Blizzard - makers of World of Warcraft - goes off the deep end!?!

[Sanji Himura]

Let's say that when I registered for TrekBBS, that I MUST have a myspace or facebook account. I generally distrust social networking sites, and so let's say that I don't want to get one. This means that I have opted-out of TrekBBS by not joining.

Now let's say that I joined facebook and got an account here. Now when the administrators come along six months from now and say, "We are automatically going to change all of your user names to display your facebook profile name, and there is nothing that you can do about it," would you be mad about it? I know I would. That is a "force-in" if I ever saw one.

What makes it worse for Blizzard is that there are seven and eight year olds that play Warcraft. You have to give out a real name when registering an account, and so these kids give out their real name in trust. And now all of a sudden when they want to talk about Warcraft on Blizzard's forums they must use their real name? Any serious and sane parent would make their kids stop playing Warcraft right then and there for THEIR SAFETY!

Sure, you could use parental controls and disable RealID, but what happens when the next expansion pack undoes the option and disables it? I can probably tell you that they were planning on doing exactly that with their next release when someone, probably from legal, came to their senses.

 

[Kestra]

Now let's say that I joined facebook and got an account here. Now when the administrators come along six months from now and say, "We are automatically going to change all of your user names to display your facebook profile name, and there is nothing that you can do about it," would you be mad about it? I know I would. That is a "force-in" if I ever saw one.

I understand that, and I understand your concern. But it was only for a portion of WoW, just the forums, not the game. Now unlike others I do think the forums are part of what users are there for, but it's not as if they simply changed all the names in-game to people's real names. There was warning (hence the backlash) and people always had the option of not posting on the forum. There was never any danger of signing on one day and having everyone suddenly know your name.

What makes it worse for Blizzard is that there are seven and eight year olds that play Warcraft. You have to give out a real name when registering an account, and so these kids give out their real name in trust. And now all of a sudden when they want to talk about Warcraft on Blizzard's forums they must use their real name? Any serious and sane parent would make their kids stop playing Warcraft right then and there for THEIR SAFETY!

First of all, I have to say that seven or eight year olds playing WoW need to be monitored heavily. The dangers they could be exposed to go far beyond real name identification, considering many adults don't know how to sensibly play the game. Besides, don't parents have to register for their minor children and wouldn't it be their names being used?

I'm not saying this wouldn't be an issue or it's not something that concerns me, but they're NOT going ahead with the forum name changes. And yes, they will probably continue to make changes to the game as time goes on and parents and children and anyone else playing the game should stay current with those changes. At some point if there are definite privacy concerns, I would absolutely close my account. I suppose I don't understand boycotting all of their games based on the possibility of something that could happen, but currently is not going to.

 

[Rii]

Let's say that when I registered for TrekBBS, that I MUST have a myspace or facebook account. I generally distrust social networking sites, and so let's say that I don't want to get one. This means that I have opted-out of TrekBBS by not joining.

Now let's say that I joined facebook and got an account here. Now when the administrators come along six months from now and say, "We are automatically going to change all of your user names to display your facebook profile name, and there is nothing that you can do about it," would you be mad about it? I know I would. That is a "force-in" if I ever saw one.

What makes it worse for Blizzard is that there are seven and eight year olds that play Warcraft. You have to give out a real name when registering an account, and so these kids give out their real name in trust. And now all of a sudden when they want to talk about Warcraft on Blizzard's forums they must use their real name? Any serious and sane parent would make their kids stop playing Warcraft right then and there for THEIR SAFETY!

Sure, you could use parental controls and disable RealID, but what happens when the next expansion pack undoes the option and disables it? I can probably tell you that they were planning on doing exactly that with their next release when someone, probably from legal, came to their senses.

You forgot the part where Blizzard kidnaps your children and eats your dog.

w/e, I'm done with this. If y'all want to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, go right ahead. I'll leave that to the folks who get paid to deal wit it, i.e. Blizzard's PR dept.

 

[Kestra]

I do think there are legitimate concerns and it's good that people are keeping caught up on this stuff, but I'm surprised that people are still so outraged even after Blizz has made changes since their initial announcement.

 

[Rii]

I do think there are legitimate concerns and it's good that people are keeping caught up on this stuff, but I'm surprised that people are still so outraged even after Blizz has made changes since their initial announcement.

There are genuine issues, and then there's the stuff that folks have invented on top of that.

I have issues with certain aspects of Real ID functionality - namely the 'friend of a friend' thing - which is why I won't use it. And similarly I thought the real names on forums thing was a spectacularly bad idea which - had it been implemented - would've ensured that I never posted there again. So I'm not exactly a mouthpiece for Blizzard here. But this 'what if Blizzard's CEO turns out to be a Sith?' crap is just that.

Two weeks until Starcraft II.

 

[sojourner]

^Yea, at this point caution is warranted, hysteria is not.

I personally was going to use realid in wow to keep in touch with a few real life friends, but the friend of a friend thing is too much of a security hole for me.

 

[Kestra]

Yeah, I'd use it if I still had RL friends playing the game but the friend of a friend thing is just weird.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, it makes sense to use your real name on things that have relevance to your life off the 'net, so I don't mind using my real name for things like Facebook or LinkedIn.

But trying to force people (or even encourage them) to use their real names when playing a video game is a bit much, so I'm glad Blizzard relented. Still think the Real ID thing is a dumb, dumb, dumb idea, though.

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

But trying to force people (or even encourage them) to use their real names when playing a video game is a bit much, so I'm glad Blizzard relented. Still think the Real ID thing is a dumb, dumb, dumb idea, though.

Yes.

I wish they had set it up so that one username could cover all toons for one account without having to use a real name or giving out the email address I use for my Blizzard account.

I think a person's main and server name should have been the binding link.

 

[Teelie]

Not sure why everyone keeps coming back to this security flaw. Yes, there is one. Move along. My only argument has been that RealID is actually Opt-out right now, not Opt-in.

Yes, because surely this is the only security hole in the program, right? It's not like they'll ever discover more.

I also haven't seen anything where they say Opt-out will be removed when the security flaw is fixed. Why would they remove the ability for parents to prevent kids from using the friends feature?

It's not going to be removed since this is to keep minors from using it in the first place. Unfortunately, for those who want no part of it at all it is the only way to opt out at this time.

It's nice they thought ahead to allow parents to opt their children (and by extension, their own names) out but they're forcing everyone who doesn't want to be involved to go through numerous steps to do it.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

What this means is..... they really don't consider the forums an important source of info/interaction anymore. That's not a criticism of them, there's a ton of meanness, obnoxious behavior, trolling, and all kinds of other weird stuff going on there.

 

[Teelie]

It means they need to find another method to exterminate the troll population if they want people to take their forums as a serious place of discussion instead of going to the dozen or so alternative fan sites I find far more reliable.

 

[Rii]

At the risk of reopening the floodgates of stupidity, some further comments from Blizzard:

Q: Do you have any plans to allow players to not show their real name to friends of friends while using the Real ID system?
A: As with any new feature we add to our games, we've been evaluating how Real ID has been used since its release to identify new functionality that would help improve our players' experience. The in-game Real ID "friends of friends" list is designed to give players a convenient way to populate their Real ID friends list with other players they know and trust in real life, allowing them to quickly and easily send Real ID friend requests to these people without having to enter their Battle.net® account names. However, we recognize that some players would prefer not to be displayed on friends lists in this fashion, so we plan to include an option that will allow players to opt out of appearing on their Real ID friends' "friends of friends" lists. We're anticipating this feature to be available for StarCraft II shortly after release of the game, and World of Warcraft at around the same time -- we'll have more information for you in the coming weeks.

Q: What are your plans for Facebook integration?
A: With regard to Facebook, our goal is to help Blizzard gamers on Battle.net more easily connect to their real-life friends and family. For the launch of StarCraft II, we are introducing an optional Facebook friend finder feature to help achieve this goal. The friend finder enables players who decide to use it to easily populate their Battle.net friends list by sending Real ID friend requests to the people on their Facebook friends list who have Battle.net accounts. We hope players will find this feature convenient, but it's completely optional. In the long term, we hope to give players who use Facebook some fun, and also optional, ways to share what they're doing in Blizzard games with their friends, similar to the optional World of Warcraft Armory integration now available, but we don't have any specific plans to share at present.

Q: How can I prevent World of Warcraft add-ons from accessing Real ID first and last names without my knowledge?
A: As always, we recommend that you get your UI add-ons through reliable sources. It's important to note that without installing a UI add-on specifically designed to retrieve that information, there's no risk of it being accessed. On our end, we're looking into the issue and are at work on some changes that we can make to help protect against these types of add-ons. We'll provide further details as soon as we have more information to share.

Q: Will the new StarCraft II forum posting name format (character name + character code) carry over into the forum communities of other Blizzard games?
A: Following our recent decision to no longer use real first and last names on Blizzard forums, we're still evaluating how we'll move forward with our other forums. Our ultimate goal is still to promote constructive conversations and improve the overall forum experience for our players, and we think increasing accountability is an important part of achieving that. StarCraft II already uses a character name and character code combo in-game, which serves as a unique player identifier and fits well with our goal for the forums. World of Warcraft handles player identification differently, so we still need to determine whether adding a character code system like in StarCraft II is the best solution. Ultimately, we want to come up with a system that makes sense for each community and fits our long-term vision for the forums.

Q: Are there any plans to change the in-game Real ID system so that players will have the option to display an assigned user name instead of their real names?
A: The Real ID system is designed to help real-life friends and family who decide to use it keep in touch with each other across Blizzard games, and our goal in using real names is to ensure that players will be able to maintain long-term, meaningful relationships on the service for years to come. One way it helps make that happen is by eliminating the need to remember who, for example, "Thrall123" really is when you see him or her pop up on your friends list again after months -- or years -- of being offline. Ultimately, we think this is the best way to ensure players who use Real ID are able stay connected with the people they enjoy playing with most in the long-term, and we don't currently have any plans to change the system so it can be used with character names or alternate handles instead. That said, Battle.net is a living, breathing service that we will continue to evolve over time as we evaluate how players are using it and identify new ways to improve the experience.

 

[sojourner]

The irony is that before they forced everyone in WoW to use battlenet, we all had logon names. They could have easily implemented those names as addressable in game instead of resorting to real names or personal email accounts.