Blizzard to take away any anonymity you had left

[Vephriel]

I know what you mean Kara, but I do believe that is one thing they genuinely can not go back on. They would have lawsuits coming out of their ears if they suddenly displayed real names to posts that (at the time of posting) no one had agreed to let them display that sort of personal information.

[Karathyriel]

I'm not taking the risk.

And, to be honest, it's more a statement than actual fear of being "unmasked".

[Vephriel]

*nods* I understand completely.

With the amount of backlash they're getting on the official forum thread right now (300+ pages and counting), surely there must be someone in the company with the sense to take a second look at this....at the least. -_-

[Mania]

Makes sense to me, although I may not go that far myself.

On the other hand, I have my new 'real' name all picked out and I'm just waiting for the domain registration to go through so I can set it up with Google Apps and use the e-mail to register a new battle.net account ... just in case.

Incidentally, a friend of mine just pointed out that Blizzard is already unpopular with the transgendered community because you usually cannot change the name on your battle.net account even if you have your name changed legally to reflect your new gender. (I suspect that this is because gender-based name changes aren't recognized in all states in the US.) But exposing your old name, and probably your old gender, when you now identify as something else is ... deadly. And that's not an exaggeration.

[Karathyriel]

Let's make a little bet here... (If we ever happen to meet in person)

Blizzard will not reconsider this whole affair, will stay true to their contract with facebook (it's pretty obvious there is somethiing going on) and this feature will roll in unedited, you'll pay for the ice cream of my choice.

Blizzard will reconsider this whole affair and recognize the concerns of their users and keep the RealID out of the forums, I pay for the ice cream of your choice.

Ice cream parlor in Germany or Canada, whichever suits us better...

[Vephriel]

Let's make a little bet here... (If we ever happen to meet in person)

Blizzard will not reconsider this whole affair, will stay true to their contract with facebook (it's pretty obvious there is somethiing going on) and this feature will roll in unedited, you'll pay for the ice cream of my choice.

Blizzard will reconsider this whole affair and recognize the concerns of their users and keep the RealID out of the forums, I pay for the ice cream of your choice.

Ice cream parlor in Germany or Canada, whichever suits us better...

/sigh Why do I get the feeling I'll be getting the short end of the stick here.

Alright, deal.

[cowmuflage]

I put my battlenet name as the male version of mine for this sort of reason. :S

[Mania]

I put my battlenet name as the male version of mine for this sort of reason. :S

*nods* This is something that I think some people don't always get. I know my husband didn't -- the first time I mentioned how much more often I get harassed online when my username is female, he didn't believe me. Then I started showing him the comments. I think he still believes that I am just a harassment magnet, though, despite the fact that I try hard to be a very polite and rational commenter.

This also affects people with obviously non-white-western-European-heritage names in the US. (I suspect the situation in the EU is a little more complicated although I have no real idea.) My ex-husband, a Muslim of Algerian origin, used a double alias -- a username backed by an 'American' name. So when people asked him about his real name, he said it was Todd.

[cowmuflage]

those people with non-white-western-European-heritage names don't really get to much hassle here in NZ manly as we have such a big islander population those names are very common. But i can see why someone with a name like that would want to have a 'American' name if they are posing on an American forum. Not being racest to Americans when i say that tho.

[Vephriel]

I happened to see this post while browsing through the insanely growing thread on the official forums.

I can make no statement on its validity, but I'm hoping to hear more:

I just got off the phone with technical support and apparently they've decided to implement some kind of alias feature like steam... Would like to see a blue post with details.

[Karathyriel]

Oh no!

I would owe you an ice cream!

[Kalliope]

Well, at least one good thing came from all this.

A bet involving ice cream.

[Vephriel]

Oh no!

I would owe you an ice cream!

Lol, better start saving for that plane ticket.

[Ebonrook]

I can -totally- get behind an username. Cripes. That is infinitely better than having to show our real names. I'm still just completely baffled about who thought that was a good idea.

[Vephriel]

This is an older article, but if some haven't seen it...well, it explains a lot. And I don't like the direction they're going. :/

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... raft-ii-/1

[Kalliope]

I can -totally- get behind an username. Cripes. That is infinitely better than having to show our real names. I'm still just completely baffled about who thought that was a good idea.

Someone who's blindly got their finger on the Facebook/Twitter pulse of the interwebs.

[Saturo]

But... If we get aliases... How is that any different from what we have now, where people roll lvl 1 alts to get their preferred username?

[Kalliope]

But... If we get aliases... How is that any different from what we have now, where people roll lvl 1 alts to get their preferred username?

Now you don't have to go through the formality of rolling an alt.

It's pretty dumb, really, but backpedaling usually is....

[Vephriel]

Wow, did anyone see this? One of the blues posted his real name to show that nothing bad can happen...

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Ameri ... iot.com%29

[Saturo]

Wow, did anyone see this? One of the blues posted his real name to show that nothing bad can happen...

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Ameri ... iot.com%29

*Commences stalking*