Blizzard's responses on the Real ID situation

[Adam-Savage]

Quote:

Will the Real-ID opt-out that we can set for our children's account also keep them from posting on the forums?

You will be able to set up Parental Controls to disallow a minor from posting.

One important point which I don't believe has been relayed yet is that the switch to showing RealID on the forums will only happen with the new forum systems we're launching for StarCraft II shortly before its release, and a new forum system for World of Warcraft launching shortly before the release of Cataclysm.

All posts here on the current World of Warcraft forums, or any of our classic Battle.net forums, will remain as-is. They won't (and can't) automatically switch to showing a real first and last name.

All posts in the future on the new forum systems will be an opt-in choice and ample warning will be given that you're posting with your real first and last name.

Just to respond to those that don't think we read through all of these responses and threads, we do and have been. We will continue monitoring feedback as well.

We put a lot of thought into this change and have a long-term vision for the Real ID service and wanted to make sure that we communicated ahead of time and very clearly as to what will be changing and how. Keep in mind that posting is optional, and we recognize that some players will choose not to utilize the Real ID feature in game or post on the forums and support everyone's individual choice on using or not using it.

This is obviously new ground for us and for you as well, but we want to make sure we're creating a great social-gaming service that people will want to use. We just want to make sure that if people are sharing feedback, that they keep it constructive, and yes, as I said, we are reading.

To shorten there reply into a short sentence. If you don't like it, to bad. Deal with it.

Link

[Ryai]

Honestly they should just force you to set up a Nickname for your account, that is one time only/can't be changed/etc etc. And any posts you make, no matter what forum/sub forum or toon you use for an avatar, it will display your Nickname.

Cause honestly I know people know I play Warcraft and know that I play EU version and I honestly don't want to deal with half the lot, or worse, have them find out my name.

Also- Mania I will love you forever [in a friend type way] IF YOU NEVER EVER ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN HERE.

[Sarayana]

Mmmmm yeahhhh I'm not sure I understand where Blizz is coming from with this. Someone on wow_ladies said something along the lines of "this is the most white, sheltered, middle-class, male thing Blizz could do" and I kinda agree. It sounds to me like they haven't considered the negative aspects because they're blind to them.

Several people have described stories of cyber stalking in connection with the discussion about this - that's what I'm worried about. It's so very, very easy to trace people online as it is, so I'd rather leave out further identifiers, particularly from a forum where many forum-goers seem to have no concept of normalcy and civil interaction.

On the other hand, I can count my posts on the official forums on one finger, so I'm not concerned for myself. It's not a forum I'm interested in using. I do think Blizz is signing the death sentence for their forums though...

[Teigan]

Since I have a rather unique last name, I do not like this at all.

[Redith]

I realy dont like this cause they are creeping ever closer to making real IDs mandatory for any wow activity.
I realy feel for the girls cause the second any rapist stalker freak sees "Sarah soandso" or "Amy Thisandthat" all they have to do is put your name into google or myspace or facebook and the cyber harassment begins

[Kayb]

if real id ends up mandatory to play wow, then blizz will kiss goodbye 99% of their players i would imagine.

[Mr. Perfect]

If you wanted to make a conspiracy theory out of this, you could say they're trying to save on bandwidth and hosting costs by driving people away by the thousands.

[Teigan]

I know there are people out there who would pull a real creepy stalker routine if they had players real names. If someone will follow you around in game for no readily apparent reason being an utter creep, perv and annoyance, it's not much a stretch to think that person would track down some way of contacting you IRL if they had a name.

[Rhyela]

I'm hoping Blizz changes their mind and implements a username instead. But, it sounds like they're going to go through with this whether we like it or not. Yeah, great thinking there. I like this game, but not so much that I'm willing to sacrifice my personal privacy to do it. Not that I think a ton of people are going to stalk me if they know my real name. But in today's world, a game just isn't worth that risk. Sorry Blizz.

[Mania]

Also- Mania I will love you forever [in a friend type way] IF YOU NEVER EVER ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN HERE.

*snort* I am neither stupid nor unprincipled. And anyway I'd like these forums to survive.

Someone on wow_ladies said something along the lines of "this is the most white, sheltered, middle-class, male thing Blizz could do" and I kinda agree. It sounds to me like they haven't considered the negative aspects because they're blind to them.

I saw that comment. I too thought it was apt. I was considering posting it here, but sometimes trying to explain privilege can get sticky.

[Edit: The actual quote was referring to white middle-class male privilege. Privilege, in the specialized context of the original quote, doesn't mean that someone has more (possibly unearned) money or rights than other people, but that someone in a particular group doesn't necessarily need to think about the consequences of an action in the same way that a member of a different group needs to based on their membership in that group.

An example: White drivers don't necessarily need to think about how a police officer might react to a muttered curse when they get a speeding ticket, or how that might differ from the officer's reaction if the driver were black. Many of them do, but they generally don't get themselves into trouble if they don't. The situation is different for black drivers. They may not be making explicit comparisons, but they are aware that their behavior may be judged differently.

None of the people in this example are necessarily wrong or bad. None are necessarily right or good. None -- including the officer -- are at fault. Talking about the white driver's privilege in this example is just a way to say that the white driver doesn't necessarily have to think about this when they get a ticket.

In the context of the RealID thing, the quote was pointing out that the executive at Blizzard Activision who were behind this decision likely had not thought much about the possible consequences (namely harassment or loss of employment) to non-whites, females, or people who can't afford to lose a job, and that likely they had not thought very much about these possible consequences because as white male executives they are at less risk for these consequences based solely on their names.

I hope that makes sense. I just wanted to call that out, because out of context, and especially if you are not familiar with the specialized use of the word 'privilege'by social researchers, the quote sounds pretty unfair.]

I know there are people out there who would pull a real creepy stalker routine if they had players real names.

Heh! Even if they don't ... but that isn't a good reason to give them more ammunition.

(I've transferred realms many times now. I don't talk about it much in part because two of those were to avoid an in-game stalking situation, and one was to lend moral support to a friend who was going through the same thing.)

[Adam-Savage]

I wonder if they will go as far as making Real ID the only way to add friends. There thinking could be that the other person would have to be aware that they are being added to a friend list.

[Adam-Savage]

I don't know what there doing with facebook but if this reply to there stunt there trying to pull is any indication then I'm worried. My facebook was using the same email as my battle net account. I have quickly changed that. I do not want my facebook to be linked in any shape or form to wow.

[Loridon]

If this dont change back I never post again on the officiale forum.Thats for sure!

[Anansi]

I support the new format for the forums. I also totally understand the concerns regarding gender, ease of finding out who a person is and where they live and so forth. However, using the forums is purely voluntary and with all things internet one must exercise they caution they see fit in leaving any sort of digital trail. Nobody is forcing anyone to post on the forums, it is as Blizzard says, optional. Yes, they will lose some quality posters but they will also in all likelihood gain some as well in the form of people who don't want to deal with the trolls and sheer level of noise but would like to post (I know with the changes I probably will post, whereas I do not now).

Blizzard also do need to do something about the volume and signal to noise ratio on the forums. Since they began being directly involved with the community, there's even so much chaos there that it must be unbearably difficult and time consuming to sort through it all plus do their actual development jobs. Using real names on the forums should help reduce volume, remove the anonymity factor that encourages people to troll, and encourage more civil discussion.

I believe Adamsavage's summary above is accurate, and I support that stance.

[Noor]

I know I can't change your opinion, Anansi, but think of this:

Someone finds out what your real name is. That someone then googles it, and finds your tax returns for the past 3 years. They also find your name in what appears to be a phone book. They then, google just your surname, and come up with 3 other people with that same surname. After a quick look-through the website that gave you the tax information (it also has birth year) they come to the conclusion that two of them must be your parents and the last one your brother. They now have the phone number, address and e-mail address of your family.

When I google my name, I am the person on the hits. I am, as far as I know, the only person with my name combination. I do not want my parents harassed because of some immature reader on the WoW forums. Not everyone lives in countries that are strict on personal information. Some countries have 100% disclosure on taxes. You can't change it, because it is the law. The only form of "anonymity" you have, is hoping that only your closest family will search your tax records.

[Vephriel]

I support the new format for the forums. I also totally understand the concerns regarding gender, ease of finding out who a person is and where they live and so forth. However, using the forums is purely voluntary and with all things internet one must exercise they caution they see fit in leaving any sort of digital trail. Nobody is forcing anyone to post on the forums, it is as Blizzard says, optional.

My problem with this whole debacle isn't the forums specifically. I've hardly ever posted on them, and I won't really miss not being able to post in the future. I can get over that.

What worries me is the sort of implication this Real ID thing has to the future. They keep talking about their 'vision' for it, and with each implementation it seems to hit a little too close to being uncomfortable. I'm afraid of what direction this is leading the game if things like this keep stacking up. That's where my concern lies.

I was always one to roll my eyes at the people crying 'Slippery slope! Slippery slope' when Blizzard started with selling the minipets, then the sparkle pony....but yeah. I gotta admit that's starting to ring true. :/

[Karathyriel]

Nobody is forcing anyone to post on the forums, it is as Blizzard says, optional.

I absolutely do understand where you are coming from but...

• have my name shown or shut up is no option, it's dictator style
• playing wow itself is, like almost everything, optional
• the situation they are trying to fix only has to be fixed because of lax handling of problems in the past
• not answering questions about serious concerns is no way to treat customers
• to deny me full control over what data about my person is shown to whom is, at least in Germany, illegal
• if I want a facebook account I'll go to facebook.com and get me one
• posting personal data in official forums has until now been handled as rule breaking and earned you bans

I stop this list right there because this should give you an idea of where I am coming from.

Having a battle.net account has been optional in the past, too... You know where this is heading, especially with the CEOs of facebook and Activision Blizzard being such arrogant, little pricks.

We have a real culture of thrift. 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 videogames.

Seems like he tries to take the fun out of videogames themselves now...

[Ryai]

We have a real culture of thrift. 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 videogames.

Seems like he tries to take the fun out of videogames themselves now...

You misread tho.

Out of making videogames. Not the games itself, since the quote was taken partly out of context- with none of what he said originally, it has been used to piss the gaming comunity off even more. Now I am not defending the man but he was talking about the development of the game and it seems he meant the slaphazard workforce he also insulted;

Kotick noted that in the past he changed the employee incentive program so that it "really rewards profit and nothing else." He continued, "You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly. ... We have a real culture of thrift. 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."

[Rhyela]

I still don't get why tieing(sp?) a username to a person's account wouldn't be almost just as good as forcing people to use their real name. Let's say my name is Jane Shmoe. Rather than making me post everything under my name, Jane Shmoe, for every weirdo in the world to find, make me create a username at account creation that will be used for all forum and battlenet-related activity, like, js01. Every single thing I post or do will be under js01, regardless of what character I'm on (i.e., no troll alts because it's tied to your account). My friends can search me by my username. I can find parties with my username. If people click on my username, js01, they'll be taken to my profile showing maybe which realm I'm on, the games I play, my characters, things like that. Any personal information I wish to put up (including gender, RL location, etc.) is purely optional, at MY discretion. Plus, they could easily implement a rating system for individual users. The more helpful posts you make, the higher your standing within the forum community and the more likely your posts will be read and respected. And if they used the individual post uprating and downrating.....I just don't get why that wouldn't work just as well.

Maybe I'm a noob and don't understand how this all works. But I think just making that one little change would make a world of difference.

[Sarayana]

I couldn't agree more with ya Rhy. That's the big question I'm asking myself too.