Players Outrage At Blizzard Forums Incoming Change

[Confucius]

Today Blizzard announced that all forums posts will eventually be done using your real first name and last name. This has caused a huge outrage among players as many fear for ID theft, account security, and even for their life!

Here's the blizzard post:

Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature -www.battle.net/realid/ , a new way to stay connected with your friends on the new Battle.net. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about our plans for Real ID on our official forums, discuss the design philosophy behind the changes we’re making, and give you a first look at some of the new features we’re adding to the forums to help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.

For more details read more in this thread-Battle.net - English Forums -> Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to Forums

This thread that was only posted today has already received well over 152 pages of comments! Many of them are of outrage and some of agreement. Here's some of the points made over the thread.

• It will reduce trolling and flaming
• At the moment all you need to change someone's password is their email and first and last name, and now Blizzard is just handing them out!
• ID theft
• The fact that the internet is meant to be anonymous and separate from real life
• Many players play the game to get away from the real world but this brings them closer to it

The very first post in the thread is one such example of the outrage:

Okay this is a TERRIBLE idea. I've been the victim of identify theft once before and so I am VERY private online now, I use NOTHING but aliases, I will not pay for anything that can't be done through PayPal, etc. Now you're wanting to put my REAL NAME on PUBLIC FORUMS?! I wouldn't mind making us select our main character to always have displayed so no1 can troll anymore, but JESUS! I know alot of people are going to just simply STOP using the forums when you do this, you're not bringing us together, you're making us all too afraid to interect with eachother out of fear of identity theft and the like. So now people who want to add me to their friend list will have my login Email, my real name, etc... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I use realid, I like realid, I don't hand it out to anyone I don't know or trust, just like my real name. Hell, there are people and classmates in my real life that only know me by 'Dagoth' because I don't hand out my real name to just anyone.

Q u o t e:


What about people who play this game that might be in witness protection or worse?



I'm in witness protection for testifying in a trial that sent a man to death, and his family swore to send me to my death too, so I will be deleting every single post I've ever made in FEAR for MY VERY LIFE.

Thank you blizzard for possibly putting my life in danger, thank you SO VERY MUCH.

(leaving this post to delete last the day before these changes hit, so blizz maybe sees it and realize that they have made a grave mistake.)

please Please PLEASE don't do this! I guarantee you'll be tearing apart your community more than bringing us together. If this change goes through, it better not be retroactive to all previous posts, otherwise you better delete all previous posts ever made.

Goodbye WoW forums, hello MMO Champion forums, the untarnished warcraft forum.

Edit: my first 'First!' in over 6 years! lol
Edit 2: after reading the actual link /RANT

Oh and Edit 3: Is anyone starting to get a really nervous 'Star Wars Galaxies' vibe from Blizzard now? I'd really hate to have to jump ship from all the Blizzard games I love so much because they start to implement incompetent changes that drive everyone away.

Many players of World of Warcraft are starting to wonder what is wrong with Blizzard, as they seem to keep making choices without any regard for player input! Many players consider Blizzard making the game worse and worse. Hopefully cataclysm will fix this.

To see the thread you can look here: World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to Forums

This change is bound to affect the World of Warcraft forums greatly, as many will stop posting all together, and use other non-official forums instead. The forums will probably decline greatly in activity once this change is implemented.

If Blizzard keeps making changes the players don't like what will happen? What is your opinion on this change and how do you think this will affect the MMO world?

Sources:
World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to Forums
Battle.net - English Forums -> Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to Forums

[stoneharry]

I agree, first name I can understand, last name... Come on, I don't really want to give that out to everyone I want to chat with?

[nothinglol]

RIP Blizzard.

(Although to be fair it should be noted that the system is supposedly optional. However, the whole thing is possibly the worst decision I can recall Blizzard ever making.)

[Trollblod]

Don't use the forums then. And... retarded change comeon! But now i can track down people I hate keke..kekekekekee

[Ground Zero]

Woah, just when I thought they couldn't do anything worse.

[[Pat]]

Nothing is wrong with this change at all. There is a very low chance of someone finding your personal information just from your name which gonna highly doubt is gonna be uncommon.

[Exigious]

Nothing is wrong with this change at all. There is a very low chance of someone finding your personal information just from your name which gonna highly doubt is gonna be uncommon.

Have you never heard of Pipl.com?

I just searched my name and I was one of the top people on the list.

If people in the game can guess your age, than that narrows it down even more. The report not only told my age, but the name of my rents and the town I live in.

[[Pat]]

Have you never heard of Pipl.com?

I just searched my name and I was one of the top people on the list.

If people in the game can guess your age, than that narrows it down even more. The report not only told my age, but the name of my rents and the town I live in.

nope but I did a search on there and can't find myself. Patrick Morgan, United States - Pipl

[Rezzi]

nope but I did a search on there and can't find myself. Patrick Morgan, United States - Pipl

Morgan is a pretty common last name as well as others such as Smith for example. But those of us with unique last names can easily be tracked. I used that Pipl.com thing and it tracked back to my school's honor roll list (nerd status I know). From there anybody on wow can see my name which school i go to (therefore my town and state). It's an unfair change and if Blizzard is determined to put it into place than at the very least make it optional.

[Confucius]

The funny thing is they say don't give your Real ID to anyone you don't trust... well what are they doing here?

[Remus]

you do realize that, it is optional... don't trust em with your last name don't give it out. the absolute most anyone can do is send you a letter or phone prank you. Tough luck don't be a dick. internet anonymity removed but only to those you say so.
QQ moar if it spreads.
(oh noes! they gonna get joo, srsly we all know will smith's last name and where he lives. pony up.)

edit:
if you seriously can't handle your name being public knowledge you need to stop doing your illegal shit and stfu.(witness protection one is overboard, and an extreme case.. sorry but half the world is not in witness protection.)
Nothing to hide if you're legit.

You choose to be active on the forums, you choose to play the game under your legal name, you choose to ad RealID friends. It is all your choice. Perhaps if you were doing say idk... scamming/trolling/witness protection the obvious course is to not use your real name ... HOLY SHIT.

[s_e_a_n_66]

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.

I'm not sure what about that statement implies that this feature will be optional... the only optional part I see is displaying you characters name next to your real one.

[Remus]

you are optioning to be on the forums, you are optioning to accept people on RealID ingame, you had a choice at account creation to use your real name or an assumed identity(which they allow just don't like for billing reasons) You have had a great amount of time knowing these changes going in(yes proper reading inquired that RealId was going in effect everywhere and we already had a taste in Starcraft II beta.


You can't dispute your choices (not directly "you", a generalized you).


again if you have something to hide, stfu and gtfo, "criminal scum"

[Confucius]

From what I can gather this will not be optional, otherwise how would it stop trolling?

Edit: @remus so then it's ok to force players to use their real names while on the forums but hide their name in game?

[Remus]

When people can start calling up your house for you being a dick on the internet.(obviously dubbious searching.) and also when your personal Identity comes into play in any fashion a lot of "bullshit" ceases. you suddenly have a stake to your name, IRL epeen/notoriety.

and the optional part is participation. i never once said the changes were optional, your involvement is. aga in this is not trolling... it's a different PoV from a detached interest.

personally, sure it's a bit much I'd prefer "Nicolas B." over "Nicolas Benham". but again I already have my name on the internet. and guess what ? I'm not a victim of ID theft or wow theft, nor do I have anything to hide to warrant not wanting it.