Everyone is talking about the new RealID changes. The latest “offense” by Blizzard is the new requirement that the official forums for their products will require you to use RealID publicly, thereby displaying your real full name. While this has undeniable implications, all the tin-foil hat players and bloggers should really take a chill pill.
There are a few important caveats that you need to realize:
- This only applies to new forum posts and only to the forums. Blizzard is not giving out your name, or any personal information, against your will. If you want to make a forum post in the official forums, you will have to use your real name; so if you don’t want to reveal your name in an online setting, don’t use the official forums.
- You can disable RealID. You will lose some functionality, like the new ability to add RealID friends or post in the forums, but you can still play the game the same way you’ve played it for years.
- If you are unsatisfied with the game, you can quit. Blizzard is not giving out any of your information against your will regardless, but if you have doubts, walk away and quit complaining. It’s a game, not an oppressive government.
Lets talk about the motivation for this change a bit and the implications of revealing your name online.
The official WoW forums are extremely active. They are run by Blizzard, and they are responsible for ensuring that they are moderated. They are used for customer service, technical support and announcements. As a company, Blizzard doesn’t really care about the threads that become hundreds of pages long. They have to attend to the inanity of flamewars and pointless ranting. It has really gotten out of hand, and it has really just become a place for people to go and complain about changes that Blizzard believes will sell the highest number of subscriptions.
The forums are a non-essential part of the game, and there are many forums for WoW on the Internet, including excellent sites like Elitist Jerks and MMO-Champion. Blizzard has the option of pulling the plug on the forums and shutting it down completely. My guess is that the motivation for the RealID change is to reduce the number of posts and increase the quality and purpose of the posts. You can say that it’s a “bad” change for a litany of reasons, but as far as Blizzard is concerned, it means that they can do their jobs better and easier by having their main vehicle for disseminating information be a little more civil. People will think twice about flaming others if their post may appear in a Google search for their name.
Of course, even if you are being completely polite, you may not want your WoW discussions associated with your real name. Employers may not want to know that you have a litany of thoughts on Frostfire specs. In this case, you simply stop using the forums. Use a different forum site or just don’t post. Blizzard has decided that it’s in their best interest to require people who want to complain about their product on their website reveal themselves.
This does place the responsibility in the hands of players. A naïve person or child is going to be stuck with their forum post for years. I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be an increased ability to edit and delete posts. In the case of children, parents have the option of disabling RealID, and hence the ability to post in the forums, so the “think of the children” argument is not really valid. It also isn’t Blizzard’s responsibility to ensure that you make the best decisions for yourself. If you think that revealing your name may be harmful, don’t use the forums.
Its easy to find my real name – Timothy Tusing. Most bloggers are public with their names and don’t suffer any major consequence, as it is a job or semi-professional hobby. Real names are generally non-unique and don’t give a whole lot of information about the person in themselves. People who are playing a game may feel differently. You may not want your guildmates to know your real name in case a loot dispute escalates and you get a vendetta or stalker in real life. Serious WoW players are probably more likely to have social and psychological issues, and I can imagine that a few players who decide to play publicly will receive some harassment. Just keep in mind, this is all completely optional, and if you are careful with revealing personal information online, you are probably not going to have any problems. Once this service is live, I think players will accept it quickly, as they did with the launch of the Armory.
Employees of Blizzard also are using their real names – including GMs and blue posters. I can imagine that they are unhappy with this change by and large – if you are dealing with unruly people and they have your name and one of a couple cities you live in, it could get unsettling. I wouldn’t take that job, but again, it’s a choice to work there. I’m not defending Blizzard in this aspect, as I don’t have the perspective of an employee. One blue poster who revealed his name was found on Facebook and his personal address and phone number were leaked onto the Internet. Anyone who takes their anger out against this employee have serious issues and should be banned.
To me, the bottom line is you make decisions every day about how you portray yourself online. If you don’t want your name tied to your WoW habit, then don’t use the forums. It’s not clear if it will be tied to your characters and we haven’t seen it in action yet, so consider reserving judgment until we know all the details. There is no legal case for requiring that people reveal their names to use your optional service (you can get technical and customer support through email and on the phone), and this will be a non sequitur in a year.
HERE HERE!
Excellent post Heartbourne. Flamers on forums should come here… instead of just getting the information and ranting about it on MMO-Champ.
so, Blizzard are effectivley saying, if you’re ok with cyberbullying, and having your name Googled by all and sundry on the internet (rather like poor blue poster Bashiok. He DID make a point on how easy it is though), go post as much as you like. if you dont want others to see your name and have ‘normal’ privacy issues, even if you have a legitimate point. Post on our forums? like hell you will.
The uniquness of a name isnt the point, its the fact that anyone can attach ANYTHING to your name if its more common. I did a little experiment earlier. I Googled my name, and came up with information NOT pertaining to me at all, but was still quite disturbing nonetheless, but CAN be used as defamatory just for the fact its the SAME name as mine, and people can and will associate them.
As for your point about blues showing their real names. look at wow.com at the moment, theres an atricle there which says that Blues will NOT have their names shown because its dangerous for them. Granted its clearly posted as a RUMOUR at the moment tho. so, you never know.
Anyways, I think this is a bad move on Blizzards part, especially with all the cyberbullying in the news recently. I for one will most definitley NOT be posting on the official forums after this is implemented, not because i’m worried about my info being dragged through the mud because i made a silly spelling mistake or somesuch nonsence, but simply because I’m making the point that if I want to give out my name, I will. It isn’t, and should never be Blizzards choice, it’s MINE, and mine alone.
I would much rather have Blizzard associate the forum posts with the character who has been played the most and is the highest level on the account. That, in my mind, should be enough to cut the trolling and flaming down to an ‘acceptable’ level (if trolling and flaming are ever acceptable in the first place).
Sorry, but I do get very angry over issues like this.
I’m not usually this RAWR \””\ ( ;,,; )/””/
I might have taken this post seriously if it wasnt for the fact that Blizzard staff often refers you to the forums for help.
As this is the case, id like to say that you, Tim Tusing, are full..of..shit…
Ya! Lets have MMO-Champ Flaming Troll wars! Wow that’d be fun :D
Now I’m not sure if you’ve said this, but Blizzard is giving the option to ‘opt-out’ of the Real ID forum stuff, which is separate from the Parental Controls.
However, the ‘opt-out’ option ‘opts’ us out of things we actually PAY for. Open things like the form to free to post public use and that’s cool.
BUT as long as it remains closed to those who do NOT pay for said service we should NOT be required to reveal our RL selves to ANYONE we do not choose to.
I most likely will quit the game. It won’t stop with the forums forcing a real name integration, eventually when Blizzard sees that a majority of the players are blissfully unaware of the change, they will think they approve of them.
Then they will slowly force integrate Real ID into WoW itself having your real name on your toon so people can ‘better associate the toon to the account’ or some crazy excuse they give.
I can’t believe people are seriously ok with this change. I have never trolled anyone, but that doesn’t mean I want my name out there for people to see openly. My guild knows me only by Dan when they talk to me in vent, and I only have 1 person on my Real ID friends list, an old friend that plays on a different server.
“Oh but it will reduce the trolls”. Blizzard shouldn’t have to reduce themselves to giving out personal information to stop trolls and flame wars. They should be hiring CM’s that actually do their jobs and mod the forums. Something the current batch obviously doesn’t do well.
All this Facebook integration that Activision-Blizzard is talking about right now, I’m done with the company.
@Dan
I think your overacting a bit. This is just the new forum, despite what people thought. All the current forums will stay how they are now, and there is no need to post on the new one if you don’t want to.
@Barugaara :
It’s going to start as just the new forums. They will expand this ‘grand amazing idea’ into the game.
“”We’re pleased to be working with Facebook to integrate their platform with Battle.net to enhance the social-entertainment experience for our players,” said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “This new functionality will make it easier than ever to connect with friends on Battle.net and play StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games together.”
Quoted from the Activison-Blizzard announcement that they are in bed with Facebook.
It’s coming. It’s just a matter of when.
@Dan
Your starting to sound like someone ranting about some government conspiracy theory. They are a video game company.
The main issue that people have taken umbrage with and it’s valid is that they are giving out something that is normally protected behind a veil of secrecy. You come into WoW to play the game, not be flirted with, to discuss your religious or political views or expect your boss to chat with you about that TPS report. However that is what RealID opens the door for. As one person said, “Thieves might be able to break into your house and bypass your security system, but that doesn’t mean you should give them the keys.” Also in the case of Bahsiok, the name that was given and the guy who got looked up were not the same person. That poor guy, who happened to share a name with a Blue got hit with real life threats and pranks because he happens to share a name with someone that a bunch of goons decided to be a jerk to. Are you okay with that possibility?
I’m kinda on the fence on this one. I personally don’t use the forums. I’d rather not anyways because of how bad it is. It could take awhile to truely get the right awnser or to never get one at all and a bunch of crap thrown in your face about maybe your Gear score or your achievments or litterally anything.
So I only have one friend on the real id thing ingame which is cool because I can chat cross server and cross faction. This im not worried about because as long as i only give my email to only my friends if they want to add me too it and they tell me their character name i’m totally cool with it.
I guess im part of the minority of people who dont care since I don’t use the forums even if i do pay to have the option of using it. ohwell theres a waste of my money duno how much of a percentage but i dont care.
TLDR: I like the ingame system im just not too sure about the forums but since i dont post i dont mind.
The new Battle.net has been strange on the privacy thing since day 1.
When it first launched and people started creating accounts, they noticed their information was displayed differently. Used to be, your account info did not have your full name shown, blocked out your address, cc number, phone number, etc.
Now, even though it still says “Your full address is not displayed here for your privacy”, it does show your full name, your country, state, city, zip code, the start of your address (street number and first letter of the street name), and the last 4 digits of your phone number.
Given all that, why bother to block out the little that they did? How hard is it to piece together the area code and prefix given all the other location information? (Yes, someone can have a cell phone or other type of number listed, but there will be a significant portion of accounts that list a home land line number.) And given a full name with city, there are probably quite a few ways to get the remaining bits of the street address.
With RealID now, it isn’t so much that I have to use the forums (although it would be an aspect of the game community I’d miss), it isn’t that I have a rather unique name that I don’t want made public to the millions in the WoWsphere, and it isn’t even Blizzard’s 180 on their previous recommended security practices (keep your information safe; don’t give your account name to anyone, even friends; don’t reveal anyone’s personal information in the forums). It is that I don’t understand what they are doing.
Listing out the benefits of RealID, I don’t see any reason that using your real first and last name is providing anything that a unique handle would not do just as well. Unless one goal is to limit use of the system, of course. Cut out the people who don’t want to show their real name and it lessens the load a bit. Might be into tinfoil territory there, but that’s all I have.
I have not played WoW for just over a year now. I was looking forward to going back for a bit to see Cataclysm events and changes. I might still be back at some point, depending on how all this works itself out, but without having a firm grasp on Blizzard’s RealID “endgame” I think I have to watch from a distance a while longer.
I am not foaming at the mouth, declaring Blizzard to be evil, or threatening lawsuits. I am just asking “Why?” I understand that I can still play the core game and try to avoid all the RealID aspects if I want to, but why do I need to when it seems a much more logical alternative to the real name system is standing in the corner waiting for someone to notice it?
By all means, please read the 2nd sentence of the first paragraph. Tell me how this represents anyone with an ounce of intelligence in any way, shape or form? Simply put for those with ADD, Blizzard is aware of the MASSIVE amounts of aggro and cancellations from their players (myself now included will NOT renew my sub when it’s up) and have still made it crystal clear they have NO intention of listening to us. I’d get political i.e. this smacks of the whole ‘townhall meeting/healthcare’ fiasco here in the U.S. but I’d rather not. Point is this: We pay for a service i.e. the forums. Whether or not we CHOOSE to use that service is up to the individual. They’ve taken away and are AWARE they’re taking away our choice from us. They do not CARE if the forums become a ghost town.
Secondly, I have no desire to participate in a ‘social gaming network’. If I want to facebook my ingame friends, I will do so. I will keep it to facebook, myspace, twitter or whatever. My GAME time is just that. MINE and GAME time. They’ve taken the choice out of my hands. Caveat Emptor, I suppose.
Blizzard has recently announced that it is making use of real world names and other data mandatory on the official forums for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, the long awaited strategy game sequel set to arrive on July 27, and for the World of Warcraft MMO, which should get the Cataclysm expansion. After a rather hostile reaction from the community of players, the studio revealed that it would be continuing to talk to players about the system but that it would nonetheless go ahead with its implementation.
A representative from Blizzard talked to Gamasutra about the Real ID concept and about how it would be implementing, saying that his company “will be carefully monitoring how people are using the service. Real ID is a new and different concept for Blizzard gamers – and for us as well – and our goal is to create a social gaming service that players want to use.”
He added, “It’s important to note that both enabling Real ID in game and posting on the official Blizzard forums are completely optional. Players can continue to read the forums anonymously regardless of whether they choose to post in them, and their gameplay experiences will not change if they choose not to use the Real ID communication features in game.”
It seems the company is comfortable with the fact that a lot of players might migrate from the official forums, asking questions and participating in other Internet-based communities. It might have some problems as bug reports from the player base are crucial to the ongoing task of World of Warcraft, the best MMO.
Blizzard is also assuring gamers that the moderating team will be more vigilant than ever when Real ID is being implemented, trying to limit all the incidents that can arise from the use of real world names on a gaming forum with a player base as big as that of World of Warcraft. Still, the potential for abuse is high and the official forums might feel much more empty in a short while.
@Kyndranigar
Really? You expect that to leak into the game? When people log in, regardless of your name, they will still play the game. It’s a game, and not a chat room.
This value on a name thing, and whole security thing is a bit one-sided. We’re all using the Hobbesian theory that people are evil by core design. Maybe only 2% of the player base (I’m pulling that number out the air) are the actual stereotypical gamer who has psychological issues and would actually stalk someone down.
Here’s the thing, you could do the exact same to them.
You know that guy that got stabbed because he killed someone in counterstrike?
Do you REALLY think there arent any twisted individuals out there that would do the same over losing a piece of loot, or an arena match?
Why dont they hand those guys your adress aswell, save em some work.
@Highwayman
You’ve come to an editorial site on MMOs and read a blog post on someone’s view. Belittling that person’s opinion does nothing to improve your status or produce progress in a discussion.
Yes, they are aware. Yes, they probably will be implementing this. Things do change even though it may not seem that way. There’s still two weeks before SC:WoL comes out, and still 2+ months to Cataclysm.
Blizzard is making a system for those who want it. You may not, and claim they’re wasting your money, but hey, you do that with your government anywhere by paying taxes. Before this goes political, let’s stick with this issue on hand.
You can “opt” out of people seeing your information, by turning off the service. From that point, people would have to hack servers (and therefor break a few federal laws) to see your name and account information. For the new forums, unless you’re a frequent flier there, you have nothing to complain about.
Yea Highwayman, can you do us all a favour, and keep your negative opinions to yourself? I’d rather not read garbage and flaming on LoreHound. Though if you like, I’m sure the official forums or comments section at MMO-Champs will welcome you.
This certainly is a hot-button issue that’s got a lot of people concerned and/or angry. And we all have led different lives with different experiences from which we take away different opinions.
Everyone’s opinion is legitimate, even if you don’t agree with it :)
Thank you Pixie. To Reavijinoo & Mordril, I’d ask this: How is pointing out what has already been said by Blizzard themselves flaming? I’d take the obvious route if I felt like it and make some more points however Blizzard has said it all themselves. And do I post on MMO Champs? No. That site HAS been hacked.
If all you want is postitivity and happy rainbows and cereal that DOESN’T get soggy in the milk, I’m afraid you’re in the wrong reality. Everyone, as Pixie so plainly stated, has a differing opinion. This is a public and open forum for said opinions whether they be yours, mine or anyone else’s. I’m sure Pixie, Juggy, Heartbourne and the rest took that into account when they created the site.
You can however find plenty of posts by me on the Official sticky thread on Worldofwarcraft.com under the name Highwayman and maybe a couple by Metakecandle.
Oh, and one last shot Mordril, according to the OFFICIAL sticky over at Worldofwarcraft.com, some 37,3094 people would like to disagree with you I believe.
I’m not looking for happy happy rainbows and not soggy cereals, I just really dislike how you are talking about this as you could be less negative, and still get your point across. You just took a shot at both of us.
And I have no idea to how MMO-Champs being hacked has to do with this at all.
Not to be childish about things Reav, but I never took the first shot. After posting honest and truthful statements, I was told to stop being negative and go elsewhere (in fact it was YOU Reav that told me to post on MMO-champs).
Looking at this negativly? I’ve spent the better part of the days since the announcement trying to put this in the best light so that I might be encouraged to stay on as WoW is a game I love along with the many friends I’ve made over the years through WoW. It truly breaks my heart as it does many long-term/time players to have to put security before everything else because the company we RELIED upon to keep said information safe has basically told us to go screw, they’d rather partner up with Facebook and make more money from another market. Yes, the previous sentence is paraphrased for brevity, HOWEVER all of it can be found in literal form on the internet.
Posting on MMO-champs which as had it’s own security issues in the past is ridiculous. I won’t do it for Blizzard, why would I do it for a fan-site? Besides which, personally I have no desire to visit a website that takes part in ‘datamining’. That’s just my personal preference which has been discussed here in previous posts.
Look, I’m sorry, I did not mean to offend, and I still don’t when I say that even though you may be putting it into a polite context, I still find it slightly more negative than you’d think.
I have had enough trouble with people and their opinions (again, no offense) and I would like to tell you I am fairly stubborn, so I’m putting my best foot forward and … apologizing.. if I upset you.
@Highwayman
Your first sentence sums up everything you have said. “Not to be childish about things, but here is a few paragraphs of me being childish”. WoW is a game and will remain one. This new change is to one specific part of the site that you have not even seen yet, so stop acting like you already know its outcome. You leeway for arguing is the some amounts of thousands of people who agree with you. Congratulations, you have officially conformed to the masses of people who are selective of what they read.
Apology accepted AND extended Reav. But I will ask one simple question: How long do you think it is before Activision-Blizzard decides to do something about the ‘trolls’ and ‘flamers’ that reside in trade, general, LFG, guild and raid chats (which is the OFFICIAL reason Activision-Blizzard is implementing mandatory Real ID into it’s forums)?
I’ve seen this thing happen before. The ‘normal’ attitude/solution (and one I think all WoW players would delightfully share in) is: “We report them via the reporting tool in-game and the GMs/CMs do their thing.”
The corporate decision is this: “Well, we’ve seen how impotent the in-game reporting tool is but look how well Real ID worked for our forums. We should and could and WILL implement this to in-game chat channels. It’ll work great! On the plus side of things, we can also use Real ID just like we did with the forums and mass market Blizzard, Zynga, and Activision products and services too! ALL IN GAME!!”
This isn’t a ‘fearmongering’ session or scare tactic. It’s the way a corporate mind works. If you can consolidate ALL of your tools into one small package, it frees up capital elsewhere for other projects. And that is what corporations do. They do make money by selling products/services but realistically speaking, it’s a small small amount compared to what they make via ‘shady’ marketing practices such as targeted marketing and consolidation of assests. Which, by the way, is the way Facebook (whom Activision-Blizzard is actively seeking a merger with) makes their money to support Facebook and all it’s applications.
Having been through a corporate merger myself, I can tell you it is far and away much easier to lower the standards of company A (who has high sales, customer service standards and practices) than it is to bring the standards of company B (who was on the brink of failing largely due to poor customer sales/satisfaction/practices) up.
On a side note, has anyone even considered the fact that legitimate posters in the WoW forums will be the one exposing their names while users out there with malignant intent only need a pen and paper to write down your name and won’t even need to log in to browse the forums?
On a more positive note: Are there ways this can be implemented without the severe security risks to players? Yes. I truly wish Blizzard had done so. However, they haven’t and have refused to say otherwise and in fact have stated bluntly the plan will go forward as stated by the official sticky.
The difference is that the entire system now is entirely optional, and that would be breaking that line. Facebook integration is optional. RealID is optional. Posting on the new forum, also optional. The day that your choice in the matter is invoked, then you can riot all you want.
I’m a little tired of the “just don’t use the forums” argument myself. I occationally like visiting the forums. I am not a troll. I am sometimes silly, sometimes seriously and I like the fact that my character sits between the internet and my real self.
If I want to remain private, I am basically being told “sorry, no forums for you.” This means I can’t post in guild recruitment forums. I can’t post in my realm forums. I can’t post in the technical support/bug forums if something goes wrong with my game and I just can’t figure it out. Gosh, that makes me feel really good about the service I’m paying to enjoy.
I also have a sense of forboding because they’ve announced that this is just the “next step” in bnet integration. So what’s the step after this? I have heard things about realID being used in Starcraft. I can imagine them being used in Diablo3 and Cataclysm too. Or if not Cata, then the next expansion after that. What worries me is that I DON’T KNOW what they are planning with doing it. I feel like this forum change is just a start and if it’s taken further, it’s just going to get more invasive over time. If this is allowed to happen, what will happen in a year? two years? I DON’T KNOW. A year ago, I could happily proclaim that Blizzard had it’s gamer’s best intentions in mind and now I’m no longer sure.
I’m sorry if that seems extreme, but it’s how I see this whole thing. I haven’t canceled my account yet, but I might if it gets worse, and I no longer find myself looking forward to Diablo3, which kinda makes me sad. I just don’t want all these extra features they’re pushing into their games.
The argument is not to just avoid the forums. This change is not to be implemented to the current forums. It will not effect anything you do on them. This “change” goes only on a new forum that you have not yet seen and are not obligated to use at it is not even a WoW forum, but a battle.net forum. I and many others have stated this several times, so please read before you rant about the details.
Edit: Corrected, it will be used on the new Cataclysm forum.
But there again Baru, it’s a service that a) as consumers we PAY for, and b) are always referred to use when calling/emailing about a tech or security issue. At some point, we WILL be forced to use said forums and therefore FORCED to ‘out’ ourselves if you will.
And honestly, it’s not so much the forums issue for me anymore. It’s the absolutely disgraceful way in which Activision-Blizzard has treated the concerns of it’s playerbase. As I’ve said before, it’s a ‘too bad so sad’ mentality. It’s disgraceful and totally lacking in any kind of concern for player safety.
Ask Micah Whipple what happened. He was cavalier and arrogant enough to post his real name in a post as a challange. Ask him what happened and how harrassed (depending on whom you choose to believe) a) he and his family were within an hour or two or b) some poor schmoe that had absolutely NOTHING to do with this was harrassed. Harrassed, I’m ashamed to say by some asshat WoW players that wanted to prove a point everyone and their brother knows already.
The system is rife with abuse and has already been abused. And the aforementioned ‘flaw’ in Real ID which (allegedly) allows one to see another’s player RL name both first and last in game already. This is, I fear, a sign of things to follow. To stick your head in the sand and say, “Just don’t post on the forums” is ludicrous and potentially dangerous. To furthermore go on and say, “Blizzard and Activision only have OUR best interests and safety as their concerns” is insane.
edit–
“And the aforementioned “flaw” in Real ID which (allegedly) allows one to see another’s RL name, first and last, is in the game already”
I’d like to mention that yes, I know this isn’t now but as you made note of, it will be the Cataclysm forums. Which means that they’re replacing their current forum system in WoW with the new one.
So while i can still be involved in the forums now without issue, in the future I will not be able to without putting my name out for anyone to see. I have a problem with this and I have a problem with the fact that this is not the end of what they have planned for RealID. We don’t know what their plans are but so far, this seems like a very bad step to me and doesn’t give me hope for future plans.
You don’t actually pay for use of the forums, just to play the game. The forum is a community that you may choose to participate in, but have no actual right to. The forums are also a single way of getting support. You could email or call with the same effect. You could equally argue that you can’t use phone support because you don’t own a phone.
Baru, actually we DO pay for use of the forums. Posting the in the forums requires we must have an active and paid up account to utilize.
To view the forums, you do NOT have to have a paid account. This actually is a more frightening prospect with the advent of mandatory Real ID since anybody, one of the billions of billions of people populating the world wide web will now be able to view YOUR first and last name without any ramifications whatsoever.
As far as emailing or calling support services, when you do, you are 99% of the time referred to the forums to post the issue you’re experiencing.
In a case where I was addressing a matter of someone preying on a child, I waited on HOLD for 3+ hrs (I did so as it was a VERY important issue), after filing in-game ticket after in-game ticket for a week straight all the while the preying was going on, only to be told to post my complaint IN THE FORUMS. Not find a solution to it, but to POST IT. In. The. Forums.
I had a tech issue about a year ago. I emailed the proper address. I received a ‘cut and paste’ reply to ‘reset your UI’ which I did and didn’t resolve the issue and if I had further issues I was to have them addressed by? You guessed it posting. It. In. The. Forums.
In either case, doing so under the ‘new and improved’ system, I would not only be exposing myself, but especially in the case of the child predator, I would’ve most likely been exposing her and HER family to God only KNOWS what kind of scumbaggery.
No, you don’t pay for the forums. Yes, you have to have a active subscription, but forum access is only a bonus received by doing so.
I’m sorry Barugaara, I’d back you up here, but I’m detaching myself before this conversation gets too out of hand-more than it already is.
Baru, I’m gonna do what Reav is doing and calling it done and done. I will leave you with this one last thought though. If, say, you went and bought a car and found that seats were only ‘extras’ and therefore not included in the deal, would you feel ripped off? Would you feel violated? Would you still buy the stupid car? I mean, you CAN drive the car without seats right? Maybe not the most eloquent analogy but an analogy nevertheless.
At any rate, good luck to all of you who stay. I pray that your security isn’t infringed upon before it’s too late for you to realize. If you believe that Blizzard’s security is airtight, think again. The Pentagon was airtight, till it was hacked. Airline security was consistently beefed up so scumbags and terrorists couldn’t fly…till the shoebomber, the underwear bomber etc. Point is NOTHING is air tight.
Everything we do leaves a footprint and whether or not we choose it, sometimes that footprint is exploited to our detriment. I pray it doesn’t happen to any of you. I’m doing everything in my power as it relates to online gaming to do so for me. This means being pre-emptive and deleting my account when it expires on the 16th. If Blizzard comes around to their senses and puts some security in this system then I’ll re-consider. Until then we’ll wait and see.
Your analogy doesn’t make sense. I wouldn’t buy a car with no seats, but I would buy a game with no forum. Forums are like the cars spoiler. You don’t need them.
Much like I’ve asked every person defending this, I will ask you the same.
Why should I be forced to give up the ability to receive timely technical support, customer support, submit bug reports, submit feedback and suggestions to developers, use the single-most-trafficked guild recruitment source, and give up the ability to delve deeper into my realm’s community because I refuse to reveal my real name? Especially when the system provides zero benefit to the end user, and takes away benefits that they have enjoyed for several years if they do not like it.
Yes, I use Real ID in-game a lot, because it’s a good implementation. It keeps my real name to people who already know it and that I already trust – its original design intent. There is no defensible reason why I should have to submit my name before the entire internet just to get a fix for the latest critical error. NONE.
If the intention of this change is to incorporate accountability – making the posters accountable for what they say – to reduce the trolls, then why apply the ban hammer to players accounts as well as their forum account.
Don’t do something retarded on the forums because you could have your ENTIRE account banned. Problem fixed. KTHXBAI
I cant wait till all this talk about this is archived. Hopeful the server that have all this talk will do the world a favor and delete all logs of this unending debate.