Blizzard's responses on the Real ID situation

[Tygamoon]

Yes posting on the forums is a choice I can make. Yes playing this or any other game is a choice I get to make. But what if the internet posted your real name with anything you did if you just wanted to do a simple search or send an e-mail or pay a bill?

Something has been bothering me about these people who are okay with this change because they feel they have nothing in their life that would attract a weirdo.

I have a question for most of you. Why are you friends with the people you are with? Were you introduced to them by other friends and thought each other were pretty cool and started to hang out? Did you bump into each other at the bus stop and really hit it off? Did you run a dungeon with someone and felt that they were a worthwhile human being and friend-listed them in game, later to take this friendship to real life? There are probably a bunch of people that you meet every day but you don't feel particularly attached to them. That connection only happens in a very few instances.

Not what about those stalkers....

Why did John Doe choose Kelly Noname to stalk instead of Magan Fox? Magen was way more hot then Kelly. Kelly probably worked at a coffee shop and gave John his drink he ordered one time. In Johns mind he probably made a real connection to her but she would not be able to pick him out of a crowd. In the end Kelly had a strange man that 'loved' her so much that she ended up in the hospital near death.

Now imagine these freaks on the internet. You don't have to post any pics of yourself, maybe just mention a few bits about your life that give people a scene of your personality along with a mandatory real life name. Those little bits can get a sick person obsesed with you in a second. You already know how easy it is for someone to find most people.

I know participating on these forums I have my favorite posters and there are the people who post that I might not care so much about. I also know that the people I like probably don't care 2 squats about me as a person. There are people out there that don't feel that way though...scary huh?

There are mentally sick people out there guys, many of them do the the same things you do. They play games, discuss things on forums, they probably have Sunday dinner with Grandma. They also might at a moment become obsessed with you because of something you said.

Right now this change is only to the gaming forums. What is next? There are articles out there reporting that this is only the beginning. I for one am very scared.

(A bit of a rant and I know I'm preaching to the choir but I felt like saying it)

[Slickrock]

This entire mess is hurting my heart. People I've known and raided with for years are leaving the game because of this. I'm losing parts of what has become, for me, a second family. And some people seem to think I'm being somehow irresponsible for deciding that I can live with not posting on the forums save if I need assistance (and then only on a trial account); that at least for now, the risk I'm taking is acceptable to me.

What happens when your name shows up on the armoury page? Or you get mass-marketed? Might be too late then. That's the problem.

If I was one of the less scrupulous gold sellers, I'd be working on a hack that scraped RealID information, and starting working on a way to link that info to real people, and would start marketing to them. Believe me, it's coming.

[Slickrock]

Right now this change is only to the gaming forums. What is next? There are articles out there reporting that this is only the beginning. I for one am very scared.

You have a right to be concerned... With all the heat Facebook is taking over privacy, and then Activision is wedding itself to Facebook?

Coming next year it will be "send invites to your facebook friends to get in-game rewards"... because that is the Facebook business model.

[Noor]

Don't thank me for the link, I do believe it was someone on this very forum that posted it in the first place. I just bookmarked it for a later date and sat down to read it yesterday. It made steam come out of my ears however. Literally. Ok, maybe not LITERALLY, but close...

So yeah, I'm currently playing a 14 day trial for Vanguard, Saga of Heroes, the awesome MMORPG that Sigil games and SOE totally mismanaged and was, at the time, released atleast 6 months too early.

[Slickrock]

Hmm.. My sub is up in about 3 weeks... will see what happens between now and then. Might set it to monthly instead of quarterly.

If they see enough cancellations and start getting really worried, I have the sure sign for you... you'll see MASSIVE waves of beta invites, to anyone they deem as a flight risk.

[Kamalia]

Am I the only one here who has completely lost their drive to play? I've been sitting here for a while reading up on all of this, and I just keep feeling more and more down. I just can't bring myself to log on for some reason. If this RealID thing goes any farther, there is no way I will continue playing. If our privacy gets intruded any more, I will be afraid to play. I have a rather unique last name as well, and I don't want to risk it...

Being afraid to play a game. You know it's ridiculous when it comes to that. My time runs out this month. I know I won't be renewing it until I know what is going to happen.

[Slickrock]

So yeah, I'm currently playing a 14 day trial for Vanguard, Saga of Heroes, the awesome MMORPG that Sigil games and SOE totally mismanaged and was, at the time, released atleast 6 months too early.

Expect to see a full-court press from other game sellers. They are probably working on the ad campaigns now. "We will never share your personal information without asking...". If I was in their marketing departments I would be doing it...

[Slickrock]

Am I the only one here who has completely lost their drive to play? I've been sitting here for a while reading up on all of this, and I just keep feeling more and more down. I just can't bring myself to log on for some reason. If this RealID thing goes any farther, there is no way I will continue playing. If our privacy gets intruded any more, I will be afraid to play. I have a rather unique last name as well, and I don't want to risk it...

Being afraid to play a game. You know it's ridiculous when it comes to that. My time runs out this month. I know I won't be renewing it until I know what is going to happen.

Yep. While I am not afraid to play, I am afraid of what they will do next.

Combine that with the pre-expansion downturn, where you realize that banging on progression just isn't worth it with a massive gear reset coming, and the massive changes they are making, and yeah, I have no motivation to do much in game other than camp rare-spawns.

[Noor]

Am I the only one here who has completely lost their drive to play? I've been sitting here for a while reading up on all of this, and I just keep feeling more and more down. I just can't bring myself to log on for some reason. If this RealID thing goes any farther, there is no way I will continue playing. If our privacy gets intruded any more, I will be afraid to play. I have a rather unique last name as well, and I don't want to risk it...

Being afraid to play a game. You know it's ridiculous when it comes to that. My time runs out this month. I know I won't be renewing it until I know what is going to happen.

Nope, you are not the only one. I have about 5 more days on my subscription, but I have no desire to log in. At all. I even watched some more of TotalBiscuit's Cataclysm coverage, and it did nothing for me. It was kinda... bleh.

So yeah, I'm currently playing a 14 day trial for Vanguard, Saga of Heroes, the awesome MMORPG that Sigil games and SOE totally mismanaged and was, at the time, released atleast 6 months too early.

Expect to see a full-court press from other game sellers. They are probably working on the ad campaigns now. "We will never share your personal information without asking...". If I was in their marketing departments I would be doing it...

Don't blame them! This is probably the best time ever to get new subscribers to other MMORPGs and they'd be fools if they didn't jump at this chance. Personally? FFXIV... Though, my PC can't play it. Not even close.

[Kalliope]

WoW is at a lull right now anyway. The drive to do endgame content is at a low, with an expansion on the horizon. Factor in all of the "wtf are they DOING?" stuff and you've got yourself some pretty demotivated customers.

[Sarayana]

And talk about a 180:

Mike Morhaime: Real names will not be required on official Blizzard forums

We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more. We will still move forward with new forum features such as the ability to rate posts up or down, post highlighting based on rating, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.

[Kayb]

'at this time'.

[Sarayana]

Yup.