World of Warcraft developer requires first & last names displayed in posts for forum use

World of Warcraft developer requires first & last names displayed in posts for forum use

forums.battle.net

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it.

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[edit on 7-7-2010 by Carch70]

This is the first step in internet censorship, a complete breach of privacy that blindsided the WoW gaming community. Blizzard is requiring World of Warcraft and Starcraft II users to disclose their first and last name is they use the forum system: their full name will be displayed whenever they create a post.

In the announcement there has been a 1,167 page, 21,511 reply outcry from gamers, screaming "NO!" Blizzard has already announced that they are going through with this, despite a good 85-95% of the gaming community fighting against it. Their response? "It's optional". They argue that you do not have to post on the forums at all, which are regularly used for beta testing feedback, technical support, and game dynamic discussion.

forums.battle.net
(visit the link for the full news article)

They are doing it to kill the trolling... I myself find it to be complete BS - but that's one of their reasons why. Its pretty ridiculous, but if you want to get around it. Just make a second WoW account with a fake name.

everyone on the forums are against it.
Blizzard knows this if they do it they will lose milions of players and fans, this why the update has been slow.


Blizzard is probably rethinking about the plans.

expect to see an epic fall with starcraft II over this, fans arent going to buy something that needs and wants your full ID, this inst how a true gaming company should act and behave.


If you want to stop the trolls on the fourms, just ban there IPs, theres no need for Blizzard to overreact like this, if they want the sales and keep up with the fans and damends well they have to re think this more carefully.

[edit on 7-7-2010 by Agent_USA_Supporter]

Originally posted by Agent_USA_Supporter
everyone on the forums are against it.
Blizzard knows this if they do it they will lose milions of players and fans, this why the update has been slow.

I highly doubt it. Most people cry and bitch around, but then give in.
Look at Ubi Soft, so many people said they'll never buy another Ubi Soft game because of the copy protection system. And still, most games are best-selling titles.
Back then when Valve released Steam so many people said they won't use it, they want their old WON back. Then so many said they would never buy a game over Steam because you have to use a credit card (back then) and give out details and such. And now? Steam is a big success, more and more developer sell games over it. I bought a lot of games the past weekend over it. It's a great system especially if they have those special weeks or weekendes with great prices.
Maybe some people will stop posting on Blizzard boards, but i highly doubt that it will be a lot.

Besides, what's so bad to give out your name? How many people use Credit Cards and there are so many other things were you have to give out your name.
People are just overly paranoid these days and think everything is bad and evil

[edit on 7/7/2010 by ShadowAngel85]

I love WoW, yet I'm against this decision. I don't really use the forums much, but even though people will be against it, they wil submit. C'mon..it's WoW we're talking about.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Having been on two boards which enforced this rule, I don't see the problem with it. It's only your name, not your social security number or home address.

Besides, what's so bad to give out your name? How many people use Credit Cards and there are so many other things were you have to give out your name.
People are just overly paranoid these days and think everything is bad and evil

[edit on 7/7/2010 by ShadowAngel85]

Here is what's so bad...

One of the Dev's or the "blue" posters, posted his Real Name, in somewhat of a show of good faith to the WoW community...

Within MINUTES, people had his home address, phone numbers, the school he went to, his mothers name, his email accounts, and more all posted on the forum for the world to see. The posters literally crucified this person on the forums.

THAT is a problem!

I know it's only a game, but some people take it WAY to seriously...Imagine you piss someone off in the game and they get mad over it, like over the top mad. They get your real name, they google you, find your house, or where you work and show up and harass you...or worse.

Does anyone really want to deal with that? I know it's a stretch, but it's a very real possibility.

This is a horrible idea and if Blizzard implements this, I can't see it ending well.

[edit on 7-7-2010 by Survivorman]

reply to post by Survivorman


With just his name? He must have more information online than that for them to grab all of his info. Plus there are many people around the world with the same name.

reply to post by Carch70


I think it sucks big time but i dont bother even posting on the wow forums i just read them and move along i rather vent in trade chat or guild chat than on the forums more people to listen there

The belief that this will force posters to behave politely is ridiculous. Im guessing they dont have any real world experience with the youths and their wonderful social skills.

If some lunatic is going to berate and post hostile and nonsensical ramblings online they will definitely do it in person and to your face. We have gone past the point that perceived internet anonymity causes the less cultured among us to behave as mental patients in an unsupervised ward and entered an era where children raised largely by the perceived anonymity of the internet and the pointless yet earth-ending competition of online video games has created an entire generation of real life "trolls" insulated by their virtual existence and pop new-age "progressive" approaches to or lack of approaches to standards or discipline of any kind from parents and various local and national authority figures.

They rule the world. Have no one to answer to. And should you question them there are layers and layers of bureaucracy and legislation in place to protect them.

Insanity rules.

Big Brother aspects aside Blizzard is meeting the epidemic with far too little far too late.

Originally posted by invetro
Having been on two boards which enforced this rule, I don't see the problem with it. It's only your name, not your social security number or home address.

having your real name shown other people will find it alot easier to gain whateve they want to.

This why theres the need of made up usernames rather then having real names.

They better do this right though and be careful about it.

The problem I see with this is sharing personal information of minors, which is prohibited by law - especially kids under the age 13.

COPPA

WOW, compared to many other adult MMOs is heavily populated by children and most of the issues they have on their forums is those same children being able to post anonymously and often maliciously. While it may work as intended and may indeed prevent those kids from posting in the future, for a company that size and with such success I would imagine creating a few more jobs and hiring a few more forum moderators would be a better choice then open yourself up to possible lawsuits if personal information of minors were posted online.

Oh well, we'll see how it plays out.

Kharron

I played WoW for a couple of years, but don't anymore.

My two cents - or two coppers as we are talking about WoW..

I don't buy the any of this "we are doing it for you- it will be better - Really!!" stuff Blizzard is selling as their reasons for this.

They are doing it in an effort to keep down trolling, flames, complaints, whining, crying, nerd rage, epeen stroking, hardcore vs casual arguments and nerf calls.

In other words - they are doing it to keep down what usually makes up about 99.9% of the posts on the WoW boards.

Blizz clearly has their formula down. I honestly don't think user feedback from forum posts plays a big part in their planning process. The users would miss the forums greatly if they suddenly went away. But, I don't think Blizz would at all.

Just cancel.

WoW has got to be one of the biggest cancers that anybody can have in their lives save for a real cancer. Building up a virtual character in a virtual world while the real person is being neglected and the real world needs all the help it can seriously bothers me.

Yes I used to be a WoW player and I hope this issue gets more people to leave what can be described as a real-life soul stealer.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say if they don't chance this stance (they wont btw) that this will lead to the eventual decline of the company and certainly the death of World of Warcraft. There is no inherent protection built into this scheme to protect users, so anybody can abuse the system to stalk, harass and generally abuse forum posters because Blizzard is providing their names to the entire world.

Whats going to happen is someone is going to track down a person who killed their character in game and exact the same thing upon them in the real world where there is no spirit healer or companion to rez you.

At the end of the day however I don't know if I can even blame Blizzard as a whole, perhaps the real blame should lie directly on the shoulders of Bobby Kotick, who ruins every single franchise he touches and has such wonderful quotes as the following:

The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games.

The fact that he is part of Activision can only mean that under his stewardship franchises such as World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo are sure to be completely ruined.

As a personal note as of today my subscription is cancelled, and I would highly encourage others tho take exception to the actions of Blizzard to do the same to voice their opinion with their wallets.

I have played WOW of and on for a while play a while then quit. Then pick it back up again for a while .

With this thats it no going back . Will not go back after this.

I don't agree with Activision's position on this. They (the end user) should have the right to "opt out" of having their real name displayed. Isn't it a breach of privacy?

Yes I do play WoW every now and then. No I NEVER use the official forums. Too many children on there.

With that being said however, kids these days will exact their revenge one way or another. If your real name is posted or not, someone, somewhere, somehow will find you out.

Case in point. Research a young girl who went by the handle Boxxy. Her life was virtually destroyed as a result of some naive children who went way too far.

Originally posted by invetro
Having been on two boards which enforced this rule, I don't see the problem with it. It's only your name, not your social security number or home address.

Post your name.

Within a week you'll have a couple thousand empty UPS boxes shipped to your home.

I can quite easily find out anything about you with just your name and a handful of other scarce details. Not your SSN or address either. In fact I can likely find the latter one out.


When I used to do...um...less than moral and legal things on the internet to people, I could pin point someones location with the most passing of info.

One person I had no idea what his name or address was, just his town. But he had videos and in the background was distinct details in the surroundings I was able to find on Google Earth.

Don't believe me? Test me and see what happens.

[edit on 7-7-2010 by SpectreDC]

[edit on 7-7-2010 by SpectreDC]

Why don't all the people playing this game..or. wasting their life just not post on the official forums. Revolt against the system. I'm sure there will be the sheeple that don't mind that will continue to post.

But seriously- anyone who spends 3-4 or more hours almost everyday playing this game or any other( my husband plays FF11 online) is wasting so much of their REAL life... so maybe this will lead some of the more paranoid type to stop playing , and I see that as a good thing. ok end of my rant.