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I believe people have become too paranoid. I do not believe everyone online is inherently evil, out to prey on women and children, or steal my identity.
I think this is a logical progression of reason, to combat a perceived issue with their forums and community reputation.
I don't use aliases in my day to day interaction with strangers. I use my real name, and it is safe to assume I live locally to my place of employment. It would not be that difficult to locate where I dwell. Does that worry me? No.
It does not worry me because I do not have this underlying sense of paranoia about the people I interact with. I have had things stolen, i have had my car broken into, i have been jumped by a car full of guys i didn't even know and never met because i looked like a kid that insulted them at a party. Still, i don't believe people are inherently evil and out to get me.
I see nothing wrong with removing the anonymity on their forums. I also believe it should be elective. If you choose to post on their forums then you elect to have your name shown, there should be a choice at some point that a person or parent can decide how social they want to be.
What's your real full name Kraoss?
Addendum: Before I get banned for trying to pry somebodies personal info from them, I don't actual want or care what Kraoss real name is (nor do I actually recomend he/she posts it). Just trying to prove a point is all.
I keep thinking of the end of Jay and SIlent Bob Strike Back....
Donovan Cummins nice to meet you... Bob Blawblaw?
A big part of this is not that they are doing it to people who opt-in to post. It is the precedent they have set.
In a quick analogy the same thing is done with gas prices. Boost it 20% let everyone get mad. Drop it 10%, they can say whatever they want, market did this, that, blah blah. A few months later boost it 20%, people get less mad but still upset. Drop it 10%... Boost 20% drop 10%. It sets a precedent, subtle safe. Until.
Honestly, all game companies are looking to create a Facebook like interface because it is popular. To put some numbers out there, Wow 11.5 million, Farmville 70 million plus (within last fiscal year). The market is huge. Game companies are trying to figure out how to tap that market.
Already a ton of great points in this thread illustrating how terrible this new system is. So I'll just say this: Not only will I never purchase or sub to another Blizzard game again, but I will never allow my children to as well. In fact, if Blizz is not very careful, at least some parts of this new system could even be illegal; specifically where it regards minors. Not to mention opening themselves up to legal issues when everything that could go wrong with this new system, does go wrong.
I smell the rancid presence of Kotick & Co behind this. This has absolutely nothing to do with forum trolls and everything to do with data mining for big $$$ and social change (ie privacy is bad, mmkay?). Law enforcement can already subpoena your personal information from Blizz should the need arise, so it's not about that either.
Having worked in IT my entire career, and many times in situations where date protection and id security was of top priority, I am aware of many of the protocols and legal procedures used and why they are implemented. This is one of the biggest mistakes I have ever witnessed a large company make.
Goodbye Blizz, you will not be missed.
Yes, and by doing so they will begin alienating the part of those numbers who want little to do with this type of online social interaction. Not saying I can stop it, but I don't want to be part of it. Having the choice of privacy slowly dissolved by the gaming genre of my choice is disappointing. Not where I imagined it would go - of the all the places I wish for it to.
I really don't see Blizzard doing anything different then other social networking sites already do.
Minors used Faceobook, have Facebook pages, and interact with people on Facebook. I dont read about Facebook getting sued every week for illegal practices.
I believe that a developer with the financial clout of Blizzard has a stellar legal team capable of negotiating any privacy laws this may infringe on.
I understand your point and feelings on this. Using their official forums was never my interest with their game in the first place. It is more of a privilege then a right.
Mythic choose not to have an official forum for a long time for some of the same reasons Blizzard is making this change to theirs.
This is seriously stupid, but an easy way around it is changing your name on the account info and using prepaid cards to pay for the game instead of credit cards. I am glad I don't post on the blizzard forums.
If you have to "cheat" the system, then tis a bad system. If you have to create a false IDs and use game cards to pay for the game as the only option, then RealID is a bad system.
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS
I understand the loss of privacy concerns but posting on the boards is entirely optional to playing the game. Since I will link a old toon to the account (you have the option not to link as well), there will be no connection to who I actually play in game. So the people in game will not know me on the boards and vice versa. The people who will know are the people I know in RL. I will simply be held accountable for posts.
Besides, if you already ahve an acount with toons that you do not want to lose, ie for raiding purposes, then cheating the system by creating a false ID isnt going to help as Blizzard already has your real information.
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS
That's why I said... they need to be very careful.
Also, Facebook gets the crap sued out of them all the time, particularly for Privacy concerns. Some of the lawsuits have led to the many sweeping privacy policy and ToS agreement changes Facebook has employed.
In other news, privacy violations and exploitation of social networking sites is skyrocketing, and just about every single Information Security firm regards them as the newest and potentially one of the worst ever attack vectors for criminals.
Heck, even the NSA and other government agencies, both foreign and domestic, mine the heck out of social networking sites. Why? Because of the wealth of real world information you can derive out of them.
You cannot change the name of the account holder. If you signed up using a fake name, then you will never be able to get your account back if you get hacked, as the account holders name must match your government issued ID.
Last I checked, the billing address and credit card holders name is seperate from the name of the account holder, so using time cards wont make a difference.
I'm curious how long it will be before HR folks start checking prospective or even current employees. You may think that what you do in your own time doesn't matter but if a prospective employer saw that you had a thousand posts for the week on the blizzard forum you may not get that IT job you wanted. Also, these search sites that use spiders to dig up information will quickly match whatever public information they can access from Blizzard to already established databases.
No. Knowing someones name is a rather valuable data point. Its quite correct that its of limited value of itself, but given the nature of such things, why take chances when its unncessary? One of the first rules of privacy/security policy is role based limitations. The other gamers in a game forum have no need to know that information. Thus, it should not be provided.
As I stated, who ever their CSO is, they either have not been consulted on this, or they shouldn't be CSO.
Data mining has existed since before the first census. Information security has always been important, but it isn't places like facebook i would worry about. Its large corporations with your Credit Card info with access to your assets that would have me concerned.
People with children and women should stop worrying about the stalkers online, and keep their eyes on their children and situations when in public places. Amber Alerts don't happen cause some guy was stalking your child online. Women are accosted in public places, not online and almost always by someone local to the area they are in. With 300+ Million Americans, the percentage is so small that to constantly worry about such things just imprisons you in paranoia, and most of those cases are from friends and family of the victim.
WOW.. this is seriously messed up.. Over the past 5 years that I played WoW, I have witness people get attacked on facebook, myspace, and even harassment in real life from guildies that have a falling out of sorts.. Now they want to make it easier? un FREAKING belieable.. First child that gets harrassed because of a "real name" problem being released and Blizzard will find themselves in court and the shit will HIT the fan..
I have an extremely unique first/last name combination and I've yet to find one other in the world. (outside of my deceased father) Therefore you can find out quite a bit about me simply by knowing my real name. This makes me uncomfortable even though I don't make it a habit to "troll" forums. Seems like in order to solve a problem they are punishing those of us who don't abuse the system along with those who do.
People say what's the worst that can happen? Early in my MMORPG career I ran a clan and shared my real name and where I lived with the members. One of them became unruly and had to be kicked from the clan and this infuriated the person so much he threatened to hunt me down and rape and kill my 15 year old daughter (who was also in the clan). The problem was dealt with by the game vendor, but I still looked over my shoulder for quite some time even though it was an idle threat. When it comes to family, you just don't screw around with this stuff.
This changed my policy about sharing personal information in a gaming situation forever. I don't have a Facebook page, I never share my real name if I can help it, I never post pictures of myself or share specifics about my family or workplace.
I have to say, as it appears now, I will either never play a Blizzard game again, or, if I really want to, I'll just set up a totally false personna and use GTC's to pay for it.
I think this is a terrible idea by Blizzard and throws the baby out with the bath water, but oh well, if they don't really want my money then I guess its all good.
Edit: Oh yeah, and some posters on this forum really need to learn the lessons life's trying to teach them, a little healthy paranoia is a good survival tactic, because yes, they are trying to kill you)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Are you surprised? WoW r srs bsness. You have a good point, though.
An example I've used earlier on these forums: if your girlfriend or teen sister has made some fun nude pics collection or sex tape that a group of people may have seen, big deal. If those get published on the internet, it's out there forever for a very very large group of people to find.
The same applies to any information you ever released on the internet and that's linked to your name, maybe even stuff you don't want your future employer to know or find at the 1st google attempt he makes.
About children: it's not being more careful about stalkers in public places, it's about being careful in public places AND the internet regarding your kids, not one or the other. It's your kids: to use an analogy, having high security and being watchful at the front door while leaving the backdoor unclosed and wide open, negates your attempts at keeping things safe.
Regarding women gettin stalked: well, there are already enough examples of girl gamers unwantedly getting stalked or harassed before this measure, this measure will only make it easier for those that want to.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Without context it is hard to judge how an impact your point has for or against this change.
"falling out of sorts." ? Do they get ninja looted, ridiculed, publicly humiliated? Treated like less then another person with feelings, emotions? I mean, retaliation without provocation would be a great argument against the system. But being held accountable for the mistreatment of others is kind of why they think it will help clean up their forums.
I don't condone harassment, or the mistreatment of anyone even if deserved. I usually bring out the best in people i meet in games, utilizing the powerful tools of respect and courtesy. *flex*
I feel bad for your friends if others have done harm against on their social networking sites without cause.
I see your points about information security. And it is hard for me to wrap my mind around people harassing or stalking girl gamers cause my mind just doesn't work that way, and I never hear or see it in any of the guilds i've been associated with over the years.
I have met a few people in real life that i met online. One group was a family i was guilded with, that turned out to live just across the border from me in Windsor. We used to met up a few times a year until the passport changes and gas prices. We are content with just enjoying the game with each other.
I imagine plenty of peoples "masks" are lifted at events like Blizzcon. I wonder how horrible of an experience it must be for female gamers who go to an event like that, it must be horrific for them meeting all their guild stalkers face to face.
I can see the points against this move by Blizzard, but I really do believe if you look for the worst in people, you will find it.