Blizzard is "Definitely Listening" to Real ID Feedback

[Alar]

Publicising real names and identities just seems to be inviting vigilante justice. People are asshats on XBL because they are immature and detached from any immediate threat. But is it REALLY any solution to replace that with actual threats like "I know where you live Timmy McKormack".

Public Anonymity is VITAL for good online community along with good moderation of warnings, probation, bans, perma-bans and so on.

If the person making the threat is doing so with THEIR real name attached to it, that's a very serious deterrent. It goes both ways, mind you - the MAD of the internet.

I don't think it is. Look at GI.biz - it's an industry site and requires credentials. You post under your name and position. There isn't as MUCH communication but it's pretty much all reasoned and polite. On the other end of the spectrum, we have 4chan.

As I said, I'm very heavily divided on the RealID issue. I'm not entirely sure what I think of it, but anyone who refuses to acknowledge that there are both pros and cons to it is willfully blinding themselves.

Pros AND cons is the key word. Yes, I understand that there would probably be a drop in trolling, but a good deal of that would be because people simply do not want to expose themselves on the forums. Not just trolls would leave, but normally helpful posters who try to assist others and give useful feedback will stop appearing on the forums. People who have technical issues that are too in-depth for an in-game solution, but don't have the money to call the help line (if they are calling long distance) will also stop posting.

I have a very common name, and don't feel too bad posting on the new forums, but there are many people with uncommon names who can be far easily tracked down. Imagine if you were trying to get a job and someone Googled your name and found out you play WoW. There are people out there prejudiced against video games, especially MMOs. You could lose your job just because you wanted to ask for help about a technical issue on the forums.

As many people have said, I think this could all be solved if they just gave everyone a unique identifier or a single posting name that would show up whenever they posted. That way, everyone could point to the person trolling or flaming and say, "Hey, that's the guy. Do something about it, Blizzard." But, as I see it, Blizzard doesn't want to do anything about it. They want us to do something about it. They want to scare people into being good because they know they can be tracked down by other players and be taught a lesson.

I don't like that.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Let's all take a breath and be realistic for a moment. How many psychos are likely to be looking you up once you start using your real name on the internet? The correct answer is, probably zero. You're not that interesting, you're not that important.

Nope, I'm not.

Neither was Mitchell Henderson. Or Ben Schulz. Or Ben Croshaw. Or Reginald Dwight. Or Richard Paul Astley. Or Alison Harvard. Or Martin Billany. Or Randall Munroe.

Want to guess how many deranged fans these people have?

 

[Uber Waddles]

So I have to post my real name on Blizzard Forums?

Essentially, another reason to not go to the Troll-infested bog of stupidity. Seriously.

The forums there are garbage, too many whiners and Paladins. If they want to combat Trolls by making people post their real names, thats fine. But I wont use the feature.

 

[Icehearted]

In a way I'm feeling what Andy has to say here, and I for one am intrigued at how people will behave when we can identify them personally. This still feels just unsafe, but even that argument flounders when one considers that if they stop being jerk-asses, maybe people will be less likely to eviscerate you.

If left to our own devices, we've proven we cannot be mature by and large. Facing actual consequences for harassment, racial remarks, and just generally being a douche sounds pretty good to me.

The problem is, the method uses anonymous asshats as the deterrent. All it takes is one anonymous douche that's not risking their own identity to make your life miserable.

And people will do unpleasant things to each other for petty reasons. Not just for being an over the top jerk. Jealousy, a sense of offense, or a feeling that you need to be put in your place. You know those "forum MVPs" that Blizzard has honored to such a degree that they post in a different color than everyone else? They'll be huge targets for pranks, harassment, and general unpleasantness. All for being a noteworthy positive influence on the boards.

The biggest rub in all this is that Blizzard is using people's identities as collateral for good behavior in a medium that is by and large not safe or wise to trust personal information. It feels very much like Blizzard is using the threat of harassment to curtail behavior on a board they already have the power to moderate themselves. This move flies in the face of decency and common sense.

I don't disagree with you, but I think personal accountability is something we could stand to have quite a bit more of in most forums. I get your point though, but I might counter that you're describing pretty much ordinary life in general. There are people that do exactly this at school, work, places of business, on a sidewalk, you name it. I appreciate the menace, but the only concern is that you face pretty much more of the same of what's already out there otherwise.

Really, my knee-jerk was that this was a horrible idea, but the more I think about it the more it grows on me. Hell if XBL did this I'd actually play online a whole lot more than I do now.

 

[John Funk]

Publicising real names and identities just seems to be inviting vigilante justice. People are asshats on XBL because they are immature and detached from any immediate threat. But is it REALLY any solution to replace that with actual threats like "I know where you live Timmy McKormack".

Public Anonymity is VITAL for good online community along with good moderation of warnings, probation, bans, perma-bans and so on.

If the person making the threat is doing so with THEIR real name attached to it, that's a very serious deterrent. It goes both ways, mind you - the MAD of the internet.

I don't think it is. Look at GI.biz - it's an industry site and requires credentials. You post under your name and position. There isn't as MUCH communication but it's pretty much all reasoned and polite. On the other end of the spectrum, we have 4chan.

As I said, I'm very heavily divided on the RealID issue. I'm not entirely sure what I think of it, but anyone who refuses to acknowledge that there are both pros and cons to it is willfully blinding themselves.

Brave attempt, you are arguing your corner with spirit but it's a lame defence because you are defending the indefensible. I suggest you change your plea to Guilty and save the court of public opinion a lot of time and hope for clemency (i.e. argue that people should merely not use the service rather than something more serious).

Mutually assured destruction is a TERRIBLE template, it is utter madness. Of course there are SOME benefits, there are benefits to being paralysed from the waist down (great parking) but nothing you'd wish on anyone.

(Also, GI.Biz: you only post what you want, and is not linked to anything else (gaming tag) but your business credentials and is of course a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT environment from a games forum)

Bullshit, I am defending the completely defensible (not actually, just admitting my opinions are divided because I can see pros and cons - is that 'defending' these days?), because as you seem to have forgotten it is their forum and their rules. This is like a dress code at a restaurant: If you want to wear shorts and flipflops, you can get the food to go, you just can't sit down and eat. They can set whatever rules they goddamn want. If we made it so that everyone posting had to have an avatar praising Barack Obama, and barred everyone else, that would be our prerogative and everybody else would be perfectly free to go elsewhere.

As I said, anyone who refuses to believe that there could be positives to this, or who refuses to believes that there could be negatives to this, is willfully deluding themselves one way or another and has some sort of an agenda to push.

I fail to see how it is a completely different environment. It is an environment for people to discuss game-related issues, and I use it as a source for news posts here somewhat often.

I don't want to get into all of my arguments right now (for and against) because it's monday's column but really. Let's rein in the raging hyperbole and look at this seriously and rationally. This doesn't just go for you, but for everyone.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

I shall be Matthew Scott. Why? Because it's my real name.

OT: Honestly, this is one instance where they should be ignoring what people have to say, because the majority of what they'll be saying is "*****, moan, wah wah wah wah wahhh."

 

[Low Key]

I'm not big on handing out my name over the net, but as long as peoples battle.net account isn't linked to other personal information like location, I think it's a half way decent idea.

 

[Baron Khaine]

BTW, if you have to use RealID to view the forums, that means all developer notes etc. are banned from your eyes.

Possibly if you want technical information as well.

Or general help.

But this is all to keep you safe. Remember that.

Err no, you do know what Real ID is right?

Its not like some steam thing where you have to sign in to view the forums, you can view the WoW forums without being signed in, same as always, and even if they did make you sign in, just don't post, and boom, no one knows your name, no one knows you even saw that post.

I don't use the WoW forums, I don't know anyone who does, if you want intelligent discussion, you go to EJ or Arena Junkies, maybe MMO-Champion or WoWhead, one of the first things you learn is that the WoW forums are one of the worst forums for trolling, so I think this is a great feature, been chatting away with old Alliance buddies and people from old guilds all day.

Stop sensationalising, which is what freaking thousands of people are doing right this second on the WoW forums, screaming about how its the end of WoW, its the end of blahblahblahblah, it is not the end of WoW, the 99% (figure pulled straight out of my ass) of people who don't use the forums and play WoW will continue to play on as usual.

Worst case scenario, the experiment fails, Real ID is done away with, and thats that.

People get into a huff about bloody anything nowadays.

 

[Asehujiko]

I think this is hilarious. Imagine a troll decides to call someone names and insult them for no reason and is stupid enough to use their real name. Someone Finds em on facebook and laughs at them for being such a tool. when the troll realizes what happened its to late hes labeled lol.

And I think you are completely missing the point. Trolls will have fake names. The only people that will be affected are the unfortunate souls that beat the wrong guy in pvp, have him look up their forum posts which have their name on it, type it into pipl.com and set off with a knife. Kind of like the guy who got seriously injured in an attempted murder about counterstrike.

 

[hyperdrachen]

Ah good so people who want to discuss strategies on the forums will have to post thier real info. That is gonna make account services much more secure since everyone will know the real names connected to the accounts. But on the plus side people who want to stalk and harass the people posting on the forums can still do so anonymously.

I guess the number one site for community will end up simply not being run by blizzard. Just some random fan sites for each game.

 

[Baron Khaine]

I think this is hilarious. Imagine a troll decides to call someone names and insult them for no reason and is stupid enough to use their real name. Someone Finds em on facebook and laughs at them for being such a tool. when the troll realizes what happened its to late hes labeled lol.

And I think you are completely missing the point. Trolls will have fake names. The only people that will be affected are the unfortunate souls that beat the wrong guy in pvp, have him look up their forum posts which have their name on it, type it into pipl.com and set off with a knife. Kind of like the guy who got seriously injured in an attempted murder about counterstrike.

My name is Thomas Shaw. Find out where I live.

Cos I really wanna see if this works.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Err no, you do know what Real ID is right?

You'll have noticed the "If" in there, right?

Still means you can't ask a question on the official troubleshooting forums without revealing your real name, which then can't be policed anyway.

 

[CyberKnight]

Is it just me, or does their "listening" and response to complaints sound a lot like the proverbial French princess who said of her subjects, "Let them eat cake!" ?

 

[Baron Khaine]

Err no, you do know what Real ID is right?

You'll have noticed the "If" in there, right?

Still means you can't ask a question on the official troubleshooting forums without revealing your real name, which then can't be policed anyway.

But your still implying that its some sort of service that you have to log into to make a post or even look at the forums, which it isn't, and even if you did, how would someone find out your name if you merely logged on to look at Dev posts, which is what your implying would happen.

And yes, the technical thing is the one part that I don't actually agree with, but then again if you feel that strongly about it, you could always use Blizzards tech support forms, which I find actually get answered quicker if its a more niche problem.

 

[Steel Ronin]

Aha. So if I want to get into the Blizzard forums, I just need to claim my name is something realistic sounding. Like Andy Chalk?

Nah man how about Justin Time,Al K. Seltzer,Al Bino,Bill Ding,Dick Bender,Dick Hunter,Dick Tator,Kent C. Strait,Lucy Fer,Robin Money,Willie Stroker or something like those and yes I just spent 30 minutes on this post.

 

[Danpascooch]

I don't see the problem with this, forum anonymity is a dangerous thing, as we all know from our good friend 4chan.

Still, having to register your REAL name instead of a username is stupid, I would rather not have my real name floating around, and someone can be held accountable for their actions just as easily on a CDKey-tied username as they can a CDKey-tied real name.

 

[SnugglesPanda]

I'm not posting there anymore. I also had to go into parental controls(I'm an adult) and disable RealID so addons wouldn't report or phish my shit.

This is really a stupid idea, and anyone pissed at me can get their hands on my info with just a name. Its not hard, most people on the internet know how.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

But your still implying that its some sort of service that you have to log into to make a post or even look at the forums, which it isn't,

As of yet. SW:G locked anyone out that didn't have an active acount sometime ago, and as Funk says "It's their forums, their rules".

and even if you did, how would someone find out your name if you merely logged on to look at Dev posts, which is what your implying would happen.

Possibly by looking at your profile?

And yes, the technical thing is the one part that I don't actually agree with, but then again if you feel that strongly about it, you could always use Blizzards tech support forms, which I find actually get answered quicker if its a more niche problem.

If you don't have to log in there. Which is unlikely if you have to reveal your account.

I've no problem being known as my username, but my real name...it still makes me nervous, which is why I change it on most of the forums I'm on.

 

[hyperdrachen]

Worst case scenario, the experiment fails, Real ID is done away with, and thats that.

People get into a huff about bloody anything nowadays.

No the worst case scenario is some asshole evokes the joke of personal privacy that the internet has wrought and uses your real name to track you down and set your house on fire while your family is sleeping in it. This kind of shit has happened before with nothing more than a first and last name.

The problem is right in what they state as thier motivations. They hope that using your real name will encourage good behavior, and a sense of consequence. Well they're not talking about bans they could do that before. What consequences? People wanting to get you personally back? They want to encourage this? I know thats assumption on my part but I mean to illustrate that surely they did not parse thier owne statement for meaning. Blizzard's legal team must be having a fit.

This is a bad idea. It might have the desired effect, but are you really willing to trade less 12 year olds calling you names, for pedophiles having better access to running down thier targets. The problem it hopes to solve really isn't even that bad? I'm amazed so many people are saying "dude it's just your name what's the big deal" when these same people are clammoring for a real solution for mouthy kids? Anyone care to trade me a ferrari for my cheese sandwich?

This is potentially very dangerous and it is for damn sure the wrong place for it. Real names for some web sites might be nescessary, but this is for a damn video game. This is straight troll bait. But as others have said it's thier forum, I can simply not use it, and I won't. But that doesn't make it a good idea. So yeah tragedies probably won't be commonplace. But one is too many. This is not idle doomsaying, this kinda shit has happened before.

As a show of good faith, blizzard put one of thier mods real ID up. Here is your harmless feature

http://www.wow.com/2010/07/07/rumor-blizzard-employees-real-life-names-will-not-appear-on-th/

 

[Teh Karn]

Just make up a name, Christ.

Donovan Silver
Ed Stevens
David Marsden
Joel Ryan

There, take the names. GOGOGOGOGO!