Blizzard Nixes Plans to Require Real Names

[alleghory415]

Do I trust Blizzard after all this? No
Am I placated "at this time" (to use their own language)? Yes

I am not thanking Blizzard like a lot of people are on the WoW forums because the language (call me paranoid, picky, whatever you wish) does nothing but make me raise an eyebrow.

The sickening rage that I felt is gone and I can log back into my game feeling somewhat at ease, but the scars run deep and I will certainly be keeping a more discerning eye on the blue posts from here on out.

You know that feeling you get when you're betrayed by someone you love? They come back and apologize, say it will never happen again and you forgive them. Oh, but you never forget and you end up watching them like a hawk...that's where I'm at right now and, from what I can read, so are most of the RealID protesters.

It doesn't change the "Friends of Friends" feature or their EULA (which I now am going to read fully before I accept after this debacle), but hell, it's something...right?

Well, small victories, ftw...

 

[Karlaxx]

I'm actually disappointed with this. I like the idea of being forced to use your real identity online, provided it's all safe and secure. I use my real identity, and it's a great idea to crack down on people who abuse the system and the forums. Fine, usernames are good too. But why not let Blizzard do something like The Escapist does, allowing usernames but having real names on profiles, except unlike here, making those real names compulsory? A bit of compromise might help sooth the wounded trolls on the Blizzard forums...

I know three people's whose adress, and adresses of family members, could be found on page one of a google search of their first and last names. It just wasn't a good idea.

What could work, however, would be another unremovable tag- maybe your main character's name, or something of your own choosing, even, that's a requirement before you can post. I would love that; same effect, no personal information leaked.

 

[Ertis]

Very sad to see this. I felt pretty strongly this would lead to some positive changes on the forums, it actually had me excited to get back in them. Maybe they'll have some kind of permanent 'nickname' like ctrlaltdlt suggested? Nah, that would still piss off the trolls.

/heavysigh

ah well, makes it easier to stay off the warcrack this way.

"you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code"

Source
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=25968987278

 

[Tolerant Fanboy]

And so the Internet can continue to be the place where men are men, women are men, and 12-year old girls are FBI agents and Chris Matthews.

 

[veloper]

Blizzard +1
all is well again.

 

[RvLeshrac]

There's a reason NCSoft's global headquarters has double steel vault doors separating the company's staff from the throngs of people who constantly send them death threats.

Out of curiosity, what are NCSoft getting death threats for? And, if possible *cough* maybe I could get a link to laugh at them?

The original article is old. Bear in mind that there are far more countries in the world than the USA, and they don't play the same games we do.

WRT the original article, kids getting their heads beaten in for PKing the 'wrong' person. Staffers (and their families) being threatened by gangs and triads.

 

[ThreeKneeNick]

I hope that they learned why people were so concerned, rather than trying to minimize the PR damage just for the sake of shutting everyone up. So with knowing that real names are a tricky subject, the Real ID itself should be taken a closer look into, and renamed into something not unlike "Awesome ID" where players would pick an ID that is not necessarily their real name, but that would still let them use all of Awesome IDs features, like cross server and cross game chat, and a unique forum handle. Because doing good business is all about providing the best functionality with minimal problems and barriers for everyone. Real names are a real concern.

 

[Delusibeta]

As I said in the last article about this, if they really were listening, they would have reversed their stance. Lo and behold, that's exactly what they did.

 

[MisterShine]

"you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code"

Source
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=25968987278

Hmm, doesn't specify what will happen on the WoW forums post-cataclysm though. Though it could be assumed something similar would happen.

 

[Ertis]

"you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code"

Source
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=25968987278

Hmm, doesn't specify what will happen on the WoW forums post-cataclysm though. Though it could be assumed something similar would happen.

Yes, says so in the post.

 

[Andothul]

Even tho way may hate it and find it cowardly at sometimes. Anonymity is one of the biggest draws of the internet.
Take it away and suddenly no one wants to do or say anything and just stops coming all together. It was a good business move on the side of Blizzard

 

[Keava]

I'm tired of acting scared of the internet and its 'ills'. I wanted to see the Real ID experiment carried out and see the results.

I'm not afraid of my own name.
My name is Scott Gillan and I approve this message.

Okay. I was really trying to stay calm about it, but im getting sick of seeing such ignorant responses like that one. So im sorry in advance.

Spoiler: Read at your own risk...

No one cares about your real name. Be happy about it. I suppose you are one of many proud white straight male's cruising the internet. You don't care that other's might not have such "luck", you are superior after all. You don't even realize through how much of abuse some people have to go through be it in real life on the internet just because of who they are. It's not your problem, isn't it?

There is plenty of cases of harassment, e-stalking, real life stalking, discrimination and ostracism on the World Wide Web. Loads of it in MMOs like WoW alone. There was a woman who met with someone online and got raped, she doesn't want that person to find her again. There is a 14 year old girl who was e-stalked by a emotionally unstable boy. Plenty of people were forced to change servers/character names to avoid being bullied by others. I, personally was harassed in WoW by a guy just because i am a female.

Im not even going to point out in detail all the stupidity gamer girls have to deal with in their internet lives because it would take too much time. Add to this people with ethnically different names (arabic for the most obvious example), or just with names your culture considers odd/silly sounding.
General chats in WoW are already full of sexist/racist "jokes". Being called a fag/gay/homo, jew or n****r is something that you can count on whenever someone disagrees with you.

So far average internet users prove that they are not at all mature enough to be presented with such information. Try again when it changes.

 

[John Funk]

The Washington Post, sure. All the others seem to be (correctly) reporting that the community is against it. That's not taking sides, that's correctly reporting facts.

The Escapist has not taken any stance towards it. Individual members of the staff may have, and just judging by my twitter a lot of other games journos had positive opinions on it, but there was no "we're all in favor of it, ok?" agreement.

I disagree, the choice of "quotes" by the community or sources to quote/talk to e.g. "Electronic Privacy Information Center" or "The Center for Democracy and Technology" already clearly show where they stand.

As do your own articles, they often show very clearly on where you stand (and push following comments/feedback into a certain direction or pattern):

The outrage that greeted Blizzard's decision to "remove the veil of anonymity" from the Battle.net 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.

That shows Andy Chalk's stance on it. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Sansha]

Well. Blizzard actually listened to its customers for the first time in years.

Decades.

Ever.

Only that's a lie, their stocks were slipping. This shitstorm actually devalued the company.

 

[MisterShine]

"you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code"

Source
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=25968987278

Hmm, doesn't specify what will happen on the WoW forums post-cataclysm though. Though it could be assumed something similar would happen.

Yes, says so in the post.

"include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name. "

From the post you linked. It says on the SC2 forums you will post with your SC2 character name and code, and then when the new features for the WoW forums come on line, you will not use your real name. It is ambiguous about what you will be posting under.

 

[Fearzone]

Ah post the collumn anyway it will be fun.

Even the Champions Online system I don't like, where you are identified, befriended, sent mail or whatever by your user name for your account, and not the character name for your individual toon. That means you cannot log in as an anonymous alt, but whenever you log in as any character on your roster your guild and your clingy friends will know about it and bother you the way guilds and clingy friends are wont to do. The inability for me to play anonymously as a character has probably cost Cryptic a month or two in subscriptions from me, and possibly even a purchase of Star Trek Online (because the two games share chat servers).

 

[Blazingdragoon04]

Instead of making people reveal their real name, just make the entirety of the forums as such: Every poster in a forums must be connected to a central profile on the Blizzard forums. Therefore, if a person with a level 80 character decides to go trolling with a level 1 alt, both are connected to the same profile. This way, if someone really does take offense to what the troll does or says, they can look up who this person is and either A.) have some kind of block list to avoid further interaction with the person outside of the forums, or B.) if they know them personally via an in game guild the appropriate action can be taken.

All the trolls raged because they were finally given consequences to their incredibly annoying actions and don't understand that yes, you have the freedom to do say whatever you want, but there are certain responsibilities and consequences that come with that; they usually only read up to the part about freedom. Give trolls SOME kind of consequence, or else with this recent failed attempt they will realize that they can complain about any consequence imposed upon them in large numbers and know that blizzard will get rid of it. Granted, I am well aware of the fact that it wasn't just trolls that complained about the system, lots of people don't want their identities revealed. But blizzard, please please PLEASE find some kind of way to punish trolls.