But I guess you can create your RealID with anything you can come up to. I mean, instead of writing there my name and surname, I can write whatever I want. Problem solved?
When you register a game, they want your CC info, unless it's F2P.
That's how they could check your name and I assume that's how they could check if you're telling the truth. I know when you lie about your name on the CC care your transaction usually gets denied.
If your name =/= the name of the CC name, I guess they could still check who you are.
But I guess you can create your RealID with anything you can come up to. I mean, instead of writing there my name and surname, I can write whatever I want. Problem solved?
When you register a game, they want your CC info, unless it's F2P.
That's how they could check your name and I assume that's how they could check if you're telling the truth. I know when you lie about your name on the CC care your transaction usually gets denied.
If your name =/= the name of the CC name, I guess they could still check who you are.
That won't work, considering someone that has never touched WoW, but buys Diablo 3, suddenly has to provide CC info? Nahhhh.
That won't work, considering someone that has never touched WoW, but buys Diablo 3, suddenly has to provide CC info? Nahhhh.
Well, if your CC name does not match your CC card it will get denied by Blizzard. The bank checks it for Blizzard each time you buy something online, which is why it takes a while to "process".
Battlenet + WoW are both Pay to Play, so they would be 100% sure about your name. If you don't pay for Battle net (and play Diablo solo) you won't be able to post on the forums anyway.
If you use your dad's CC card for example, or friend, I don't know how that will work then though, hm.
But I guess you can create your RealID with anything you can come up to. I mean, instead of writing there my name and surname, I can write whatever I want. Problem solved?
When you register a game, they want your CC info, unless it's F2P.
That's how they could check your name and I assume that's how they could check if you're telling the truth. I know when you lie about your name on the CC care your transaction usually gets denied.
If your name =/= the name of the CC name, I guess they could still check who you are.
That won't work, considering someone that has never touched WoW, but buys Diablo 3, suddenly has to provide CC info? Nahhhh.
Biz, you said you weren't going to argue but you keep doing it. Since you seem interested I want to pose a question to you that is slightly different.
Say you do what you've said, create an account with a fake name. Now say that shit really does happen, there is some sort of issue and you really need to interact with support. Le'ts say you were hacked. Now you have to provide information to Blizzard that will not match and, because they've seen this sort of thing coming, they decide that providing false information is deserving of a perma-ban. Now if something goes wrong you can't post (because a moderator may find you and ban the new account) and you are stuck buying new boxes if you want to play. This, of course, is hypothetical but unfortunately is quite plausible.
Do you think that a situation similar to this isn't plausible, be it for a subscription game like WoW or non-sub games like Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2? Do you think that this is demonstrative of quality customer service? Do you think this demonstrates care and appreciation for their customer base? Ultimately, do you think that Blizzard will go through with this as planned, irrespective of what people want?
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain. (2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
But I guess you can create your RealID with anything you can come up to. I mean, instead of writing there my name and surname, I can write whatever I want. Problem solved?
This is a good point, but what it you actually require support for your account that requires interacting with a Blizzard employee? Blizzard may decide that such deception is perma-ban worthy.
But I guess you can create your RealID with anything you can come up to. I mean, instead of writing there my name and surname, I can write whatever I want. Problem solved?
When you register a game, they want your CC info, unless it's F2P.
That's how they could check your name and I assume that's how they could check if you're telling the truth. I know when you lie about your name on the CC care your transaction usually gets denied.
If your name =/= the name of the CC name, I guess they could still check who you are.
That won't work, considering someone that has never touched WoW, but buys Diablo 3, suddenly has to provide CC info? Nahhhh.
Biz, you said you weren't going to argue but you keep doing it. Since you seem interested I want to pose a question to you that is slightly different.
Say you do what you've said, create an account with a fake name. Now say that shit really does happen, there is some sort of issue and you really need to interact with support. Le'ts say you were hacked. Now you have to provide information to Blizzard that will not match and, because they've seen this sort of thing coming, they decide that providing false information is deserving of a perma-ban. Now if something goes wrong you can't post (because a moderator may find you and ban the new account) and you are stuck buying new boxes if you want to play. This, of course, is hypothetical but unfortunately is quite plausible.
Do you think that a situation similar to this isn't plausible, be it for a subscription game like WoW or non-sub games like Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2? Do you think that this is demonstrative of quality customer service? Do you think this demonstrates care and appreciation for their customer base? Ultimately, do you think that Blizzard will go through with this as planned, irrespective of what people want?
Sorry man, I meant not argue about the whole privacy thing.
Anyway, why not simply provide that fake information when asked to by support? They already ask for that sort of stuff (I had my WoW account hacked a while back). How would they check these things on an international level?
Now, offcourse its perfectly plausible to have a CC check (The one without actually billing it) prior to allowing a person to create an account. Its happened before with other games. I just wonder if that doesnt go against Blizzard's policy of developing games that are playable for as many people as possible? I mean, not everyone has a CC, willingly or unwillingly. And even so, it still doesn't rule out using someone else's card (Someone that doesn't game preferably), like Bastionix raised.
This is a very dangerous and stupid policy. I don't even trust the government with my details, why do they think I'm going to trust them? You might as well just advertise your full personal information on the net, so that anybody could come along and steal your identity.
But I guess you can create your RealID with anything you can come up to. I mean, instead of writing there my name and surname, I can write whatever I want. Problem solved?
When you register a game, they want your CC info, unless it's F2P.
That's how they could check your name and I assume that's how they could check if you're telling the truth. I know when you lie about your name on the CC care your transaction usually gets denied.
If your name =/= the name of the CC name, I guess they could still check who you are.
That won't work, considering someone that has never touched WoW, but buys Diablo 3, suddenly has to provide CC info? Nahhhh.
Biz, you said you weren't going to argue but you keep doing it. Since you seem interested I want to pose a question to you that is slightly different.
Say you do what you've said, create an account with a fake name. Now say that shit really does happen, there is some sort of issue and you really need to interact with support. Le'ts say you were hacked. Now you have to provide information to Blizzard that will not match and, because they've seen this sort of thing coming, they decide that providing false information is deserving of a perma-ban. Now if something goes wrong you can't post (because a moderator may find you and ban the new account) and you are stuck buying new boxes if you want to play. This, of course, is hypothetical but unfortunately is quite plausible.
Do you think that a situation similar to this isn't plausible, be it for a subscription game like WoW or non-sub games like Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2? Do you think that this is demonstrative of quality customer service? Do you think this demonstrates care and appreciation for their customer base? Ultimately, do you think that Blizzard will go through with this as planned, irrespective of what people want?
Sorry man, I meant not argue about the whole privacy thing.
Anyway, why not simply provide that fake information when asked to by support? They already ask for that sort of stuff (I had my WoW account hacked a while back). How would they check these things on an international level?
Now, offcourse its perfectly plausible to have a CC check (The one without actually billing it) prior to allowing a person to create an account. Its happened before with other games. I just wonder if that doesnt go against Blizzard's policy of developing games that are playable for as many people as possible? I mean, not everyone has a CC, willingly or unwillingly. And even so, it still doesn't rule out using someone else's card (Someone that doesn't game preferably), like Bastionix raised.
I'll answer point by point, this way you can broaden or argue against any point here here. Both are very welcome and I am glad to see that this thread has such a constructive conversation taking place. The votes are great too!
1. You could definitely continue to provide the fake information, provided you didn't play a game requiring a subscription. You may argue that gametime cards are rather anonymous and you'd be right, they are, and this would be one way to get around it.
2. In respect to checking things on an international level, what was said in #1 applies. At this point it seems that the only way Blizzard can check the validity of an account would be to require that payment information matched the name of the account holder and to restrict gametime cards. Blizzard may do this, I'd not put it past them.
3. In respect to having a valid credit card before creating an account, this is something that Square-Enix has done with FFXI and more recently mandating VbV and MCSecure cards. The way around this is to contact support to use a non-secure card (e.g. debit card) to pay. This didn't cause a mass fallout with FFXI and Blizzard may adopt this for WoW. This, of course, only touches part of the issue because Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 are not subscrption-based. That said, to use Battle.Net Blizzard may require a credit card or some sort of verifiable information before someone can create or 'activate' a Battle.Net account. Again, I wouldn't put it past Blizzard.
4. Blizzard can do all of the above and put in the idea of a perma-ban if someone provide fraudulent information under the guise of 'this is part of our ToS/EULA and, even though your privacy policy in X nation is different, this is what customers must do to utilise our products and there are no exceptions.' I have the suspicion that Blizzard has already thought of this and has it in the works as well, along with the new ToS/EULA that they will roll out upon the activation of RealID.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain. (2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
Please consider too what other posters have already said on Bliz's official forums.. Real ID will be tied into some addon's.. where your name is displayed to other members of the group or raid "WITHOUT" your concent.. plus doesn't this open up a pandoras box of hackers using internet free phone to target unwanted posters and calling people.. What's next? IP disclosure so your locations can be compromised as well..
Lets face it.. This is a very real problem and issue and there is NO doubt in my mind that if some of the posters here in mmorpg.com got my name they would harrass me,, they've already sent me unwanted private messages starting unpleasantries.. I can imagine and worry if they ever lived close enough to cause damage to my private property.. But the hell with privacy, it's all about the money... I'm glad I got out when I did,, I hope none of this is retroactive postings.. I fear for that..
Please consider too what other posters have already said on Bliz's official forums.. Real ID will be tied into some addon's.. where your name is displayed to other members of the group or raid "WITHOUT" your concent.. plus doesn't this open up a pandoras box of hackers using internet free phone to target unwanted posters and calling people.. What's next? IP disclosure so your locations can be compromised as well..
Lets face it.. This is a very real problem and issue and there is NO doubt in my mind that if some of the posters here in mmorpg.com got my name they would harrass me,, they've already sent me unwanted private messages starting unpleasantries.. I can imagine and worry if they ever lived close enough to cause damage to my private property.. But the hell with privacy, it's all about the money... I'm glad I got out when I did,, I hope none of this is retroactive postings.. I fear for that..
Rydeson, you bring up a good point with the add-ons and I'm very glad you did. I'd like to expand on it a bit.
To create an add-on you need to mine data from the WoW files, something that is against the ToS/EULA. Add-ons themselves violate the ToS, however Blizzard got in trouble once before for looking into players' computers and this is why they can't do much at all if an add-on doesn't modify their files or allow for botting. That said, there are plenty of screenshots out there that demonstrate customised UIs and Blizzard does nothing for reasons that aren't really clear. Simply put, Blizzard created a great environment for people to hack them and with what you bring up here just makes that more prevalent.
People get what they deserve when they use 3rd-party software in situations like this, this isn't Half-Life or RTS games where modding is officially supported. It's not. At best it's use at your own risk and this is known. Because Blizzard does not support add-ons officially they cannot and should not be held ultimately liable for the myriad people that are foolish enough to use them and complain that they are having problems. That said, Blizzard needed to take a firm anti-add-on stance a long time ago and they did not, so they can reasonably share the blame. When it comes down to brass tacks: do not use third party software such as add-ons in MMORPGs, especially WoW.
That said, don't worry Rydeson, it doesn't work retroactively. The fact that we are afraid of not just people going Jay and Silent Bob on us but actually harrassing us in-game says something about the sort of communities we have in game. Truly, RealID is bringing out all of the skeletons in the MMORPG closet.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain. (2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
Picked the first Nay response, but either would have been appropriate.
This is an attempt to regulate human behavior by incorrectly addressing the issue in the wrong manner.
I liken it to a ban on owning automated firearms in the county that I live in. You have to get a special Federal permit and even then, the local Sheriff has to approve you buying it. All of this sounds good on paper, but all it does is make it difficult for law abiding citizens to purchase one, while criminals circumvent the system to obtain them.
Same thing here, while the law abiding players will have their real names on the forums, actual trolls will find a way around this and the problem really won't be better.
Tell you what, Blizzard forums are for paying subscribers only right? For my money I want the right to troll and expect Blizzard to hire moderators to make sure I don't get out of line.
They don't want to do this? Fine, I won't be buying their products. (or will join the other side of those who circumvent the rules)
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
WoW is not nearly as popular as it used to be. There is so much hate over the game these days I imagine thier forums are having to be moderated and posts deleted constantly to stop the negativity in the official forums. What better way to stop having to constantly delete those kind of posts so as to make people think Blizzard is god? Which honestly in my opinion they sold thier souls long ago. In my opinion WoW has never been that good. Imagine if they made all you people use thier real names here on mmorpg, I bet you people would only be posting nice things to say instead of the venom that is spit out on these boards.
Companies have way to much control over the ignorant masses as it is. I say boycott Blizzard and everyone cancel thier accounts for 2 months and go play something else. MOst of those won't come back I'l wager once they realize they have only been controlled. We are not puppets to be manipulated like this.
Some people I've seen reccomend having players post under a simple handle that's visible to everyone else on the forums. That sounds like the right way to go. Instead Blizzard is taking a much more extreme measure.
This.
Personally, I don't think that troll prevention is the only or even the main reason. It's hilarious to see the defenders of this measure - or better said, the defenders of everything that Blizzard does, no matter what - use this argument as a show that it's a good idea. The Battle.net RealID thing, real names on their forums, they all just seem like steps to further the cause of getting their players acquainted and getting used to having their personal information all out in the open, in a Facebook-kind of way.
That they're even going farther than Facebook itself, with less finetuned controls than Facebook, and despite the various risks that other people already have mentioned, shows that those objections and risks are not a priority to Activision Blizzard.
It looks to me that they want to see how far they can take it, and I'm expecting more of these newsitems where they open up things even further for their Facebook-like plans and strategy.
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."
I don't understand why no one at the blizzard table went:
"This a F***CKING HORRIBLE idea guys"
I mean really, anyone with some intelligence realizes this a major privacy violation to let everyone online know who you are.
Blizzard themselves have a policy that said: "Do not ever reveal your RL information online". Now THEY would post player's RL info themselves. What in the world are they thinking.
Even if this decision is changed (which I'm 100% sure it will), this will lose Blizzard a ton of players, almost 20k posts on the NA WoW forum alone in a matter of hours.
This is up there with SoE's NGE decision in terms of stupidity, only now it's about 20 million players+.
One must not forget that Activision/Blizzard has a ton of lawyers who can come up with ways to get around most anything they want to. But it boils down to them thinking they can defeat any sort of Federal or International laws that regulate online activity. Use of REALID can be dangerous, those who promote this idea are most likely 10000% of the time hackers, pedophiles, online predators and other scumbags. Activision/Blizzard lawyers will claim that by changing the TOS and getting people to click I agree since they know that 1000% of the gamers do not even bother to read the TOS will think they are protected from lawsuits will be correct, however what these lawyers forget is that they are NOT ABOVE ANY STATE, FEDERAL OR INTERNATIONAL LAWS. This type of thinking has gotten large businesses into lot of trouble before and no one seems to learn this important lesson. Money talks.... If Activision/Blizzard is willing to spend millions to hundreds of millions of dollars on lawyers and legal fees what hope do the rest of the gaming community have against that? NONE, NO CHANCE AT ALL.
Best advice is to cancel your accounts in protest or get a class action lawsuit going before this change goes into effect. Matter of fact contact your news media and tell them about it. Press coverage concerning online privacy and children might get them to change thier minds....
DO NOT COMPLAIN ON BLIZZARD WAR OF WARCRAFT FORUMS FOR THEY WILL IGNORE YOU.
One must not forget that Activision/Blizzard has a ton of lawyers who can come up with ways to get around most anything they want to. But it boils down to them thinking they can defeat any sort of Federal or International laws that regulate online activity. Use of REALID can be dangerous, those who promote this idea are most likely 10000% of the time hackers, pedophiles, online predators and other scumbags. Activision/Blizzard lawyers will claim that by changing the TOS and getting people to click I agree since they know that 1000% of the gamers do not even bother to read the TOS will think they are protected from lawsuits will be correct, however what these lawyers forget is that they are NOT ABOVE ANY STATE, FEDERAL OR INTERNATIONAL LAWS. This type of thinking has gotten large businesses into lot of trouble before and no one seems to learn this important lesson. Money talks.... If Activision/Blizzard is willing to spend millions to hundreds of millions of dollars on lawyers and legal fees what hope do the rest of the gaming community have against that? NONE, NO CHANCE AT ALL.
Best advice is to cancel your accounts in protest or get a class action lawsuit going before this change goes into effect. Matter of fact contact your news media and tell them about it. Press coverage concerning online privacy and children might get them to change thier minds....
DO NOT COMPLAIN ON BLIZZARD WAR OF WARCRAFT FORUMS FOR THEY WILL IGNORE YOU.
One thing their lawyers can't get around is people deciding to stop buying their product.
You remember that case where a kid was ganking someone in WoW. Turns out that player he was messing with was a member of a Korean gang. Next thing he knows he was beaten to pulp at his home place.
Wait until you gank someone, next thing you know some kid is at your door step with a butcher knife.
Most don't even use the forums so it's not like they would care .
And overall . I have mixed feelings , while this would most definately reduce the amount of trolling on the forums the loss of privacy could also harm people . There are crazy people out there and i've already heard of a story where a WoW player decided to meet with an other WoW player and ended up dead... So there are dangers , even if that is an extreme case it just needs to happen to you. So ye , mixed feelings here.
Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt. Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
Most don't even use the forums so it's not like they would care .
And overall . I have mixed feelings , while this would most definately reduce the amount of trolling on the forums the loss of privacy could also harm people . There are crazy people out there and i've already heard of a story where a WoW player decided to meet with an other WoW player and ended up dead... So there are dangers , even if that is an extreme case it just needs to happen to you. So ye , mixed feelings here.
Look at the other side of this. You come into work and you hear everyone snickering something like "O M G Beck, Sharon only has green armor"
Most don't even use the forums so it's not like they would care .
And overall . I have mixed feelings , while this would most definately reduce the amount of trolling on the forums the loss of privacy could also harm people . There are crazy people out there and i've already heard of a story where a WoW player decided to meet with an other WoW player and ended up dead... So there are dangers , even if that is an extreme case it just needs to happen to you. So ye , mixed feelings here.
Look at the other side of this. You come into work and you hear everyone snickering something like "O M G Beck, Sharon only has green armor"
Change job than. I'm sorry but if that's the mentality of your co-workers your better off working in psychiatric asylum ...
Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt. Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
Comments
When you register a game, they want your CC info, unless it's F2P.
That's how they could check your name and I assume that's how they could check if you're telling the truth. I know when you lie about your name on the CC care your transaction usually gets denied.
If your name =/= the name of the CC name, I guess they could still check who you are.
That won't work, considering someone that has never touched WoW, but buys Diablo 3, suddenly has to provide CC info? Nahhhh.
Well, if your CC name does not match your CC card it will get denied by Blizzard. The bank checks it for Blizzard each time you buy something online, which is why it takes a while to "process".
Battlenet + WoW are both Pay to Play, so they would be 100% sure about your name. If you don't pay for Battle net (and play Diablo solo) you won't be able to post on the forums anyway.
If you use your dad's CC card for example, or friend, I don't know how that will work then though, hm.
Biz, you said you weren't going to argue but you keep doing it. Since you seem interested I want to pose a question to you that is slightly different.
Say you do what you've said, create an account with a fake name. Now say that shit really does happen, there is some sort of issue and you really need to interact with support. Le'ts say you were hacked. Now you have to provide information to Blizzard that will not match and, because they've seen this sort of thing coming, they decide that providing false information is deserving of a perma-ban. Now if something goes wrong you can't post (because a moderator may find you and ban the new account) and you are stuck buying new boxes if you want to play. This, of course, is hypothetical but unfortunately is quite plausible.
Do you think that a situation similar to this isn't plausible, be it for a subscription game like WoW or non-sub games like Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2? Do you think that this is demonstrative of quality customer service? Do you think this demonstrates care and appreciation for their customer base? Ultimately, do you think that Blizzard will go through with this as planned, irrespective of what people want?
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
mmm that true, you are right.
Sorry man, I meant not argue about the whole privacy thing.
Anyway, why not simply provide that fake information when asked to by support? They already ask for that sort of stuff (I had my WoW account hacked a while back). How would they check these things on an international level?
Now, offcourse its perfectly plausible to have a CC check (The one without actually billing it) prior to allowing a person to create an account. Its happened before with other games. I just wonder if that doesnt go against Blizzard's policy of developing games that are playable for as many people as possible? I mean, not everyone has a CC, willingly or unwillingly. And even so, it still doesn't rule out using someone else's card (Someone that doesn't game preferably), like Bastionix raised.
This is a very dangerous and stupid policy. I don't even trust the government with my details, why do they think I'm going to trust them? You might as well just advertise your full personal information on the net, so that anybody could come along and steal your identity.
I'll answer point by point, this way you can broaden or argue against any point here here. Both are very welcome and I am glad to see that this thread has such a constructive conversation taking place. The votes are great too!
1. You could definitely continue to provide the fake information, provided you didn't play a game requiring a subscription. You may argue that gametime cards are rather anonymous and you'd be right, they are, and this would be one way to get around it.
2. In respect to checking things on an international level, what was said in #1 applies. At this point it seems that the only way Blizzard can check the validity of an account would be to require that payment information matched the name of the account holder and to restrict gametime cards. Blizzard may do this, I'd not put it past them.
3. In respect to having a valid credit card before creating an account, this is something that Square-Enix has done with FFXI and more recently mandating VbV and MCSecure cards. The way around this is to contact support to use a non-secure card (e.g. debit card) to pay. This didn't cause a mass fallout with FFXI and Blizzard may adopt this for WoW. This, of course, only touches part of the issue because Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 are not subscrption-based. That said, to use Battle.Net Blizzard may require a credit card or some sort of verifiable information before someone can create or 'activate' a Battle.Net account. Again, I wouldn't put it past Blizzard.
4. Blizzard can do all of the above and put in the idea of a perma-ban if someone provide fraudulent information under the guise of 'this is part of our ToS/EULA and, even though your privacy policy in X nation is different, this is what customers must do to utilise our products and there are no exceptions.' I have the suspicion that Blizzard has already thought of this and has it in the works as well, along with the new ToS/EULA that they will roll out upon the activation of RealID.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
Please consider too what other posters have already said on Bliz's official forums.. Real ID will be tied into some addon's.. where your name is displayed to other members of the group or raid "WITHOUT" your concent.. plus doesn't this open up a pandoras box of hackers using internet free phone to target unwanted posters and calling people.. What's next? IP disclosure so your locations can be compromised as well..
Lets face it.. This is a very real problem and issue and there is NO doubt in my mind that if some of the posters here in mmorpg.com got my name they would harrass me,, they've already sent me unwanted private messages starting unpleasantries.. I can imagine and worry if they ever lived close enough to cause damage to my private property.. But the hell with privacy, it's all about the money... I'm glad I got out when I did,, I hope none of this is retroactive postings.. I fear for that..
Blizzard can kiss my ass
Rydeson, you bring up a good point with the add-ons and I'm very glad you did. I'd like to expand on it a bit.
To create an add-on you need to mine data from the WoW files, something that is against the ToS/EULA. Add-ons themselves violate the ToS, however Blizzard got in trouble once before for looking into players' computers and this is why they can't do much at all if an add-on doesn't modify their files or allow for botting. That said, there are plenty of screenshots out there that demonstrate customised UIs and Blizzard does nothing for reasons that aren't really clear. Simply put, Blizzard created a great environment for people to hack them and with what you bring up here just makes that more prevalent.
People get what they deserve when they use 3rd-party software in situations like this, this isn't Half-Life or RTS games where modding is officially supported. It's not. At best it's use at your own risk and this is known. Because Blizzard does not support add-ons officially they cannot and should not be held ultimately liable for the myriad people that are foolish enough to use them and complain that they are having problems. That said, Blizzard needed to take a firm anti-add-on stance a long time ago and they did not, so they can reasonably share the blame. When it comes down to brass tacks: do not use third party software such as add-ons in MMORPGs, especially WoW.
That said, don't worry Rydeson, it doesn't work retroactively. The fact that we are afraid of not just people going Jay and Silent Bob on us but actually harrassing us in-game says something about the sort of communities we have in game. Truly, RealID is bringing out all of the skeletons in the MMORPG closet.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
Picked the first Nay response, but either would have been appropriate.
This is an attempt to regulate human behavior by incorrectly addressing the issue in the wrong manner.
I liken it to a ban on owning automated firearms in the county that I live in. You have to get a special Federal permit and even then, the local Sheriff has to approve you buying it. All of this sounds good on paper, but all it does is make it difficult for law abiding citizens to purchase one, while criminals circumvent the system to obtain them.
Same thing here, while the law abiding players will have their real names on the forums, actual trolls will find a way around this and the problem really won't be better.
Tell you what, Blizzard forums are for paying subscribers only right? For my money I want the right to troll and expect Blizzard to hire moderators to make sure I don't get out of line.
They don't want to do this? Fine, I won't be buying their products. (or will join the other side of those who circumvent the rules)
"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
WoW is not nearly as popular as it used to be. There is so much hate over the game these days I imagine thier forums are having to be moderated and posts deleted constantly to stop the negativity in the official forums. What better way to stop having to constantly delete those kind of posts so as to make people think Blizzard is god? Which honestly in my opinion they sold thier souls long ago. In my opinion WoW has never been that good. Imagine if they made all you people use thier real names here on mmorpg, I bet you people would only be posting nice things to say instead of the venom that is spit out on these boards.
Companies have way to much control over the ignorant masses as it is. I say boycott Blizzard and everyone cancel thier accounts for 2 months and go play something else. MOst of those won't come back I'l wager once they realize they have only been controlled. We are not puppets to be manipulated like this.
This.
Personally, I don't think that troll prevention is the only or even the main reason. It's hilarious to see the defenders of this measure - or better said, the defenders of everything that Blizzard does, no matter what - use this argument as a show that it's a good idea. The Battle.net RealID thing, real names on their forums, they all just seem like steps to further the cause of getting their players acquainted and getting used to having their personal information all out in the open, in a Facebook-kind of way.
That they're even going farther than Facebook itself, with less finetuned controls than Facebook, and despite the various risks that other people already have mentioned, shows that those objections and risks are not a priority to Activision Blizzard.
It looks to me that they want to see how far they can take it, and I'm expecting more of these newsitems where they open up things even further for their Facebook-like plans and strategy.
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."
I don't understand why no one at the blizzard table went:
"This a F***CKING HORRIBLE idea guys"
I mean really, anyone with some intelligence realizes this a major privacy violation to let everyone online know who you are.
Blizzard themselves have a policy that said: "Do not ever reveal your RL information online". Now THEY would post player's RL info themselves. What in the world are they thinking.
Even if this decision is changed (which I'm 100% sure it will), this will lose Blizzard a ton of players, almost 20k posts on the NA WoW forum alone in a matter of hours.
This is up there with SoE's NGE decision in terms of stupidity, only now it's about 20 million players+.
One must not forget that Activision/Blizzard has a ton of lawyers who can come up with ways to get around most anything they want to. But it boils down to them thinking they can defeat any sort of Federal or International laws that regulate online activity. Use of REALID can be dangerous, those who promote this idea are most likely 10000% of the time hackers, pedophiles, online predators and other scumbags. Activision/Blizzard lawyers will claim that by changing the TOS and getting people to click I agree since they know that 1000% of the gamers do not even bother to read the TOS will think they are protected from lawsuits will be correct, however what these lawyers forget is that they are NOT ABOVE ANY STATE, FEDERAL OR INTERNATIONAL LAWS. This type of thinking has gotten large businesses into lot of trouble before and no one seems to learn this important lesson. Money talks.... If Activision/Blizzard is willing to spend millions to hundreds of millions of dollars on lawyers and legal fees what hope do the rest of the gaming community have against that? NONE, NO CHANCE AT ALL.
Best advice is to cancel your accounts in protest or get a class action lawsuit going before this change goes into effect. Matter of fact contact your news media and tell them about it. Press coverage concerning online privacy and children might get them to change thier minds....
DO NOT COMPLAIN ON BLIZZARD WAR OF WARCRAFT FORUMS FOR THEY WILL IGNORE YOU.
One thing their lawyers can't get around is people deciding to stop buying their product.
RELAX!@!! BREATHE!!!
You remember that case where a kid was ganking someone in WoW. Turns out that player he was messing with was a member of a Korean gang. Next thing he knows he was beaten to pulp at his home place.
Wait until you gank someone, next thing you know some kid is at your door step with a butcher knife.
lmao, this is so stupid
@ above.(two posts above
)
Most don't even use the forums so it's not like they would care .
And overall . I have mixed feelings , while this would most definately reduce the amount of trolling on the forums the loss of privacy could also harm people . There are crazy people out there and i've already heard of a story where a WoW player decided to meet with an other WoW player and ended up dead... So there are dangers , even if that is an extreme case it just needs to happen to you. So ye , mixed feelings here.
Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
Look at the other side of this. You come into work and you hear everyone snickering something like "O M G Beck, Sharon only has green armor"
RELAX!@!! BREATHE!!!
Change job than. I'm sorry but if that's the mentality of your co-workers your better off working in psychiatric asylum ...
Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
The thing is, they link your WoW account to your Armory playtime, and now your name....
Thinking about skipping school / job and playing WoW? Forget it!..they will know.
Thinking about not attending that marriage / night out / interview? Forget it, thanks to the new World of Stalkerville, ppl can find out.
Sounds like a fun world being monitored by everyone, I'll pass though.
It's not something I have to worry about. I cancelled my Wow account this morning.
Honeslty I'm just kinda blah over MMOs in general these days anywho
RELAX!@!! BREATHE!!!
it'll make the forums better
.
there were lots of people who used the wow forums for trolling, hate speech, etc
.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Johnson! You said you were working on that report over the weekend!
I was Sir! All weekend!
Looks to me like you were posting on the WoW forums! You're fired!