Real ID, a problem or a solution?
What exactly is Real ID? That is the question you might find yourself wondering. Warning, opinion inc.
Real ID was a concept brought to our attention at the 2009 BlizzCon and although they didn't touch on all of the changes, they gave us the basic idea of what we should expect. One of those changes was cross-realm and cross-game communication with your real-life friends. I knew that with the release of Starcraft II being right around the corner that the cross-game communication method would be perfect to keep in touch with my buds in Azeroth while not having to leave any game I'm in our use third party programs like Xfire etc.
However, it would seem that although they gave us a general outline of what we would be seeing, they left out a couple of key details. One of which was included in a forum announcement which read:
Originally Posted by Nethaera
One change in the page that was linked at the bottom at first seemed jaw dropping. Members of the forum (if they wanted to post) were required to display their real first and last name. Now, right away when I read this I thought:
Originally Posted by Glynbeard
If they keep on the idea of Real ID in the forum names, there will be a large effect. But I cannot say (at this stage) if it will be a good one or a bad one.
Let's recap by going over some of the controversial changes (plus outcomes) and try to place them in suitable positive and negative categories. First I'll throw my opinion our there and then we'll hear from a couple members of the community on what they think of the matter.
Issues:
i) Cross-realm and cross-game communication with real life friends
ii) Real life first and last names on forum posts
iii) Reduced trolling and flaming
iv) Closing the gap between internet anonymity and your real life persona
i) This change is probably my favorite because many of my friends are still hooked on WoW while I have passed on and with the release of SC2 being about 20 days away (and d3 hopefully coming before I die of old age), I'll be able to communicate with them without a third party programs help on the side. The only real negative aspect I would expect it to bring forth is also its greatest positive feature: just always knowing what your friends are up to. For the most part, that's great and the point of this project altogether, but at the same time, I think sometimes I'd just like to dick around on an alt etc. without those co-workers and my grandma knowing what I am doing.
ii) I'd probably have to stick with what I noted above, that this one is hard to place in its current state and the placement really depends on the person looking at it. I'm not really known for flaming and trolling (heck I won't lie I think I've made maybe one post on the Blizzard forums) but even if I was going to, I wouldn't be afraid to display my first and last name. As we are seeing all around the web, the internet is connecting your real life with itself everyday and it looks like Blizzard thought they should jump on the bandwagon as well. Even 5 years ago this thing would never fly, they might have been planning this for a long time and decided now is an acceptable time to attempt the change. I'd also like to mention that this will effect account security to some degree and maybe even personal safety but that is a topic for an entirely new article.
iii) Right off the bat, I think this outcome will be a bad thing.
MMOwned User: What are you talking about Glyn? Trolling is terrible!
Well, sure trolling and flaming aren't nice things, they make people feel bad and can be disruptive in the flow of content being published throughout our server-space. But I like to think of them as the bacteria we have learned to know and love. Bacteria is needed in the progress of life, however they are also responsible for giving you colds and infections. These aspects of a forum are necessary in its healthy development and continued growth, without them its progress is not nearly as great. Although these trolls and flamers put people down and sometimes those members do leave, some also come back wanted to prove those people wrong by contributing and providing content to help the flow of the website-sometimes afterwards becoming flamers or trolls themselves creating a cycle which drives the forum forward. Again, remember this is just my opinion.
Then again, Blizzard has racked up a couple million players and many of them use their forums, so these principals probably won't effect them as much as it would a smaller community. Again, this one is hard to tell how it will work out at this stage in the game.
iv) I remember why I became a part of the World of Warcraft so long ago; I wanted to be someone else, someone stronger, faster, smarter and through living in the life of that second persona I was able to achieve a lot of self-confidence in who I am today and I found about a year ago, that I didn't need that character to support my beliefs and personality in real life. By bringing this gap between real life and virtual life to a near close, I don't think it will have the same effect on others who might want to have the same experience and outcome as I did. As this plan for Real ID gets more and more intense, I would ask them to leave it our of the actual game as much as they can. Members can choose not to post in the forums but if that choice in-game becomes non-existent, many members wanted that space between who they are outside of the screen and on it will pick up their gear and move elsewhere.
Here I've spoken to a couple well known MMOwnedians about the issues to get their opinions on top of mine.
The members joining me today will be the moderators Reflection and Unholy[S]haman as well as the elite member Aestysu.
So, let's begin with the first issue:
i) Cross-realm and cross-game communication with real life friends.
Reflection:
It sounds nice but I can't really express my opinions about it as most of my real life friends either don't play the game at all or play on the same server as I.
Unholy[S]haman:
I must I really do like the cross-realm communication with friends. I have only added friends who play wow so can't comment on things like Starcraft etc.
I run a level 70 TBC Raiding guild, so when we made the guild we chose a very small server with a low population - meaning I moved away from most of my real life friends and long term wow friends. With the cross-realm talk I can now communicate with them at ease.
Also when I am on my main character, if I am needed in my guild then any of my officers can contact me, and same for me to them. Very handy indeed. It also allows me to communicate with other level 70 guild masters (especially the guild on the same server but opposite faction as me).
Aestysu:
Pro - You can chat with them in game instead of alt tabbing out.
Con - Its useless, all it takes is an alt tab to talk to them, your playing a different game and realm so why have this enabled if you can alt tab?
ii) Real life first and last names on forum posts.
Reflection:
That I think is a bad change. If at all available, it should at least be optional. First name is fine in my opinion but first and last, nah. I can imagine a lot of people saying that you should use a fake name when you sign up in the future only to prevent your real information being public. But then again, it's only for new forum posts: if you don't like it, don't post in the forum.
And there SHOULDN'T be any reason not to have your first and last name available: but sadly there are reasons not to reveal them on the internet.
Unholy[S]haman:
Personally I do not mind having my real life name displayed on the forums - however I can see why other people might find this an invasion of privacy. I do believe that Blizzard has done great research into this controversial issue though, and you can see they have taken certain precautions to cater for those who do not with to have their information displayed.
1) Mainly that any posts that have already been made, will not be effected by this change.
2) Posting on Blizzard forums is not a compulsory activity. If you do not wish to have your name displayed on their forums then simply do not post on it. If you wish to still be involved in a World of Warcraft community, then you are always welcome at MMOwned to share your thoughts and pose your questions.
People need to keep in mind that, there are MANY people with the same or very similar names all over the world. Just searching for a name you see on a forum, is still going to be relatively hard to track down that person in real life without more information about them Just because people can now track you down from the forums, doesn't mean your name is not already trackable. They can also track you via your IP, or Email address, or by using social engineering to coax out more personal details from you.
Aestysu:
Pro - You can tell who is who and identify people quickly.
Con - Your information is now NOT 'secret' everyone can see your name and do a simple search to find out more about you. A security rick.
iii) Reduced trolling and flaming.
Reflection:
That's the major improvement with this feature. Hopefully it'll bring down the useless posts to a minimum and further express the good posters who post constructive replies. I'm not sure about this, but are battle.net account really not free? If they're free, it'll not help that much at all. People would just create a free account to troll on the forums.
Unholy[S]haman:
Firstly I am grateful for Blizzard to actually take a stance against such things and make an effort to reduce the amount of trolling and flaming that exists. Many times I am simply discouraged to post on the official forums due to the amount of negative comments or time-wasters that lurk there.
I do indeed think that this will definitely reduce trolling and flaming that goes on very drastically - however it will not stop it completely. There will always be people who simply don't care about their real name being seen, or they are too stupid to realize the consequences. Lastly there could also be people who use fake names. That is a problem that I think Blizzard might have to deal more and more with now (fake names and people trying to get a real life name change on their account details).
I have however read many many different threads full of people threatening to quite wow because of it etc, but with almost every patch that comes out, there is always a few who throw a tantrum and quit at the slightest thing. It honestly isn't going to bother Blizzard. The people who quite are mostly likely the ones who cause the most amount of trouble and drama in the first place.
I think this will also encourage people (like me) to post on the forums now that it feels more personal and you know there are people who are less likely to flame you. It will also encourage people to make good, quality posts or continue to do so, so that they can build up a positive reputation with each other.
In the end there are as many pros and cons to the situation, and it's up to your personal perspective and personal opinion on how you react to the situation. You could be reactive and cry about not being able to flame anymore, or you can be proactive and thank Blizzard for trying to improve the game.
Aestysu:
Pro - I don't see any really, you might get dis liked.
Con - Just because peoples names are out doesn't mean they wont flame or troll, its like on facebook or myspace. You can flame and troll there as well, it doesn't stop anything.
iv) Closing the gap between internet anonymity and your real life persona.
Reflection:
Yeah this is the reason most of the people don't like it, it seems. Personally I don't really mind it that much but there's so much that can be done, even if you've only got a first and last name. With the recent growth of social media sites such as Facebook, one can now grab the name of some character and find all the information he/she has posted on Facebook. But if one reverses it you'll also get something positive, one can lookup a name of an exceptionally polite or good player, find his name and then his email or other contact information. Perhaps a real friendship or relationship can evolve from that.
Unholy[S]haman:
Some people will like it, some people won't. In real life you get extroverts who want everyone to know everything about them, and then you get introverts who just want people to leave them alone. As technology advances, information will always get more and more personal. It's up to you how to choose to spread this information.
If you can portray yourself in a good light, then no one will have any reason to try and track you down via your name. If you treat people like dirt on the internet, it's not surprising that they want to retaliate.
Social networks like Facebook and Myspace have been a huge success, and Blizzard is trying to capitalize on that one. In the end I think it's going to work because people generally enjoy talking and interacting with others.
Aestysu:
One of the purposes of WoW is to get behind an alias and character to play online, forcing others to show their real name would create World of Facecraft... another social network. Some people WANT to be anonymous online and other really do need to be anonymous for work purposes.
v) Finally, what if MMOwned was to implement a first and last name requirement for posting. What would your response be?
Reflection:
I wouldn't mind it all that much but I prefer the way it is right now
.Unholy[S]haman:
I think if they did, they should create a compromise.
People who are on your friends list on MMOwned get to see your First and Last name, whereas those who aren't, only see your nickname.
Also it would be too easy for people to fake their own names since MMOwned requires no amount of legal documents or references. Whereas Blizzard deals with Credit Cards, shipping addresses, etc.
Aestysu:
GTFO.
Glynbeard:
Thanks again guys for giving us your opinion on these issues.
Over the past couple days the internet has exploded with rants and angry messages all over the place so it makes me wonder what we are in for during the next little while and what Blizzard will choose to do. Another interesting thing to note towards the responses from my three members who joined me today is that all three posted in the MMOwned facebook contest which gives out their first and last names. So before you guys are quick to judge on the first and last name policy, think as to what you may have already gotten yourself into.
Note: I didn't comment on all the changes that are developing, so check out their FAQ for answers from Blizzard.
All I know is that I hope nothing like this ends up happening again because of Blizzards choices.
For more information check out blizzard's real ID webpage or an interesting video I saw here.
Please leave your comments and opinions on what your beliefs are regarding the changes Blizzard has in store for us.
Menu
Recent Threads
vBulletin Message