Post by Steve Farrelly @ 10:04am 07/07/10 | 81 Comments
The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it.This will be the case for all official forums and will also include StarCraft II, so you can bet Diablo III will follow suit.
Click here for the full Blizzard explanation.
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Posted 10:12am 07/7/10
Posted 10:16am 07/7/10
Looks like Blizz are going hard with RealID. Don't expect to use non-real ID for anything very useful in StarCraft II then.
I think this is the wrong direction. I don't make all you c**** friends on facebook, and you're like family. What's the motivation here? Are they making a play in the social networking space?
Posted 10:19am 07/7/10
Posted 10:20am 07/7/10
Still blizzard are retarded. Just ban accounts and cdkeys and people will stop. Srsly.
I think Blizzard need to go ring up Valve and get some tips on how to avoid being retarded.
Posted 10:22am 07/7/10
Posted 10:26am 07/7/10
What if you are some sick c*** like a famous actor/sports/politics/whatever you just can't post on the forum.
Posted 10:27am 07/7/10
Posted 10:30am 07/7/10
Huge point. Not that it is needed that ppls MUST post on the official forums, but what about tech support? I know most information can be found elsewhere, what if it can't.
I can't see anything else happening here apart from the forum population plummeting - is this why they are doing it?
Posted 10:31am 07/7/10
I just don't like it, its killing the magic :(
Posted 10:31am 07/7/10
Posted 10:32am 07/7/10
Bleh effort. Just don't post. If you need to ask a question or some s*** do it on a fan site :P
Posted 10:33am 07/7/10
teehee!
Posted 10:33am 07/7/10
If I'd known 5 years ago when I made my account, that I was going to be identified online using my real name and contact details, I would have put in fake ones.
Posted 10:34am 07/7/10
"Still blizzard are retarded. Just ban accounts and cdkeys and people will stop. Srsly - ctd"
No that will never work, there has been plenty of studies done that point to the fact that punishing people to make them NOT do something just makes them do it more.. If this concept worked then speeding fines would stop people speeding.
Posted 10:37am 07/7/10
Posted 10:41am 07/7/10
biglulz.
You think people are going to buy cdkeys just to troll a forum? You'd have to buy the cdkey before trolling (assuming your original key got banned because of a low tolerance policy) whereas speeding you get a fine after speeding + chances of getting caught.
Posted 10:43am 07/7/10
Posted 10:45am 07/7/10
Posted 10:49am 07/7/10
The reason speeding tickets don't stop speeding is because the relative cost of catching people speeding is quite high - so the chances of you getting caught speeding at any particular time is really really low. The chances of you being an asshat on a public forum and getting caught is infinitely greater, and it's practically a zero-cost effort to ban or otherwise punish them - just the click of a button.
I assume the main reason Blizzard don't want to punish people by banning their accounts is that these people are paying customers and they don't want them to stop being paying customers. Putting up with a bit of s*** on the forum is probably totally worth the total economic value of one a****** idiot user, because at the end of the day Bilzzard get the last laugh.
What matters is how many non-asshat customers cancel their subscriptions because of the retards on the forum. And I bet that number if vanishingly small.
It seems though that if their forum account is tied to their WoW account it would be best to just ban them from the forums and let them keep playing the game, right? It would be low cost to them, they wouldn't lose subscribers, and the number of people that are going to pay for a new account just to continue being a forum f***wit is probably pretty small (especially after you sting them a few times).
Posted 10:56am 07/7/10
Posted 10:56am 07/7/10
Short of this forum i use my real name everywhere else on the internet, however i try to make it clear that whilst i use my real name the person i am online is a character i've created, not who i actuall am. (this isn't to protect myself legally or anything like that, its purely a last stance to hold on to the creative idenity of an online avatar)
it's a shame to see a game which promote roleplaying (even in there advertising using celebritys.. the mr t ad's are a prime example) turn to a realid system.
Posted 11:00am 07/7/10
Who needs coke and sex parties when you can post and browse in the WoW forums.
Posted 11:09am 07/7/10
just going to create a new bnet account just for sc2 with fake name and details, unlike WoW, there wont much many situations where you have to prove your id so i cant see this having too many problems. this also solves the problem of being too uptight about giving out ur realid to semi-random people that you meet on bnet.
Posted 11:14am 07/7/10
Posted 11:15am 07/7/10
Posted 11:28am 07/7/10
Thats the point, that your real name will be used when you post. (but srsly if you post on those forums...stop)
anyway...fake name ftw
Posted 11:33am 07/7/10
If it cuts down on the insane amount of bulls*** on the official forums then I'm all for it.
Posted 11:39am 07/7/10
Posted 11:45am 07/7/10
Posted 12:00pm 07/7/10
Don't like it, don't play.
Posted 12:06pm 07/7/10
flying headbutt!!
Posted 12:57pm 07/7/10
Luckily I don't play any Blizzard games, nor pay them copious amounts of money to be allowed to play a game every month :p
Posted 01:00pm 07/7/10
Honestly. People will just find workarounds. Its impossible to make people do things they don't want to do.
Posted 01:41pm 07/7/10
This isn't to do with anonymity, quite the opposite. My handle remains more or less unique while my real name would not be. There are a select few times when these 2 identities are interchangeable, and that is only while playing with my immediate family online while skyping. Even attending LANs I'd rather know people by their handle than by their real name.
Facebook's insistence of using your real name has been the start of the rot, and with Google profiles following suit, there's definitely a move to quash online personas. While there are certainly asshats happy to hide behind an anonymous nick to troll away, the vast majority of people I know have used the ability to have different handles to promote different aspects of their life. This more directly mimics what our intent is within our minds, and as such is a BETTER form of communication than just simply plonking your real name onto something. Think of the conversation style, the attitude and social context used while at work compared to at home, and at the golf course with mates, and online inside forums. Many may wish to lump all these together (as I do for all my online presences), but there remains no need to mandate it. You're destroying something that's important to the conversation, an idea of identity within context of the conversation.
Next thing you know they'll require people to have their own pictures as avatars. Some people do already by choice (hi trog), but forcing everyone to do it limits people's ability to emphasize their identity in a new space. Allowing people to express themselves more easily mans that I don't have to read as much to get an impression of whether someone's worth following, or is simply an asshat.
@groganus: I'd be very interested in that short story if you want some proofing.
Posted 01:49pm 07/7/10
blah blah blah your have committed fraud blah blah blah if you dont update the following account details
Firstname: Anony
Surname: Mous
Address: 01 Sex Street
then my account will be suspended " ... or something
Sigh. It's been that way for like 4 f*****g years and you haven't cared. Why the f*** should a game company need to have my RL details?
What if that really was my name! How the hell can they verify that it's not!
Posted 01:57pm 07/7/10
sure apps like facebook try & enforce the 'real identity' bs... but you just gotta be a little creative to get around their lame blocks.
i don't have a blizzard account & can't really see myself signing up for one... but if i did it would be false details or not at all.
Posted 02:17pm 07/7/10
Blizzard have already started to cave under some pressure for other things - they're going to relax their position on the region locking for SC2 online play and chat rooms after a massive backlash. Hopefully they respond to concerns on this similarly.
Posted 02:52pm 07/7/10
Posted 03:05pm 07/7/10
Posted 03:06pm 07/7/10
Posted 04:00pm 07/7/10
I think he was meaning negative suggestion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fIuMBDLOAQ) which is not the same as punishment as a reinforcer (http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html)
Posted 04:04pm 07/7/10
Also sif post on the blizz forums anyway.
Posted 04:07pm 07/7/10
I think a lot of people will stop posting on the official forums due to these concerns, and you will see a rise in popularity of unofficial forums.
Posted 04:18pm 07/7/10
Shame Blizzard, Shame!
Posted 04:18pm 07/7/10
^ too right
Posted 04:40pm 07/7/10
what right do they have to give out my name against my will?
Posted 04:44pm 07/7/10
Posted 04:55pm 07/7/10
/Faceman?
Posted 05:00pm 07/7/10
A quick summary: A blue poster on WoW forums decided to give his real name out to show its fine and dandy system. People tracked him down and are now bombarding him with everything they have. He even deleted his facebook xD
Posted 05:01pm 07/7/10
Absolutely NOT a faceman.
Posted 05:10pm 07/7/10
At least it's not lil' granny getting sob story getting the headlines...
Posted 05:13pm 07/7/10
For those too lazy to have a read, after blue posted his full name on the forum the trolls found his phone number, address, family details, his facebook account and on top of that (and not mentioned in that link), they also discovered that he has two felonies for not having vehicle registration upon request. One in 2004, and one this year.
They even found a google maps image with some guy who might be the blue poster standing out side.
Posted 05:18pm 07/7/10
hehe that certainly backfired on him!
Posted 05:39pm 07/7/10
Posted 05:59pm 07/7/10
Posted 06:04pm 07/7/10
hahahaha that's all kinds of fantastic.
Posted 06:10pm 07/7/10
Posters have been fired from their job, been arrested, been delivered 'goatse grams', and I think at least one has been kicked out of a Uni class for cheating heh.
That all happened because someone posted something like 'hey look what ive done at my job' and trolls have dug up IRL details on the poster and contacted their place of work / reported fake abuse etc.
Nothing good surely can come of Blizzard's decision.
Posted 06:13pm 07/7/10
Posted 06:19pm 07/7/10
Kill wow early? It's been running over 5 years, it won't be dying anytime soon.
Posted 06:20pm 07/7/10
Posted 10:12pm 07/7/10
Posted 10:29pm 07/7/10
Posted 11:04pm 07/7/10
Posted 11:58pm 07/7/10
did you give itunes your real name?
Posted 02:19am 08/7/10
Posted 02:45am 08/7/10
Posted 08:00am 08/7/10
Posted 01:50pm 08/7/10
Ofcourse, this means I won't be able to play Cataclysm without completely re-rolling... but I think i'm over WoW anyway, won't be going back.
Posted 01:59pm 08/7/10
how does associating sc2 with a donkey account affect how you play cataclysm?
Posted 02:50pm 08/7/10
Posted 02:59pm 08/7/10
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=10001&sid=1
I think i found one thread that supported the idea, prolly a Blizzard employee.
Join me ppl and boycot Blizzards attempts at enslaving you.
Anonymous ?
we need you !
Posted 03:01pm 08/7/10
Posted 05:10pm 08/7/10
"My handle IS my online identity, my real name is nothing online."
The name on the pic is leftovers from the last time I used the photo (WCG Korea badges). I'm not too fussed about my real name being associated with me, but I PREFER that people know me as VRBones in an online context. Some people (like Steve) have their real name both online and offline. That's great. If they feel that conveys more about themselves than another nick, awesome.
I share some of the privacy concerns of others, but my point was more to highlight the loss of expression hinders conversation. It's a step backwards.
Posted 11:56pm 09/7/10
This is by far and away the easiest wy to deal with trolling. Players are massively attached to their reputation, it would be a much less dangerous option than making people reveal identifying information.
And you can only hae one character name in SC II anyway! ><
Posted 05:04am 10/7/10
Posted 08:27am 10/7/10
Posted 11:03am 10/7/10
last edited by trog at 11:03:15 10/Jul/10
Posted 11:30am 10/7/10
Problem is that they totally have a corporate agenda with this real id s***. There's lots of good, useful BNet features that you don't get access to unless you give out your real name. They've tested the water now on expanding that to existing peripheral features - its pretty clear they are pusing it.
It really needs to be opposed by gamers. Because if Activision Blizzard turn this into another success / pile of money, you can bet the suits at your favourite game studio will give it serious thought.
Posted 11:30am 10/7/10
UNITED
WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED
Posted 11:32am 10/7/10
You just taint everything you touch with lunacy. Please don't be on my side :(
Posted 04:10pm 10/7/10
Handing out a girls real name to a bunch of attention starved teenaged social retards in a gaming environment is a horrible mistake.