Jane

Disaster averted ? I really hope so, I will say that so far I'm not that impressed with the communication Blizzard have given in announcing this change in direction. I'll be the first to admit that it could be my anger clouding my reading ability, but the statement put out does not say they are sorry, it does not rule out them doing it in the future, it reads to me like someone who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, but they are not sorry for stealing, just sorry they got caught.

Blizzard seemed eager and all set to expose their customers names to the world, they admitted having worked on this for a long time and I simply cannot believe that someone at Blizzard did not realise the implications on privacy, the only conclussion I can draw as that they were prepared to put potential increased profits ahead of their own customers privacy and that just does not sit well with me, neither does the corporate mission statement of 'Every voice counts' when they are going around telling people in the forums 'Don't like it, well don't post!'.

If a few good things have come out of this, it is that I'm sure many other companies will have been watching with fascination and I'm sure they will have taken onboard the outcome. Where Blizzard will be able to recover due to their sheer size, for other companies it could have literally spelt the end for them, I'm sure that is not lost on them and means they are hopefully much less likely to try something similar themselves. Even the mighty Blizzard will themselves now be more likely to approach this issue in a more sensative way.

Finally, it has taught me that I had allowed myself to become too comforted by the illusion of internet anonymity. I had allowed myself to be drawn into online discussions about quite sensitive issues, and that even though I'm not a troll, it has taught me that it is propably better to not take part in these discussions, or to allow game avatars to be able to be identified as belonging to real world minorities.

What a brilliant article that puts into words my fears as a transgendered Wow player much better than I could manage.

Being someone who isn't 'out' I can't begin to describe what the last 48 hours have been like. Trying to understand what this 'RealID' system will mean, panicking and wondering if my previous post history around LGBT issues is suddenly going to appear with my RL Name next to them. Wondering if people will be able to tie characters I have in LGBT friendly guilds to the real life me, and worst of all trying to work out how easy this change would make it for friends, family, work colleagues and even ingame 'enemies' to 'out' me with a bit of research.

If this whole thing has taught me anything, it's that I have probably become a little bit too used to the veil the internet can provide. Maybe I had become a little too eager to speak up on forums when it came to issues that I felt I could contribute on. Of course I will not be posting on the WoW forums, infact I'm looking to have my account literally wiped.

It does make me wonder how many people from certain minorities will now also feel they can no longer contribute on the forums though. Does it really make it a more social experience when people from various minorities may become too frightened to contribute. And I think this is an important point, I've heard many people take the 'Oh, you must have something to hide / be ashamed if you don't want to use your name'. It's not about whether some people want to hide or feel shame, it's about whether they can post without fear. For those unfortunate people who know what it is like to be picked out, beat on, spat at because of their sexual preference, religous views, political viewpoint etc, being asked to use your real name suddenly makes things seem a whole lot more real.

Sorry for the multiple posts and different names, my posts were not appearing so I thought it didn't like the names I was trying to use, looks like it was just lag or my ISP or something, hehe, anyway really really sorry for the multiple posts.

This has me quite frightened.

Lets say someone is a transgendered player, who has posted on the forums in discussions surrounding LGBT issues, specifically in a thread about whether LGBT guilds should be allowed. They thought they were posting anonymously.

What if this person has characters in a guild that is known for being LGBT friendly, but this person also has other characters they play with family and work colleagues.With the introduction of real id combined with the use of real names on the forums, there is the possibility that someone could link ingame characters in a LGBT guild with a real life person, or link posts from the forums to them.

I realise this scenario is unlikely, but what if this person isn't 'out' and is now terrified that somehow the posts they thought were anonymous, and their characters in this guild may lead to them being 'outed' in RL and ruining their lives. I hope Blizzard offer a service that can erase all traces of an account including all characters and forum history.

:(