official World of Warcraft

[troGGers]

It started with a Friends list. People you added to your friends list could see your real name. Then anyone on your friends friend list can see your name, now anyone on the forum can see your real name. What's next?

The only people that can see your real name on a friends list are those who know your e-mail account associated with WoW (which likely sends your real name in an e-mail header anyways, given that you may have corresponded with them in the past). Even after that fact, you'd have to approve them anyways.

[the evn show]

I mean seriously everyone's making a huge stink over something that is really no big deal. If you don't like it, don't post on the official forums. No one will ever know your real name.

Forums are the official support channel, it seems unfair that the original agreement (buy this game, pay our fee, get some support) is being changed: there is now an additional cost.

It's particularly noticeable because today your posts will be deleted for posting personally identifying information like your real name (read the TOS).

Besides, whats the difference in this, and giving out say, a Facebook page? People will get your real name irregardless.

I would be choosing who i gave out that facebook page too, I'm also free to use a fake name there: blizzard links your credit card information to your real name AND it's not possible to convert from my real name to a false one now that battlenet is in place.

My, facebook and my deviantArt, both have my real name in their URL. Hell my deviantArt name IS my real name. Do I care? Not especially. I'm a 29 year old (almost 30). I can defend myself

The petty prick I ganked on my way to ICC who happens to live in town can just as easily put the keys to my BMW while I'm sleeping.

Make the forums optional by replacing them as the official support forum (ie: ingame support, separate bug report website, etc) and most of my complaints will dry up. Splitting real name from character information is also an option.

[Vice]

I must admit some really funny things have come out of this debacle. The 2,200 page thread on the official forums has come up with some very entertaining posts.

one such post:

Yo, this is the story all about how

My Real ID made some *@*@ go down

I'd like to take a moment

Just listen to me

And I'll tell you all about how Blizzard took my privacy

In West Elwynn Forest, born and raised

Adventuring is how I spent most of my days

Questing, grouping, crafting my gear

Grinding Ashen Verdict up to Revered

When a guy named Bobby Kotick

Who was up to no good

Did something that not a single person understood

He showed up on the forums, told us we'd use our real names

And said "Now everyone who googles you will know you play our games."

I whistled for a blue and when he came near

He said they'd been planning Real ID for over a year

I said I didn't think getting tracked down would be funny

But he said "NAW FORGET IT, YO HOLMES IT'S MORE MONEY"

I went to account management and canceled my pay

And I yelled to Bobby Kotick, "Yo holmes, smell ya later,"

I looked back at Azeroth, devoid of security

And thought 'Goodbye, WoW

I think I'll keep my obscurity.'

[Magichat]

I feel terrible for you guys this is an absolute slap in the face with regards to online privacy/anonymity. And from a financial stand point I do not understand exactly how they think this is going to generate increased revenue. The business model for SC2 is already terrible with no LAN play or chat support. Forcing accounts to be linked with the real id system which is required to access the forums will kill a global community. I would say its safe to say that you can watch the already under performing Activision Blizzard stock drop further.

[Magichat]

http://asnowstormbyanyothername.blogspot.com/

*Cough* Owned *Cough*

[ylcard]

http://asnowstormbya...e.blogspot.com/

*Cough* Owned *Cough*

I didn't read the whole piece of "article", but how do you reckon Blizzard were owned there ? Ohnoes, some douchebag figured out where they live.

Some of his stuff is pure guess work, by the way.

I also loved how they "owned" themselves with Micah Whippie or whatever his name is, oops, it wasn't the Blizzard one.. oh well, WE'RE STILL RIGHT DAMN IT!!!

****ing children, grow the **** up.

[Spookie]

****ing children, grow the **** up.

This. Current hearsay on the streets is that:

- Blizzard now have no say in the RealID changes or Battle.net any more but still have complete control over their games.

- Everyone is, obviously, forced to pull the company line.

- The head honchos at Activision are looking to integrate facebook in to WoW they can appeal to more casual gamers.

Might be complete bull**** but I certainly don't buy that this is to clean up the forums. There are much easier ways of doing that.

[Spookie]

- The head honchos at Activision are looking to integrate facebook in to WoW they can appeal to more casual gamers.

Blizzard and Facebook's friendly social networking deal launches with 'StarCraft II'

Ooer.

[game_over]

I don't understand why anyone is bothered? what can someone possibly do with your name?

[Elliott]

http://asnowstormbyanyothername.blogspot.com/

*Cough* Owned *Cough*

:laugh: I think Bobby Kotick has done a lot more to **** gamers off than the typical SC2 or WoW player. I haven't seen somebody come to his house and murder his wife and children yet.

[ANON86364]

Privacy on the internet is fake. The internet community is as real as our "real lives". To even be comparing it as a "real life" to, what? internet life? is ridiculous. They are one in the same. Everything you do on the internet does and should have accountability. Your attitude and demeanor should not change just because you are behind a keyboard or mobile device or over VoIP.

I believe the opposite in that not revealing yourself is secrecy. If you are for non-disclosure then you should be able to explain why disclosure is civilly wrong. And I mean more than just saying it's wrong, and it's an invasion of privacy because like I said, I believe privacy in your home is one thing; privacy on an open forum is another and is an illusion.

Regarding people becoming intimately aware of your personal life: How is someone you communicate with either over a game, on a forum such as this so different than going to Dunkin Donuts every morning for coffee and the people there knowing your schedule? Or the cashier at your local grocery knowing what you regularly eat? etc...

My point is, however played out it may sound, the world is really much smaller than any of you give it credit for. For so many of you to be so connected I would figure you would see that.

[Slane]

I don't understand why anyone is bothered? what can someone possibly do with your name?

Anything and everything.

I didn't read the whole piece of "article", but how do you reckon Blizzard were owned there ? Ohnoes, some douchebag figured out where they live.

Some of his stuff is pure guess work, by the way.

I also loved how they "owned" themselves with Micah Whippie or whatever his name is, oops, it wasn't the Blizzard one.. oh well, WE'RE STILL RIGHT DAMN IT!!!

****ing children, grow the **** up.

The point is, it's the internet. There are very skilled and very twisted ****s out there who can do all kinds of stuff with someone's real name. Let's say there's a guy named John Smith having a heated discussion with Billy-Bob Applewood. Billy-Bob Applewood is a very handy literate computer person who knows all the dark arts of tracking someone down and through process of elimination. John Smith is arguing with Billy-Bob about how casual WoW is. John says it's not (he's a noob) and Billy-Bob saying it isn't (Eltist). John ends up getting the final word in, before a mod closes it. This enrages Billy-Bob and since he knew John Smith name, he decides to track him down.

Due to the new facebook/WoW partnership, John Smith has his Facebook linked to his Real ID (with a nifty little FB icon somewhere on his profile). Billy-Bob sees this and sees that John Smith set it to private (bravo). Only thing Billy-Bob has to do is create a fake profile and make it seem like Billy-Bob and John went to the same HS. John thinks he's accepting an old buddy of his from years ago to his FB. Now Billy-Bob has all the info he needs (w/o having to do any serious digging of the net). A few days later Billy-Bob shows up at John's house with a sawed off shotgun. His final words to Billy-Bob, "WoW isn't hard noob." *BOOOM* pellets to the face.

That's just me spewing some BS, but see how easy it's gonna be for deranged psychos (go ahead and give the whole "they shouldn't be on the internet" speech that doesn't change a fact) to find someone and if they have the means complete destroy someone's life.

Another example. Miss Chelsea Smith (no relation to John) asks for help about a quest in Tanaris. A guy by the name of Ray Charles (no relation) likes the way she "speaks" and starts stalking her in-game, she shuts down his advances so he notches it up. Starts to stalk her on FB, Myspace and all the other cool hip places people use. He starts doing the whole stalking thing, messing with her friends and what not. She's getting scared, her friends and family are getting worried, but there isn't much she can do (shes lives in Kentucky that has no or a lax Cyber-Stalking law). Ray Charles here's continues to stalk her and has moved on to places she hangs out (the gym and Chelsea bowls on a league) and work. He boss is getting upset, people at the league are alienating her due to the craziness around her. She finally finds someway to put her stalker at bay, this only enrages Ray Charles who steps it up and moves from Cyber-Stalking to just plain old Stalking. Starts following her to work, mesmerizing her schedule, masturbating in his car as he watches her through the gym window. Ya know doing all the sick **** that people have down in the past.

Finally Ray Charless gets his chance, she parked in a dark, secluded area of the parking lot and he uses this opportunity to grab her. Takes her off the a motel on the outskirts of town, where he proceeds to rape and sodomize her. He eventually ends up killing her, but not after having his dark, twisted way. Ray Charles is eventually caught (he got sloppy when he was so close to his target) and is caught. Police and FBI grill him and he confesses this all started over a thread at the WoW realm forums. Chelsea's parents are notified of this and lawsuit #1 (of several) is filed against Activision-Blizzard, due to them tossing privacy out the window.

All this because you are forced to use your real name (if it was optional that'd be awesome) and you posted something so innocent as asking for help with a quest.

Now both of the examples are to the extreme (though **** like this has happened in the past and will continue to do so w/o this Real Id system), but they there to illustrate the possibility of what would happen with the deranged people of the internet. Really hope this opens up your mind to the negatives of Real-Name posting and provides some insight as to why so many are oppose to this.

[the evn show]

Regarding people becoming intimately aware of your personal life: How is someone you communicate with either over a game, on a forum such as this so different than going to Dunkin Donuts every morning for coffee and the people there knowing your schedule? Or the cashier at your local grocery knowing what you regularly eat? etc?

If I'm a creepy office guy that hit on your wife at the christmas party would you be okay with the donut shop providing me a list of dates/times your wife comes in every day?

[ylcard]

As you've put it, ANYONE can easily know your real name by going to your facebook page, friend or not, it doesn't matter.

To those that don't have facebook, they obviously don't want to socialize over the internet, so why the hell would they do so when it comes to WoW's forums ? Just to make a point ?

And lets say this again, people shouldn't be scared of someone else knowing their name, if you're genuinely "scared" about this, don't use WoW's new forums.

[Slane]

And lets say this again, people shouldn't be scared of someone else knowing their name, if you're genuinely "scared" about this, don't use WoW's new forums.

Okay you either or missing the point completely or don't have all the info.

When they announced this, they didn't' make it clear as to whether previous posts was to be converted. This was the issue I had and many others had. They have since said previous posts wouldn't (can't be really) be converted. So the major issue (I had with as to others) was answered and solve. And as stated in previous posts (if you would have read) the only option is to not use the main source of Support for any Blizzard game if you don't want people to know your real name. That's the issue now.

So again, the problem was previous posts (the one you posted under your toons name) were to be converted. They stated this wouldn't happen, 95% of complaints were solved then and there.

So what are posting about as the original issue is dead?

[ylcard]

"So what are posting about as the original issue is dead?", I didn't understand this part at all.. what do you mean ?

You can still get support from Blizzard, either by using email, or by going to their KB site.

Also, I'm not sure about their old (current) forums, but I imagine they'll still be operational, so support could be given there by the users.

[Xilo]

We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

[Olemus]

Ok we can stop complaining now. Blizzard have cancelled the idea.

Hello everyone,

I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.

I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you'll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.

In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, ( http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/mission.html ) and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning.

Mike Morhaime

CEO & Cofounder

Blizzard Entertainment

Sauce: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/1856-Real-Names-on-Official-Forums-cancelled

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Blizzard changed their minds.

[Spookie]

Unlucky Activision back to the drawing board for now! I'm sure this will be back pre-cata for round two though.

[Slane]

Unlucky Activision back to the drawing board for now! I'm sure this will be back pre-cata for round two though.

It will be.

@Inclined - Nevermind we either both agree or I just can't figure out what the hell you were going on about.

[Vice]

Good. I'm glad they listened.

[Elliott]

If they don't use your real name, they should at least use some sort of identifying code on the forums so you can Armory every character a person has attached to their Bnet account. I'm sick of the anonymity of these trolls, and I was hoping this would solve that.

I'm sure Wowhead and MMO Champion are sad now too. I bet they were hoping for the mass exodus. :p

[Vice]

I don't see why they allow people to use their character names on the forums. They should allow users to set a unique username which stays with you across all the Blizzard boards just like how Neowin or any other forum on the face of the globe does it.

The RealID scheme was destined to fail and a total overreaction to the problem of trolls there are much better and less controversial ways of doing it.

[trag3dy]

I guess to many people canceled their accounts and SC2 pre orders so they had to reconsider? They don't say they were wrong by trying to do this only that they had to basically cave under the pressure of so many lost accounts.