You can quit, but the fact remains only countless other players will fill your shoes. Developers know this, they don't care about user retainment rate. They care about your wallet, and how much of it is going to them.
If they can't have your money, there is always another player from another mmo desperate enough to try it. Eventually players simply end up playing musical chairs for the rest of their mmo career.
people are addicted to games, and developers know it.
There is no stopping companies like blizzard from doing what they want, and with peoples addiction to these games, we are all "fucked".
I don't see much hope for change, we were raised, and molded, and shaped by our society, parents and outside pressures, to be this way.
While many may not agree to portions or all of this post, in this end we are just slave to the system, one way or another, through tv, food, games etc etc...
Don't believe me? Try living a day without tv, computers, cell phones, fast food, that new outfit.
Anyways... I really hope that people find a way to adapt to the system to be happy, cause you can't beat it, and you can't exist outside of it.
flame as you like, I understand if you don't understand the words I am saying.
cheers!
I'm glad you were proved so wrong. I actually feel very sad for people who have such a defeatist attitude to anything in life, even games. I'm not having a go at you, your entitled to think the way you want, I'm just glad not everybody thinks that way or your way of thinking would actually become a reality.
When people get together and rightly make their voices heard it is a very powerful thing. I'm so glad that people spoke up like they did, in between the haters on either side there were many many valid points raised about why it was such a terrible idea to link with players real names, especially when there was no reason to do it. using 'real names' does not equal accountability, and accountability does not require real names.
What I'm saying is that the people who are sick of the trolls, well you can be happy for Blizzard can use an account based anonymous identifier to ban such trolls if required, and this means that those who feel they need the protection of anonymity need not fear.
Surely this is a win win for everyone apart from the trolls. The horrible thing to come out of this is that once again it has shown how many people are simply incapable of seeing beyond their own situation to take onboard other peoples circumstances. Just because you have no good reason to hide your identity does not mean that others don't.
RealID has to be the dumbest reason to quit WoW ever (and I say this as someone who has quit WoW). A lot of people don't seem to be aware of this for some reason, but no one on the internet cares who you really are.
MMO companies seem, too often, to think that their players are so hooked on a game that they can't walk away, no matter how they're treated. The problem is, sometimes I think they're right.
Does an MMO meet most of a person's social needs? Do they get self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment mainly in a virtual environment? Do most of their recreational needs get met exclusively in an online game? Have they invested an incredible amount of money, time or energy into an MMO--so much that walking away from it feels unbearable?
I think the more we rely on MMOs to get these basic needs met, the more power we give to MMO companies. I think the more power we give them, the more likely they are to abuse this, and take us for granted. They'll do what they want, no matter how loud we scream, because they know they've got us hooked.
If any gamer feels him or herself in that position, maybe its time to give game companies less power, and find out that life has more to offer than World of Warcraft, or any other MMO.
About that hate means nothing thing, *cough* SWG *cough*. Certain things piss people off enough to destroy you, game development companies suffer from a lot of hubris and have not learned that yet.
-With regard to this, if you are a fool enough to use FaceBook or MySpace (which are both tracked by the police, oh and so is YouTube), then this decision does not affect you since you screwed yourself already.
The only way to be completely anon on the internet is through the use of prepaid phones that are paid in cash and use aliases, a different alias every so often.
I prefer not to connect my internet personas with my real world self, it is bad for business as everything you say here is tracked. So something you said drunk , for example, can be used against you as if you said it sober. I definately would not buy any MMORPG that wanted my identity to be public record like this, but some people really don't care as they think "I've done nothing wrong." But that is not the problem, as we know with game Developers, people are prone to incompetence, laziness, and greed. Police agencies are made of people and prone to this as well. It is the potential screw-ups that you should fear, not necesissarily if you are innocent or not.
--When you resubscribe to SWG, an 18 yearold Stripper finds Jesus, gives up stripping, and moves with a rolex reverend to Hawaii. --In MMORPG's l007 is the opiate of the masses. --The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence! --CCP could cut off an Eve player's fun bits, and that player would say that it was good CCP did that.
Im one of those gamers if i dont like it i dont yell hate or scream about it i just ask if they will chance it if not i quit.
Ive done it before, so not words only but action and they wont get my money any more untill they chance it.
Luckly im not involved in activision/blizzard games so for now realID is not my problem:)
Ignorrance can be your downfall remember that many bad people out there even if you dont have to be affraid or wrong doing anything its a huge risk known with real name on internet.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
1. lawsuit, if you actually think this can or will happen, your dreaming with the rest.
2. Your name , isn't as unique as you think it is. Mine is Noel Bohac, OH NO < IM SCARED NOW! :P
3. Facebook intergration, probably does that bother you?
4. Don't like it, don't buy it, that is your ONLY recours that any corp will listen to period.
5. They got your real name now and it's easy enough to find you by your IP to the exact building you are on the net from, are you scared now? Time to unplug from the internet , because if this scares you, sorry to say it's allready out there, your just not blantly aware of it. Got a network guru friend? Ask them and you will know why.
6. Do you really think a thread of 12thousand post or even 100thousand will make them stop the process? If you do, your really not to bright. If this wasn't WoW, maybe, but it is and as we know membership is in the millions, So ya, if it was a 500k membership and 100k complained, ok maybe, just maybe then they might "might" listen. Get the idea here? Complain all you like death ears approch.
7. You will quit, there are plenty more to take your spot.
8. The only thing that will kill WoW or any game is if the game is not fun. Period. People said another company would fail because they require constant internet connections to their games , it might have hurt sales, but not enough to make them stop it. You might think you know the company to which I speak, you probably are right, but did you know there are actual 5 publisher that require and more that are going to same rout to your favorit IP games?
9.Get ready to give it all up, the trend is openess and security of IP, this means RealID, Constant Internet Connection and more for any game you will play in the future. So at least you had a good run while it lasted right?
10. Refer to point 7 if you think it matters.
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
About that hate means nothing thing, *cough* SWG *cough*. Certain things piss people off enough to destroy you, game development companies suffer from a lot of hubris and have not learned that yet.
-With regard to this, if you are a fool enough to use FaceBook or MySpace (which are both tracked by the police, oh and so is YouTube), then this decision does not affect you since you screwed yourself already.
The only way to be completely anon on the internet is through the use of prepaid phones that are paid in cash and use aliases, a different alias every so often.
I prefer not to connect my internet personas with my real world self, it is bad for business as everything you say here is tracked. So something you said drunk , for example, can be used against you as if you said it sober. I definately would not buy any MMORPG that wanted my identity to be public record like this, but some people really don't care as they think "I've done nothing wrong." But that is not the problem, as we know with game Developers, people are prone to incompetence, laziness, and greed. Police agencies are made of people and prone to this as well. It is the potential screw-ups that you should fear, not necesissarily if you are innocent or not.
There was a storm over the pets, but who got their way? Blizzard.
There was a storm over Real ID but who got the ratings system they wanted introduced? Blizzard.
Posters are talking of ‘people power’, but you were conned guys. Its called expectation management, you tell people something very bad is going to happen (real ID names on your forum) then you cancel that but get through another controversial change (rating system) and you guys are patting yourself on the back. Brilliant play on Blizzards part.
I have quit MMO’s before because of changes, or just forums because of changes to the forums. He is right , voting with your feet is all that counts.
6. Do you really think a thread of 12thousand post or even 100thousand will make them stop the process? If you do, your really not to bright. If this wasn't WoW, maybe, but it is and as we know membership is in the millions, So ya, if it was a 500k membership and 100k complained, ok maybe, just maybe then they might "might" listen. Get the idea here? Complain all you like death ears approch.
Heh, the post made it to around 2500 pages and blizzard locked it after releasing they are canning the requirement to use real names in forum posts. Just thought I'd point that out to you.
There was a storm over the pets, but who got their way? Blizzard.
There was a storm over Real ID but who got the ratings system they wanted introduced? Blizzard.
Posters are talking of ‘people power’, but you were conned guys. Its called expectation management, you tell people something very bad is going to happen (real ID names on your forum) then you cancel that but get through another controversial change (rating system) and you guys are patting yourself on the back. Brilliant play on Blizzards part.
I have quit MMO’s before because of changes, or just forums because of changes to the forums. He is right , voting with your feet is all that counts.
^^^THIS^^^ !!!
Extremely true....Congress does it all the time, it's a tried and proven way to get what you REALLY want while making yourself look like you are doing what your constituency wants.
The key to the so-called Blizz response was...AT THIS TIME...respectfully, I say people really need to learn to read, and comprehend what is being said, or in this case, NOT being said. Nowhere did they say it would never be implemented, nowhere did they say they were going to fix the flaws with RealID and Battle.net that have made it easier for people to get hacked, and in fact they left the door wide open for dumping a whole new load of 'stuff' on the player base.
RealID has to be the dumbest reason to quit WoW ever (and I say this as someone who has quit WoW). A lot of people don't seem to be aware of this for some reason, but no one on the internet cares who you really are.
I think you are way off. Even though I don’t currently play WoW, I have dabbled in it off and on since its release. If they continued with the Real ID system I never would have returned. Why? Because it is MY choice to tell people who I am, not the choice of an entertainment company whom I pay for, well, entertainment. Simply telling me not to post on the forums is a shallow line of reasoning.
If in a drunken stupor or sudden fit of nerd rage I decided to call someone a “flaming douche” on the WoW forums, then I would bet someone on the internet would take interest in me. Maybe not gun me down in my living room interest, but I’m sure they would do a quick google search just to see who this douche commenting person is. “What’s this?” they think. “They happens to live in the same city that I do! Hahahaha, I’m going to screw with this them.” Prank phone calls, pizza deliveries, chip-n-dale dancers showing up at my place of business are all viable options. All because of a stupid “flaming douche” comment and Real ID.
And yes. Someone out there would be willing to pay some money to troll someone in real life. I have disposable income and I’m not above blowing $100.00 on some skanky hooker to show up at some stranger’s house on a Sunday afternoon. Might even sit outside their house to take pictures of the grand event!
People quitting over some forum feature that won't even go live now? Truly stupid. Tough luck for missing out on some of the best games from one of the best companies on the gaming market out of some stupid principle. The loss is only on you.
Well, I have to admit I am impressed that Blizzard actually backed out of this decision after seeing how upset it made people. It is not the company it once way, but, regardless of Kotick's control, this does seem to be a positive thing to note.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
1. lawsuit, if you actually think this can or will happen, your dreaming with the rest.
2. Your name , isn't as unique as you think it is. Mine is Noel Bohac, OH NO < IM SCARED NOW! :P
5. They got your real name now and it's easy enough to find you by your IP to the exact building you are on the net from, are you scared now? Time to unplug from the internet , because if this scares you, sorry to say it's allready out there, your just not blantly aware of it. Got a network guru friend? Ask them and you will know why.
6. Do you really think a thread of 12thousand post or even 100thousand will make them stop the process? If you do, your really not to bright. If this wasn't WoW, maybe, but it is and as we know membership is in the millions, So ya, if it was a 500k membership and 100k complained, ok maybe, just maybe then they might "might" listen. Get the idea here? Complain all you like death ears approch.
8. The only thing that will kill WoW or any game is if the game is not fun. Period. People said another company would fail because they require constant internet connections to their games , it might have hurt sales, but not enough to make them stop it. You might think you know the company to which I speak, you probably are right, but did you know there are actual 5 publisher that require and more that are going to same rout to your favorit IP games?
1. lawsuit. I don't think it's the lawsuit that is the issue. Because the chances of Blizzard actually being proven guilty would be extremely small. However, if one happened, it would likely be a huge media circus and in that, it would be an insane amount of negative publicity that would most likely do irrevocable harm to the company. For Example, Michael Jackson was proven not guilty, but lets face it, it pretty much ended his career.
Add that, regardless of outcome, it would also mean something horrible happened. Meaning, someone would've actually used WoW forums and got someones name, found info about that person and did something to harm that person. And if that did happen, then that is one too many.
2. And also, regardless to Noel Bohac, your name has information. It isn't out of the question these days for companies to do background checks. A lot of which means Googling your name, looking you up on Facebook, etc... And if they find that you have 1000+ responses on MMORPG, on WoW forums, etc...., some companies will look another direction. There are lots of companies that see mmorpg gaming as an extremely negative pasttime that will effect your work and productivity, regardless of whether or not it's true (personally, depending on the job, I think the reverse is true), the perception is the reality.
Thus having a real name used could seriously having longer reaching effects than you could possibly imagine, and might have financial impact as well.
5. see response #1, because it is that easy, and there are 10,000,000 people who play WoW and it really only takes 1 nutjob to cause someone serious harm.
6. average complain post is usually 50 to 100 pages. This change generated 2500+ pages. I think that speaks volumes.
8. Not fun game play is essentially a mixed bag that has tons of reasons that effect that. Say 10% of the WoW population leave. That could kill some servers and guilds. Thus it could start a bleed effect that dovetails to more people quitting and the game becoming less fun. RealID most likely would have a negative impact on people who would join and on people who might resubscribe. Thus people leave and less people coming back. As people have said on this thread, some have quit over it, some have cancelled their SC2 pre-order. RealID detracts from their fun.
What it comes down to is that there really isn't anything positive that would come of this, other than possibly getting rid of level 1 alt troll posting. And is that really worth losing a customers over?
I like how people are complaining about a system that isn't a mandatory mechanic to play WoW, and is pretty much like getting a friend invite on FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter. Look people the Real ID Program is pretty simple you give your login id to people who are either in your guild or on your friends list already so they know when you log on to your characters. If you dont want people to know this DONT GIVE IT OUT. its just that simple. Blizzard has never stated either use this new system or you can play WoW they said use this system along with your friends list. SHeesh all you idiots who are crying over this system are crying over nothing.
"Possibly we humans can exist without actually having to fight. But many of us have chosen to fight. For what reason? To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we kill people to protect ourselves and this future, then what sort of future is it, and what will we have become? There is no future for those who have died. And what of those who did the killing? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with blood stained hands? Is that the truth?"
There was a storm over the pets, but who got their way? Blizzard.
There was a storm over Real ID but who got the ratings system they wanted introduced? Blizzard.
Posters are talking of ‘people power’, but you were conned guys. Its called expectation management, you tell people something very bad is going to happen (real ID names on your forum) then you cancel that but get through another controversial change (rating system) and you guys are patting yourself on the back. Brilliant play on Blizzards part.
I have quit MMO’s before because of changes, or just forums because of changes to the forums. He is right , voting with your feet is all that counts.
no offense, but I don't see how rating posts is that controversial.
I just laughed harder when I heard about this real name thing or whatever. It's just blizzard proving that they're god because they can. While a few of us older gamers and long-time fans have grown disgusted and distanced from blizzard you kids are still laping it up. We're a shrinking number so blizz doesn't care about us anymore. This is you kids' fault.
I like how people are complaining about a system that isn't a mandatory mechanic to play WoW, and is pretty much like getting a friend invite on FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter. Look people the Real ID Program is pretty simple you give your login id to people who are either in your guild or on your friends list already so they know when you log on to your characters. If you dont want people to know this DONT GIVE IT OUT. its just that simple. Blizzard has never stated either use this new system or you can play WoW they said use this system along with your friends list. SHeesh all you idiots who are crying over this system are crying over nothing.
The concerns that I think most people have is that Blizz had planned on making all forum posts show real names instead of screen name. However, due to the huge public outcry over legitimate privacy concerns, Blizz has since removed that part of RealID. As far as Blizz's choice to change that, I suppose reasonable people can disagree; however, I think it is pretty rash to shoot down the concerns people had as nothing.
There was a storm over the pets, but who got their way? Blizzard.
There was a storm over Real ID but who got the ratings system they wanted introduced? Blizzard.
Posters are talking of ‘people power’, but you were conned guys. Its called expectation management, you tell people something very bad is going to happen (real ID names on your forum) then you cancel that but get through another controversial change (rating system) and you guys are patting yourself on the back. Brilliant play on Blizzards part.
I have quit MMO’s before because of changes, or just forums because of changes to the forums. He is right , voting with your feet is all that counts.
no offense, but I don't see how rating posts is that controversial.
That all depends on the details of how its to be implimented. Done properly, it could enhance the forums and the community. Done poorly, it could shatter what little remains.
I like how people are complaining about a system that isn't a mandatory mechanic to play WoW, and is pretty much like getting a friend invite on FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter. Look people the Real ID Program is pretty simple you give your login id to people who are either in your guild or on your friends list already so they know when you log on to your characters. If you dont want people to know this DONT GIVE IT OUT. its just that simple. Blizzard has never stated either use this new system or you can play WoW they said use this system along with your friends list. SHeesh all you idiots who are crying over this system are crying over nothing.
The concerns that I think most people have is that Blizz had planned on making all forum posts show real names instead of screen name. However, due to the huge public outcry over legitimate privacy concerns, Blizz has since removed that part of RealID. As far as Blizz's choice to change that, I suppose reasonable people can disagree; however, I think it is pretty rash to shoot down the concerns people had as nothing.
When they can come up with a logical reason to complain then I will listen. Most of the complaints on this topic are anything but logical. Yes the RealID Forum Idea was in bad taste so Blizzard Fixed it. but the complains about RealID in game option is a baseless complaint. They dont need to use it so they dont need complain about it. Most of the people that are complaining are just doing so cause they can.
"Possibly we humans can exist without actually having to fight. But many of us have chosen to fight. For what reason? To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we kill people to protect ourselves and this future, then what sort of future is it, and what will we have become? There is no future for those who have died. And what of those who did the killing? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with blood stained hands? Is that the truth?"
I had the same thoughts as this article- that Blizzard would see the rage coming and decide to move forward with it anyway. So it surprised me when they decided to take their word back. It almost makes me think that they planned this all along, just to get a reaction out of people and make themselves look like the good guys in the end. Especially when you read the last part of their apology post which states: "In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning."
Comments
I'm glad you were proved so wrong. I actually feel very sad for people who have such a defeatist attitude to anything in life, even games. I'm not having a go at you, your entitled to think the way you want, I'm just glad not everybody thinks that way or your way of thinking would actually become a reality.
When people get together and rightly make their voices heard it is a very powerful thing. I'm so glad that people spoke up like they did, in between the haters on either side there were many many valid points raised about why it was such a terrible idea to link with players real names, especially when there was no reason to do it. using 'real names' does not equal accountability, and accountability does not require real names.
What I'm saying is that the people who are sick of the trolls, well you can be happy for Blizzard can use an account based anonymous identifier to ban such trolls if required, and this means that those who feel they need the protection of anonymity need not fear.
Surely this is a win win for everyone apart from the trolls. The horrible thing to come out of this is that once again it has shown how many people are simply incapable of seeing beyond their own situation to take onboard other peoples circumstances. Just because you have no good reason to hide your identity does not mean that others don't.
RealID has to be the dumbest reason to quit WoW ever (and I say this as someone who has quit WoW). A lot of people don't seem to be aware of this for some reason, but no one on the internet cares who you really are.
i just cancelled my account I don't want my real name used and posted on the forums thank you very much.
Oh sweet, Nicrox is gone!
*Resubbing*
MMO companies seem, too often, to think that their players are so hooked on a game that they can't walk away, no matter how they're treated. The problem is, sometimes I think they're right.
Does an MMO meet most of a person's social needs? Do they get self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment mainly in a virtual environment? Do most of their recreational needs get met exclusively in an online game? Have they invested an incredible amount of money, time or energy into an MMO--so much that walking away from it feels unbearable?
I think the more we rely on MMOs to get these basic needs met, the more power we give to MMO companies. I think the more power we give them, the more likely they are to abuse this, and take us for granted. They'll do what they want, no matter how loud we scream, because they know they've got us hooked.
If any gamer feels him or herself in that position, maybe its time to give game companies less power, and find out that life has more to offer than World of Warcraft, or any other MMO.
About that hate means nothing thing, *cough* SWG *cough*. Certain things piss people off enough to destroy you, game development companies suffer from a lot of hubris and have not learned that yet.
-With regard to this, if you are a fool enough to use FaceBook or MySpace (which are both tracked by the police, oh and so is YouTube), then this decision does not affect you since you screwed yourself already.
The only way to be completely anon on the internet is through the use of prepaid phones that are paid in cash and use aliases, a different alias every so often.
I prefer not to connect my internet personas with my real world self, it is bad for business as everything you say here is tracked. So something you said drunk , for example, can be used against you as if you said it sober. I definately would not buy any MMORPG that wanted my identity to be public record like this, but some people really don't care as they think "I've done nothing wrong." But that is not the problem, as we know with game Developers, people are prone to incompetence, laziness, and greed. Police agencies are made of people and prone to this as well. It is the potential screw-ups that you should fear, not necesissarily if you are innocent or not.
--When you resubscribe to SWG, an 18 yearold Stripper finds Jesus, gives up stripping, and moves with a rolex reverend to Hawaii.
--In MMORPG's l007 is the opiate of the masses.
--The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence!
--CCP could cut off an Eve player's fun bits, and that player would say that it was good CCP did that.
Im one of those gamers if i dont like it i dont yell hate or scream about it i just ask if they will chance it if not i quit.
Ive done it before, so not words only but action and they wont get my money any more untill they chance it.
Luckly im not involved in activision/blizzard games so for now realID is not my problem:)
Ignorrance can be your downfall remember that many bad people out there even if you dont have to be affraid or wrong doing anything its a huge risk known with real name on internet.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
1. lawsuit, if you actually think this can or will happen, your dreaming with the rest.
2. Your name , isn't as unique as you think it is. Mine is Noel Bohac, OH NO < IM SCARED NOW! :P
3. Facebook intergration, probably does that bother you?
4. Don't like it, don't buy it, that is your ONLY recours that any corp will listen to period.
5. They got your real name now and it's easy enough to find you by your IP to the exact building you are on the net from, are you scared now? Time to unplug from the internet , because if this scares you, sorry to say it's allready out there, your just not blantly aware of it. Got a network guru friend? Ask them and you will know why.
6. Do you really think a thread of 12thousand post or even 100thousand will make them stop the process? If you do, your really not to bright. If this wasn't WoW, maybe, but it is and as we know membership is in the millions, So ya, if it was a 500k membership and 100k complained, ok maybe, just maybe then they might "might" listen. Get the idea here? Complain all you like death ears approch.
7. You will quit, there are plenty more to take your spot.
8. The only thing that will kill WoW or any game is if the game is not fun. Period. People said another company would fail because they require constant internet connections to their games , it might have hurt sales, but not enough to make them stop it. You might think you know the company to which I speak, you probably are right, but did you know there are actual 5 publisher that require and more that are going to same rout to your favorit IP games?
9.Get ready to give it all up, the trend is openess and security of IP, this means RealID, Constant Internet Connection and more for any game you will play in the future. So at least you had a good run while it lasted right?
10. Refer to point 7 if you think it matters.
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
Ack, I better get my tinfoil hat!
There was a storm over the pets, but who got their way? Blizzard.
There was a storm over Real ID but who got the ratings system they wanted introduced? Blizzard.
Posters are talking of ‘people power’, but you were conned guys. Its called expectation management, you tell people something very bad is going to happen (real ID names on your forum) then you cancel that but get through another controversial change (rating system) and you guys are patting yourself on the back. Brilliant play on Blizzards part.
I have quit MMO’s before because of changes, or just forums because of changes to the forums. He is right , voting with your feet is all that counts.
Heh, the post made it to around 2500 pages and blizzard locked it after releasing they are canning the requirement to use real names in forum posts. Just thought I'd point that out to you.
^^^THIS^^^ !!!
Extremely true....Congress does it all the time, it's a tried and proven way to get what you REALLY want while making yourself look like you are doing what your constituency wants.
The key to the so-called Blizz response was...AT THIS TIME...respectfully, I say people really need to learn to read, and comprehend what is being said, or in this case, NOT being said. Nowhere did they say it would never be implemented, nowhere did they say they were going to fix the flaws with RealID and Battle.net that have made it easier for people to get hacked, and in fact they left the door wide open for dumping a whole new load of 'stuff' on the player base.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1
Really READ what is said/not said....and try to realize that this is politically correct manipulation from beginning to end.
And people are buying it,,,as evidenced by the subsequent Blizz praising posts that follow it. O_o
I think you are way off. Even though I don’t currently play WoW, I have dabbled in it off and on since its release. If they continued with the Real ID system I never would have returned. Why? Because it is MY choice to tell people who I am, not the choice of an entertainment company whom I pay for, well, entertainment. Simply telling me not to post on the forums is a shallow line of reasoning.
If in a drunken stupor or sudden fit of nerd rage I decided to call someone a “flaming douche” on the WoW forums, then I would bet someone on the internet would take interest in me. Maybe not gun me down in my living room interest, but I’m sure they would do a quick google search just to see who this douche commenting person is. “What’s this?” they think. “They happens to live in the same city that I do! Hahahaha, I’m going to screw with this them.” Prank phone calls, pizza deliveries, chip-n-dale dancers showing up at my place of business are all viable options. All because of a stupid “flaming douche” comment and Real ID.
And yes. Someone out there would be willing to pay some money to troll someone in real life. I have disposable income and I’m not above blowing $100.00 on some skanky hooker to show up at some stranger’s house on a Sunday afternoon. Might even sit outside their house to take pictures of the grand event!
People quitting over some forum feature that won't even go live now? Truly stupid. Tough luck for missing out on some of the best games from one of the best companies on the gaming market out of some stupid principle. The loss is only on you.
Well, I have to admit I am impressed that Blizzard actually backed out of this decision after seeing how upset it made people. It is not the company it once way, but, regardless of Kotick's control, this does seem to be a positive thing to note.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
WTF? No subscription fee?
why does it always seems that these articles come out so late to the game?
1. lawsuit. I don't think it's the lawsuit that is the issue. Because the chances of Blizzard actually being proven guilty would be extremely small. However, if one happened, it would likely be a huge media circus and in that, it would be an insane amount of negative publicity that would most likely do irrevocable harm to the company. For Example, Michael Jackson was proven not guilty, but lets face it, it pretty much ended his career.
Add that, regardless of outcome, it would also mean something horrible happened. Meaning, someone would've actually used WoW forums and got someones name, found info about that person and did something to harm that person. And if that did happen, then that is one too many.
2. And also, regardless to Noel Bohac, your name has information. It isn't out of the question these days for companies to do background checks. A lot of which means Googling your name, looking you up on Facebook, etc... And if they find that you have 1000+ responses on MMORPG, on WoW forums, etc...., some companies will look another direction. There are lots of companies that see mmorpg gaming as an extremely negative pasttime that will effect your work and productivity, regardless of whether or not it's true (personally, depending on the job, I think the reverse is true), the perception is the reality.
Thus having a real name used could seriously having longer reaching effects than you could possibly imagine, and might have financial impact as well.
5. see response #1, because it is that easy, and there are 10,000,000 people who play WoW and it really only takes 1 nutjob to cause someone serious harm.
6. average complain post is usually 50 to 100 pages. This change generated 2500+ pages. I think that speaks volumes.
8. Not fun game play is essentially a mixed bag that has tons of reasons that effect that. Say 10% of the WoW population leave. That could kill some servers and guilds. Thus it could start a bleed effect that dovetails to more people quitting and the game becoming less fun. RealID most likely would have a negative impact on people who would join and on people who might resubscribe. Thus people leave and less people coming back. As people have said on this thread, some have quit over it, some have cancelled their SC2 pre-order. RealID detracts from their fun.
What it comes down to is that there really isn't anything positive that would come of this, other than possibly getting rid of level 1 alt troll posting. And is that really worth losing a customers over?
I like how people are complaining about a system that isn't a mandatory mechanic to play WoW, and is pretty much like getting a friend invite on FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter. Look people the Real ID Program is pretty simple you give your login id to people who are either in your guild or on your friends list already so they know when you log on to your characters. If you dont want people to know this DONT GIVE IT OUT. its just that simple. Blizzard has never stated either use this new system or you can play WoW they said use this system along with your friends list. SHeesh all you idiots who are crying over this system are crying over nothing.
"Possibly we humans can exist without actually having to fight. But many of us have chosen to fight. For what reason? To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we kill people to protect ourselves and this future, then what sort of future is it, and what will we have become? There is no future for those who have died. And what of those who did the killing? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with blood stained hands? Is that the truth?"
no offense, but I don't see how rating posts is that controversial.
I just laughed harder when I heard about this real name thing or whatever. It's just blizzard proving that they're god because they can. While a few of us older gamers and long-time fans have grown disgusted and distanced from blizzard you kids are still laping it up. We're a shrinking number so blizz doesn't care about us anymore. This is you kids' fault.
The concerns that I think most people have is that Blizz had planned on making all forum posts show real names instead of screen name. However, due to the huge public outcry over legitimate privacy concerns, Blizz has since removed that part of RealID. As far as Blizz's choice to change that, I suppose reasonable people can disagree; however, I think it is pretty rash to shoot down the concerns people had as nothing.
That all depends on the details of how its to be implimented. Done properly, it could enhance the forums and the community. Done poorly, it could shatter what little remains.
When they can come up with a logical reason to complain then I will listen. Most of the complaints on this topic are anything but logical. Yes the RealID Forum Idea was in bad taste so Blizzard Fixed it. but the complains about RealID in game option is a baseless complaint. They dont need to use it so they dont need complain about it. Most of the people that are complaining are just doing so cause they can.
"Possibly we humans can exist without actually having to fight. But many of us have chosen to fight. For what reason? To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we kill people to protect ourselves and this future, then what sort of future is it, and what will we have become? There is no future for those who have died. And what of those who did the killing? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with blood stained hands? Is that the truth?"
I had the same thoughts as this article- that Blizzard would see the rage coming and decide to move forward with it anyway. So it surprised me when they decided to take their word back. It almost makes me think that they planned this all along, just to get a reaction out of people and make themselves look like the good guys in the end. Especially when you read the last part of their apology post which states: "In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning."
Good article there.