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.
I don't mind them "having a spine". But on this issue, they're being HUGELY irresponsible. Forcing people do display their real life information creates massive opportunities for identity thieves and hackers. As was very aptly demonstrated when one of the CMs posted his real name in response to the complaints.
As long as you don't post on the forums this doesn't effect you. How many of you use facebook or twitter, but let Blizz suggest this and you act like the world will crash around you. This is just more thing for all you WoW haters to cling to. Get your tin foil hats out boys and girls Blizzard is settiing up to control us all. Get off the forums and go read the real news you idiots, there are real issues to be concerned with, real invasions of our rights, real issues that need attention, bad things are happening out in the world, and you know what, Blizzard didn't cause any of them!
Funny thing is that probably the majority of the real compainers do not nor will ever play WOW or they have Facebook or MySpace accounts with 1000 times for personal information out there. Just because its Blizzard, poeple hate it. If it was some other game, it would be a good idea. Only an issue because its "cool" to hate Blizzard right now.
It has nothing to do with Blizzard hate, if CCP or BioWare did it, I'm pretty sure that the backlash would be the same. It's just a really bad idea to make private information public. Especially in a video game.
This RealID thing has the possibility of causing serious problems for some people. It's a simple fact that employers look up their employees on the internet. Being that gaming, still having a stigma attached to it, I can see RealID as a cause for losing jobs and interviews.
What about harrassment? Or how about the people who got killed or hurt over something that happened in the game when some sicko got his/her hands on the victim's personal information? Think about it. You gank someone in the game, they log into the forum, look up your name, go to whitepages.com and go over to your house to kill you.
What about female gamers? They already suffer sexual harrassment in video games, think about how much worse RealID will make it when in-game stalkers have easy access to personal information? There are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of unstable people out there.
No, this has nothing to do with Blizzard hate and has everything to do with the serious consequences it may cause. Especially since a lot of people do not realize how much information can be found with just a person's name and 15-20 minutes of free time.
While I don't necessarily agree with the method in which this is being implemented given our society's current proclivity toward identity theft, I do understand their reasons for compelling posters to be a bit more humane in their commentary.
The primary issue is a generational one imo.
MMO's were originally geared toward a more mature audience and have since attracted a much younger one. Couple that with the fact that the younger audience is also part of the first full generation of net-babies and issues escalate.
The link provided by Dark Pony highlights that perfectly...
A better measure, imo, would be to drastically increase the number of moderators to the site and increase the level of consequence for actions outside the forum rules to posters.
This has been done on other game sites and it has worked well.
The changes coming just beg for predatory behavior.
As long as you don't post on the forums this doesn't effect you. How many of you use facebook or twitter, but let Blizz suggest this and you act like the world will crash around you. This is just more thing for all you WoW haters to cling to. Get your tin foil hats out boys and girls Blizzard is settiing up to control us all. Get off the forums and go read the real news you idiots, there are real issues to be concerned with, real invasions of our rights, real issues that need attention, bad things are happening out in the world, and you know what, Blizzard didn't cause any of them!
Blizzard is not suggesting anything. This isn't a suggestion it's finalized. They are changing the rules, rules that other companies will emulate and build on. Blizzard has never been one to tend to their own front yard. They landscape countries.
Internet privacy is an option. Blizzard is removing that choice and making it a requirement to participate and we all want to participate, be heard.
This is a bigger deal than tin foil hats and being a WoW hater.
I think anyone who disagrees with this today, has the right thought even if they do not fully understand why they disagree.
I also think anyone stating "meh, whats the big deal, stop being sheep." Should check to see the grass they are munching on.
They are implementing this under flase pretences, they say its about reducing trolling and personal attacks. But the REAL ID is just a way to gather sensitive information that totally compromises the players integrity
It has nothing to do with Blizzard hate, if CCP or BioWare did it...
I would go so far as to say that CCP has already done the social networking thing, but did it more appropriately with EveGate. That said, their circumstances are significantly different having one shard and only three possible characters per account. This is not to say EveGate is perfect, but from a privacy standpoint, it is in a different league then RealID.
What I don't get are a few things:
-The facebook/twitter/etc argument. If I choose to put my information somewhere, I've done just that; made a conscious decision. With facebook, I have a number of features I can use to limit my exposure. I don't see similar limitations with RealID, should I want to participate with the community beyond my in-game interaction (which may be especially likely for RP realms).
-This will stop trolls. Why? How is this going to stop trolls? Because they are using their real name? There is plenty of anecdotal evidence on facebook to prove this does not work in practice.
-Your real name isn't worth anything/can't cause trouble. If this is true, how is it supposed to deter trolls?
-Just don't use Real ID/Forums/they are optional. The choice between giving out personal information and participating in an RPG community is not a choice.
There is nothing being accomplished by RealID that couldn't be accomplished by actually moderating their forums or using a singular ID/username.
As far as the comments from Blizz, I have to agree with a previous poster that it sounds like "we're listening, but we're not changing anything". I'm pretty much on the fence as to whether this is worth canceling over, but I am certainly leaning toward it now as I see this as phase 1 (or 2) in a larger plan that I, so far, don't see any value in. Maybe they'll change my mind before this goes live...who know....
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers. Do something wrong, no one forgets" -from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
A while back, a new service was launched in my country where you could search for a person by name and get a neatly compiled list of that person's date of birth, address (including location in google map), telephone number(s), picture, reported income and filtered search engine hits.
Now, this is already more information than I want strangers to have full access to, but I can't really opt out of any of it. The only thing I can do, is prevent people from mining even more data by not using my full name everywhere. And that's my plan, because nobody needs to know all this stuff about me unless they're friends or relatives of mine. The fact that Kotick thinks otherwise, doesn't exactly make me want to reconsider. That guy's a virus.
One of the absolute lamest "Go To" excuses for this is the dreaded 'Tin Foil Hat' brand.
Let's assume for one second that all the fears people have about this are completely unwarrented. IE - People who have been stalked before, Transgendered, Police, Judges, Working Professionals, Security Professionals, Unemployed, etc.
People don't want this to happen, simple as that. The fears they have, no matter what they are, should be heeded, because, well, they are the customer. It's generally a good business practice not to pee in your wheaties.
On a different subject, but a completely related matter. Let's say my name is John Smith. Hi I'm John Smith. Stop me from trolling. Does it make it easier for blizzard to ban me? No, they can ban my entire account anyways. They know who I am, they have my payment information. Does it prevent me in any way from trolling? No, it doesn't. Who cares if the guy above me knows my name. Unless, of course, the entire idea of this Real ID feature is to make people worry/scared some jacktard whacko might actually find them, look them up, etc. So what then, is the purpose?
I don't post on the forums frequently anyways, and when I do, I try to be helpful and/or constructive. Now I simply won't post, that however isn't the point. The point is, this is a step, and it's a step (in my opinion) in the wrong direction. If people didn't voice their displeasure, blizzard would keep trotting right along, and end up doing something that would REALLY make people angry (Mandatory Real ID in-game, what have you). If that makes me a kook /tin foil hat, and I'm damn glad to wear it.
"The Object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his."
It is a dreadful decision, but Activision Blizzard operates in its own reality bubble fueled by 8 digit subscriber numbers. The core game community of guide writers will migrate offsite where privacy survives. The Facebook deal (which is driving this change) will probably not amount to much. Other games will learn from this, but not in the way that AVBlizz intended.
Everyone keeps comparing this to Facebook but on Facebook you choose who can see your personal information. If you post in your server forum, now everyone that plays that server will know your real name. Being a female wow player, that is just completely unacceptable. Yes, I guess I could keep playing and never post on the forums but why do I want to support a game that would put my personal safety aside. I really didn't mind the Real ID at first and even added a couple friends, people I don't mind knowing my name. But to have to reveal my name to the whole community, even those guys who have super creeped me out on vent. Really? Seems like a pretty sexist move on Blizzard's part, I doubt any woman is going to post on the forums when this goes into affect. And yes, I just cancelled my subscription. I'm done with Blizzard.
Everyone keeps comparing this to Facebook but on Facebook you choose who can see your personal information. If you post in your server forum, now everyone that plays that server will know your real name. Being a female wow player, that is just completely unacceptable. Yes, I guess I could keep playing and never post on the forums but why do I want to support a game that would put my personal safety aside. I really didn't mind the Real ID at first and even added a couple friends, people I don't mind knowing my name. But to have to reveal my name to the whole community, even those guys who have super creeped me out on vent. Really? Seems like a pretty sexist move on Blizzard's part, I doubt any woman is going to post on the forums when this goes into affect. And yes, I just cancelled my subscription. I'm done with Blizzard.
I would have to agree.
To the caterpillar it is the end of the world, to the master, it is a butterfly.
My main issue with this is that I don't go by my real name, I go by a nickname (I don't like my real first name). No one but my closest friends know my actual first name, and I'm certainly not going to post it on the internet. Guess I won't be posting on their forums, if I need to ask a question (which is pretty much the only time I post, usually) I'll ask elsewhere. Still lame though.
Your name could be John Smith or ILikeButt on the forums and it will never matter. They're not posting an address or location, drama queens. It will keep the flamers (and the drama queens) away so I support it 100%. Stop telling strangers your real personal business (names don't matter) and you have nothing to worry about.
Everyone keeps comparing this to Facebook but on Facebook you choose who can see your personal information. If you post in your server forum, now everyone that plays that server will know your real name. Being a female wow player, that is just completely unacceptable. Yes, I guess I could keep playing and never post on the forums but why do I want to support a game that would put my personal safety aside. I really didn't mind the Real ID at first and even added a couple friends, people I don't mind knowing my name. But to have to reveal my name to the whole community, even those guys who have super creeped me out on vent. Really? Seems like a pretty sexist move on Blizzard's part, I doubt any woman is going to post on the forums when this goes into affect. And yes, I just cancelled my subscription. I'm done with Blizzard.
Creeps are everywhere. You might as well lock yourself up if you're really that fragile. Thankfully, most girls aren't.
Your name could be John Smith or ILikeButt on the forums and it will never matter. They're not posting an address or location, drama queens. It will keep the flamers (and the drama queens) away so I support it 100%. Stop telling strangers your real personal business (names don't matter) and you have nothing to worry about.
If names don't matter, how is showing names going to keep "flamers" and "drama queens" away?
Aside from that, your post neglects the quoted about Blizzard doing what they can to ensure you are using there real names and the unavailability of support should you not be using your real name. Sure, you could plan to never use support, that doesn't seem very practical as support is usually a resource used when something unexpected happens.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers. Do something wrong, no one forgets" -from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
Your name could be John Smith or ILikeButt on the forums and it will never matter. They're not posting an address or location, drama queens. It will keep the flamers (and the drama queens) away so I support it 100%. Stop telling strangers your real personal business (names don't matter) and you have nothing to worry about.
So you wouldn't have any of your problem posting your name in this thread then, right?
You are completely blind to what people can do with a name and a general location (or a lot of times just a name itself)
After watching the car crash that is this RealID thing for a bit I have a couple of thoughts on it. (Note I don't actually play WOW or post on the forums I just like watching car crashes)
If this is indeed a method to stop trolling how exactly is it supposed to work?
Is this real name thing supposed to be like an in game control where you can look at there profile and see all their characters so if someone doesn't like what you post they can log into the game and harass you there? In which case couldn't they impliment a similar link to the way they already do it i.e. it doesn't matter which toon someone posts under checking that profile shows all their toons.
Maybe it's an attempt to clean up the forum database so that you are posting under one forum name in which case surely a seperate forum account name could be used which in turn links to all toons on that account.
Another therory is maybe it's an attempt to humanise the forum poster giving them a real name could make the potential flamer relise there is a human at the other end and make them think twice before hitting post. This of relies on the idea that people for the most part are good and actually care about others they don't really know they just need a reminder every now and then that not everything you see on a computer is generated by some sort of code I guess.
The final deterant option is the one of if people know the real name of the flamer there is the potential for real world concequences to being an internet bully making said bully think twice before posting stuff you wouldn't say to someone standing right in front of you. Unfortunatly for that deterant to work your opening a whole can of worms regarding the peace of mind of legitamate posters which seems to be the main complaint of many against the idea.
My concern with this isn't that some forum warrior gets their real life inturupted by some kind of vengance seeking individual. My worry is that some one else who just happens to share the same common name as a forum warrior gets their life interrupted by some vengance seeking individual with an inflated sence of their own internet intelligence and couldn't possibly get anything wrong. When that happens to someone with a little knowledge about legalities and civil suits. I would like to see how these lawyers get around the idea that they have recklessly endangered an individual by posting their name on a forum they weren't a member of thus facilitating the acts of vengance on the wrong person.
The lesser of two evils is still evil.
There is nothing more dangerous than a true believer.
Yes I know that information can be found and it is easy to get and my argument that most people have Facebook and MySpace profiles that provide more information and are much easier obtained than some name on the forums of a game. And its funny that they will post anything on those sites but when a game uses your name to post, its wrong. And it is optional so its is NO different than Facebook at this time.
It's a bit different from other social media portals. Facebook, Myspace and Twitter allow you to hide most information and only allow those on your friends list to view it. By the way, remember the huge amount of criticism Facebook faced, just recently, because it changed the privacy policy? Why do you think that was?
Anyway, the biggest difference between other social media places and WoW is that you're not really competing with anyone on Facebook and you're not ganking anyone on Myspace and you're definitely not ninja looting or kill stealing anyone on Twitter. We've all seen videos and heard sound clips of people literally flipping out over something that happened in a video game, youtube is full of them. Now imagine this person with access to your personal information.
One can argue that most of our personal information is out there for the world to see but the difference is that the person I somehow pissed off in a game will have a hard time finding out who I really am because there is nothing out there that links me real name to my character's name. With Real ID, he just has to go to the forums to get my real name, then whitepages.com for everything else.
It's been said before, it is their game. The parties that continue to pay the monthly fee are agreeing to the terms of the EULA and the programs/applications associated with it. I don't agree with the direction, but I can appreciate the concept of trying something new. The heavy handed attempt to push it on the players is like those car sales men that start circling you in the parking lot when you pull up. Not for me.
interesting thing I just thought of about this, but Blizzard has always seemed like a "we'll deliver it when it's ready" type of company and yet this has every indication of being hastily developed and implemented. Maybe it is just my perception, but really seems out of character....
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers. Do something wrong, no one forgets" -from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
One can argue that most of our personal information is out there for the world to see but the difference is that the person I somehow pissed off in a game will have a hard time finding out who I really am because there is nothing out there that links me real name to my character's name. With Real ID, he just has to go to the forums to get my real name, then whitepages.com for everything else.
Are you sure he'll be able to link you character's name to your real name in the forums? I know there is an option to display one of your characters next to your real name, though it is 'optional'.
Comments
I don't mind them "having a spine". But on this issue, they're being HUGELY irresponsible. Forcing people do display their real life information creates massive opportunities for identity thieves and hackers. As was very aptly demonstrated when one of the CMs posted his real name in response to the complaints.
As long as you don't post on the forums this doesn't effect you. How many of you use facebook or twitter, but let Blizz suggest this and you act like the world will crash around you. This is just more thing for all you WoW haters to cling to. Get your tin foil hats out boys and girls Blizzard is settiing up to control us all. Get off the forums and go read the real news you idiots, there are real issues to be concerned with, real invasions of our rights, real issues that need attention, bad things are happening out in the world, and you know what, Blizzard didn't cause any of them!
It has nothing to do with Blizzard hate, if CCP or BioWare did it, I'm pretty sure that the backlash would be the same. It's just a really bad idea to make private information public. Especially in a video game.
This RealID thing has the possibility of causing serious problems for some people. It's a simple fact that employers look up their employees on the internet. Being that gaming, still having a stigma attached to it, I can see RealID as a cause for losing jobs and interviews.
What about harrassment? Or how about the people who got killed or hurt over something that happened in the game when some sicko got his/her hands on the victim's personal information? Think about it. You gank someone in the game, they log into the forum, look up your name, go to whitepages.com and go over to your house to kill you.
What about female gamers? They already suffer sexual harrassment in video games, think about how much worse RealID will make it when in-game stalkers have easy access to personal information? There are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of unstable people out there.
No, this has nothing to do with Blizzard hate and has everything to do with the serious consequences it may cause. Especially since a lot of people do not realize how much information can be found with just a person's name and 15-20 minutes of free time.
Ouch!
While I don't necessarily agree with the method in which this is being implemented given our society's current proclivity toward identity theft, I do understand their reasons for compelling posters to be a bit more humane in their commentary.
The primary issue is a generational one imo.
MMO's were originally geared toward a more mature audience and have since attracted a much younger one. Couple that with the fact that the younger audience is also part of the first full generation of net-babies and issues escalate.
The link provided by Dark Pony highlights that perfectly...
A better measure, imo, would be to drastically increase the number of moderators to the site and increase the level of consequence for actions outside the forum rules to posters.
This has been done on other game sites and it has worked well.
The changes coming just beg for predatory behavior.
Blizzard is not suggesting anything. This isn't a suggestion it's finalized. They are changing the rules, rules that other companies will emulate and build on. Blizzard has never been one to tend to their own front yard. They landscape countries.
Internet privacy is an option. Blizzard is removing that choice and making it a requirement to participate and we all want to participate, be heard.
This is a bigger deal than tin foil hats and being a WoW hater.
I think anyone who disagrees with this today, has the right thought even if they do not fully understand why they disagree.
I also think anyone stating "meh, whats the big deal, stop being sheep." Should check to see the grass they are munching on.
They are implementing this under flase pretences, they say its about reducing trolling and personal attacks. But the REAL ID is just a way to gather sensitive information that totally compromises the players integrity
I would go so far as to say that CCP has already done the social networking thing, but did it more appropriately with EveGate. That said, their circumstances are significantly different having one shard and only three possible characters per account. This is not to say EveGate is perfect, but from a privacy standpoint, it is in a different league then RealID.
What I don't get are a few things:
-The facebook/twitter/etc argument. If I choose to put my information somewhere, I've done just that; made a conscious decision. With facebook, I have a number of features I can use to limit my exposure. I don't see similar limitations with RealID, should I want to participate with the community beyond my in-game interaction (which may be especially likely for RP realms).
-This will stop trolls. Why? How is this going to stop trolls? Because they are using their real name? There is plenty of anecdotal evidence on facebook to prove this does not work in practice.
-Your real name isn't worth anything/can't cause trouble. If this is true, how is it supposed to deter trolls?
-Just don't use Real ID/Forums/they are optional. The choice between giving out personal information and participating in an RPG community is not a choice.
There is nothing being accomplished by RealID that couldn't be accomplished by actually moderating their forums or using a singular ID/username.
As far as the comments from Blizz, I have to agree with a previous poster that it sounds like "we're listening, but we're not changing anything". I'm pretty much on the fence as to whether this is worth canceling over, but I am certainly leaning toward it now as I see this as phase 1 (or 2) in a larger plan that I, so far, don't see any value in. Maybe they'll change my mind before this goes live...who know....
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
A while back, a new service was launched in my country where you could search for a person by name and get a neatly compiled list of that person's date of birth, address (including location in google map), telephone number(s), picture, reported income and filtered search engine hits.
Now, this is already more information than I want strangers to have full access to, but I can't really opt out of any of it. The only thing I can do, is prevent people from mining even more data by not using my full name everywhere. And that's my plan, because nobody needs to know all this stuff about me unless they're friends or relatives of mine. The fact that Kotick thinks otherwise, doesn't exactly make me want to reconsider. That guy's a virus.
This simply made me change my name.
If you'd like to reach me, my new name is "Ivanna Fukurmom".
Cunfushus says "Only through wasting time do we realize that time should not be wasted."
One of the absolute lamest "Go To" excuses for this is the dreaded 'Tin Foil Hat' brand.
Let's assume for one second that all the fears people have about this are completely unwarrented. IE - People who have been stalked before, Transgendered, Police, Judges, Working Professionals, Security Professionals, Unemployed, etc.
People don't want this to happen, simple as that. The fears they have, no matter what they are, should be heeded, because, well, they are the customer. It's generally a good business practice not to pee in your wheaties.
On a different subject, but a completely related matter. Let's say my name is John Smith. Hi I'm John Smith. Stop me from trolling. Does it make it easier for blizzard to ban me? No, they can ban my entire account anyways. They know who I am, they have my payment information. Does it prevent me in any way from trolling? No, it doesn't. Who cares if the guy above me knows my name. Unless, of course, the entire idea of this Real ID feature is to make people worry/scared some jacktard whacko might actually find them, look them up, etc. So what then, is the purpose?
I don't post on the forums frequently anyways, and when I do, I try to be helpful and/or constructive. Now I simply won't post, that however isn't the point. The point is, this is a step, and it's a step (in my opinion) in the wrong direction. If people didn't voice their displeasure, blizzard would keep trotting right along, and end up doing something that would REALLY make people angry (Mandatory Real ID in-game, what have you). If that makes me a kook /tin foil hat, and I'm damn glad to wear it.
"The Object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his."
-George S. Patton
It is a dreadful decision, but Activision Blizzard operates in its own reality bubble fueled by 8 digit subscriber numbers. The core game community of guide writers will migrate offsite where privacy survives. The Facebook deal (which is driving this change) will probably not amount to much. Other games will learn from this, but not in the way that AVBlizz intended.
Blizzard do listen - they are adding chat rooms to SC2 as a result of SC2 players demands.
this Real ID would make it easier for people to hack accounts since you now know the users REAL name .... just my 2cents
Everyone keeps comparing this to Facebook but on Facebook you choose who can see your personal information. If you post in your server forum, now everyone that plays that server will know your real name. Being a female wow player, that is just completely unacceptable. Yes, I guess I could keep playing and never post on the forums but why do I want to support a game that would put my personal safety aside. I really didn't mind the Real ID at first and even added a couple friends, people I don't mind knowing my name. But to have to reveal my name to the whole community, even those guys who have super creeped me out on vent. Really? Seems like a pretty sexist move on Blizzard's part, I doubt any woman is going to post on the forums when this goes into affect. And yes, I just cancelled my subscription. I'm done with Blizzard.
I would have to agree.
To the caterpillar it is the end of the world, to the master, it is a butterfly.
My main issue with this is that I don't go by my real name, I go by a nickname (I don't like my real first name). No one but my closest friends know my actual first name, and I'm certainly not going to post it on the internet. Guess I won't be posting on their forums, if I need to ask a question (which is pretty much the only time I post, usually) I'll ask elsewhere. Still lame though.
Your name could be John Smith or ILikeButt on the forums and it will never matter. They're not posting an address or location, drama queens. It will keep the flamers (and the drama queens) away so I support it 100%. Stop telling strangers your real personal business (names don't matter) and you have nothing to worry about.
Creeps are everywhere. You might as well lock yourself up if you're really that fragile. Thankfully, most girls aren't.
If names don't matter, how is showing names going to keep "flamers" and "drama queens" away?
Aside from that, your post neglects the quoted about Blizzard doing what they can to ensure you are using there real names and the unavailability of support should you not be using your real name. Sure, you could plan to never use support, that doesn't seem very practical as support is usually a resource used when something unexpected happens.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
So you wouldn't have any of your problem posting your name in this thread then, right?
You are completely blind to what people can do with a name and a general location (or a lot of times just a name itself)
After watching the car crash that is this RealID thing for a bit I have a couple of thoughts on it. (Note I don't actually play WOW or post on the forums I just like watching car crashes)
If this is indeed a method to stop trolling how exactly is it supposed to work?
Is this real name thing supposed to be like an in game control where you can look at there profile and see all their characters so if someone doesn't like what you post they can log into the game and harass you there? In which case couldn't they impliment a similar link to the way they already do it i.e. it doesn't matter which toon someone posts under checking that profile shows all their toons.
Maybe it's an attempt to clean up the forum database so that you are posting under one forum name in which case surely a seperate forum account name could be used which in turn links to all toons on that account.
Another therory is maybe it's an attempt to humanise the forum poster giving them a real name could make the potential flamer relise there is a human at the other end and make them think twice before hitting post. This of relies on the idea that people for the most part are good and actually care about others they don't really know they just need a reminder every now and then that not everything you see on a computer is generated by some sort of code I guess.
The final deterant option is the one of if people know the real name of the flamer there is the potential for real world concequences to being an internet bully making said bully think twice before posting stuff you wouldn't say to someone standing right in front of you. Unfortunatly for that deterant to work your opening a whole can of worms regarding the peace of mind of legitamate posters which seems to be the main complaint of many against the idea.
My concern with this isn't that some forum warrior gets their real life inturupted by some kind of vengance seeking individual. My worry is that some one else who just happens to share the same common name as a forum warrior gets their life interrupted by some vengance seeking individual with an inflated sence of their own internet intelligence and couldn't possibly get anything wrong. When that happens to someone with a little knowledge about legalities and civil suits. I would like to see how these lawyers get around the idea that they have recklessly endangered an individual by posting their name on a forum they weren't a member of thus facilitating the acts of vengance on the wrong person.
The lesser of two evils is still evil.
There is nothing more dangerous than a true believer.
It's a bit different from other social media portals. Facebook, Myspace and Twitter allow you to hide most information and only allow those on your friends list to view it. By the way, remember the huge amount of criticism Facebook faced, just recently, because it changed the privacy policy? Why do you think that was?
Anyway, the biggest difference between other social media places and WoW is that you're not really competing with anyone on Facebook and you're not ganking anyone on Myspace and you're definitely not ninja looting or kill stealing anyone on Twitter. We've all seen videos and heard sound clips of people literally flipping out over something that happened in a video game, youtube is full of them. Now imagine this person with access to your personal information.
One can argue that most of our personal information is out there for the world to see but the difference is that the person I somehow pissed off in a game will have a hard time finding out who I really am because there is nothing out there that links me real name to my character's name. With Real ID, he just has to go to the forums to get my real name, then whitepages.com for everything else.
It's been said before, it is their game. The parties that continue to pay the monthly fee are agreeing to the terms of the EULA and the programs/applications associated with it. I don't agree with the direction, but I can appreciate the concept of trying something new. The heavy handed attempt to push it on the players is like those car sales men that start circling you in the parking lot when you pull up. Not for me.
END OF LINE_
~V
interesting thing I just thought of about this, but Blizzard has always seemed like a "we'll deliver it when it's ready" type of company and yet this has every indication of being hastily developed and implemented. Maybe it is just my perception, but really seems out of character....
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
Are you sure he'll be able to link you character's name to your real name in the forums? I know there is an option to display one of your characters next to your real name, though it is 'optional'.