Blizzard to take away any anonymity you had left

[Adam-Savage]

Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature <http://eu.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.

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. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.

The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven't been connected before. With this change, you'll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.

We also plan to add a number of other features designed to make reading the forums more enjoyable and to empower players with tools to improve the quality of forum discussions. Players will have the ability to rate up or rate down posts so that great topics and replies stand out from the not-so-great; low-rated posts will appear dimmer to show that the community feels that they don't contribute effectively to the conversation, and Blizzard's community team will be able to quickly and easily locate highly rated posts to participate in or to highlight discussions that players find worthwhile.

In addition, individual topics will be threaded by context, meaning replies to specific posts will be grouped together, making it easier for players to keep track of multiple conversations within a thread. We're also adding a way for Blizzard posters to "broadcast" important messages forums-wide , to help communicate breaking news to the community in a clear and timely fashion. Beyond that, we're improving our forum search function to make locating interesting topics easier and help lower the number of redundant threads, and we have more planned as well.

With the launch of the new Battle.net, it's important to us to create a new and different kind of online gaming environment -- one that's highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. All of our design decisions surrounding Real ID -- including these forum changes -- have been made with this goal in mind.

We've given a great deal of consideration to the design of Real ID as a company, as gamers, and as enthusiastic users of the various online-gaming, communication, and social-networking services that have become available in recent years. As these services have become more and more popular, gamers have become part of an increasingly connected and intimate global community – friendships are much more easily forged across long distances, and at events like DreamHack, GamesCom or our own BlizzCon, we've seen first-hand how gamers who may have never actually met in person have formed meaningful real-life relationships across borders and oceans. As the way gamers interact with one another continues to evolve, our goal is to ensure Battle.net is equipped to handle the ever-changing social-gaming experience for years to come.

Link

[Saturo]

Guess I'm off the official WoW and SC forums now too.

[Vephriel]

TL;DR - Your real name will be displayed on posts in the WoW forums, both first and last. (And other Blizzard forums)

I'm quite baffled that they even think this will actually happen. I honestly see way too much drama and controversy for them to make this a reality.

[Adam-Savage]

TL;DR - Your real name will be displayed on posts in the WoW forums, both first and last. (And other Blizzard forums)

I'm quite baffled that they even think this will actually happen. I honestly see way too much drama and controversy for them to make this a reality.

Not only that. The forums will be dead. Nobody is going to want to post there. Hackers/spammers etc will love this. The forums are public and only require you to logg in to post.

[Vephriel]

Honestly I can sort of see their reasoning behind this, but I think their plan of action is far too skewed.

Yes, taking the veil of anonymity away will drastically cut down trolls, spammers, idiots...but displaying real personal information is just far too risky especially with the amount of young people that are in this game.

Some who have names like Bob Smith may not feel too threatened, but there are plenty of people with very unique names who would be easy to find with a simple Google search.

Anyways, I won't hold my breath just yet as I'm sure they're going to come under fire for this.

[Dizzy]

lol @ bob smith, like two of the most generic names.

And john smith. haha.

[Anansi]

I think that is a fantastic move as it will dramatically cut down on the number of trolls that post the crap they do because of anonymity.

This Penny Arcade comic is a perfect illustration of the Warcraft forums:


Taking away and anonymity component ought to tighten things up pretty well. Brilliant move in my opinion.

[Vephriel]

I do agree with you Anansi in part. I feel torn because one half of me imagines the WoW forums as a wonderful, civil place with avid discussions and a friendly atmosphere.

I just can't ignore how much of a security risk it is though in the end. Too many scary implications out there.

[Anansi]

I do hope Blizzard introduce some tighter security measures on accounts as many people have their email, thus login ID, containing their real name.
However, it is also part of the user's responsibility to ensure the security of their accounts. People that use real names as their email address might consider changing to a different email, and certainly everyone should have an Authenticator.

But I still think the decision to use RealID for the forums is a good one and definitely in the best interest of a functional forum structure.

[Vephriel]

I just won't want to post on the forums because both my first name and last name are pretty uncommon, and put together I'm easily the first few results on a google search. I'm easy to find with my name, so that alone would make me hesitant enough not to post.

I don't post in the forums now regardless, but it'll be a shame if they change for the better and then I wouldn't want to use them due to that.

[Mania]

I just won't want to post on the forums because both my first name and last name are pretty uncommon, and put together I'm easily the first few results on a google search. I'm easy to find with my name, so that alone would make me hesitant enough not to post.

I don't post in the forums now regardless, but it'll be a shame if they change for the better and then I wouldn't want to use them due to that.

I'm in the exact same situation. I've joked before about my secret identity, but the truth is that there's quite a bit I've done in an official capacity in the past that I would rather not dredge up in the context of WoW. And while I've become a lot less concerned about that around you guys ... this will keep me from posting on the Blizzard forums.

[Dewclaw]

Then I will not be using blizz forums anymore. The security risk is too great imo.

[Vephriel]

I'd like to know if/when they go through with this change if the archive of posts and threads in the current forums will be changed so that real names are applied to any posts we made in the past?

[Anansi]

Even if you opt to not post on the forums, they should be more enjoyable to read through in a search for information.

And Veph, I believe the change is being made at the launch of Cataclysm and going forward only.

[Vephriel]

Even if you opt to not post on the forums, they should be more enjoyable to read through in a search for information.

I do agree on this. I pretty much just lurk on the forums now anyways, so after this change it should be a little less crap to wade through.

And Veph, I believe the change is being made at the launch of Cataclysm and going forward only.

I'd sincerely hope so as I see huge legal repercussions if not. No one agreed to have their real name posted back then, and I can just see the shitstorm that would incur.

[Adam-Savage]

I really hope they don't change all the old post to reflect the real ID. That would be very bad. I don't want my first and last name all over the Internet.

[Vephriel]

[Mania]

The more I think about this ... the more utterly speechless I become.

(And I will remain that way.)

Good lord.

[Mania]

Blizzard says that it is not retroactive (whew!):

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.

[Vephriel]

Well that's a relief. At least they're doing that.

I am still utterly baffled at this whole thing though.