Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Real ID- Unmasking Us?


The hot topic of today seems to be Real ID. Some people love it while others hate it. The latest news has been the addition to adding the Real ID to forum posting. Is Blizzard crossing a line here? Why is it such a big deal to share to the world who we are? My fantasy is being taken away, they are unmasking the characters... To an extent. I don't really want to know that 'Gabriel' the Paladin is really 'Dick Smith'. Especially on the forums, I do not want to know these peoples real names.

I have gotten over the Real ID part in game and actually use it with a few people. I wouldn't add just anybody though. It can be handy but I still don't like the fact that it uses real names. I really do not know what Blizzard is doing. Are they trying to scare people off?

People seem to be against using real names in the forums. How many people are going to post up there now? I think we will be seeing people use other forums in the future and not the official forums. It will chase off people. Is this something you want to see? Boy that guy is a dumb ass, he called me a nub, let me google his name... Hey it could happen, what is preventing it?

I think privacy is being invaded, a boundary crossed. I hope to see Blizzard take another look at this and change it to user handles. I think this also needs to be used with caution- never in any game I've played (MMO) have you ever had to share account information with the world to use certain aspects.

I'm not going to drone on and on about it today because everyone and their brother is talking about it. I did want share my thoughts on it though. Is this something that bothers you? Do you think you will use the forums after this? I really would love to know why Blizzard thinks this is a good idea. I'm just boggled.

I do have some interesting questions though... Thinking of posting on the general forums looking for a guild, will you still now? I'll let my husband do that if he wants to badly enough. I doubt he does. How about your child posting a question on the forums with your name on the account. What if you didn't know about the changes because you don't play? Not your name on the account, but your child's? Do you really want their name on the net?

It's not going to cause me to quit personally. In the end it probably won't bother me that much. I don't like the idea of so much reality being thrown into my fantasy though. It makes me a sad panda.

For the official information on the forum changes you can read the original post here. Also Massively has a great post covering a lot of bases on this topic such as:

'The game's first casualty has already been made public -- Community Manager Bashlok. Within minutes, posters found his wife's name, his children, where his children go to school, his house, his projected income, his Facebook, etc. The official response to this has been that posting any of this information will result in a ban. Yes, that's right, a whole ban. The fact that people can easily track you down isn't a huge worry because posting said information will result in a ban from an internet forum.' Interesting! Read more here.

5 comments:

  1. MoondancerJuly 07, 2010

    I wasn't impressed with Real ID from the beginning and even if I was playing WoW I wouldn't use it, period.

    I do a lot of online work, so my real name (along with a few pen names) is all over the place; however, when it comes to my personal online time', give people the option to be I much prefer anonymous. Thinking I have something to hide because I choose to use a username is insulting.

    Although I haven't posted a lot on the forum I have posted in the tech forums, earlier today I went and deleted every post. Yeah, yeah, I know Blizzards says it isn't retroactive, however, they have gone back on things they've said before. I think it's a lazy approach to deal with the amount of trolls on the official forums; I believe Blizzard inaccurately believes that implementing this will cut down on the trolls. Having seen trolls use their real names (or fake real names) I highly doubt this will happen, what I imagine we'll see is those who're upset move away from the Blizzard forums and post even more on other WoW forums.

    Personally, I think it's only a matter of time before Real ID is mandatory in-game too, similar to the authenticators. For the record, I believed this when I first started hearing about Real ID.

    Oh by the way, Hellmode has a great discussion going about this. Quite frankly, it's one of the best articles I've read about Real ID...
    issue.http://hellmode.com/2010/07/06/why-real-id-is-a-really-bad-idea/

    Ashelia, the author, was the creator of the website, Girls Don't Game, although she her virtual doors there, I'm happy to see her writing about gaming at her new home.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The thing about real ID is it's already tied to your account. There is no setting it up to be mandatory. It is already there. For now you choose to use it or not for friends. For the forums it will be automatic.

    I'm not to the point of not sharing my name with close friends -you know my real name hehe. Some of us are more private than others, which is our choice. We like to have this choice.

    However, I think Blizzard needs to let us choose who knows our names and who to keep out of our personal lives.

    I want my fantasy kept fantasy until I decide different.

    Beyond this it is for the young people I worry about. I wouldn't want my sons name on every post he made...

    Thinking on this for a sec .... but no it would be MINE since I pay for all accounts and keep them in my name (his and mine). So my name would be all over those forums if he posted. GREAT GOING BLIZZARD!

    All around it's a crock of BS.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh I know that (Real ID already tied to your account info) I didn't like that either. I stopped playing before that was implemented in-game.

    In-game the fact that friends of my friends could see me Real ID, turned me off too. Why should that be? If I choose a friend, why is my information then available for their friends too? I don't know them?

    Unfortunately, even if you choose to opt out of Real ID in-game there are addons that can reveal that info too. I saw one displayed in the Hellmode comments.

    Eh.. Blizzard is reminding me even more about politicians that do what they want regardless of what the people want.

    Today, I unsubscribed from WoW, if they start actually listening to their players on this issue I might be back, then again I might not.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Uhm.. you can go ahead and delete one of my duplicate posts. Blogger gave me an error message the first time (kicks the Blogger comment section.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sure thing ;)


    Yep, I do wish they'd rethink the whole thing. I don't see a lot of positive reactions to it.

    ReplyDelete

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