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Blizzard's Forums Will Now Always Display Your Real Name
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
theMrCravens
Member
I miss the old 90s Blizzard.
crimsonheadGCN
Banned
Draft said:
The answer probably has something to do with what happened back in March 2010:
http://www.massively.com/2010/03/31/acti-blizz-restructuring-assigns-new-executive-to-blizzard/
I'm not being defensive, I'm simply stating reasons for why the action blizzard is taking upon their forums is wrong, in my personal opinion and that of thousands of other members of the community.Kholdstare 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?
If you think having your first and last name posted on a forum where thousands of users go to on a regular basis is a good thing, then that's good for you, as you are entitled to your own opinion. However, like i said before there is more negative feedback then positive feedback, and the general consensus of the user base is that there is no need for this new change on the forums.
I'm coming around to this too and I've been playing Blizz games since Warcraft 1 (or older if you include all silicon and synapse gamesDraft said:
). From dropping a multitude of features in Catacylsm after running out of patches for WOTLK to dropping LAN in SC2 it seems like I am no longer their target market.Saint of Killers
Member
Hari Seldon said:
If you have Real ID then you're able to chat to friends who are playing other Blizzard games no matter what the realm or faction may be, but they have to be merged with Battle.net and you need their Battle.net merged email address (also known as their username). If you don't want to sign up to Real ID then you don't have to, but the expanded chat features are closed off to you. If you do decide to go with Real ID just be aware that friends (and freinds of friends) will know your real name and every one of your characters.
http://us.battle.net/realid/faq.html
What's the point of having LAN, when they can just have consumers to buy extra copies of their game to play with family members or friends?Dynoro said:I'm coming around to this too and I've been playing Blizz games since Warcraft 1 (or older if you include all silicon and synapse games
Vigilant Walrus said:
Let's say you're right. And I even acknowledge that you are, that the odds of someone personally targeting me or someone else is quite low. But here's the deal: If it even occurs once, one single time on account of this change, that's one too many. So you can say that people are being paranoid, but we're free to say that you're naive.
I don't have Facebook. I don't Tweet. I've never shared my real name online ever. Not a single time. Does that mean I'm up to no good? No. It means I don't trust strangers. I don't hate them, I won't sneer at them or reach for pepper spray upon seeing one. But I sure as hell am not going to trust them without some real reason to do so. So I don't think trusting random people with my real name, for the first time ever on the internet, in order for me to discuss my latest pet peeves about fucking WoW is really logical.
Again: My problem with this is that it's so horribly indirect. It doesn't target people who are actually doing anything wrong. It targets anyone with an interest in keeping their real names off the internet. Some of those people may be good, some may be bad - but it's this lack of focus that guarantees that this is a clumsy measure.
Now if folks are right and this is really for social networking: Okay, I don't care then. I'm not a big social networker, so I'll just avoid Blizzard products from now on if this is the direction they're heading in.
Draft said:
Yeah, I understand Blizzard's desire to expand and I would love to even support them, but I just can't get behind what they are doing. For some reason they seem to enjoy trampling all over what made them big to get this new stuff into the hands of the customers no matter what.
Draft said:
It's all about the money. Heh.
The article linked above explains a lot - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252
Neuromancer
Member
So I've slept on it and I've decided I can't be too mad about all this, I don't even play WoW. I do feel bad for all the normal people who used to use their forums not for trolling but for a normal exchange of information, who won't be able to anymore without circumventing the RealID system or making themselves vulnerable to millions of crazy people.
The Lamonster
Member
Nope. Your REALID friends can see your real name but they first need your e-mail address and approval.Fersis said:
crimsonheadGCN
Banned
epmode said:
Nope, he's not joking. I can right click on one of my RealID friends when playing World of Warcraft, go to "View Friends," and get a list of the ~15 friends that she has added since the update went live. All with their names showing.
Acid Tongue
Member
What happened Blizzard? You used to be cool.
I don't see the big deal. When this goes live I will stop posting on any Blizzard forums since I don't want my name out there. It doesn't matter - it's just a videogame forum. I don't need to post there. I will just read stuff. Reading through the forums now it's funny to see the people in an outrage and threatening to cancel an account over not being able to post on the forums.
Mr Nash
square pies = communism
I think the best thing anyone that is seriously concerned about this can do is contact privacy advocacy groups and let them know about the situation. They're dedicated to looking into these sorts of things, and if they see dangers in it, they most certainly will be getting in touch with Activision / Blizzard about it (not to mention various legislative bodies). Moreover, some governments have specific agencies whose sole purpose is to investigate potential privacy issues.
So, any of you who have a problem with the direction Real ID is going in can continue to complain and vent on a video game message board, or you can actually do something proactive, like contact one of these institutions with your concerns. They can get their own lawyers looking into it and see if there is a case or not, and even if there isn't now, they'll be aware of what's going on with Real ID and most likely monitor the situation going forward.
Privacy Advocacy Groups:
http://www.privacyrights.org/
http://www.democraticmedia.org/
http://www.aclu.org/
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/
http://www.eff.org/
http://epic.org/
http://www.privacyactivism.org/
http://www.priv.gc.ca/ (Canadian government)
Anyway, to reiterate, anyone who seriously has an issue with the direction Real ID is going in, get in touch with these groups. It's all well and good to bitch and moan on a video game message board about it, but doing this will actually get more done.
So, any of you who have a problem with the direction Real ID is going in can continue to complain and vent on a video game message board, or you can actually do something proactive, like contact one of these institutions with your concerns. They can get their own lawyers looking into it and see if there is a case or not, and even if there isn't now, they'll be aware of what's going on with Real ID and most likely monitor the situation going forward.
Privacy Advocacy Groups:
http://www.privacyrights.org/
http://www.democraticmedia.org/
http://www.aclu.org/
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/
http://www.eff.org/
http://epic.org/
http://www.privacyactivism.org/
http://www.priv.gc.ca/ (Canadian government)
Anyway, to reiterate, anyone who seriously has an issue with the direction Real ID is going in, get in touch with these groups. It's all well and good to bitch and moan on a video game message board about it, but doing this will actually get more done.
The Lamonster
Member
wtf????? God dammit Blizzard, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.Bisnic said:
Good post, thanks!Mr Nash said:
Neuromancer
Member
:lolVinci said:
Rumor going around that blues (blizzard employees) can now opt out of the RealID system for their forums due to security concerns. Originally they were supposed to be in the same boat as the forum regulars.
I'm not worried about the official forums since I don't post there, but I am more worried about this :
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/security-flaw-allows-addons-to-expose-full-real-life-names-witho/5
A certain almost mandatory popular raiding mod was released into the public with some test code that locally echoed back a person's real name. So in between boss warnings someone's real name popped up in their chatbox.
Apparently some mods have to make adjustments to how they handle chat handles for RealID, so that's why it's partially (or fully) exposed to some mods out there.
Currently it's only an echo on the local client, but I haven't seen what could actually be done with the info outside of some fairly interesting hypotheticals. I'm taking a wait a see approach on this - but I'm not going to add any mods outside of the ones I already have though.
Understandably though, it completely freaked some people out -I would be too if in the middle of a fight a boss warning comes up telling you to run followed by something like "RUN AWAY (your RealID Name)"
I'm not worried about the official forums since I don't post there, but I am more worried about this :
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/security-flaw-allows-addons-to-expose-full-real-life-names-witho/5
A certain almost mandatory popular raiding mod was released into the public with some test code that locally echoed back a person's real name. So in between boss warnings someone's real name popped up in their chatbox.
Apparently some mods have to make adjustments to how they handle chat handles for RealID, so that's why it's partially (or fully) exposed to some mods out there.
Currently it's only an echo on the local client, but I haven't seen what could actually be done with the info outside of some fairly interesting hypotheticals. I'm taking a wait a see approach on this - but I'm not going to add any mods outside of the ones I already have though.
Understandably though, it completely freaked some people out -I would be too if in the middle of a fight a boss warning comes up telling you to run followed by something like "RUN AWAY (your RealID Name)"
Fularu said:I'm already doing it, but you would have to click twice to get it
OMG INTERNET STALKERS INCOMING!
Yeah, I don't care one bit
Well I meant actually have it in all your posts instead of a link in your profile.
And yes it's all fun and games about CRAZY INTERNET STALKERS unless it's actually happened to you. Which in my case it has. Trust me it is not fun and you basically have no recourse. (Until something bad/terrible happens but then it's too late)
OgTheClever
Member
I've just been reading a BBC article about this and come across a part which is slightly amusing:
NintendoGal
Member
Don't get me wrong, I'm not in support of this, but as I told my WoW friends who still play the game, you have two options. One, you can bend over and take this, or two you can quit and stop feeding them money.
I went on to say that in a month or so, everyone will have forgotten their outrage about this and move on/cope. Until enough people can stand together and truly say no and do SOMETHING about it (quit/stop giving them money), nothing will be achieved. Instead all that will come out of this is a bunch of bitching in forums and elsewhere.
Stand together and unite for something (forums and petition online don't count), or sit and take it. My money is on folks sitting and taking it, personally.
I went on to say that in a month or so, everyone will have forgotten their outrage about this and move on/cope. Until enough people can stand together and truly say no and do SOMETHING about it (quit/stop giving them money), nothing will be achieved. Instead all that will come out of this is a bunch of bitching in forums and elsewhere.
Stand together and unite for something (forums and petition online don't count), or sit and take it. My money is on folks sitting and taking it, personally.
Aquavelvaman
Banned
There's another problem I have with realid that never gets mentioned: If you have any realid friends you can right click on their name and then view their friends. Through friend-of-friend you can pretty easily connect people's real names to their characters without ever having their approval. It's pretty stupid - I trust my friends and don't care about them knowing my name but do I trust their friends?
The Lamonster
Member
they have his name in the article :lolOgTheClever said:
Hypno Funk
Member
What I find funny about that article is that he further goes on to say:
Well, the cat's out of the bag now.
Well, the cat's out of the bag now.