Patch 3.3.5
Just to let you guys know where I stand on this RealID business.
Although I think its great that people have a choice to use it in-game or not, and though there is the option of NOT posting on the forums anymore, I think the idea of forcing people to post under real names in the future is just plain stupid for a number of reasons...
1. Anonymity - A lot of WoWers play the game to escape from reality, and those who post on the forums, will have to just stop if they want to keep their real life separated from their game life. Not to mention there are RP forums..for role playing.. hello?
2. Trolling *rolls eyes* - Blizzard says it will reduce trolling.. Yes it will reduce trolling ON BLIZZARD FORUMS. Just because the trolls will choose not to post (for fear of exposing themselves) does NOT mean they won't keep READING and possibly trolling good posters elsewhere, like social networking sites a simple Google search would bring up under the person's real name (if they use it for social networking of course,) especially with the new ammunition of having someone's real name in their hands.
3. Privacy - It's just a downright invasion of privacy. Aren't there laws against this kinda stuff? You'd think after the whole Facebook fiasco, Blizzard (and all other companies planning to "socialize" their networks) would learn that privacy is very important to their users... But that just makes sense, right?
Anyway, I was going to let my subscription just keep going, but as it is, I canceled so that Blizz won't have my money ('til I decide to play again of course). ^_^ I'll most likely still come back for Brewfest since I don't want to wait another year to get the Reins of the Violet Proto Drake.. But anyway.. Poop in Blizzard's eye.
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I agree. I'm not sure how I feel about that either. It's one thing to have real names in game (and that actually gets confusing, because I know most people by their character names), where you choose whether or not to accept someone's invitation. It's another to have your name on the internet where you don't have a choice who sees it.
ReplyDeleteAfter the shitstorm this announcement caused, Blizzard decided against displaying real names on their forums today.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wow.com/2010/07/09/mike-morhaime-real-names-will-not-be-required-on-official-forum/
About the trolling thing though. A simple way to stop it would be to have your forum name be the character you have the most time played on. Since most people have the most time played on their main, they wouldn't be able to post on their alts (especially on their level one alts). Sure, some trolls will probably game the system somehow, either by logging on a level one alt and getting them to have the most time played on their account, or using a second account for the purposes of trolling, but at least you're making those bastards work for it that way.
There's no perfect system really, but the use of real life names on the forums leaves it open for too much asshattery. Did you hear about the Blizzard employee who posted his first and last name on the forums to try to justify the policy? If you haven't, check out this link:
http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Americans-are-bad-at-games/Real-Names-on-the-Official-Forums-New-REAL-ID-function
Right there is proof enough for me of why the use of real names is a bad idea on the forums.
I already got mine already ^_^
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