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World of Warcraft: "We're Listening"
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In comments made to Gamasutra, an unnamed Blizzard representative indicated that developers are 'listening' to player feedback regarding the recent announcement about RealID and the implication for official forum posters. With RealID, players' first and last names will be displayed on any posts made on Blizzard's forums beginning with the launch later this month of Starcraft II and continuing with the Cataclysm release.
"[We] will be carefully monitoring how people are using the service," a Blizzard representative told Gamasutra this week. "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."
"It's important to note that both enabling Real ID in game and posting on the official Blizzard forums are completely optional," the Blizzard rep said. "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."
The representative also indicated that Blizzard will actively work to ensure that players are using true names and will monitor the forums for inappropriate names as well.
"In addition, our Terms of Use agreement requires that players provide us with accurate information, as certain aspects of the customer service we provide (for example, addressing forgotten-password issues) rely on identity verification -- if a player uses a fake name, it would ultimately impact our ability to provide him or her with timely service."
Comments
The fact that they've even considered this (and a few other things) has made me specifically cancel 2 days after resubscribing.. I'm pretty sure they've pissed a lot of other people off as well.
Time to look for another MMO!
Hypocriticism at it's best. Yeah we listen but we already made up our mind.
It's their game, which is why I give them my respects for having a spine for once and not letting the players dictate everything that happens in the game. It's why I don't play it after all; a game made by players for players doesn't appeal to me.
But theres the problem with that, they are forcing us into something that no one wants... And its obviously caused issues.
They've said that their CMs, GMs, Devs, etc on forum posts WILL NOT be posting with their name but we are forced to post with ours... They specifically stated that they didn't want an interference with Blizzard employees personal lives. If it was "so safe" as they claimed when they announced it why are they doing this? Better yet why are THEY not being forced to do it but we are...
Them being able to dictate what they want or not... it's still truly Hypocriticism at it's best.
No one is being forced here. Ultimately the customer has the decision. If they like the changes a company makes, they'll keep supporting their product. Alternatively, if they don't like the changes, they will no longer support said product.
So far Blizzard has pretty much done exactly what players want because it's the road with least risks and apparently most profit, but I applaud them for sticking to their ideal for once, even if it means lost subscriptions.
Might be their game but it's your privacy and safety on the line, mate. You would pay anyone a monthly fee to put those at risk for you?
I have been harassed and stalked in WOW myself. The thought that the guy who was stalking me would have had access to my real name (which is very uncommon) scares the shit out of me. Also I happen to be a huge forum poster in whatever game I play as I see it as an important community channel. For those like me, choosing not to use official forums is not so much of an option.
Blizzard can only ban bad apples from using the forums or playing their game, but they won't be there when that ingame freak knocks on your door in real life.
My brand new bloggity blog.
So seems Blizzard made their own cataclysm .So gms an devs will have screen names an rest of the populus has to use their real names... Yeah gona pass on that.Rumor theirs a biger deal here with facebook /shrug. Total loss of any intrest in wow now as well as blizzard.after seeing wowafied grafics for dialbo 3 not intrested in that at all either now.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
I just wanted to quote this because it is so true it isn't even funny.... There are already stories about people driving HOURS to show up at someones door because of interactions in game / on the forums. It's just mindblowing that they would even consider this as a valid option for combating forum trolls or whatever they are trying to do.
Sounds to me like you care more about the forums than playing the game. Oh well, to each their own.
I'm glad I never got into WoW in the first place. But I'm still neutral on this decision because I kind of want to see what will happen once it is integrated, but i do also see the privacy concerns for such a feature.
"If you're going to act like a noob, I'll treat you like one." -Caskio
Adventurers wear fancy pants!!!
Honestly I don't post on the forums all that much but between this and other decisions made by Blizzard in the past year or so its just been too much...
This alone wouldn't have caused me to quit but from my experience this is a sign of things to come...
Well, optional means you are not forced to use it :P
Also Blizzard posters will use their real name... according to:
This post
This post
This post
This post
Do I need to keep digging?
Doesn't mean I'm all for this change, but misinformation is quite a bad habit.
I guess we can all wait for the first WoW RL casualty before Blizzard comes to their senses and removes this. Social networking is alright (hell, they're doing that with Battle.net and easy access to other games from it), but this does absolutely no good to the players.
Looks like that is working out just great for them.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Call it mis information but don't pile on sources insinuatiing I just got this out of the blue.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/07/rumor-blizzard-employees-real-life-names-will-not-appear-on-th/
Read the first part without updates, since I've last read it they've updated the post.
I foresee funny stuff with RealID used in conjunction with Wow Armory "recent activity" feature. Just imagine the potential with simple Google searches.
Examples:
1) Girlfriend: "you told me you had to do home work, and then you kept playing all night long!"
2) Or your boss: "you are not supposed to play games during worktime, you're fired!".
Hope that real names in conjunction with character names (this will be optional, as previous comments say) will be turned of by default, otherwise... funny stuff!
I don't post there but I like it because now some of these stupid net tuff guys and girls can have something to worry about when they disrespect or talk shit to someone. Great times are ahead for all you E tuff guys its seeems on wow lol.
How many delicate flowers have you met in Counterstrike?
I got a case of beer and a chainsaw waiting for me at home after work.
Bingo
Load of crap. I would quit ANY game over this. If you can't see the novelty of this move in the mmorpg world, and the potential privacy and safety issues of this drastic measure, I can't help you.
p.s. I've played WOW for years and mainly have great memories. It is easily amongst the best mmorpgs out there and I've quit two years ago because I had just played it too much, I was never banned and I cherrish no wrath against Blizz for whatever reason.
When this goes live though, I will never sub to a Blizzard game again.
My brand new bloggity blog.
It really isn't all that big of a deal. If you own a facebook or myspace, someone can simple google your name, chances are that it'll appear. Or if you've posted your real name on another other social website, it'll also most likely appear if you google it. So what, now someone knows your first and last name? If you're secure about your privacy, then they still shouldn't be able to locate your Freaking house.
This is a good thing, it'll help seed out the immature 12 yr olds, who get on and troll/flame on the forums. They won't be able to do it now. People will know who they are, and be able to report em. (Yes i'm sure it will still happen, but at a much less drastic of a rate). Also if someone does decide to 'stalk you" I'm pretty sure thats illegal in like.. every state, and most countries. You can take legal action against them. Hopefully we'll see a lot less scum bags on blizzard video games too then, cause you won't be doing much gaming when the cops take their computer for evidence lol.
If you are worried about your personal privacy, don't get online. Simple as that.
Completely wrong.
A lot of the main premise of gaming is to do things you don't want to / physically can't...
I'd almost (ALMOST) go as far as to say this is against the very definition of what a video game should be, especially a role playing game.
This is not true. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25833934170&sid=1&pageNo=1 So why keep spreading it.
If you've read the entirety of the thread rather than attacking me you'd see that I already acknowleged that while the information I was taking that from isn't true ANYMORE at the time the article was posted (and read, by me) it did appear to be true.
Wowowow, nobody's attacking you here.
Eleanor Rigby.
I know I have jumped on this topic a lot in the last couple days. Just torques me on a number of levels and I am not even playing a Blizzard game right now - I won't be in the future unless perhaps I can play DIII without a Real ID. I doubt that though. Damn them forcing my hand like this, I like their games.
SCII pre-order canceled, yesterday.
They say that anyone can still view the forums anonymously. Isn't this important?
Am I really worried about xxjoeschmuckxx saying "shut up! D-bag!"
Shouldn't I actually be worried about the one who isn't saying anything, yet? Watching posts, noting my apparent friends. Finding me on Facebook, checking to see if I have pictures of me in front of my school, at the mall or a grocery. Paranoid, etc... Children are stalked. By people who are ill and unstable. Not stupid.
No. Blizzard is listening to the sales pitch they heard months ago when someone realized an untapped source of income. "Hey, look at what Facebook is doing!"
I have trusted MMO game companies with my PII over the years. Since UO - knowing the risks. Indeed, my name can be attributed to PII, with that they can find my address, possibly phone.
Now the biggest game company of all is setting this absurd precedent, and you know "everyone wants to be like Blizzard."
F them and their bullshit reason to make their forums more productive - can't even be honest about their long term intention. Here's hoping Blizzard dies in a big flaming wreath.
Oh, and now they are going to watch the forums for inappropriate content... *urrk-gag*
The representative also indicated that Blizzard will actively work to ensure that players are using true names and will monitor the forums for inappropriate names as well.
P.S. the amount of bile reading this produces is *umph* I have to step away.
"In addition, our Terms of Use agreement requires that players provide us with accurate information, ... -- if a player uses a fake name, it would ultimately impact our ability to provide him or her with timely service."
You really belive this is to do with bliz getting rid of trolls? honestly?, its more likely that this is a big push into social networking they want to do, they've seen how much money facebook and sites like that are making and want a peice of that pie and i dont think they care if 5% - 10% of there players leave becasue they belive they will make it back ten fold with there new facebook intergrashion.
If this was truely about stopping trolling on there forums there are alot better ways to go about it, like people having one name to use over there account and clicking on there name could bring up all there chars so no more lvl 1 alts talking shit.