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Blizzard's Forums Will Now Always Display Your Real Name
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
water_wendi said:
This happens everywhere. I guess you should start wearing a mask in public and shun yourself from any social interaction. I mean you could come across a weirdo while walking the streets who'll start stalking you and get all personal on you!
You have to pay to "opt out" of the white pages, it's an annual fee. You can opt out of posting on the forums too. It's not like answers to your most common problems regarding the game aren't one google search away anyway!
Blizzard already has lots of mods with banning powers, they just have hundres of various forums to moderate. Or are you suggesting that they should hire a workforce in the hundreds just to moderate? That's nonsensical.
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
When i run into people on the street, i see them and they see me and we do or dont do our business. When someone reads a post of mine, there are millions that can read what ive said.. from the moment its posted until years later. The two situations dont equate.Fularu said:
This is total bullshit right here. Have a technical problem? The GMs point you to their support forums. They dont instruct you to go to do a Google search.
When your business gets bigger you have to hire the staff to run it effectively. Is Blizzards technical staff more than 5 guys? Probably. Why? Because the game is huge and needs a proper staff to run. To say that the forums are shit because Blizzard themselves have let the entire place run rampant with trolling (which isnt necessarily true, lots of helpful stuff there from greens and on the tech side which will now be gone btw.. but its Blizzards cover story for Activisions Facebook wet dream so lets run with it) they should hire the staff to put things in order.
edit:
Oh and if you think that you name alone cant be used to find out personal information about yourself on the net go to http://pipl.com/ or http://www.spokeo.com/ and see for yourself.
Hypno Funk
Member
What I think is quite ironic is that the idea behind MMO's such as WoW is that you enter another world and become someone else in a fantasy world. With real names, even if it is just on the forums this isn't maintained and kind of takes you out of the world a little.
Dynoro said:
I'm actually surprised people think this is about trolls. Activision has said it themselves this is about social networking.
Cha-ching!
Also, a great history of Activision-Blizzard that's worth a read. Kotick really is the worst thing that has happened to the industry in the past ten years.
Starchasing
Member
2San said:
i think he just pulled that out of his ass , in the euro zone is your right to be removed from any database , so you dont have to pay.
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
Thats a great article.luxarific said:
If it's truly an anti-troll thing then use some of that billion dollars annual income to hire a few more moderators. If the forum account is tied to a WoW account just ban them from the forums. After a while people will realize you mean business and realize they could lose the "privilege" of posting on the forum permanently.
I think this has more to do with Blizzard cutting costs even more, though.
I think this has more to do with Blizzard cutting costs even more, though.
water_wendi said:
The odds of stumbling on a weirdo stalking you in real life (without you noticing it at first, that would be the point) are way higher than some random schnob from south america taking a plane to harm you. In short, your fears aren't grounded in reality. And if you believe something you've said on the internet could trigger someone into taking such steps against you... mhh maybe you should have a look at what you say?
GMs direct you to the technical forum to find an answer, not to expressely post your problem on it. They help you with yoru issue and advice you to check the forum in case a more detailed answer already exists. If it doesn't you can then chose to either make a post or search the web for more information. Again the choice of action is yours. And I fail to see how posting about a random technical problem on their forums is going to be such a threat to your very existence outside of wow. (Especially since the bug reports/support forum is one of the most policed, friendly ones)
Forums are a convenience, a privilege, not a right. Blizzard's business isn't in forum making and policy, it's in creating games. If you want to post on their social network you have to abide by their rules. The fact that you somehow believe you're entitled to post on some company's website "anonymously" so that you can either post intelligently or troll your heart out is cute but missguided. Blizzard owes you nothing of the sort. It's their forum, their rules. And yes, I believe it's delusionnal to ask them to have a larger modding staff than a dev staff.
Do you really believe I'm stupid? I mean that's beyond cute, that's downright insulting. Of course I know you can get a shit ton of info on people on the internet, but so can you in real life if you decided to. I could follow you tomorow to where you live and get tons of info on you, just like that, randomly. I wouldn't need a forum to do so.
To have a confidential phone number, you have to pay a monthly fee. End of story. You may want to check with your phone carrierStarchasing said:
This has nothing to do with advertisement databases or polling databases.This is only the beginning. Anonymity on the Internet is going bye bye.
Heard of ACTA?
http://www.stopp-acta.info/english/home/home.html
Heard of ACTA?
http://www.stopp-acta.info/english/home/home.html
AdventureRacing
Member
2San said:
Fularu said:
My problem with this change is that it doesn't just affect those who post on the forum.
If my account gets hacked, which lets face it is becoming an ever increasing problem, the hacker can than post offensive, racist or illegal things under my name on a public forum for millions to see.
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
i dont have conversations irl that are heard by hundreds of thousands of people for years to come.Fularu said:
Doesnt matter at all. As someone who has been beaten before because of how i look and not how ive acted towards someone, i can tell you first hand that people dont always react with logic. You think bigots are going to not take advantage of the names that Blizzard is freely handing out? What about my psycho ex? People want privacy for whatever reason they choose. Its not up to a gaming company to choose how they divulge my information. They are going to get hammered with lawsuits.
Some choice. ill choose to not pay Blizzard any more, how about that?
You are insane.
Why give that information up for free? Once it is out its out forever. This is a breach of privacy and i hope Blizzard gets sued to hell and back for it.
edit: and the topic on the Wow forums has passed 1000 pages.. thats over almost 20k negative reactions to this in less than 24 hours.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1&pageNo=1008
The social networking angle makes a lot of sense. Think about it. There might be a Battle.net one day where you each get your own profile page and search for real life names, add them to your friends list, play with them, post messages to each other, brag about what achievements you've gotten in WoW or SC2, share pictures or videos from Diablo III, make new friends with other Blizzard fans and join Blizzard groups. It's basically Facebook for people who play Blizzard games or the Steam Community. This forum change is a step in that direction. Who knows when you'll be able to see real life names of everybody in WoW without having to add them on RealID.
AdventureRacing
Member
SmokyDave said:Oh no! Now everyone will find out I'm actually a SmokyDavina!
I spent so much time building up this male alter-ego
:lol Are you trolling or are you just this stupid?
Mistwalker
Member
Are you serious? They have every right if you want to play a video game badly enough to give over your name, a requirement clearly announced beforehand. What are they holding over your head? Not the ability to play said video game. Not the ability to talk about the video game. Just to use their forums. You have all the control in the world, with your wallet, and your choice of community.water_wendi said:
You sit there whining about your "rights" being infringed. It's a form of entertainment you are choosing to participate in. Opt-in from step one. Does it suck? Maybe. But lawsuits? Please. There's no bait and switch, this name display change is not retroactive. When the prompt comes up saying "Your real name will be displayed in this post. Proceed?" you have all the right in the world to choose "Cancel" and take your discussion to any one of the many inevitable non-Blizzard forums.
Simple fact is, Fularu is right. Blizzard's game, Blizzard's rules. They have lofty ideas of a social network with them as the overlords, a vision I sure as hell ain't getting behind any time soon, but at the end of the day no one is forcing you to join it.
They're a friggin' game company. They don't owe you jack.
Of course thousands of people are complaining, it's a big ass change and loss of the ol' comfortable internetz anonymity is alarming. But when the dust settles, those who don't care will stay, those who can't get over having their name attached to what they say will go. The end.
zero margin
Member
Like I said in the wow thread, paranoia is a little high. I ask for peoples names, phone numbers, addresses, etc. all day long over the phone and rarely do I get a refusal.
Mistwalker
Member
This is one potential pitfall to the whole idea, but if you're worried about this, then I imagine you also don't use Facebook, MySpace, any other online social channels, or do any banking or finance online. Worst case, what do hackers have access to? Thousands of...names.AdventureRacing said:
Even then, if Blizzard's inadequate security ends up screwing someone over, then you might have grounds for action against them...not to mention it being a huge blow to their idea of a social network utopia. They want all this personal info, they better damn well protect it, or the backlash will sink their grandoise vision hard and fast.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
As I mentioned before this worked great for ArenaNet. They would have their community managers and designers visit the biggest fansite forums. Even people in-game refered to the fansites for information.
And you know what? It actually worked pretty damn great, because there was a sense of the community creating order, making the guides and making everything make sense. it was somehow more fun to see things playermade, regardless if it was people being tech support, or someone making a how-to-start-out-guide.
and it created lots of traffic for the fansites who really love the game and have done so much for the company. it was ArenaNets way of showing their appreciation.
Think about it? The WoW forums were always lame. you couldn't discuss sex, religion, homosexuality. Everything got closed, everything was like a lame replica of 4chan. People tried to start memes, and such, but it was always just a bust. People can now go to elitistic jerks, WoWHead and others to discuss these things. And Blizzard can take their discussions, talks and such with them.
furthermore, things they could do to improve security would be to make the forums un-viewable for people who are not subscribed to the game, and make sure it does not pop up in google.
and then its just up to anyone, to not have anything shared on their facebook when you search your name in google. not your adress, not your profile picture or anything. make everything only viewable by your friends. perhaps only a photo can be seen by strangers with some random name. or maybe not even that if your afraid to die.
And you know what? It actually worked pretty damn great, because there was a sense of the community creating order, making the guides and making everything make sense. it was somehow more fun to see things playermade, regardless if it was people being tech support, or someone making a how-to-start-out-guide.
and it created lots of traffic for the fansites who really love the game and have done so much for the company. it was ArenaNets way of showing their appreciation.
Think about it? The WoW forums were always lame. you couldn't discuss sex, religion, homosexuality. Everything got closed, everything was like a lame replica of 4chan. People tried to start memes, and such, but it was always just a bust. People can now go to elitistic jerks, WoWHead and others to discuss these things. And Blizzard can take their discussions, talks and such with them.
furthermore, things they could do to improve security would be to make the forums un-viewable for people who are not subscribed to the game, and make sure it does not pop up in google.
and then its just up to anyone, to not have anything shared on their facebook when you search your name in google. not your adress, not your profile picture or anything. make everything only viewable by your friends. perhaps only a photo can be seen by strangers with some random name. or maybe not even that if your afraid to die.
I'm just. that. stupid.AdventureRacing said:
I don't own a single Blizzard game or post on their forums, my name is Dave and that is me in my avatar picture. Does that help?
I know, it burns. I was hoping to hide my utter stupidity from GAF and I'd been doing such a good jobOsietra said:
Sato Koiji
Member
Whats the problem?
They still can be anonymous.
They still can be anonymous.
water_wendi said:
But you have no problems with people discussing said conversations and deforming them when you'Re not around, right? And that will be for years to come. What are you going to do, erase them from everyone's memory? And why would you care that something you posted would be viewabel for years to come? and why would anyone care? TYour typical forum forgets about a topic within days, let alone weeks. Now you believe that the special you will be remembered for years?
Silly.
The lawsuits would be meaningless and have no grounds on reality. Your name isn't personal information and guarenteed privacy. If you don't want your name seen for reason x/y/z then it's up to you. You can chose to no longer play the game, have no part in any social network and live a life of fear and insecurity, because your name is that important to you!
And somehow, I doubt the "crazy ex" is going to need Blizzard to know anything about you. Again, weirdos, bigots, psychos can be met anytime during your everyday life, your name won't change anything regarding that and won't increase the risk of "exposure" to such people.
In short, it's just your paranoia (legitimate or not) that's talking, not common sense.
I say it's your money, instead I chose to not care, even though my name is prety unique in north america.
And you seem like some entitled little angel. Sorry if you don't like it, but Blizzard owes you nothing forum wise. Nothing at all. They're providing you with a social setup out of their own goodwill, if you don't like it, sucks for you. They could merely have a suggestion forum, a bug report forum, a news forum and call it a day. They went the extra step to create a community, they don't owe you shit.
Your name isn't worth anything. Do you really believe yourself to be that special that you are "giving it up for free"? There's no breach of privacy by displaying your name, you should read up on what constitutes private information (I could link you the canadian chart, but that would be rather pointless to you, wouldn't it? look up the one wherever you live).
While the rest doesn't care enough to voice their opinions, also you're suggesting that 100% of the posts are to say "I don't want it" which we both know to be false
In the end, if you want to live anonymously, you're definitely not going to find it on the interweb so you may want to reconsider your various habits and keep it safe!
AdventureRacing
Member
SmokyDave said:I'm just. that. stupid.
I don't own a single Blizzard game or post on their forums, my name is Dave and that is me in my avatar picture. Does that help?
I know, it burns. I was hoping to hide my utter stupidity from GAF and I'd been doing such a good job
So you were just trolling. If you don't own a blizzard game and it doesn't affect you in anyway why bother coming into the thread?
Osietra said:
I called his post out for it's lack of substance. I wasn't trying to 'burn' anyone. He is the one making a troll post so im not sure why you responded to me like this.
Mistwalker said:
I don't use myspace, facebook or online banking/finance. Where possible i try to avoid using this type of thing.
Mistwalker said:
I would just rather not even have to think about it. It's completely unnecessary giving out any personal details.
I most likely won't be giving up WoW but i am not really happy with this move by blizzard.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Wow. People are still championing the "if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear," mantra. Awesome.
That was just Dave being Dave, lighten up, that was hardly trolling. I disagree with him on plenty of things, but he is a funny bastard, so he's okay.AdventureRacing said:
I don't own a Blizzard game either, should I leave the thread?
Yeah, great huh? I still have not heard a single response explaining how this will be better than just implementing a decent moderation policy and strict bans? Or even why the names need to be public for anyone reading, and not just registered posters. That at least would be an improvement.WanderingWind said:
Kholdstare
Member
X-Burner said:
Did I ever say that you didn't say that? No need to get so defensive.
Maybe if your name was attached to this post you wouldn't have sounded so aggressive in your response.
I'm not here to start anything. Just because I don't agree with you doesn't mean I don't understand whats going on. I don't think it's that big of a deal that I remain anonymous when I get stabbed by some random stranger on the street who looked I looked at the wrong way. Using your type of examples I see problems with crazy people much more possible in real life. It's like the whole lottery example. You have a better chance to be hit by lightning then to win the lottery. If you're going to start worrying about crazy people over the Internet you might as well stop going downtown past 10 PM.
There are so many other more legitimate threats you can worry about. Why does this bother you?
Vigilant Walrus
Member
WanderingWind said:
You are so apeshit insane. You are turning things into problems there aren't. Do you know how extreme it is to hunt down people in real life? And seriously - You would have to go out of your way to attract some lunatic on a gaming forum.
I love this explanation from a guy on another forum;
What is going on here is people junmping on the fences, covering up, what they think is their right to be assholes.
Some people have died in the past, and some will die in the future. It is dangerous to be alive, and you can have a fantasy about getting hunted down on Facebook, on police records, by your job application or from the IRS coming to get you.
TheKingsCrown
Banned
Ugh. Blizzard is making so many extremely risky moves with Starcraft 2, and indirectly with WoW. And you know what the real problem is? None of these risky moves add to the gameplay of either.
I hope you realize what you're doing Blizzard.
I hope you realize what you're doing Blizzard.
According to Blizzard we will have the option to display our primary in-game character's name along with our Real ID. So if you do piss someone off in-game they won't know your real name unless you are posting the two together on the forums. Now you just have to try not to be an asshole on the forums to avoid retaliation.
I'm still against this because I don't want people to be able to Google me and see my posts in the Rogue forum about the best rotation for DPS.
I'm still against this because I don't want people to be able to Google me and see my posts in the Rogue forum about the best rotation for DPS.
VGChampion
Member
As I've said elsewhere, this doesn't bother me one bit. For one thing, I really think the Internet should use our names everywhere because I really think it would make everything better because people would be on better behavior.
Also, it's funny how many people are mad about this. Back when I played WoW, I remember almost everyone at every site I went to complain about how bad Blizzard's forums were because of all the immature users and how it was a cesspool. If you don't like it, don't go there. I played WoW for about 4 years and maybe went on their forums once or twice and I don't think I even posted. There are better sites to go to.
Also, it's funny how many people are mad about this. Back when I played WoW, I remember almost everyone at every site I went to complain about how bad Blizzard's forums were because of all the immature users and how it was a cesspool. If you don't like it, don't go there. I played WoW for about 4 years and maybe went on their forums once or twice and I don't think I even posted. There are better sites to go to.
Freyjadour
Member
Guys.
The argument against this is that there's no reason for them to do this other than to combat "trolling". It isn't going to make the forums any better. I really don't understand this considering how private the in game realid system is.
The argument against this is that there's no reason for them to do this other than to combat "trolling". It isn't going to make the forums any better. I really don't understand this considering how private the in game realid system is.
TheKingsCrown
Banned
crimsonheadGCN
Banned
arstal said:
It already happens a lot on Facebook and Myspace, so there is no doubt that it'll happen with what Blizzard is planning to do.
Just going to push more people to one of the dozen popular fan sites, and won't stop people from being douche bags on the forums. While giving them more inane shit to troll with.
Personally I've had to deal with identity theft with someone thinking my credit score was their own personal credit card. Spent months getting it cleaned up and resolved. And while that likely didn't stem from something simple in the first place I don't care. I burn my mail, I post no personal info online, I don't even had out resumes unless I meet the employer in person.
Last thing I want is script kids pulling down basic info calling my utility companies and tricking some min-wage service rep into giving more info about my life. Fuck that, I don't care if its paranoid. I'm taking my ball and playing somewhere else.
Personally I've had to deal with identity theft with someone thinking my credit score was their own personal credit card. Spent months getting it cleaned up and resolved. And while that likely didn't stem from something simple in the first place I don't care. I burn my mail, I post no personal info online, I don't even had out resumes unless I meet the employer in person.
Last thing I want is script kids pulling down basic info calling my utility companies and tricking some min-wage service rep into giving more info about my life. Fuck that, I don't care if its paranoid. I'm taking my ball and playing somewhere else.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Vigilant Walrus said:
Yeah, nice response. Luckily for you, I'm not insane and I don't know your name. I'll just take you for yet another person who hasn't a clue how to act like a human being online and leave it at that.
You want to take the chance that your idiotic response wouldn't come back and bite you in the ass when those factors change? You sure? Because if you are, then you're a poor judge of humanity.
Whatever man. It's cute that you're so blase about this, but it's not insane to want to mitigate the release of certain articles of personal information to 11 million people. It's common sense.
Blizzard is losing it.
So many bizarre decisions lately.
Maybe the influence of Activision? Maybe Mike Morhaime has let all the WOW money go to his head? Maybe Blizzard HQ is built on top of an ancient indian burial ground?
Whatever the reason, I find myself more and more disappointed with Blizzard lately... it's like they're no longer making decisions with people like myself in mind.
So many bizarre decisions lately.
Maybe the influence of Activision? Maybe Mike Morhaime has let all the WOW money go to his head? Maybe Blizzard HQ is built on top of an ancient indian burial ground?
Whatever the reason, I find myself more and more disappointed with Blizzard lately... it's like they're no longer making decisions with people like myself in mind.
Hari Seldon
Member
So what is this realID shit and do I need one for starcraft?