The Daily Grind: Real ID -- Do we finally have our WoW killer?

I'm for this. It's just your name. Your name can be found in phonebooks, on the internet, and probably a dozen other places. It doesn't change anything. Matter of fact, maybe it will help clear up those forums. SO many people post there it's impossible to go there for clear and distinct discussions or answers. Hopefully this will bring the forum population down so they can be truly utilized for their true purpose.

I don't see people complaining about Facebook, that uses real names and then when you find the person you see ten times more info about them than any WoW forum shows. Sheesh. The "fear" mongering on this is pathetic.

I feel as if Blizzard just slapped every member of the community in the face. Blizz says "they've been planning this for a long time." That means they BLATANTLY lied to us by saying "Real ID is meant for people you trust and know in real life."

I HOPE people actually follow through with their protests if this goes live and cancel their accounts. Even still, it may only be a small percentage of players and Blizz is willing to take the hit to the playerbase and community. They're not dumb, I'm willing to bet they ran all these numbers way ahead of time.

We're paying the price of our security for Facebook integration and ad revenue.

You opt-in... so don't opt-in. It doesn't sound too difficult to me. While I don' t like that they are applying it to the forums you need to remember that in game only your RealID friends will see your name. I would suggest that you only /friend people with your RealID that you want to know your, um... Real ID.

It doesn't violate any laws and it isn't an invasion of privacy. No one is forcing anyone to post on the forums and you are still "anonymous" in game.

"1) I dunno if I buy the "new players don't know about..." stuff. A coworker of mine just got a free trial from me (I'm not playing with him, don't care about RAF bonuses...but hey, it might work out?). Next day he was at my desk chatting about looking up druids and he came across mmo-champion and EJ. XD Seriously, new players are internet savy. They will figure this out quickly! As for tech/bug support... I usually ask for it in game through the ?"

Well thats one person. I can just as easily counter with my one person, me, who learnt all about my first class of the official forums. Not to mention a lot of new players a quite young and not neccessarily internet savy just because you assume they are.

Also, another point, I feel sorry for female poster.
I hate that when they make a comment, people will facebook their name because it's a chick name, and you all know that WILL happen. I can imagine the comments now,

"lol Jane Doe is hot, her post is still dumb though, lucky she's got looks lol"

Yes you can make your FB private, but thats hardly the point. Not everyone does, and blizz shouldn't make it so you have to.

This is certainly killing the forums for me. I'm not leaving the game over it, but it's certainly indicative of a direction I am not the slightest bit comfortable with. The second they think about making this crap mandatory in-game as well, I'm gone. For good.

The official thread about this on the forums has over 1,040 pages as of this post. That's over 20,800 posts. This is the single largest thread in the WoW forums' history by FAR, and it got there in less than 24 hours.

We are not happy.

Ok, to all the people who think this is ok/not a big deal answer me this: at what point for you would it become a big deal? When they want to publish your telephone numbers as well? Your address? Anyone who argues that it's not a problem if you have nothing to hide is monumentally naive. Given the huge numbers of WoW players around the world, it will only take a tiny percentage of people being targeted for nefarious purposes for this to turn into a *huge* shitstorm for Blizzard/Activision.

Yes, the forums are optional, and following your argument those who have a problem with it will go elsewhere. Which will leave all those simple fools who think that bad people can't do anything with just a name...

These arguments aside, the simple fact is that Blizzard could achieve their stated aims (I'm not even going to start on what their real motivations are here) *without the need to show people's real names*.

I am also pretty against this. As a female gamer, I've had more than my fair share of creepy experiences and Blizzard is giving no privacy options at all.

Love or hate facebook, they do let you have a good deal of control over your information if you take the time to figure out their tools and set up groups with privacy levels.

They should have followed Steam's system and not taken peoples anonymity away OR given options to protect your identity if you wish to do so.

I am currently not using the RealID system with the only exception being family members (my brothers). It is discouraging to know that I now won't be able to give feedback without disclosing my name.

"You would have to have a pretty unique name to find someone on facebook without knowing them."


Oh well in that case great! Nobody likes people with more unique names anyway. They don't need rights, they're like black people, red heads and women, screw em all right?


I am sick of these "yeah but it only affects a few" anwers. Only thing worse is "stop complaining because it doesn't affect me :D"

Fools

I think this effects the MMO Community as a whole. What's to stop other developers from doing the same?

There are a number of sites that require this, including the Wall Street Journal. The difference in comments is remarkable. What we'll see on the official forums is a significant decrease in trolling and asshattery

Why is online personal privacy and anonymity considered 'a thing of the past'?

Because...just....arrgh...

*facepalm*

Uh, yeah.

I think it's time for people to realize why Blizzard is doing this, despite the fact that it's upsetting so many forum goers. Let's take a quick look at an article where Frank Pearce discusses numbers.

http://www.vg247.com/2010/05/25/blizzards-pearce-wow-will-return-to-growth/

When asked if it had hit its peak as far as the number of players went, Pearce said: “No, I don’t think that at all.“ I mean, you can look at that number and if you look at some of the details around it… In China, for example, we haven’t even launched Wrath of the Lich King yet, and that expansion is already 18-plus months old.“ They’re still playing The Burning Crusade there, because we’re waiting for approval for Wrath from the appropriate agencies. And once we get that approval and launch Wrath in China then I think we will see growth.”
Pearce added Cataclysm will probably see some “win-back” from players who had broken from the game.

“Whenever we launch an expansion we usually see some win-back from players who have set WoW aside temporarily,” he said. “Hopefully we will get some people back from Cataclysm as well. I don’t think 11.5 million is a peak, necessarily, but there are certain things that we need to do and need to do well in order to see it go further.”

It's that last line that I think is particularly telling. Blizzard has run dry on interested PC gamers. I'm sure the vast majority of that market has already checked the game out and are either playing or not. I expect that Blizzard intends to focus on more non-gamers and casual gamers in the future. It's a market they can afford to advertise to and adjust the game for. If this is the crowd they are marketing to than they want their games to fit a certain positive image.

Now you can, and will complain about how attaching real names to accounts isn't as simple as linking a account handle to all of your Blizzard titles, but that doesn't dovetail as nicely with Facebook, does it? Facebook games gained alot of steam, and lost it over the course of the past two years. Mafia Wars made nearly $50 million a year ago. There are alot of people with gamer mentalities on that service who haven't experienced a proper MMO.

Many folks will simply stop posting on the forums, which is also fine. The forums don't make Blizzard money, they aren't used to refer players to the game. The forums cost Blizzard money, between network traffic and moderator salaries. They also don't serve as a friendly place where new players can gain the knowledge they need to enjoy the game more. Forumcraft is an utterly unintended side-effect of World of Warcraft, and it sounds to me like Blizzard is tired of it. I'm sure that Ghostcrawlers tanking of the forums a year back or so is further evidence that they simply can't ignore the fact that their forums are a filthy hive of scum and villainy.

So in the end, you might not like it but Blizzard is shaping their entire online experience to connect more people to it by removing any barriers that they see from earning more subs. If they lose the 500,000 people right now, which they won't, who cares when there are millions left to earn from other markets?