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World of Warcraft: Battle.Net to Display Real Names
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Blizzard Entertainment has put up a new notice on the official Battle.net forums about the upcoming changes to the user name display. Sure to be controversial, the rather stunning move is part of the 'Real ID' feature and posters will have their true first and last names displayed once the new B.net features are in place.
Interestingly, the first 'defense' of the new system is that the Blizzard forums have become, according to the development team, a place where flame wars and rampant trolling are prevalent. Citing the removal of the 'anonymity factor' for posters, Blizzard feels that a more civil atmosphere will be maintained.
The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.
Read the rest of the announcement on the official Battle.Net forums but do be sure to let us know your thoughts. Will this new policy chase you off the B.Net forums?
Comments
Whether or not this has a positive effect on their community/forum it is undeniably a pioneering move by a developer commonly refered to as unoriginal.
I don't see the big deal about using real names. Truly it's a bit absurd.
Except people do like to keep their private lives separate from games.
Thread already started . . .
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3644554#3644554
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS
Maybe them showing peoples real name will clean that forum up.
I thought MMORPG.com forums were horrid community wise.... then I think back to the WoW forums, ugh.
I believe at first it will have a positive effect on the content of peoples posts, but then people will get used to it and start not caring again.
A person is best judged by the choices they make when no one is watching. The mature, level headed, balanced and reasonable posters will continue to be so, and those less then mature, level headed, balanced, and reasonable will continue to be once the shock of using their real name wears off.
You see the same kind of social behavior in bars. The obnoxious people might be less obnoxious and more reserved around new people, but once they get comfortable its back to being who they are.
As I already said in this thread:
"I think we can sum up the results of this measure on the WoW forums pretty much like this:
Goodbye trolls pit, welcome stalker heaven."
To those that think it isn't that big of a deal, here's one possible issue that could arise with it, some comments upon the measure by girl gamers:
"As a girl who plays WoW, I keep my personal information personal, for exactly that reason. And as a working professional, my husband keeps his info even tighter than I do. We don't use a single social networking site for the same reasons. My first thought on reading that Blue post was "Well, I guess we'll never be using the forums again." I can't imagine a way for them to make it safe for those of us with good reason to keep our info to ourselves to use any of the forums or other things that might come after that without backpedaling on the idea of personal accountability"
"Ok I'm a girl, and i have actually been stalked through this game. Someone found my phone number and address from only knowing the city I live in, my job (not a common job), and my first name, all info i gave out without thinking over months of raiding on vent. He called me so often I changed my phone number, he would send me printed out map quest guides from his house to mine. It scared the shit out of me. I transferred and faction changed, and now I don't even tell my guildmates, who i adore, my first name. The escalation of this real id stuff is making me very concerned about playing this game."
"As a public forum figure (I had one @Lissanna post pop up on the druid forums already last week), this is going to mean that I'm going to have to decide if I care about the forums enough to put up with Real Life harassment after 5 or 6 years of being so good about protecting my RL info.
The problem is that they'll lose actual constructive, helpful posters like me who won't want my RL name associated with the leveling & healing guides stickied on the druid forums, because I don't want people to be able to call me when they disagree with what I've said. I have a unique enough name that I run a very, very high risk of people being able to easily find my school information (with publicly posted phone # and e-mail address), and using it to /stalk me."
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."
People are crazy. No way I would put my real name out on a forum. I can just imagine it now. You kill some whack job in game and they use your real name to find your job and start spamming stuff to your boss/co workers. Or finds your phone number and starts haraassing you. And then like the poster above me said there is no way in HELL I would EVER let me wife or GF put here real information out on a game forum, WAY to many nut cases.
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
Blizzard: Pioneering Facebook like privacy ideals.
It didn't work for Facebook, it's not going to work for Blizzard.
Now with 57.3% more flames!
Do you have a Facebook? Does your wife or gf have a Facebook?
I am friended with waitresses i've met at restaraunts on Facebook, and to them i'm just some random dude that buys coffee from them and tips decently.
Ever ask a girl for her number? Seriously if you keep yourself closeted you'll never meet all the really cool and friendly people out there.
Fear is the path to the darkside.
But.. Facebook is so crappy, why not make a better version?
Facebook is not about talking to people, it's about getting as many 'friends' as possible because if you have 600+ friends then you're really awesome. Getting 30+ friend requests by a friends friends is tiresome and is the reason I don't want to use Facebook.
I also don't get why they combat trolling if they at the same time target the people that play Farmville, I mean seriously how old do you think Farmville'rs are?
Eleanor Rigby.
Can you imagine the law suit if someone does stalk and kill another player from using the info found on the rl names on the site.. blizzard stock .01 ct ..
People have already killed each other and neglected their children because of WoW, but you don't see it hurting Blizzard in a financial way.
Eleanor Rigby.
WoW will die from Gov scanning lag soon anyways.....Terrorists are plotting the world takeover Inside the mmo games.
*U KNow I Love U*
I was thinking why don't people just edit thier profile Mr. john smith change too Mr. eatty shitty pay with pre time card np.
I've unsubscribed and left a pretty nasty comment in the cancellation box. Not that they'll see it or care...
Instead of properly managing their forums and adding hack "MVP" posters they'd rather take the easy way out.
They can't sufficiently cover their in game reports and pages nor can they even cover a forum. Time for me to hit the road on this one.
Unless they've changed it recently, without going through the ringer on Blizzard's support line (yeah, they actually do have one; not that it ever works), you cannot change your name.
Considering the local phone book has more information about me in it than my first and last name, I'm not too concerned.
I wasn't against the real ID thing, cause it was meant for people who already know your name, and the friend of a freind thing would just let them see you, not talk to you if you didn't want them to. This is different, If they want to be like facebook, then just have some way to link your facebook account, but In wow, I am Morgaren, on the forums, I am Morgaren, even here i am Morgaren, I don't post on the WoW forums anyways, maybe like three times since I played, but I agree with the people who say this is wrong, It makes too many people uncomfortable for better reasons than the annoyance of troll.
My Thoughts on Content Locust
Blizzard lawyers better be on speed dial.
Being an older gamer I don't really have an issue with Real ID.
What I do worry about is the state of social bullying at schools and how this can escalate it.
Growing up, I missed out on having a mobile phone while I was at school. Nowaday's kids as young as 5 have mobile phones.
Bullies pretend to be a target's friend and extract their phone number, email address and facebook profiles. Then a campaign of terror begins, with prank calls, threats, derogatory and mean messages to email phone and private facebook messages.
Most kids that are targeted are depressed because of it and lose friends or because they are shy don't have many friends and are targeted because of that and get depressed.
I'm pretty sure that a determined bully could find out the target's favorite wow character name, then proceed to grief and flame for the luls.
This Real ID system would just make it that much easier to target the poor kids in forums who try to complain to the only people who could save their favorite recreation time.
With all the school shootings from kids who were bullied to the point of being mentally unhinged and thousands of assaults from bullying that probably never get reported, I would liken this to throwing sticks into the fire.
Yep, I have a facebook. The difference is I CHOOSE who sees my information and who doesn't. If a waitress you meet at a coffee shot thinks its a good idea to friend some guy she just met then that's her choice. However she can still use facebook and choose not to do this. However if you choose to use the blizzard forums you have no choice but to give up your real name to everyone. It would be like if you joined facebook and didn't have the option to not let EVERYONE see your information.
I get why they are doing it. I honestly do. However for me there are just to many crazy ass people out there.
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
Its all meant to be a GOOD idea until someone dies from it.
Lets see who gets sued here.
People have already died because of WoW. You don't see Blizzard going bankrupt now do you?
Eleanor Rigby.
I doubt anyone will have any legal recourse. I'm sure you will have to accpet a new terms of service stating that you give blizard the right to display your real name if you choose to use their forums. People will have the option to simply not use the forums.
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
I don't think anyone has died because of WoW. People have died because they did stupid shit like went 4 days without eating and sleeping but WoW didn't do that, they did.
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda