Blizzard's RealID forcing real names

[Calneon]

<img src="http://www.alttabbed.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/battle-book.jpg" alt="Battle.Book" title="battle-book" width="640" height="200" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-916" />

A few days ago, Blizzard made an <a href="http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041&sid=3000">announce ment</a> that shocked the whole World Of Warcraft community, people who used to play but have quit, and even people who have never played the game before. Everyone seems to have an opinion on this, and almost all of those opinions are massively negative towards the idea.

<blockquote>The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.

The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven't been connected before. With this change, you'll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.</blockquote>

They are trying to justify the move by saying it will make the forums a better place with less trolling and spam, but it's not hard to see that there is a lot, lot more behind this move than what's on the surface. If their sole reasoning was to remove trolling, they could have made you post with your account, and not a specific character (at the moment, you can make a level 1 character and post completely anonymously), if your whole account was being shown, you would be more careful with what you post. Instead,*Blizzard look to be moving into Facebook territory. A move to Facebook integration with Battle.net could make a lot of money for both parties. As everyone knows, Farmville has a lot more players even than World Of Warcraft, and if Blizzard were able to tap into that market they could make a lot of money. It's not long before we see updates on Facebook saying, "John Smith needs one more Primordial Saronite for his Uber Epix chestplate, can anyone help him?", or, "Kate Bloggs has completed 75% of the achievement 'Collect 200 top hats for the homeless', that's amazing!".

However, in doing so, they are risking the security and privacy of all the people who post on the forum. In a community of millions of players, the chances are that some people are going to disagree with you and in very rare (but still possible) cases, want to take it further than just replying on the forum. Giving away your full name makes it incredibly easy to find out where you live, what your email address is, where you work, basically everything and anything about you. If the forums didn't show this information, it would be incredibly hard if not impossible to find out anything, unless you explicitly told the person your email/name. It's almost guaranteed that woman are not going to post on the forums anymore, as many hide behind male avatars so they don't get harassed and stalked online by lonely men. Employers will search for your name when considering you for a job and will find posts by you explaining why this DPS rotation is better than that one, and like it or not they might reject you for it. A fine demonstration of this going wrong was when Blizzard employee Bashiok, the poor fool, posted his real name on the official forums, and an hour later everybody knew his phone number, house, family, and <a href="http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Americans-are-bad-at-games/Real-Names-on-the-Official-Forums-New-REAL-ID-function?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed &amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+wowriot+(Latest+Wowriot+Bl og+Posts+-+Wowriot.Gameriot.com)&amp;gr_i_ni">lots more</a>.

The choice is, post on the forum and give away your identity to ANYONE who wants it, or don't post on the forums at all. This will obviously drive away a huge number of the best posters on the official forums, making them a worse place than before, even without the spam. What happens when you get redirected to a technical forum to ask a question? I know I've had messages from GMs that say, 'please post on the suggestion forum', or error messages that say 'please post on the technical support forum', what will I do then? If I don't want to give away my identity I have no choice but to let my thought go unheard.

As such, I don't see how anyone can agree with this. This goes a LOT LOT deeper than simply stopping spam and trolling on the forums, and in my opinion this could be the start of the fall of WoW if Activision-Blizzard decide to stay on this route.

<a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/07/07/broken-armour-blizzards-forum-folly/#comment-471038">Alec Meer, Rock Paper Shotgun</a>
<a href="http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.php?68744-RealID-Unethical-and-Dangerous">Ciderhelm, Tankspot</a>
<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-my-name-really-is-Deathblood-Blackaxe#3171416">Long forum post by Natti </a>


From AltTabbed.com

[Colonel Mitch]

At the end of the day your name isn't considered private information by jsut about any government so I dont see why this is a particular problem.

To run a background check etc you 1 have to legally proclaim your the person running it if its a personal check and 2 need more information than just a name!

Sure some quick facebooking could probably get you the infromation you needed but still jsut having your name shown on a forum shouldnt cause any security threats unless your info is in the public domain to be tied with it.

[Isphera]

At the end of the day your name isn't considered private information by jsut about any government so I dont see why this is a particular problem.

To run a background check etc you 1 have to legally proclaim your the person running it if its a personal check and 2 need more information than just a name!

Sure some quick facebooking could probably get you the infromation you needed but still jsut having your name shown on a forum shouldnt cause any security threats unless your info is in the public domain to be tied with it.

I'm with Piers on this one.

As far as I'm concerned, my golden rule for the internet - 'If you don't want stuff there, then don't get put in a situation for it to be put there'. This includes things such as the Vietmanese sex tape scandal, the Hayley Williams 'get your rack out' photo, and Hutch deciding to have a video taken of him and his shooting club buddies whipping each other.

That goes for this as well, you don't want your name there - don't use the service. I have absolutely no problem in being associated with Warcraft in anyway. Since all my Facebook data is private unless your an approved friend (which for me is pretty rare, I'm deleting more people than I add), the only way to find info about me is forums such as this and my blog, where I post stuff I have no concern with the General Public reading. Other than that, it's generally common sense - don't post personal details online unless you want people to know them, only deal with people you truly trust and don't click on suspicious links and get passwords stolen.

And on the employment point, not hiring someone because they play a certain video game and know the difference between a Affliction and Destruction lock spec is a form of discrimination, which is punishable by law and companies can and are taken to court over it.

And searching people's names to find where they live? Give me a break.

And you know what? Because these silly lefties are crying about privacy in what has become a 2000 page thread, they'll get their way as well. If this does go ahead though, there is absolutely no way in hell WoW will collapse over this.

[Target]

We where just talking about this with siepie the other night, not that its really going to bother that many of us seems we never post on the wow forums, but marshy will cry

[Calneon]

To run a background check etc you 1 have to legally proclaim your the person running it if its a personal check and 2 need more information than just a name!

You never have to proclaim your name to anyone other than Blizzard (when you pay them).

If people have your name, they can find out everything about you. Only exception is if you have a common name.

[Isphera]

If people have your name, they can find out everything about you. Only exception is if you have a common name.

And who in the world has a unique name? There's about 30 or 40 of me, and thats just Facebook searching. Target's RL name has 114 results.

[Calneon]

And on the employment point, not hiring someone because they play a certain video game and know the difference between a Affliction and Destruction lock spec is a form of discrimination, which is punishable by law and companies can and are taken to court over it.

They don't have to say why they declined you.

Saying 'oh I don't care because it doesn't affect me', is just being nieve. That's like saying, lets kill everyone in Africa to stop poverty, and you think it's a good idea because it doesn't affect you? The fact is, it affects a lot of people out there and will affect WoW as a whole as people stop playing it.

[Calneon]

And who in the world has a unique name? There's about 30 or 40 of me, and thats just Facebook searching.

You've never been to /b/ have you? You have no idea what they can do with just a name. Granted, Marcus Cross is a common name, but again you're dismissing something just because it doesn't affect you.

[Isphera]

I'm not saying that I'm dismissing it because it doesn't affect me. What I'm saying is that people need to evaluate whether or not they want their name on the internet. If they don't, then they shouldn't use the service. Same goes for pictures at parties, videos in Canada of someone really wanting to go to the mall and other personal events - if you don't want them shared with the greater world, then don't put yourself in a situation where they will happen. It's that simple. You signed up for their service - if you don't like the service they provide, then don't use it.

One of the very small reasons I decided to never go out with school colleagues during my time there (and remain t-total) was that very threat of pictures and videos of my paralytic body being violated with squirty cheese, permanent marker and ribbon.

[Colonel Mitch]

I have a pretty rare name - without using my facebook - i challange you to find out my information phantom.

[Isphera]

I have a pretty rare name - without using my facebook - i challange you to find out my information phantom.

I'm now looking for that news story of you with your car stuck on a beach

[Colonel Mitch]

I'm now looking for that news story of you with your car stuck on a beach

I googled myself and the first result gives some info but thats coz im in the fone book lol. Dunno how much info it would give if you actually paid the credit for it but i believe it would just be home fone number and address, which are in the fonebook for all to see anyway xD

[Calneon]

I'm not saying that I'm dismissing it because it doesn't affect me. What I'm saying is that people need to evaluate whether or not they want their name on the internet. If they don't, then they shouldn't use the service. Same goes for pictures at parties, videos in Canada of someone really wanting to go to the mall and other personal events - if you don't want them shared with the greater world, then don't put yourself in a situation where they will happen. It's that simple. You signed up for their service - if you don't like the service they provide, then don't use it.

One of the very small reasons I decided to never go out with school colleagues during my time there (and remain t-total) was that very threat of pictures and videos of my paralytic body being violated with squirty cheese, permanent marker and ribbon.

You're still doing it. For some people it's not as simple as just 'not using the service'. For some players, the forum is a huge extension of the actual game, where they socialize with other players and pride themselves in guides and information they post. To take that away from them is like giving away your full name in WoW. What would happen if they announced that all characters will have your real name displayed above the character's name. Does your point still stand that if you don't like it, don't play the game? What about people who have been playing since beta, who now have to chose whether to keep playing the game they love but risk their personal security, or quit something that's been part of their life for years.

@ Mitch, the argument that it doesn't matter because you can't find out information through a name, is fundamentally flawed because it's been proven that you can.

[Isphera]

Thats the decision you have to make - are you willing to give up something you dedicate your time to for the sake of a little privacy loss or are you going to accept the change and move on. I don't see how that's difficult to understand.

[Colonel Mitch]

Im not saying you cant pahnt, im saying u cant from a name alone. If you take someones name and google it and find tehre is information out there on facebook or the phone directory that has me as the first result then its their fault for having publicly availible information.