Official forums: Real names only - Page 7

Enceladus · 07-09-10, 12:42 AM

I'm going to the investors site for Activision/Blizzard and letting them know that I'm canceling my account, that I won't be purchasing anything that has Activision or Blizzard associated with it, and why I have made this decision.

I doubt it will make much difference, as I doubt the amount of cancellations will even move their bottom line, but it makes me feel better. I'm done with corporate greed killing everything all to make a dollar.

Vampyrate · 07-09-10, 12:54 AM

To the people who think that it is insane to entertain the idea of quitting WoW or never posting again on their forums, I feel you've taken a very narrow and short sighted view of the situation.

Let me introduce myself to the level I'm comfortable with. I'm the GM of a guild. I routinely HAVE to post to maintain recruiting for my guild. I do it on the horde forums and my realm forums. I've posted a few times on the druid forums (my main) and have trolled the Warsong forums (on my main) because the people we encounter from it during randoms seem so incredibly terrible. I've trolled from a level one no more than 1/2 a dozen times but I admit I have.

I'm more afraid of my Real ID getting out when I recruit than any possible trolling I could ever think of. It is a some what scary thing to have my full name out there as the leader of a guild that may occasionally have to make decisions concerning guild membership that may result in dicey situations.

In 2008, a dating couple in the guild broke up. The male of the two was not picked to join a ZA raid one night and proceeded to leave the guild in a huge huff. What followed was something out of pure psychosis. Even though HE had moved back home leaving her place, she was the one that basically called the end to the relationship. After leaving the guild, this man constantly harassed her, me and my entire guild simply due to the ties binding her as a guild member. He would call her or message her that he was coming back to her side of the country to harass her, threatened to come over and anally rape her, called local food delivery places like KFC and ordered huge amounts of food to be delivered to her place. I was pulled into the mess when he posted personal information about me on my realm forums because he used to read her MSN logs. Imagine what he could have done knowing my full name. He would have harassed me in a similar manner to what he did with his ex-GF. I don't want to have to face removing somebody from the guild that decides to enact revenge by calling me, looking up my Facebook, digging up personal info, etc.

You can tell me to just have a member who is comfortable with posting with a visible real ID do the recruiting. What if none of my officers are? I shouldn't have to be concerned about sharing my first name/last name with the entire WOW community simply to ensure my guild remains viable through recruiting. I am many things online. I am a Curse admin. I'm a gaming clan head. I am a GM of a guild. I am a former addon pack author. I am a former admin of many gaming sites such as ProvingGrounds.com, Teamwarfare.com, IGL.com, a YouTube video poster, an XBOX gamer, and many, many more. From one small sharing of my name, you can potentially hop to info about my friends which include single mothers, married couples with children, minors and more. You could discover people who might be leading an alternative lifestyle or support them while not leading one themselves. What if a female applies to a guild and by investigating her real ID, she is accepted based solely on being "hot" or denied for looking like the south end of a north facing donkey?

Forcing real IDs upon people by using it as a toll booth in which to post on official Blizzard forums is trash and a violation of privacy. In game usage of real ID is risky enough in the case of somebody who gets hacked and notice is taken of the names on the real ID list. Blizzard is going to be in for the harshest criticism I think they've ever faced.

seebs · 07-09-10, 01:01 AM

Originally Posted by Bluspacecow

That's losing sight of the issue.

Yes, it is.

Where is he going to get his new customers from ? Partially from the sector of society that he's just alienated.

Pretty sure he's expecting to get them from facebook users who don't care about privacy, or at least, so he thinks.

Also how's a new player can feel when they find out they can only post on the forums with their real name.

If they're among the dozens of forum trolls posting their names (or names, anyway, who can say...) and laughing about it, they'll not even think about it.

It may get you a new customer for a few days or even months. But it just doesn't build customer loyality.

I agree. I think Kotick is wrong -- I think he's going to end up killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. I just don't think there's anyone with the power to overrule him, no matter how wrong he is.

seebs · 07-09-10, 01:04 AM

Originally Posted by Enceladus

I doubt it will make much difference, as I doubt the amount of cancellations will even move their bottom line

By multiple accounts, both the account/billing phones and the web-based account management have been totally swamped for most of the last three days. Given how little time it would take to process a cancellation through the web site, that implies a pretty large number of cancellations.

I know that a lot of the people I said goodbye too were starting to think about leaving. Some hadn't heard yet about the forum change, and were usually... well, "nonplussed".

Vampyrate · 07-09-10, 01:10 AM

PS-Here's another thought nobody has come up with yet. We've all heard the rumors that SO and SO from the media plays WOW (remember when rumors circled that Dave Chappelle played WOW). Imagine how well it would go over with celebrities who might be playing the game and have been active posters for whatever their reasons might be. Now they will be forced into never posting if they want to keep their identity under wraps.

Enceladus · 07-09-10, 01:28 AM

Originally Posted by seebs

By multiple accounts, both the account/billing phones and the web-based account management have been totally swamped for most of the last three days. Given how little time it would take to process a cancellation through the web site, that implies a pretty large number of cancellations.

I know that a lot of the people I said goodbye too were starting to think about leaving. Some hadn't heard yet about the forum change, and were usually... well, "nonplussed".

I really hope that is the case but I'm not feeling very optimistic.

seebs · 07-09-10, 01:44 AM

Originally Posted by Enceladus

I really hope that is the case but I'm not feeling very optimistic.

I'm pretty sure "a lot" of people have cancelled -- I don't know how many in absolute terms or percentages, but by all accounts, more than at pretty much any time before. One of my friends has a few relatives who still play, but he's trying to get them to understand the risks, and my guess is they'll quit soonish.

There's also a network effect. One of my friends was going to just keep playing and not use the forums -- but realized that there'd be no RL friends left to play with, so that turned into a cancellation. A bunch of my guildies are starting to think harder about this now, too.

Enceladus · 07-09-10, 01:47 AM

Something else that just crossed my mind and may have already been mentioned on the epic thread at the WoW forums: Boycotting the various companies that create merchandise for Blizzard.

Swagdog, Figureprints, J!nx, etc... Send them an email and let them know that you won't be purchasing from them again due to the decision that Activision|Blizzard has made with their RealID system.

svar · 07-09-10, 01:57 AM

@Vampyrate: That was one of the best replies to this I have read so far, both here and on OF.
I totally agree with you.

Trolls will be trolls, no mater what, and it can be even worse with RealID.

But I understand the concept too, the basic idea of having an unique ID that can be used to chat cross realm, fraction and even cross game, I like the idea, but why cant we choose an unique nickname, why has it to be our real names?

I really hope they don't force RealID in any of the BattleNet games.
I heard some rumors about if you want to play SC2 online, you have to use RealID....I dont like it.

If they force RealID in game(s), more people will leave then the forum thing will do, most people I know that plays wow, don`t use the OF.

Myself I don`t use it much too, mostly because people are not nice over there.

Bluspacecow · 07-09-10, 07:36 AM

Originally Posted by seebs

I agree. I think Kotick is wrong -- I think he's going to end up killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. I just don't think there's anyone with the power to overrule him, no matter how wrong he is.

Exactly.

He'll be the one at the brow of the ship in full plate armor on a white horse wielding a lance telling us all about some windmills off in the distance only he can see .... while our sailing ship goes ramming into a bunch of very sharp rocks,coral reefs and shallow waters.

Sure the ship may survive but he'll be the only one on it :\

Bluspacecow · 07-09-10, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by Vampyrate

From one small sharing of my name, you can potentially hop to info about my friends which include single mothers, married couples with children, minors and more

The thing that really concerns me is they are requiring their own employees to take part in this system.

The Blues will be posting with their Real Names as well.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/25712...ges-to-forums/

Originally Posted by Sad candle GM is sad :( (IE Nethaera)

With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.

There are some truly vindictive people out there.

People who have absolutely no qualms about finding out your address and taking it a little bit too far (eg 4chan and its vairous self appointed prank wars)

In good faith a couple of CM's have posted their own real names. And in the space of a few hours had their own personal details posted including his home address , names of his family , details on how much his property was worth etc etc.

I don't want to post a link to the blog that had all that information there as I'm sure it's against the CoC for this site but as proof here is an article from from a little news outlet called the BBC news.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10543100.stm

They aren't known for posting stuff they hadn't researched in detail first AFAIK. There may of been a few other things that happened and also to other CM's but I can't confirm them. I don't like posting stuff like this without backing it up with some proof from somewhere.

Needless to say I find this especially distressing giving that after some of these CM's did this they had to delete their personal networking profiles within hours of the post to avoid the harassment they were getting. I understand one CM had people calling his home phone number repeatedly.

Blizzard have always made it known that they gather the best people in the industry. They put the Blizzard campus forward as a place to be for new graduates. A mecca for working in the gaming world if you will.

What does this say to new prospective employees now ? We are mecca but no we can't guarantee your safety if you post on the forums?

tralkar · 07-09-10, 09:22 AM

think you where getting scam E-mails before just wait untill this goes through.

datahedron · 07-09-10, 10:05 AM

Originally Posted by voodoodad

Another attempt to lighten the mood. This is just too good to pass up. Take a look.

Thanks, voodoodad! That was funny as (insert reference to a very warm location that nobody wants to go to here).

Kallieen · 07-09-10, 11:06 AM

And they've canceled the use of real names!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...68987278&sid=1

Rilgamon · 07-09-10, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by Kallieen

And they've canceled the use of real names!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...68987278&sid=1

A victory for common sense ... but I guess it happened just because they
found out that there are quite some european countries with more strict laws
than the us-law when it comes to freedom of personal information

svar · 07-09-10, 11:38 AM

And then, the World (of warcraft) returns to normal

Petrah · 07-09-10, 12:03 PM

Hello everyone,

I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as the ability to rate posts up or down, post highlighting based on rating, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that 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.

I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you'll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.

In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, ( http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/mission.html ) and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning.

Mike Morhaime
CEO & Cofounder
Blizzard Entertainment

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...68987278&sid=1

Ailae · 07-09-10, 12:10 PM

They had to put a "at this time" in there? :P

Oh well, this is good news indeed. They took a major trust hit though, at least for me.

Bluspacecow · 07-09-10, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by Kallieen

And they've canceled the use of real names!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...68987278&sid=1

Finally.

Some sanity.

Hope they've learnt from this experience. Listen to your customer and stay true to your mission statement.

I will note however that they have gotten rid of all the forum posts about it... at least the ones I was answering.

Not mad about the last I just wanted to reply to some of them to announce it had been retracted.

Enceladus · 07-09-10, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by Kallieen

And they've canceled the use of real names!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...68987278&sid=1

This is awesome! I'm really glad they actually took notice and didn't just charge ahead with it.

Here's to hoping they stick with not implementing it in the future or making RealID any more intrusive to the game itself.