan (I know, I know, I live under a rock) and this struck me as being potentially the polar opposite of the hive of anonymous.

[bondetamp]

I have no fear whatsoever in using my real name on the internet.

<-- Frank W. Prokup, Jr. from Cleveland, MS, 26yo, Lutheran, softball coach. The real me.
Good for you, but not really relevant when debating whether or not this should be information given out by Blizzard.

[AZRogue]

I always thought companies were obligated, or at least encouraged, to keep their customers' information private for ethical, if not legal, reasons? This seems like a huge violation of trust and I have to wonder what "need" this is supposed to be solving. I can't think of one.

One thing it will accomplish is force the majority of their customer base to stop using their forums. There will be a lot of interesting, and potentially useful, threads lost, not to mention those people who might need help and support but who will rather suffer in silence than post.

I would predict that this causes the majority of the user base, including those frequent posters that keep boards alive, to migrate to another, non-Blizzard message board, but I doubt it will be that tidy. Most likely people will scatter to several message boards, instead, or just stop posting entirely.

I can tell you, this move doesn't exactly make me eager to go play WoW, or use their products. They should offer their customers the option to hide their names from everyone but moderators and the fact that they won't just strikes me as arrogance.

[Hatter]

The one interesting thing I've seen reading about this is the exposure it's given to how women gamers are treated by the community. I mean, we've seen this in our forum history to some extent, but most of the posts I've seen about the subject by women basically state that they would be unable to ever participate in the official forums.

Example (http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-my-name-really-is-Deathblood-Blackaxe#3171416) and a really good post too.

[Northcott]

Sweet Jesus, what a colossally stupid thing to do. On top of alienating its customer base, Blizzard just opened itself up to some really nasty PR and potential lawsuits if anything drastic should happen because of their new policy.

[Limper]

What are they hoping will come of this?

[Enk]

What are they hoping will come of this?

More polite conversation.

Sadly, that won't work until it's possible to punch someone in the face over Standard TCP/IP.

[Hatter]

Trolls will just use an assumed name or just won't care if people know their name and this change gives them so much more ammunition with which to troll people. I think this will make the forums even worse, with fewer worthwhile posts and more social malcontents.

[Name Lips]

Even ignoring the female harassment issue, this is a bad idea to me just because so many children play WoW. Many parents allow their kids to play MMOs if they follow certain internet safety rules, not the least of which is no sharing of personal information, including their names.

[Hatter]

Even ignoring the female harassment issue, this is a bad idea to me just because so many children play WoW. Many parents allow their kids to play MMOs if they follow certain internet safety rules, not the least of which is no sharing of personal information, including their names.

You can set parental controls to prevent your kids from posting in the forums, but I consider how many parents will do that.

[Hatter]

It looks like people have determined how the facebook integration works as well. It's a little fishy (not cause for alarm, but somewhat unethical).

Essentially, what happens is when someone connects to Facebook through battle.net 2.0 it searches through their friends list for emails that match addresses for other battle.net accounts.

So if one of your Facebook friends is on battle.net they can find if you are also on battle.net. To date, there is no opt out for this, aside from no longer sharing your email address on Facebook with friends you don't want to meet on battle.net.

It's unethical because:

1. There is no way to opt out. Even if you never use the battle.net facebook integration yourself, if your facebook friends do, they can find you on battle.net.

2. Blizzard can gather facebook data about you through your friends. This is more concerning. With the integration, Blizzard will theoretically have access to everything your friends can see in your facebook profile and there is no setting to restrict this data without also restricting it from all your friends.

[bondetamp]

There are both good and bad aspects here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NgAkWxcPBE

[The Winslow]

Is that really what they say? Or is it like all these Downfall parodies?

[bondetamp]

I'm guessing we're seeing the emergence of a new meme, but I don't know Russian. I just know dance genius when I see it. ;)

[Ancalagon]

This will probably be in violation of canadian privacy laws...

It's not a good idea. Apparently the forums isn't really "optional", as for technical support it is supposedly *the* place to go.

I hope that CCP is listening and thinking "oh dear lord what a horrid idea".

[bondetamp]

Oh, and in case you do wonder what Hitler thinks of all this:

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

[bondetamp]

And another movie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LGOlneoIB0

[Hatter]

So Blizzard backs off on the idea (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1), but as Tycho points out (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/7/9/), they still plan on tying functionality to the Real ID system which is still a bad idea.