Well for all those folks wh are against Blizzard forcing this down your throat you can do a few things.
(1) Contact your Congress-Man/Woman and request and investigation
(2) Contact your Senator and request an investigation
(3) Contact the FCC Federal Comunications, just google it.
I have contacted all of these to let them know this is a possible violation of childrens privacy rights. You want to get the ball rolling you mask it like that and you will get the big guns out, or should.
Nothing like getting a phone call from the feds asking you to come forward and explain yourself.
Otherwise the only other option is for you to pack up camp and go to another game.
Perhaps I see this from a different light. 11+ million players around the world, and none of them are proud enough to stand up and say in public that they play WoW? Seriously though, I have one of my CoH charcters as my desktop background at work on my PC and tell everyone who he is and what I like about playing that game. I'm proud of being an MMO gamer and happy to let everyone know its my off work hobby. Is playing WoW so negative your not willing to share your experience in a social environment? Do you honestly think so little of your fellow players that you believe this will bring nothing but doom, pedophiles, and stalkers to the world? Do you honestly think that being branded a WoW player will destroy your future? I must say, I am really shocked at how negative everyone feels about this. This simple little thing called pride, proud of who you are and what you like to do for fun. So strange...
That's really not even much of the point. For some, yes, it may be that they don't want others to know they play WoW. But that is a small minority that bring that to case. Many have friends and family that know they play MMO's and WoW. That has little to do with it.
As for thinking so little of your fellow players...there have been many real occurences of people being stalked on MMO's. This isn't ground breaking news. It has been done and continues to this day because there are (as you stated) millions of players in a game like WoW and thousands in others. That's a variety of personalities. I can tell you three real life females I know that have had issues in MMO's. I know I also ran across two issues as well with some crazy ass women also. So yes, it happens.
This really has little to do with 'pride' in who they are as much as it has to do with the protection of their privacy. They play a game to escape, to get away. Not to share their real life with others who they do not know or seek to know. It's one thing to have it in-game and have the option of sharing the information. Its another to have it given out to millions of individuals not knowing what could take place with such information.
The problem is that hate just doesn't have any effect on their bottom line. It's the strangest thing, and it a phenomenon that's repeated time and time again across pretty much every MMO. Players will hate, they will kick and they will scream. They will threaten to quit if their demands aren't met. In the end though, companies don't often take this particularly seriously because it is so rarely backed up with action.
Over the years, I have had numerous conversations with developers about this phenomenon, and every time it really comes down to: We'll let them complain, because in the end they're not going to quit.
Or we can just go play a different game - perhaps Blizzard is finally going to create its own 'WoW killer' MMO. Ironic that it may actually be WoW that does itself in.
Its been said many times before that if anything becomes the down fall of WoW will be itself. But the question is this going to do it? how much worse will it have to get before its players finally decide to move on?
It's just kinda sad in a way the big business is just looking to jump onto social networking as a means of generating more revenue. take McDonalds, apparently developing apps that will hook up into Facebook location services
This is the direction I'd bet you that Blizzard go with Real ID. they opt everyone in by default to using real names, then you get opted into real location...thin end of the wedge folks.
Oh my god, blizzard is making it where people might be able know my name and where I live and may want to become real life friends if they live close to me?
Potential for socialization outside of my home? Heresy I say! Blasphemy too for the hell of it!
I won't ever pla.... what's that? cataclysym is awesome? ok well maybe i just wont.....aww screw it.
I don't care what they do.
Paranoia is not going to stop me from playing if I think I'm going to have fun.
Oh my god, blizzard is making it where people might be able know my name and where I live and may want to become real life friends if they live close to me?
Potential for socialization outside of my home? Heresy I say! Blasphemy too for the hell of it!
I won't ever pla.... what's that? cataclysym is awesome? ok well maybe i just wont.....aww screw it.
I don't care what they do.
Paranoia is not going to stop me from playing if I think I'm going to have fun.
Where I work we have a fairly restrictive firewall system, however I can access the website of any game in existence except one. Yep, can't access the WOW site or forums, its blocked as inappropriate content.
But no, there's no chance my employer would think badly of anyone who plays WOW now is there?
Just because you don't believe they are watching you doesn't mean they aren't.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Where I work we have a fairly restrictive firewall system, however I can access the website of any game in existence except one. Yep, can't access the WOW site or forums, its blocked as inappropriate content.
But no, there's no chance my employer would think badly of anyone who plays WOW now is there?
Just because you don't believe they are watching you doesn't mean they aren't.
If they fire people for playing WoW, your better off with some other company in my opinion. I would never tolerate a company that spies on me and even cares about what I do with my spare time. My job is not my life. Of course, I don't know anything about your life situation and such, i'm just speaking for myself here.
Oh my god, blizzard is making it where people might be able know my name and where I live and may want to become real life friends if they live close to me?
Potential for socialization outside of my home? Heresy I say! Blasphemy too for the hell of it!
I won't ever pla.... what's that? cataclysym is awesome? ok well maybe i just wont.....aww screw it.
I don't care what they do.
Paranoia is not going to stop me from playing if I think I'm going to have fun.
The problem with that is people who offend others online will now get their revenge. If they don't provide your address, it doesn't matter.. well, unless the person goes beyond and looks up your name and your state, and finds your address. The fact is, there are sick people out there and a lot of them are on the internet.
Oh my god, blizzard is making it where people might be able know my name and where I live and may want to become real life friends if they live close to me?
Potential for socialization outside of my home? Heresy I say! Blasphemy too for the hell of it!
I won't ever pla.... what's that? cataclysym is awesome? ok well maybe i just wont.....aww screw it.
I don't care what they do.
Paranoia is not going to stop me from playing if I think I'm going to have fun.
The problem with that is people who offend others online will now get their revenge. If they don't provide your address, it doesn't matter.. well, unless the person goes beyond and looks up your name and your state, and finds your address. The fact is, there are sick people out there and a lot of them are on the internet.
So? These sick people exist outside of the internet too. Should we lock ourselves in our homes and never go outside because of them? It would be safer, right?
Oh my god, blizzard is making it where people might be able know my name and where I live and may want to become real life friends if they live close to me?
Potential for socialization outside of my home? Heresy I say! Blasphemy too for the hell of it!
I won't ever pla.... what's that? cataclysym is awesome? ok well maybe i just wont.....aww screw it.
I don't care what they do.
Paranoia is not going to stop me from playing if I think I'm going to have fun.
The problem with that is people who offend others online will now get their revenge. If they don't provide your address, it doesn't matter.. well, unless the person goes beyond and looks up your name and your state, and finds your address. The fact is, there are sick people out there and a lot of them are on the internet.
So? These sick people exist outside of the internet too. Should we lock ourselves in our homes and never go outside because of them? It would be safer, right?
Nah. But you would be safer. The fact is, they don't have your address... they just know your face, and maybe they would follow you home. You can't get away from that. However, the internet is something different. People tend to not bite their tongue and say what they want.. Thus, they will piss people off and not care about what will happen, because they don't have to look the person in the face. Now, they will get the chance, and the old say of, "If I find out where you live, I am going to beat your arse" rings true. Maybe they deserve the beat down, but some will find out where you live and probably end up killing. You can't just say sick people exist outside or whatever sad retort you gave me... it's a fact that they will KNOW where you live now.
In most walks of life you are correct however in the world of internet subscription gaming a mobilised and vocal section of the consumer base and POTENTIAL consumer base can effect change. Blizzard need to hear loud and clear that this is unacceptable not just to current customers, but to potential future customers.
They have already alienated me from their forums after issuing me with a 4 day ban for saying "/bump for a nice group of people" on another guilds recruitment ad in our realm forums. However with this system they have made sure I do not buy cata, do not re-new my wow sub and will not purchase starcraft 3 or diablo 3. Its not what they are doing thats the issue, its that blizzard control the market, when they "try" something if it works most other mmos follow suit.
Now if they get away with this and sony and Cryptic follow suit, how long untill they are selling your data to third parties?
None of this would have been needed if they had managed their game community properly in the first place, instead of letting them act like little children in a sweet shop.
So no I will not be quiet about it, and neither should you, it was only through mass mobilization of the customer base that facebook backed down at all on their privacy issues, and its only through mass mobilization of customers old new and future that blizzard will back down.
Oh and for the "oh no I cant troll" crowd, tough, grow up and measures like this might not have been needed.
Its people who simply dont want their private life becoming public domain that I feel sorry for, what if I dont want inqisative work collegues to know I play(ed) wow or that at the time I ran a guild etc. That is my PRIVATE life and if I choose to share my real lfie name with people thats my business not blizzards.
Oh my god, blizzard is making it where people might be able know my name and where I live and may want to become real life friends if they live close to me?
Potential for socialization outside of my home? Heresy I say! Blasphemy too for the hell of it!
I won't ever pla.... what's that? cataclysym is awesome? ok well maybe i just wont.....aww screw it.
I don't care what they do.
Paranoia is not going to stop me from playing if I think I'm going to have fun.
The problem with that is people who offend others online will now get their revenge. If they don't provide your address, it doesn't matter.. well, unless the person goes beyond and looks up your name and your state, and finds your address. The fact is, there are sick people out there and a lot of them are on the internet.
So? These sick people exist outside of the internet too. Should we lock ourselves in our homes and never go outside because of them? It would be safer, right?
Nah. But you would be safer. The fact is, they don't have your address... they just know your face, and maybe they would follow you home. You can't get away from that. However, the internet is something different. People tend to not bite their tongue and say what they want.. Thus, they will piss people off and not care about what will happen, because they don't have to look the person in the face. Now, they will get the chance, and the old say of, "If I find out where you live, I am going to beat your arse" rings true. Maybe they deserve the beat down, but some will find out where you live and probably end up killing. You can't just say sick people exist outside or whatever sad retort you gave me... it's a fact that they will KNOW where you live now.
Anyone who ends up killing someone over a verbal dispute on the internet clearly has issues. That person would most likely end up killing someone anyway, despite things like RealID or Facebook.
Anyway, the real sad thing is that people tend to only notice the bad aspects of everything. I blame it on the media, among other things. We are being brainwashed to be fearful of everything. I'm not saying you should be careless. I mean, use your common sense. It will take you a long way.
Real ID is evil I want my privacy, I haven't played wow in over a year I was sort looking forward to the new xpac with goblins and stuff but not anymore, I refuse to have anything to do with blizzard now. Cancelled my starcraft 2 also because of this. Giving out my name should my choice not there’s.
Even though my account has been cancelled for some time, I went to the account side and "recancelled", and put the whole REALID thing as to why, and also stated I will not be a part of something that is doing all they can to get real names out of people. Nor would I buy SC2 or Diablo 3. And I was REALLY looking forward to D3.
Even though my account has been cancelled for some time, I went to the account side and "recancelled", and put the whole REALID thing as to why, and also stated I will not be a part of something that is doing all they can to get real names out of people. Nor would I buy SC2 or Diablo 3. And I was REALLY looking forward to D3.
Oh well.
that sounds like a grand idea. maybe if they get more of that as the reason maybe they will think twice, Money is power
Anyone who ends up killing someone over a verbal dispute on the internet clearly has issues. That person would most likely end up killing someone anyway, despite things like RealID or Facebook.
You're probably right. The issue is that I don't want it to be me, or anybody I care about. Frankly, I don't care about you (nothing personal), but I still wouldn't want to see you, or anybody you cared about, come to harm as a result of their use of RealID or Facebook. Why give the sickos of the world another tool? For profit?
Anyway, the real sad thing is that people tend to only notice the bad aspects of everything. I blame it on the media, among other things. We are being brainwashed to be fearful of everything. I'm not saying you should be careless. I mean, use your common sense. It will take you a long way.
I'm sorry, but you can't blame the media. It's not the media that sets a house full of children on fire. They just write about it. Are you saying that we'd all be better off if we lived in ignorance? That none of the bad stuff in the world would actually happen if they stopped writing about it? You can't really believe that and still walk upright.
Shit happens, it's true. I just don't want it to happen to me, and I'm going to take whatever steps are necessary to try and prevent it. If that means that I have to stop playing a game that I enjoy, then I'll stop playing. "Common sense" dictates that you never, ever give out your personal information on the internet. It's not worth the risk.
I personally could care less about using my real name. I don't see what the big deal is. 90% of the people I play with on a day to day basis know my real name anyways. I chose to play games with a close tight nit community of friends.
Although, I still think it's a bad idea on Blizzard's part. Consider this hypothetical situation. Mr James Jones pisses off the hot tempered power gamer who is near the brink of insanity. Let's call him Joshua Jenkins. James Jones has carelessly left his Facebook profile open to the public, and Josh has found this guy online. Now Josh has lost his mind, finds a little information by cruising his FB page and decides to pay one of those information sites where you can pay as little as 3$ to find someones address/phone number. He tracks this guy down and murders him and his whole family. All over a quarrel in a video game.
Now, this is really stretching it , but it is possible given this sort of information. The reality of it is though, we all know Josh wouldn't get his fat lazy ass off his game long enough to pursue something like this, but I'm sure that there is a very slim percent of a chance that something like this will happen.
I have yet to find this discrimination against game players that everyone talks about. In the last three jobs I have had spanning over 9 years my bosses have played video games and my current boss' boss a 65 year old like to play Modern Warfare 2 Online with employees and this is a government job.
I think your boss would be more worried about what you post than posting on a video game site. And if you want to post crap that will get you introuble maybe you should be a bit more pickie about where you post it and not try to hide behind a fake name. While I would not give our my private contact info I am not scared to post anything I have posted on this site or others under my real name.
Just because you haven't experienced it personally, doesn't mean it doesn't happen to other people.
the defense of the paranoid...just because you think you are being watched doesn't mean you aren't? I am sure the vast majority of people this will have no effect on them what-so-ever. It is that small minority that want the world to cater to them, protect and coddle them.
Thank you I have always been proud of being socalled paranoid, to me it is not a question of being paranoid, but being paranoid enough.
You don't mind me calling your defense 'the defense of the ignorant', do you? "It doesn't happen to me, so it doesn't happen to anyone and it isn't a problem."
Might I suggest you go read Kylerans posts here in this thread, they are talking about this (gamers and jobs)..here is a link
Happy day/evening to you, Horusra.
Edit: It may seem as if I am singling you out Horusra. This is not my intention. Your post was the spring-board, not you personally. I just wanted to make that clear.
Where I work we have a fairly restrictive firewall system, however I can access the website of any game in existence except one. Yep, can't access the WOW site or forums, its blocked as inappropriate content.
But no, there's no chance my employer would think badly of anyone who plays WOW now is there?
Just because you don't believe they are watching you doesn't mean they aren't.
If they fire people for playing WoW, your better off with some other company in my opinion. I would never tolerate a company that spies on me and even cares about what I do with my spare time. My job is not my life. Of course, I don't know anything about your life situation and such, i'm just speaking for myself here.
yet if you make any livable sum of money at your job...99 per cent that you were drug tested, and thats okay? Hey my buisness, my personal time right?
To the caterpillar it is the end of the world, to the master, it is a butterfly.
I think the RealID change is a good one. Obviously people have seen the levels of dispicable and cruel interaction that anonymous writers are capable of and are rightly concerned with their own and other people's welfare given a lack of anonymity, but I think that may be a good thing. Having your name associated with your words makes you responsible for those words. And when people have to be responsible for their own words they tend to put a lot more thought into them and are much more likely to tone them down with reasonable words, rather than inflamatory ones.
Not only do I think RealID is a good idea for WoW, but I think that something like RealID is where things are headed as far anonymity on the internet is concerned. However, concurrent to that we need to develop better policing of communications such that people are more easily traceable and can't communicate threats without being identifyable to others. This may be the foreshadowing... Could it be that the days of the wild west on the internet are coming to an end?
And for those who truly are upset about the change. The only way to show your displeasure is to stop paying money. Ultimately companies only understand one thing. Money. Complaining on the forms or whatever before you leave is quite reasonable, but complaining ad nausium and then not quitting basically tells Blizzard that you are OK with the change.
I think the RealID change is a good one. Obviously people have seen the levels of dispicable and cruel interaction that anonymous writers are capable of and are rightly concerned with their own and other people's welfare given a lack of anonymity, but I think that may be a good thing. Having your name associated with your words makes you responsible for those words. And when people have to be responsible for their own words they tend to put a lot more thought into them and are much more likely to tone them down with reasonable words, rather than inflamatory ones.
Not only do I think RealID is a good idea for WoW, but I think that something like RealID is where things are headed as far anonymity on the internet is concerned. However, concurrent to that we need to develop better policing of communications such that people are more easily traceable and can't communicate threats without being identifyable to others. This may be the foreshadowing... Could it be that the days of the wild west on the internet are coming to an end?
And for those who truly are upset about the change. The only way to show your displeasure is to stop paying money. Ultimately companies only understand one thing. Money. Complaining on the forms or whatever before you leave is quite reasonable, but complaining ad nausium and then not quitting basically tells Blizzard that you are OK with the change.
Fact - a lot of us raising cain here have already left Blizzard for other reasons, but have friends still playing who are being affected by this.
Fact - corporations watch what other corporations do, and if something works, they are all over it like white on rice. In other words, if Blizzard is successful in this, there WILL be others who follow that path, too.
Fact - I grew up with the understanding that we Americans have this lil' ol' fashioned thing called the Bill of Rights. I'm frankly sick and tired of seeing our rights trampled under foot in the interest of big business profits. Maybe it's okay with you and others if Big Brother invades every single area of your life, but it is NOT okay with me.
Fact - Blizzard is NOT doing this for troll control on the forums, they are systematically setting up a social network, one that will invade areas of your internet life outside of the game, whether you like it or not, and can also negatively impact your real life. Shrug it off, ignore the consequences, you have every right to do so....just as I and others have every right to speak out and take a stand to protect our rights.
Comments
Well for all those folks wh are against Blizzard forcing this down your throat you can do a few things.
(1) Contact your Congress-Man/Woman and request and investigation
(2) Contact your Senator and request an investigation
(3) Contact the FCC Federal Comunications, just google it.
I have contacted all of these to let them know this is a possible violation of childrens privacy rights. You want to get the ball rolling you mask it like that and you will get the big guns out, or should.
Nothing like getting a phone call from the feds asking you to come forward and explain yourself.
Otherwise the only other option is for you to pack up camp and go to another game.
That's really not even much of the point. For some, yes, it may be that they don't want others to know they play WoW. But that is a small minority that bring that to case. Many have friends and family that know they play MMO's and WoW. That has little to do with it.
As for thinking so little of your fellow players...there have been many real occurences of people being stalked on MMO's. This isn't ground breaking news. It has been done and continues to this day because there are (as you stated) millions of players in a game like WoW and thousands in others. That's a variety of personalities. I can tell you three real life females I know that have had issues in MMO's. I know I also ran across two issues as well with some crazy ass women also. So yes, it happens.
This really has little to do with 'pride' in who they are as much as it has to do with the protection of their privacy. They play a game to escape, to get away. Not to share their real life with others who they do not know or seek to know. It's one thing to have it in-game and have the option of sharing the information. Its another to have it given out to millions of individuals not knowing what could take place with such information.
The problem is that hate just doesn't have any effect on their bottom line. It's the strangest thing, and it a phenomenon that's repeated time and time again across pretty much every MMO. Players will hate, they will kick and they will scream. They will threaten to quit if their demands aren't met. In the end though, companies don't often take this particularly seriously because it is so rarely backed up with action.
Over the years, I have had numerous conversations with developers about this phenomenon, and every time it really comes down to: We'll let them complain, because in the end they're not going to quit.
I'm guessing that is what SOE thought too
Its been said many times before that if anything becomes the down fall of WoW will be itself. But the question is this going to do it? how much worse will it have to get before its players finally decide to move on?
http://www.psfk.com/2010/05/mcdonalds-developing-app-for-facebooks-upcoming-location-based-social-networking.html
This is the direction I'd bet you that Blizzard go with Real ID. they opt everyone in by default to using real names, then you get opted into real location...thin end of the wedge folks.
@Zymurgeist
And if at some point in the future they decide to make it mandatory to play their game?
F2P/P2P excellent thread.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/282517/F2P-An-Engineers-perspective.html
Oh my god, blizzard is making it where people might be able know my name and where I live and may want to become real life friends if they live close to me?
Potential for socialization outside of my home? Heresy I say! Blasphemy too for the hell of it!
I won't ever pla.... what's that? cataclysym is awesome? ok well maybe i just wont.....aww screw it.
I don't care what they do.
Paranoia is not going to stop me from playing if I think I'm going to have fun.
My sentiment exactly.
Where I work we have a fairly restrictive firewall system, however I can access the website of any game in existence except one. Yep, can't access the WOW site or forums, its blocked as inappropriate content.
But no, there's no chance my employer would think badly of anyone who plays WOW now is there?
Just because you don't believe they are watching you doesn't mean they aren't.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If they fire people for playing WoW, your better off with some other company in my opinion. I would never tolerate a company that spies on me and even cares about what I do with my spare time. My job is not my life. Of course, I don't know anything about your life situation and such, i'm just speaking for myself here.
The problem with that is people who offend others online will now get their revenge. If they don't provide your address, it doesn't matter.. well, unless the person goes beyond and looks up your name and your state, and finds your address. The fact is, there are sick people out there and a lot of them are on the internet.
So? These sick people exist outside of the internet too. Should we lock ourselves in our homes and never go outside because of them? It would be safer, right?
Nah. But you would be safer. The fact is, they don't have your address... they just know your face, and maybe they would follow you home. You can't get away from that. However, the internet is something different. People tend to not bite their tongue and say what they want.. Thus, they will piss people off and not care about what will happen, because they don't have to look the person in the face. Now, they will get the chance, and the old say of, "If I find out where you live, I am going to beat your arse" rings true. Maybe they deserve the beat down, but some will find out where you live and probably end up killing. You can't just say sick people exist outside or whatever sad retort you gave me... it's a fact that they will KNOW where you live now.
In most walks of life you are correct however in the world of internet subscription gaming a mobilised and vocal section of the consumer base and POTENTIAL consumer base can effect change. Blizzard need to hear loud and clear that this is unacceptable not just to current customers, but to potential future customers.
They have already alienated me from their forums after issuing me with a 4 day ban for saying "/bump for a nice group of people" on another guilds recruitment ad in our realm forums. However with this system they have made sure I do not buy cata, do not re-new my wow sub and will not purchase starcraft 3 or diablo 3. Its not what they are doing thats the issue, its that blizzard control the market, when they "try" something if it works most other mmos follow suit.
Now if they get away with this and sony and Cryptic follow suit, how long untill they are selling your data to third parties?
None of this would have been needed if they had managed their game community properly in the first place, instead of letting them act like little children in a sweet shop.
So no I will not be quiet about it, and neither should you, it was only through mass mobilization of the customer base that facebook backed down at all on their privacy issues, and its only through mass mobilization of customers old new and future that blizzard will back down.
Oh and for the "oh no I cant troll" crowd, tough, grow up and measures like this might not have been needed.
Its people who simply dont want their private life becoming public domain that I feel sorry for, what if I dont want inqisative work collegues to know I play(ed) wow or that at the time I ran a guild etc. That is my PRIVATE life and if I choose to share my real lfie name with people thats my business not blizzards.
Anyone who ends up killing someone over a verbal dispute on the internet clearly has issues. That person would most likely end up killing someone anyway, despite things like RealID or Facebook.
Anyway, the real sad thing is that people tend to only notice the bad aspects of everything. I blame it on the media, among other things. We are being brainwashed to be fearful of everything. I'm not saying you should be careless. I mean, use your common sense. It will take you a long way.
Real ID is evil I want my privacy, I haven't played wow in over a year I was sort looking forward to the new xpac with goblins and stuff but not anymore, I refuse to have anything to do with blizzard now. Cancelled my starcraft 2 also because of this. Giving out my name should my choice not there’s.
IN THE FACE!
Even though my account has been cancelled for some time, I went to the account side and "recancelled", and put the whole REALID thing as to why, and also stated I will not be a part of something that is doing all they can to get real names out of people. Nor would I buy SC2 or Diablo 3. And I was REALLY looking forward to D3.
Oh well.
that sounds like a grand idea. maybe if they get more of that as the reason maybe they will think twice, Money is power
IN THE FACE!
I personally could care less about using my real name. I don't see what the big deal is. 90% of the people I play with on a day to day basis know my real name anyways. I chose to play games with a close tight nit community of friends.
Although, I still think it's a bad idea on Blizzard's part. Consider this hypothetical situation. Mr James Jones pisses off the hot tempered power gamer who is near the brink of insanity. Let's call him Joshua Jenkins. James Jones has carelessly left his Facebook profile open to the public, and Josh has found this guy online. Now Josh has lost his mind, finds a little information by cruising his FB page and decides to pay one of those information sites where you can pay as little as 3$ to find someones address/phone number. He tracks this guy down and murders him and his whole family. All over a quarrel in a video game.
Now, this is really stretching it , but it is possible given this sort of information. The reality of it is though, we all know Josh wouldn't get his fat lazy ass off his game long enough to pursue something like this, but I'm sure that there is a very slim percent of a chance that something like this will happen.
Thank you
I have always been proud of being socalled paranoid, to me it is not a question of being paranoid, but being paranoid enough.
You don't mind me calling your defense 'the defense of the ignorant', do you? "It doesn't happen to me, so it doesn't happen to anyone and it isn't a problem."
Might I suggest you go read Kylerans posts here in this thread, they are talking about this (gamers and jobs)..here is a link
Happy day/evening to you, Horusra.
Edit: It may seem as if I am singling you out Horusra. This is not my intention. Your post was the spring-board, not you personally. I just wanted to make that clear.
yet if you make any livable sum of money at your job...99 per cent that you were drug tested, and thats okay? Hey my buisness, my personal time right?
To the caterpillar it is the end of the world, to the master, it is a butterfly.
I think the RealID change is a good one. Obviously people have seen the levels of dispicable and cruel interaction that anonymous writers are capable of and are rightly concerned with their own and other people's welfare given a lack of anonymity, but I think that may be a good thing. Having your name associated with your words makes you responsible for those words. And when people have to be responsible for their own words they tend to put a lot more thought into them and are much more likely to tone them down with reasonable words, rather than inflamatory ones.
Not only do I think RealID is a good idea for WoW, but I think that something like RealID is where things are headed as far anonymity on the internet is concerned. However, concurrent to that we need to develop better policing of communications such that people are more easily traceable and can't communicate threats without being identifyable to others. This may be the foreshadowing... Could it be that the days of the wild west on the internet are coming to an end?
And for those who truly are upset about the change. The only way to show your displeasure is to stop paying money. Ultimately companies only understand one thing. Money. Complaining on the forms or whatever before you leave is quite reasonable, but complaining ad nausium and then not quitting basically tells Blizzard that you are OK with the change.
Fact - a lot of us raising cain here have already left Blizzard for other reasons, but have friends still playing who are being affected by this.
Fact - corporations watch what other corporations do, and if something works, they are all over it like white on rice. In other words, if Blizzard is successful in this, there WILL be others who follow that path, too.
Fact - I grew up with the understanding that we Americans have this lil' ol' fashioned thing called the Bill of Rights. I'm frankly sick and tired of seeing our rights trampled under foot in the interest of big business profits. Maybe it's okay with you and others if Big Brother invades every single area of your life, but it is NOT okay with me.
Fact - Blizzard is NOT doing this for troll control on the forums, they are systematically setting up a social network, one that will invade areas of your internet life outside of the game, whether you like it or not, and can also negatively impact your real life. Shrug it off, ignore the consequences, you have every right to do so....just as I and others have every right to speak out and take a stand to protect our rights.
Democracy at work,,,,,it's a work in progress.