Article: Players Outrage At Blizzard Forums Incoming Change

[Miksu]

Simple solution to this: Dont post on Blizzard forums, i only post if i need to troll :O

[ßetray]

If i wanted to talk to 'real people' while being online, i'd use Facebook (which I haven't used in probably a year or two). Leave it at aliases and avatars and don't try to expand into the 'real' online communities.

[Ohnoto]

I think that the reason that Blizzard has decided to do this is because there is already a flaw in the system that allows addons to get the information already without a user's permission.

World of Warcraft (en) Forums -> Addons can share Full Name without RealID

Is a posting about it. A week ago Blizzard stated that names would be kept private until you became friends with another person and only then would your name be shown. Yet, not even a week after RealID comes out, and now with this flaw exposed, I think they are moving quickly to allow full access to names instead of trying to fix these security flaws.

In addition they are adding a posting rating system that will grey out any negative postings. To get rid of forum trolling, I think this is all that would have needed to be done. Some trolls aren't going to care about their name getting released, and some may not even use their real name on their account.

From Ciderhelm at Tankspot:

Here's where the problems are:
1. Employment -- Posting to Blizzard's forums will now show up for any employer doing a search on your name. Given Blizzard's search engine rankings, you can bet this will be pretty high up on the list of results. No matter how unfair, many employers will look on this negatively.
2. Women -- Many women playing the game choose to conceal their gender to avoid harassment. Whether fair or not, posting publicly with their real name will not only be uncomfortable for some but could very well lead to direct sexual harassment in and out of game.
3. Minors -- Any parent will need to be far more concerned about their children's activities on Blizzard sites than they currently are. This is especially true in any case where a child's real name can be found or their address can be tracked.
4. Uncommon Names -- Anyone with an uncommon name can much more easily be tracked.
5. Security & Hacked Accounts -- Blizzard is not doing a good job safeguarding accounts. If they have another breach in their account system, it won't matter how clean your own computer is -- a malicious user could be posting under your name, leaving a permanent and damaging trail.

On the point of #3, a parent can block a minor from posting on the forums, not hide the name, just block them completely.

On the point of #4, anyone with an obvious foreign name could be subject to some form of racism from idiots that happen to be posting replies.

[Kirth]

"Troll_019" => "Justin Bieber". Nothing solved.

[sid1488]

I really don't care. I NEVER use the WoW forums anyway.

[jacca]

Accounts will be hacked, Time to catch up on cracking security questions.

[boomkinner]

Outrageous!

[Sn00p]

Better be July fools...

[bumbito]

BBC News - World of Warcraft maker to end anonymous forum logins

"Within five minutes, users had got hold of his telephone number, home address, photographs of him and a ton of other information," said Mr Brand

The post and topic has since been removed from the Blizzard forum.

ROFLMAO

[Ikkarus]

"This is Terrible." The guy said it all with that.
The next step will be putting our real photos on the avatar picture.
I won't be surprised if it happens too.

[MEC]

i'm still fighting with blizzard to get my stolen account back.....and now they plan to do that... what the hell. why not make it easier for them slanty eye'd f*cks in china to get your account....TY Blizztard.


so. who is going to switch to Star wars?