Blizzard is "Definitely Listening" to Real ID Feedback

[wfpdk]

"It's important to note that both enabling Real ID in game and posting on the official Blizzard forums are completely optional," the rep continued. "Players can continue to read the forums anonymously regardless of whether they choose to post in them, and their gameplay experiences will not change if they choose not to use the Real ID communication features in game."

it's too bad that you actually haven't been "Definitely Listening" to the real ID feed back, because if you have, you'd immediately pull the plug on it. this isn't about trolls and spammers, you can just ignore those ass-holes, but stalkers and scammers and identity thieves and other such REAL THREATS of the internet are going to thrive off this. the point of your forums is so new players have a place to go to get their questions about the game answered. there is no stealing in a den of thieves because everyone is a thief, it's not out of principle.

 

[Kelethor]

Iv said it before and ill say it again. Blizzard, your digging a hole, and I don't like it!

 

[superpeople]

I have a couple thoughts on this. First I find the WoW forums are overrun with useless information and insults. The few times I actually chose to post on there it was met with sarcasm and attacks on my spelling or a response that was less than helpful. For example when making making a complaint about a class I am playing a common response is "roll another class" or "you don't have to play the game if you don't like it"....

Now it's my turn. If you don't like Real ID don't play the game. There are other games out there. The end.

 

[ark123]

I kind of like the idea that you might get killed if you troll someone too hard. It mirrors reality. These "people in the internet are all loons" claims are dumb. You don't worry about that irl, why worry about it any more in a forum? Maybe the McDonalds attendant has a knife he'd like to put in your eye if you ask for a Big Mac. Does that keep you away from McDonalds? From anywhere else? No, it does not.

Besides, it makes it easy to spot who you don't want to hire - Anyone who'd rather be raiding 12 hours a day.

 

[Yureina]

I said plenty about this in the other threads about this topic. My opinion has not changed: I am voting with my wallet to punish Blizzard and Activision for this. I could care less if Blizzard's employees are pissed off about it, because that does not change the fact that this RealID stuff is still active. I can live without Starcraft II and WoW, even if my life has been royally boring as of late.

I'm just accepting the philosophy of collective guilt that all people should be punished for the actions of a rowdy few. You know, kind of like what this RealID thing is doing.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

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.

Someone needs to take a little time-out. See, a company can do whatever they want on their own forums. Much like we can request that you maintain a polite and respectful attitude when debating no matter the issue, particularly when speaking to staff.

And if not, you aren't welcome here.

Funny how that works.

So do you define beginning your response to another person's post with "Bullshit" as 'a polite and respectful attitude'?

 

[Eremiel]

Okay, that got resized to be small.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/1201/10sdgts.png for the fullsize if you can't read the font.

Expect a LOT more like the above after this goes through.

And it won't really do much about the trolls.

They'll either be posting under fake names or (possibly even worse) won't be posting at all. The -really- vindictive trolls, the ones who try their utmost to ruin other people.. they will sit there and browse quietly and anonymously while collecting names and info for future use. Look at what happened to Bashiok.

People have been killed over internet arguments.

I guarantee you.. someone will lose their life over this.

 

[Eremiel]

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.

You're missing one thing though. The person making that threat or wishing you harm doesn't have to post at all. NO identification is required to browse the forums. Not even a WoW account is needed.

Imagine unknowingly beating some psycho in PvP. He resurrects, attacks you, you beat him again. He gets pissed off. Bigtime. He goes to the forums, finds a post you made, gets your name, finds your info, realises you live in the same/the neighboring town. He can do all this without ever posting a threat with his real name attached.

It'll also be massive amounts of fun to either be a girl or be a celebrity and play WoW now.

 

[Plurralbles]

"It's important to note that both enabling Real ID in game and posting on the official Blizzard forums are completely optional," the rep continued. "Players can continue to read the forums anonymously regardless of whether they choose to post in them, and their gameplay experiences will not change if they choose not to use the Real ID communication features in game."


Yeah, due to it not being in game and stll being able to read anon, I will continue looking forward to Starcraft II, but I will never post on their forum, ever.

 

[Shjade]

The outrage that greeted Blizzard's decision to "Battle.net [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101916-Blizzard-Forums-Make-Real-Names-Mandatory] forums was entirely predictable. It's not nearly as easy to act like a jerk, after all, when you're not protected by an impenetrable cloak of virtual invisibility. Which is obviously the whole point of the exercise, but the impending loss of their secret identities has an awful lot of gamers up in arms.

Right, because jerks are the only ones upset about this. The MVP's of the official forum aren't voicing anything negative about the announced changes and no one's explained any possible downsides to this ham-fisted social networking tie-in other than "It'll be harder to act like a jerk!"

Oh [http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626049903&sid=1&pageNo=1] wait. [http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626461472&sid=1&pageNo=1]

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.

Someone needs to take a little time-out. See, a company can do whatever they want on their own forums. Much like we can request that you maintain a polite and respectful attitude when debating no matter the issue, particularly when speaking to staff.

And if not, you aren't welcome here.

Funny how that works.

So do you define beginning your response to another person's post with "Bullshit" as 'a polite and respectful attitude'?

You misread: he said they can request that attitude from you. He didn't say they require it of themselves when dealing with you. As he just pointed out, it's their forum: do as they say, not as they do and all that.

Common sense anyway. Maybe it's not pleasant to be spoken to sharply by staff, but it's idiotic to have that attitude with the staff. It's like being pulled over for having a broken tail light and flipping off the cop when he tells you to step out of the car because you didn't like his tone: you're clearly begging to get arrested if you do it. Use your head and be polite to the folks who own the house you're in, even if you feel they aren't being polite to you. Sometimes that's just the way it goes.

 

[T3chn0s1s]

So uhm, I do fear that my favorite point here which keeps getting brought up isn't really getting the attention it deserves.

I've been spending the better part of today hunting people down with their names and what information I could find through google (Including escapist profiles if they showed up in google, since I could use escapist profiles that show up in google for people on the blizzard forums - some of you guys have a lot of information in there.) and then calling them/sending them PMs with their private information. Everyone has been pretty cool about it, and I've actually been only partially right in one case.

So, here's a question. Other than my being a decent human being, (and having now told them that I have that information) what's stopping me from doing naughty things with this information? I mean, let's get intimate with the idea that people will be anonymous when they are viewing your information. No one has to kill you to troll you. In fact, most of the malicious trolls out there don't want to kill you because there's too much of a chance that they'll get caught. Why do that when you can order a ton of pizzas, or post a party call on craigs list, or just GIVE THE INFORMATION TO /b/? (inb4 personal army)

My favorite point here is that there is absolutely no reason to use real names. Not even from a 'social gaming' standpoint. Bind an alias to every account. Let people pick them and be creative, make them require approval if you want to keep people from having retarded names, do whatever... Then keep their real id as a part of the system just like a facebook page. If they want it to be public, let them make it public, but make people have to go look.


I don't know about you guys, but I for one intend to steadily contact people who post on the 'new' 'real id' infused forums in their homes or at their jobs, insisting that they call blizzard and tell them to drop this. Anyone I can find. For those of you that I found in four hours earlier today, you know that was most of you. (I sent you a message on here if I tried and didn't find anything, along with my current stats)

I don't think I'll actively stalk anyone. I don't have the time, and can't risk the jail time... I'd not be surprised if a lot of people do though, just for shit and giggles. You'd probably get out of the actual sentencing by saying you didn't harm anyone, that it was an act in peaceful protest, and that no one ever told you to stop... Yeah, some judge that protested vietnam while taking the bar over and over will probably buy that.

 

[Shjade]

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".

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.

As others pointed out, this is only a valid argument for back-and-forth arguments on the forum (and assumes both parties actually care about their reputations - not everyone does). There's no mutually assured destruction in the more likely scenario of the subject posting X on the forum, the offender reading X in silent disagreement (as in, not posting - you can just browse the forum freely; I've been doing it for the last couple of days since my WoW account is closed, meaning I can't post) and the offender then proceeding to take action against the subject outside of the forum through various means. This is a one-way situation; the subject has nothing on the offender to call for any kind of accountability.

If the forums were closed to only allow active members to browse as well as post it would be marginally better, but even then members could lurk and cause the same problems without posting and revealing themselves. It would just limit the possible offenders to a smaller pool; it wouldn't change the problem.

 

[seditary]

The only way attempting to make people use real names instead of a chosen single username for forums to discourage being a douche is if repercussions were realized into people's squishy human faces.

This move is incredibly idiotic.

 

[kogane]

Okay, that got resized to be small.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/1201/10sdgts.png for the fullsize if you can't read the font.

Expect a LOT more like the above after this goes through.

Basically came here to post this.

And to add that I'm astonished how much blind faith people put into the legal system when it comes to virtual crime. Consider how little the police/law can do when someone is stalked in real life. Now add to this the still quite new phenomenon of online stalking/harrassment, and voila. Once one of them targets you, you are pretty much on your own.

 

[Normalgamer]

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.

Ah Funk, I do enjoy your very intelligent debates with users, but I fear you lost this one due to one thing:
This is the internet, and people can lie. Oh hey, hate a kid at your school? Post with his name instead, make threats, all kinds of crazy shenanigans so that he'll have to go to court because of your asshattery and since most schools count going to court as unexcused even if found innocent, you just fucked up that kid's GPA. It gets worse, this could lead to stalking and worse because Jim Billy-bob chose to write under Jack Nickolios.

 

[Raincloud]

[/quote]


It's easy to find information about people. Type your name and country into pipl.com or Spokeo.come if you don't believe me. And why should we just stop going to the forums? And why is it our fault if someone targets us? It just reeks of blaming the victim.

[/quote]

That is hilarious. I followed the sites you listed. One has me dead and the other has me with the wrong age, ethnicity, education, and an address that is over 7 years old. But the pics are of some hot hispanic chick. hahahahahahaha

 

[immerc]

The outrage that greeted Blizzard's decision to "Battle.net [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101916-Blizzard-Forums-Make-Real-Names-Mandatory] forums was entirely predictable. It's not nearly as easy to act like a jerk, after all, when you're not protected by an impenetrable cloak of virtual invisibility.

Unless you happen to be named John Smith, or some other common name. Real Names may deter some trolls, but it will have no effect on others. If you look at facebook, which in theory uses all real names, you'll see plenty of trolling. I don't know about you, but I know a bunch of people who take pleasure at trolling people in person, arguing about things just to get their friends riled up.

"It's important to note that both enabling Real ID in game and posting on the official Blizzard forums are completely optional," the rep continued. "Players can continue to read the forums anonymously regardless of whether they choose to post in them, and their gameplay experiences will not change if they choose not to use the Real ID communication features in game."

And yet, that's the whole reason so many people are up in arms: their gaming experience *will* change. Your gaming experience isn't just about the buttons you push to kill a monster, it's about your interaction with all the other players of the game. For many people that includes talking with them on the forums. If there's no longer a way to talk with people on the forums without revealing your real name (which for many people will mean revealing their real identities), it completely changes their gaming experience.

The use of Real ID doesn't actually require a real name at all, as gamers can register whatever name they want when they sign up.

That's simply untrue. I really wish you had done some fact checking before posting this story.

Blizzard requires you to register with your real name. You could have chosen not to do so before RealID was announced, but by now it's too late. You never register for RealID, it's simply something that's activated using the information Blizzard already has, information you're not able to change.

What happens if you did choose a fake name when registering? Nothing... until you get hacked, or forget your password or something. In those cases Blizzard often requires that you prove your identity by taking a picture of your driver's license or something along those lines. If you have no ID that matches your fake name, you have no way of getting your account back.

 

[Nazulu]

The Rogue Wolf (post 121) summed up pretty much everything I wanted to say as well as that this is just ridiculous. Treating this as like it's an epidemic, trolls have no power, especially if their forums are well monitored like the Escapist.

Why would you up set a lot of people just to make some bad posts disappear? Something that can be easily ignored.

 

[Royas]

Who gives a damn if they are monitoring the feedback to this RealID nonsense if they aren't going to do anything in response to it? So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly negative. Blizzard knowing this does no good if they aren't going to respond to it appropriately. And the only appropriate response to this level of hate is to just give up on the whole thing as a bad idea.

Oh, and I personally consider the forums to be part of the service I pay for. Yes, it may be "optional" to post there, but the forums are often the only place to get prompt and accurate help on issues with the game. God knows the email and phone support are slow and wrong much of the time.

 

[Zing]

Well I guess if I still played WoW and my forum account wasn't perma banned i'd name myself Trolly McTrollerson.