Real ID comes to WoW

[Malakili]

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.

Because its about the principle of it, not that it would personally effect me.  

[Malakili]

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.

Since when does the fact that there alternatives out there excuse shitty behavior?  Its like saying "I don't get why people are pissed at BP, they can buy gas from another company"

Edit: NO, I'm not actually comparing the two things directly, so skip that post you were about to make.  My point is, bad behavior by a company doesn't suddenly become a non issue because there are other options.

[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.

Since when does the fact that there alternatives out there excuse shitty behavior?  Its like saying "I don't get why people are pissed at BP, they can buy gas from another company"

Because the existence of alternatives allows people to vote with their wallets.

[Lantyssa]

Because most of the alternatives look to WoW for ideas?

[DLRiley]

god i hate wow.

[Rendakor]

There really aren't alternatives out there, especially in the MMO scene. Unless you like broken shit or spreadsheets, its WoW or bust.

[caladein]

Because most of the alternatives look to WoW for ideas?

Alternative video games, sure.

But if my options for leisure activities are: be anally probed by Blizzard, be anally probed by NCSoft, or read a book... I can always just read a book.  If the video games socially-integrate themselves (or whatever the marketing-speak is) into oblivion, that's a bit sad as someone who likes the concept, but it's not cause for -ery.

[Simond]

There really aren't alternatives out there, especially in the MMO scene. Unless you like broken shit or spreadsheets, its WoW or bust.

Try EQ2 or LOTRO.

[DLRiley]

Has facebook and myspace made us dumber? Honestly 10 years ago when the interwebs was a scary place we would have massed boycotted EQ and UO for doing this shit. Now its "well the blizzard forums will get less trolly" 

[AutomaticZen]

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.

 

And when we hit that slippery slope, I'll be right behind you.  But we're not there yet.

I don't post on the forums and I have yet to add anyone as a RealID friend because frankly, they can just IM me if they're a real friend.  With my guild I prefer being able to dip to an alt and have a relaxing night not tanking.

Currently, the entire feature remains optional for playing the game, which is personally what matters to me.

Hell, half of us probably use the same damn pseudonym across everything.  You could google a number of the names here and probably get a hit.  

Has facebook and myspace made us dumber? Honestly 10 years ago when the interwebs was a scary place we would have massed boycotted EQ and UO for doing this shit. Now its "well the blizzard forums will get less trolly"

No, it's just "hey, you've already put all that information out there yourself using Facebook, Myspace, Steam, and what the fuck ever" 

As I said, as long as I can opt out by simply not posting on the forums, I'm fine.

[Rasix]

There really aren't alternatives out there, especially in the MMO scene. Unless you like broken shit or spreadsheets, its WoW or bust.

Try EQ2 or LOTRO.

Both games make me want to play WoW when I play them.

[Simond]

Has facebook and myspace made us dumber? Honestly 10 years ago when the interwebs was a scary place we would have massed boycotted EQ and UO for doing this shit. Now its "well the blizzard forums will get less trolly" 

Seriously, Smedley has to be sitting out there right now and thinking "Well, no matter how bad we were back then, at least we never tried to pull shit like this"

[Rendakor]

There really aren't alternatives out there, especially in the MMO scene. Unless you like broken shit or spreadsheets, its WoW or bust.

Try EQ2 or LOTRO.

I've played EQ2 off and on since launch; I don't like MTX + Sub fee though so I don't plan to go back soon. Plus they've been aping WoW pretty seriously since launch, so if this catches on it wouldn't surprise me if SOE adopted it.

And I'm not into LOTR in general.

[Malakili]

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.

Since when does the fact that there alternatives out there excuse shitty behavior?  Its like saying "I don't get why people are pissed at BP, they can buy gas from another company"

Because the existence of alternatives allows people to vote with their wallets.

Yeah, voting with your wallet is nice, but again, thats a practical solution to a single problem, its not a principled argument against that kind of thing *in general.*   Why do people argue over politics instead of shutting up and going to the polling station when its time? Because its about principle, not just about practice.

[Paelos]

As I said, as long as I can opt out by simply not posting on the forums, I'm fine.

That's true, and it may never come to be what I fear, but I don't like the developer with the largest mass market appeal in gaming getting into bed with the largest social networking site in the United States. What Blizzard does well tends to become the norm for other studios who want to cash in on the $$$.

I don't want to have to log into Facebook to play a decent title.

[Modern Angel]

If you think that other companies who never would've dreamed of pulling something similar a year ago aren't waiting to jump on this if sub levels stay the same you're smoking crack. It's a hop skin and a jump for EA to implement it in the Battlefield series or Valve to implement it with Steam. And maybe they won't but the argument "it doesn't affect ME!" is just going to leave you open to ridicule when they tie it to the Armory and you mysteriously don't get that job because the 58 year old Luddite found out you play WoW.

[AutomaticZen]

That's true, and it may never come to be what I fear, but I don't like the developer with the largest mass market appeal in gaming getting into bed with the largest social networking site in the United States. What Blizzard does well tends to become the norm for other studios who want to cash in on the $$$.

I don't want to have to log into Facebook to play a decent title.

Damn straight.  And it will be a sad day indeed.

And if Blizzard goes that way, I can merely hope that EA does not follow them with SWTOR.

[DLRiley]

As I said, as long as I can opt out by simply not posting on the forums, I'm fine.

That's true, and it may never come to be what I fear, but I don't like the developer with the largest mass market appeal in gaming getting into bed with the largest social networking site in the United States. What Blizzard does well tends to become the norm for other studios who want to cash in on the $$$.

I don't want to have to log into Facebook to play a decent title.

I don't want to have my real name broadcasted in order for me to play a video game.

[Goreschach]

At least now we're getting past all the false indignation about this. Complaining about 'WoW's forum's threads started by admins' linking your name to your level 70 elven warg buggerer is simply dumb when compared to the kind of stuff most people here already have on facebook. Facebook already has, what, your name/image/general location/age/friends/likes/dislikes/activities/etc. Adding a list of your phat lewts to that will hardly kill you.

Really, this argument is no different than the shit that comes up every time Blizzard changes anything about WoW. It's all just they changed it and now it sucks. I wouldn't be surprised if this realid shit is eventually a huge success. Why? Because the facebook casual gaming farmbook generation eats that shit up. You're all the old guard, and they outnumber you ten to one. I played WoW back during release. They started changing it, so I left. I hold nothing against Blizzard for moving the game towards a much larger demographic. Nobody is forcing you to do anything, so if you don't like what WoW is doing, just stop playing it. Or keep posting about how filthy casuals stoles our precious.

[Modern Angel]

At least now we're getting past all the false indignation about this. Complaining about 'WoW's forum's threads started by admins' linking your name to your level 70 elven warg buggerer is simply dumb when compared to the kind of stuff most people here already have on facebook. Facebook already has, what, your name/image/general location/age/friends/likes/dislikes/activities/etc. Adding a list of your phat lewts to that will hardly kill you.

Really, this argument is no different than the shit that comes up every time Blizzard changes anything about WoW. It's all just they changed it and now it sucks. I wouldn't be surprised if this realid shit is eventually a huge success. Why? Because the facebook casual gaming farmbook generation eats that shit up. You're all the old guard, and they outnumber you ten to one. I played WoW back during release. They started changing it, so I left. I hold nothing against Blizzard for moving the game towards a much larger demographic. Nobody is forcing you to do anything, so if you don't like what WoW is doing, just stop playing it. Or keep posting about how filthy casuals stoles our precious.

The only thing I agree with is unsub or stfu. The rest of it, especially comparing real privacy concerns to some retarded casual vs hardcore argument, just means that you view real life issues solely through the lens of video games. That makes you a horrible manbaby.

[Malakili]

At least now we're getting past all the false indignation about this. Complaining about 'WoW's forum's threads started by admins' linking your name to your level 70 elven warg buggerer is simply dumb when compared to the kind of stuff most people here already have on facebook. Facebook already has, what, your name/image/general location/age/friends/likes/dislikes/activities/etc. Adding a list of your phat lewts to that will hardly kill you.

Really, this argument is no different than the shit that comes up every time Blizzard changes anything about WoW. It's all just they changed it and now it sucks. I wouldn't be surprised if this realid shit is eventually a huge success. Why? Because the facebook casual gaming farmbook generation eats that shit up. You're all the old guard, and they outnumber you ten to one. I played WoW back during release. They started changing it, so I left. I hold nothing against Blizzard for moving the game towards a much larger demographic. Nobody is forcing you to do anything, so if you don't like what WoW is doing, just stop playing it. Or keep posting about how filthy casuals stoles our precious.

Oh hey look, another "it doesn't affect me so I don't care" post.  Guess what, it doesn't affect me either, but it still matters.

[Musashi]

Has facebook and myspace made us dumber? Honestly 10 years ago when the interwebs was a scary place we would have massed boycotted EQ and UO for doing this shit. Now its "well the blizzard forums will get less trolly"

No, it's just "hey, you've already put all that information out there yourself using Facebook, Myspace, Steam, and what the fuck ever" 

As I said, as long as I can opt out by simply not posting on the forums, I'm fine.

It's not quite that, though, is it.  Yea the info is out there.  But now it's like Blizzard is saying, "Hey you put this info out there already, right?  Mind if I make a billion dollars off it while I sell you my game you pay for monthly?  Oh, and now I'm going to force you to watch these ads on your Facebook, tell all your friends you're a wow nerd, and of course any potential employers will be able to easily find out you played games for 150 hours last week because we spammed your page with the achievement.  What's that?  What do you get out of it?  Oh it's a much improved experience.  I'm sure you'll agree because I say you will."

Seriously, guy.  None of that shit on Facebook is really optional.  It's only pseudo-optional.  You don't have to do it only because they can't legally get away with making you.  But you have to do it to play the games.  It's the viral part of viral marketing.  It's like, a virus.  If you don't help spread the virus, you're not a true believer and so you don't get access to the game options that being a true believer unlocks.

If you don't think it's coming to that, then you're just being overly optimistic.  It's not the 'oh it's optional' part that scares people.  It's the 'this is only the beginning' part.  This is a game.  It doesn't need all this crap to continue being a game.  There's no high minded social agenda here, either.  It's just about the money.

[Modern Angel]

There's no high minded social agenda here, either.  It's just about the money.

If they REALLY cared about cleaning up their forums they'd fucking ban people for about five million less than it cost to develop this game. I can clean up their forums right now for 30k a year or whatever pittance they're paying those poor schlubs.

[Nevermore]

Nah, I'm sure there won't be any problems associated with this.

[Musashi]

There's no high minded social agenda here, either.  It's just about the money.

If they REALLY cared about cleaning up their forums they'd fucking ban people for about five million less than it cost to develop this game. I can clean up their forums right now for 30k a year or whatever pittance they're paying those poor schlubs.

Right but you'd cost them more money than that in lost subs because you would ban the shit out of people and then they'd ragequit.

[Modern Angel]

No they wouldn't. If you post on a forum at all you're so invested you're not going anywhere.

[Simond]

Yeah, so one of the "Real ID & RL names means nothing at all and I bet you can't find me" people seems to have had his eyes opened.

[DLRiley]

its kinda hard for people to understand this but they are 1 text field away from getting their account hacked. about 1 text field away from getting their credit card info stolen once the blizz account is hacked. and 2 text fields away from hacking your email address.

[Typhon]

[stuff...]But you have to do it to play the games. [...more stuff]

If I don't have (or don't link) to a facebook account I can't play WoW?  Is this true?

[Musashi]

Not at the moment.  But that's the road we're on.

[Nevermore]

Indeed.  How long do you think it will be until your Armory profile is linked to your facebook page?

[Simond]

Minus five months.
Sure, it's optional now....

[LK]

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

Maybe I missed when this internet slang became common knowledge, but what is E: ? Example?

[Simond]

Edit. :)

And there's a few more articles out there now.

[caladein]

Yeah, voting with your wallet is nice, but again, thats a practical solution to a single problem, its not a principled argument against that kind of thing *in general.*   Why do people argue over politics instead of shutting up and going to the polling station when its time? Because its about principle, not just about practice.

Because isn't about making a principled argument.  It's about "This change portends a future change that will be terrible!"

If they announce said change, then you can be apoplectic about it then.  But being apoplectic about this change now, if you don't use the official forums, is being fucking hyperbolic.

On top of that, to follow your own analogy, most people are right now phonebanking against the person they're voting for.  It's insane.  Blizzard really doesn't care that people are shouting up a storm if it doesn't translate into lost subs, and no one's saying really saying that at this point.