The Daily Grind: Be yourself or someone like you

by Eliot Lefebvre on May 11th 2010 8:00AM

Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind

It wasn't one of the biggest news items of last week, but Blizzard's announcements regarding Battle.net and the RealID system did turn a few heads. The fact that it uses the real name of players was a bit surprising, but at the end of the day it's not the first game allowing people to track players across alts. City of Heroes has always had a global chat handle integrated with the client, and both Star Trek Online and Champions Online integrate your name directly with the name of a given character.

On the one hand, this can be seen as a good thing. Rather than friending an army of alts that your friend cycles through on a regular basis, you friend somebody once and you know them. There's also no hiding behind alts for disrespectful or unpleasant players. On the other hand, it means that no one gets to advantage of taking a night off on an alt no one knows about, and it can raise some security and identity concerns. (Especially in Blizzard's case, what with the real names being used.) What do you think about global identities in MMOs? Are they a good move as a whole, or are they a bit too Big Brother for your tastes?

Reader Comments (19)

Personally I'm all for a "global ID" it because it makes it easier for me to play with people I like. As for hiding behind an alt to get away from your friends; If that's a concern I'd rather question why they're my friends in the first place.

you make it sound like everyone will have access to everyone else's real ID information. Lose the tinfoil hat, only people you want to know it will know it.

If you're the type of player that likes to hide on alts from time to time, then dont share it openly with guildies/friends.

If you're the type that has friends across multiple realms and always have some external chat program running to keep in touch, like myself, this is a perfect system.

Its a completely optional system, no need to play devils advocate and get people with little understanding about it all paranoid.

"Lose the tinfoil hat, only people you want to know it will know it."

This is great in theory, but in practice we have seen glitches in new systems before. All it would take is one unforeseen problem to get your information out there and, as we know, information never dies on the Internet. :)

So some caution, especially when using personally identifying information as opposed to just a game ID, is probably warranted.

Any measure that breaks down anonymity is fine by me, especially on the off chance it instills a little responsibility.

Global IDs have their ups and downs, but i don't like them. If there is a global ID, what's the point in multiple characters and their names? Why not just go the Global Agenda way and have all characters named the same. But even that has it's problems, mostly, well, the individuality of each character is lost. I don't like that.

I don't like having to always be known by everybody. I want to make a new character and just be anonymous. I don't want to troll, spam, grief, or do whatever the bad boys are doing, i just want to start a new adventure and have some peace of mind when i want to get away from things. I'll tell who i want to tell. Similarly, i don't think I'm entitled to know about every alt a particular person has, simply because i added him to friends when we had a fun time in a dungeon, once, a long time ago.

Let's not even talk about real names. The idea of it gives me the creeps.

It bears mentioning that CoH's global chat handle does not identify your character to the world, only your presence to the world. In this circumstance, I think that the positives outweigh the desire ti be unattainable by your friends. Anyway, if you decide to take a night off then your friends should understand that.

As for global handles being linked to individual characters, I would take issue with something like that. If I were playing a character concept that was somehow embarrassing, I wouldn't want that to be common knowledge. The only instance where I agree with this, and I know this will be a huge shock, is in CO where people struggle to name their characters. In CoH, it's tough to start a new character because Fireball, Blowtorch and all other fire names ad infinitum have been taken already. Even in this case, however, it's a little strange to see 45 Fireballs running around, this one being Fireball@kdolo, that one being Fireball@whatever. It seems pretty strange to me.

TL;DR - Global names should not be attached to individual characters.

Using your Real Name(from your credit card) is a no go. I do have 5-10 people I'll be sharing my RealID with, but I have literally 40-50 or so that I wouldn't mind seeing if they are playing another game, and join them, but don't know them well enough to have them know my real name.

Steam does this right, I have a steam friends list, and I can see who's playing what, message them, and even jump into the same game as them (if the game supports that).

No one can give me a good answer as to why it has to be your "REAL NAME".

Also, If I solely pay for the game using Time cards, Do I get to use all of the real Id features but Still use an anonymous handle?

This is exactly my problem with the system. I don't mind having an ID that is used account-wide and I'd probably share that with quite a few of my online friends, but making it my Real Name changes that.

I don't know if I'd feel the same if I were a John Smith, but considering my name is unique enough that we know of only 5 people in the world who share it (and we are all related)...I'd be rather easy to track down. I mean, I like you folks, but unless we are meeting in real life as well as in game, I prefer to keep a bit of anonymity. :)

Oh, and if there is a game (or games) that shares a global ID, it would be nice to have the option to "appear offline". That could solve the problem of hiding on an alt if you want.

I agree with tanek.
If I can choose to display an alias instead of my real name then I will activate the system as soon as it becomes available, but if it has to be my real name then I will probably never touch it.

Judging by these comments and a lot of those on wow.com, people are having trouble understanding the word "optional"

I think it bears mentioning that there are two systems in place. When you go to add someone as a friend, you have two options, put in their real ID (email address) and wait for them to add you manually. Or you can just add them using the "add as friend" via right clicky menu which uses their name.name adress. Unlike other games though, the .name is only used to distinguish people with the same name, and is not unique.

One of the main differences of two systems is in the latter the other person doesn't have to add you, and really the only thing you can do is talk privately, invite to a group (both of which you can do manually) and tell if they are online or in a game (but no details of which game) While with RealID friends you can see what game (or ladder) they are playing in.

Really the RealID system is only going to be used for close personal friends while the other system will be used for less personal friends

But why cripple it?

This could be better than steam, or the other multi-game communication platforms that are out there. But it won't be, as people are beginning to understand how important privacy is nowadays.

Again, why does it have to be your real name?

Just remember Google's stance on privacy:

If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear. :)

To those who say RealID "is optional," the only option is, share your real name(First AND Last), or have no way to contact in-game friends across realms/games. Also, in order to use RealID, you have to have your friend's Bnet account email address. So I would recommend setting up a dummy address if you don't use one now.

Also this: "Similar to other social-networking platforms, when you click on one of your Real ID friends, you will be able to see the names of his or her other Real ID friends, even if you are not Real ID friends with those players yourself. If you happen to know someone on that list, you will be able to quickly send a Real ID friend request to that player." So now your real name is going to everyone who is friends of someone you friend, so there's the Facebook nag-ware angle.

Invasion of privacy, ID theft, sorry Blizz. Bad move on the marketing angle.

So you don't control who your real name is seen by. Your friends control who can see your real name.

That's nice.

Unfortunately, I have a name that is not that common, doing a google search on it only displays 2 pages of results, and I'm on the first page.

I'd love to be able to use this new set of tools, but people online can be jerks. Ignoring someone in game, doesn't stop them from using the internet in general to continue to be a jerk.

I support a Global Handle system, but not one that uses actual personal information of the player. Using a player's IRL info creates an abundance of lawsuit potential - especially when you are dealing with people who can be under age. With the advent of Pre-Paid Credit Cards, it is possible for a minor to have a valid credit card number in their name. If a child under 13, in possession of a valid Pre-Paid Credit Card submits their RealID to Blizzard, and Blizzard shares it - Blizzard is looking at a whole can of worms - just from a PR perspective, if nothing else. Especially if such information leads to harm for the child.

That said, Global Handles cam be a great means for keeping track of friends'/Guildmates' alts and a wonderful way of discouraging poor sports. If you /ignore one character, you ignore the Global Handle, thus ignoring all of the alts that person can create - and this includes gold spammers.

Yes, this does inconvenience players who want t get away from their Guildmates/friends for the night - but for the most part, people understand if you need time for yourself. And if they don't...you can always purchase a second account, which would then have a different Global Handle, and just not tell them about it.

Actually, just went to their FAQ: http://us.battle.net/realid/faq.html

"Battle.net's Real ID system is a new, optional layer of identity..."

"Real ID is a system designed to be used with people you know and trust in real life -- friends, co-workers and family -- though it's ultimately up to you to determine who you wish to interact with in this fashion."

So this system is not like an STO global identity system to keep in touch with your online friends. It's for real life friends. This context of of the article is very deceiving.

I'm all for global identity systems like xfire, which allow you to expose as much or as little personal information as you wish, to track you across multiple games. I have a great time with online friends but there is a limit to how much personal information I expose without really knowing someone.

I'll definitely use RealId as I do play Blizzard games with a couple of coworkers but it will be limited to just them. My WoW guildies and online friends will not be on this system.

While I understand what Blizzard is saying here with the system being meant only for use with real life friends, that does bring up some other flaws and drawbacks.

1. You would have to truest your friends enough to know you can also trust all of *their* friends...
"If you are using Real ID, your mutual Real ID friends, as well as their Real ID friends, will be able to see your first and last name (the name registered to the Battle.net account). You will also be able to see the first and last name of your Real ID friends and their Real ID friends."

(Not to mention that in order to be a RealID friend you need to share your Battle.net account name. I thought Blizzard had perviously said that was not recommended, even going so far as to suggest creating a new email address that no one else had.)

2. While a real life name may be more immediately recognizable off the bat, what is the downside of using some other handle as the identifier?
"Gone are the days of having to remember which of your friends is which."

Really? Why not just allow notes to be added for the friends on your list? That was added in WoW and seemed to work very well for keeping track of who was who.

3. If these are all supposed to be people you know in real life, the cross-game communication is nice, but when it comes to keeping in touch, how many of your real life friends and family would not already have other methods of communication set up? IM, phone, etc. The system would be much handier if you could use it for a broader network of friends. (I don't know about you, but I have more internet friends in the games I play than real life friends.)

Like other people who have replied, I just don't see where having your Real Name (first and last) is making things better for this system.

Tanek has many good points..

Why go through all this trouble to only enable it for 3-4 people?

This also doesn't make sense with the "Can see friends of friends features".

Only enable it for people I trust? than why do I need to worry about who my friends trust?

Most people understand the constraints, and are disappointed that they are there for what seems to be no reason.

Have a gaming life that is separate from RL, and being able to cross contact people in games, shouldn't be mutually exclusive.

The Daily Grind: Be yourself or someone like you

Reader Comments (19)

Posted: May 11th 2010 8:14AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 11th 2010 8:16AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 11th 2010 9:23AM Tanek said

Posted: May 11th 2010 8:26AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 11th 2010 8:27AM Dumac said

Posted: May 11th 2010 8:28AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 11th 2010 8:51AM NomadWanderer said

Posted: May 11th 2010 9:18AM Tanek said

Posted: May 11th 2010 10:09AM Faryon said

Posted: May 11th 2010 8:56AM Snichy said

Posted: May 11th 2010 1:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 11th 2010 9:04AM NomadWanderer said

Posted: May 11th 2010 10:40AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 11th 2010 10:50AM dudes said

Posted: May 11th 2010 11:13AM NomadWanderer said

Posted: May 11th 2010 11:50AM Daelda said

Posted: May 11th 2010 2:59PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 11th 2010 3:32PM Tanek said

Posted: May 12th 2010 9:16AM NomadWanderer said

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