Real ID comes to WoW

[AutomaticZen]

There are times I'm glad I have about the world's most pedestrian/common name(s).

Ditto.

[fuser]

I wonder whats next? Perhaps they will migrate the old forum posting data over to the new forums with no choice. 

[Outlawedprod]

There are times I'm glad I have about the world's most pedestrian/common name(s).

I just feel bad for people with names that gamers will make jokes about.  I mean surely there's some Mike Hunts, Peter Gozinyas, and Heather Feltersnatchs out there right?

Female perspective?
http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-my-name-really-is-Deathblood-Blackaxe#3171416

[DLRiley]

I like how Real ID went from "something you only use for your in real life friends you already know" to global identifier in all of two weeks.


 

don't worry it sounds worth than it really is 

[Arthur_Parker]

Can they ban you from the forums if your legal name really is Adolf Hitler?

[SnakeCharmer]

don't worry it sounds worth than it really is 

When did you develop a lisp?

[DLRiley]

don't worry it sounds worth than it really is 

When did you develop a lisp?

The lisp is for wow threads and clowns shoes threads, which this thread has a 2 for one special one 

[Paelos]

I get the feeling that I'm going to need a RealID just to log into the single player version of Diablo 3. But it's all so I can have the opportunity to post about my successes to Facebook. That's it. No other reason. Don't look behind the curtain.

[Malakili]

I get the feeling that I'm going to need a RealID just to log into the single player version of Diablo 3. But it's all so I can have the opportunity to post about my successes to Facebook. That's it. No other reason. Don't look behind the curtain.

Yeah, I think its about social network (facebook) integration.  Its already in the SC2 beta, and I'm sure its going to be part of Diablo 3.   Frankly, I think this is the end of buying Blizzard products for me.

[Wolf]

btw, you can turn off the facebook <-> starcraft friendlist sync thing. Account -> Privacy Settings -> Custom -> Customize Settings -> under "Contact Infomration" youremail -> only me -> save :)

I won't have people from high school adding me and going LETS PLAY 2S! Awesome :)

[Malakili]

btw, you can turn off the facebook <-> starcraft friendlist sync thing. Account -> Privacy Settings -> Custom -> Customize Settings -> under "Contact Infomration" youremail -> only me -> save :)

I won't have people from high school adding me and going LETS PLAY 2S! Awesome :)

Oh I don't have a facebook account anyway, so that isn't the problem. Its just the overall direction that bothers me.  Then again, I was upset with SC2 when there would be no chat in bnet 2.0.  Then they announced they would add chat.  If they take this back, I'll consider getting on board again, if they don't, well, I've got plenty of other good games to play.

[Draegan]

Oh hi.

Now I get it.

[Simond]

It's going to be amazing to watch the reaction from Blizzard when the first "Tracking from SC2/WoW via Facebook to RL" murder happens.

[tmp]

It's going to be amazing to watch the reaction from Blizzard when the first "Tracking from SC2/WoW via Facebook to RL" murder happens.

I have to wonder if their PR people are shitting bricks in anticipation of headlines like "Man beaten up over a computer game thanks to company revealing his personal data".

[Lakov_Sanite]

Man beaten up? Oh no...it'll be much, much worse than that.  This opens the door for a lot of nastiness.

[Simond]

but not for Blizzard employees, apparently

This post WILL get deleted, Im just trying to get this information out so other people will realize how much Blizzard is screwing us over.

After a long talk with a few Blizzard phone reps, it turns out BLUES will NOT have their real names posted in the forums due to "Security Concerns." Blues are free to hide from the nightmare RealID will turn these forums into, and yet we, the paying customers, will be forced into it?

Thats right everyone, YOU will have to reveal your real name in order to post on these forums. Blues, on the other hand "Cannot risk having their personal lives compromised by in-game issues" (Thanks, Josh with no last name - thats a gem).

I have already canceled my account and filed a complaint with the ESRB about all of this, I suggest you do the same.

E: Muad'dib, we have mediasign - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10543100.stm

[proudft]

I find it difficult to believe that random people on the Blizzard phone line have any idea what the policy will be for something that is months away and has just generated such a shitstorm.   I find it much easier to believe this person made up & posted something in the hopes of provoking a statement from Blizzard one way or the other.

[Goreschach]

I'm now really hoping this thing goes through, just so I can enjoy all the butthurt.

[Simond]

I'm now really hoping this thing goes through, just so I can enjoy all the butthurt.

Post your RL name.

[AutomaticZen]

I already post on a forum with my real life name.  Why would I care?

[sickrubik]

E: Muad'dib, we have mediasign - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10543100.stm

One World of Warcraft player, Jim Brand, contacted BBC News to say how disappointed he was over the change.

"I have been using the forums for over five years, reporting bugs and trying to be helpful. Now, to have the privilege to help people on the forums I have to reveal my real name; I'm dead against it," he said.

"I work in a charity and deal with governments officials. If they do a search and see I am a gamer, it could affect my employment prospects," he added.

[Simond]

Incidentally, that story is now the third most read on the BBC News page.

[Paelos]

I already post on a forum with my real life name.  Why would I care?

Because that's an obscure environment where doubtless few people give a shit. It's way different than having all your gaming habits posted to a Facebook account for every friend and potential client/employer to gaggle about what you might do in your free time. It could be used for any number of ridiculous things from harassment to racism to RL insanity, not to mention the inevitable hackings involved with having email addresses, real names, and credit cards all tied together in neat little packages.

The truth is, even if there's nothing that you believe is horribly invasive about the policy, it's still providing more data than is necessary to play a fucking game. They don't need to make any of our real life data public for the game to function. It's a needless risk for almost no real reward.

[Lakov_Sanite]

E: Muad'dib, we have mediasign - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10543100.stm

One World of Warcraft player, Jim Brand, contacted BBC News to say how disappointed he was over the change.

"I have been using the forums for over five years, reporting bugs and trying to be helpful. Now, to have the privilege to help people on the forums I have to reveal my real name; I'm dead against it," he said.

"I work in a charity and deal with governments officials. If they do a search and see I am a gamer, it could affect my employment prospects," he added.

need a bigger 

[caladein]

The truth is, even if there's nothing that you believe is horribly invasive about the policy, it's still providing more data than is necessary to play a fucking game. They don't need to make any of our real life data public for the game to function. It's a needless risk for almost no real reward.

That's a bit like saying FrontierVille shouldn't be spammy.  It is what it is.

Going forward you can either play with most of the Real ID-stuff turned off or just play something else.

[Lantyssa]

If I'm forced to use my RL name, then I think I should make sure all my RL causes are prominently displayed, too.  Time for... The GLBT Avenger!  Which will probably lead to some homophobe murdering me because they can track me down with a ten second search.

[Minvaren]

Oh hi.

Now I get it.

Absolutely. Our goal and vision in this partnership is to really to cross-populate the social networks and to easily find and add your friends from Facebook onto the new Battle.net service as the first step and extending it to other features in the future. … Later on, of course, we have lots of things we are talking about with Facebook. We haven't announced anything specific, but we have lots of ideas about ways to cross-populate and share data between the two services.

I've got a bad feeling about this...

[AutomaticZen]

Because that's an obscure environment where doubtless few people give a shit. It's way different than having all your gaming habits posted to a Facebook account for every friend and potential client/employer to gaggle about what you might do in your free time.

It'd be posting to my Facebook account...in a feature I can turn off. 

It could be used for any number of ridiculous things from harassment to racism to RL insanity, not to mention the inevitable hackings involved with having email addresses, real names, and credit cards all tied together in neat little packages.

That shit's already a fuckstorm prior to this. 

The truth is, even if there's nothing that you believe is horribly invasive about the policy, it's still providing more data than is necessary to play a fucking game. They don't need to make any of our real life data public for the game to function. It's a needless risk for almost no real reward.

You can play the game fucking fine without revealing RealID shit.  Or is posting on the forums the new game? 

[Malakili]

Oh hi.

Now I get it.

Absolutely. Our goal and vision in this partnership is to really to cross-populate the social networks and to easily find and add your friends from Facebook onto the new Battle.net service as the first step and extending it to other features in the future. … Later on, of course, we have lots of things we are talking about with Facebook. We haven't announced anything specific, but we have lots of ideas about ways to cross-populate and share data between the two services.

I've got a bad feeling about this...

This shouldn't come as a surprise, ever since they mentioned it being added to the SC2 beta, which was probably at least 2 months ago now, and maybe longer, it was pretty obvious they were going to go in this direction.  I think the real names on the forums thing is a particularly bad result and is rightly angering people, but it shouldn't be surprising that they want to integrate battle net with facebook in general.

[Simond]

You can play the game fucking fine without revealing RealID shit.

WRONG but thank you for playing.

[Furiously]

I just wonder how long until someone goes to someone's real house and beats them up because of this.

[AutomaticZen]

You can play the game fucking fine without revealing RealID shit.

WRONG but thank you for playing.

Well then that shit needs to be fixed.

The rest of it, again, why the fuck would I care?  Was everyone here a WoW forum warrior or something?  I never touched the damn thing.

[Goreschach]

You can play the game fucking fine without revealing RealID shit.

WRONG but thank you for playing.

Well then that shit needs to be fixed.

Why is that even a problem? It's like trying to blame firefox for suspect plugins. In either case the solution is simple, don't download and run shit you don't trust.

[Paelos]

You can play the game fucking fine without revealing RealID shit.

WRONG but thank you for playing.

Well then that shit needs to be fixed.

The rest of it, again, why the fuck would I care?  Was everyone here a WoW forum warrior or something?  I never touched the damn thing.

Here's my real fear:

This shit is only "optional" now because they are testing it in the WoW community before they release the other games. What they want to do is force to sign up for a Battlenet account and access the game with a persistent internet connection that displays your real name when you're logged in, so they can tell who is trying to pirate their precious game, and get paid by their facebook partners. That's not optional. That's where this is heading.

 

[caladein]

And who the hell is forcing anyone to play that?

That's really what I don't get about the slippery slope-type arguments.  It's not like there aren't alternatives out there if Blizzard goes completely off the reservation.