News Blizzard "listening to feedback" on Real ID

Yep, so many armchair lawyers spouting things they have no clue about. Got told on more than one occasion that what I said was wrong even tho I've had several years of working with the DPA at the regulator so know exactly how it works in the real world. Will be very suprised if what Blizzard are proposing are deemed to be in breach of any legislation. Only would be a legal issue if they were to retrospectively apply the change to the forums.

Having dealt with numerous lawyers I wouldn't put too much faith in their decisions always being smarter or correct. Altho in this case it does appear they have understood data protection properly.

Exactly, it's a purely optional extra provided by Blizzard. It's got nothing to do with your subscription fee as much as some people would like to claim. They're under no obligation to provide them at all, or indeed in a form that allows anonymous posting. It's upto them how they want to run them even if their current idea is a horrible one.

 

How about growing up and realizing it's only the internet, who gives a darn what the idiot said. Yes in RL you may have to watch what you say, maybe you should online as well regardless of consequences.

Basically you are only nice because you have to, what a great way to live.






As for Blizzard, my real name linked to everything else I do online? NO F'ING THANK YOU!.

Why not require a picture as well, you know, just to make sure the stalkers and freaks come out. Trust me, they will. Until you yourself are exposed to the general public in such a way you cannot imagine what all they will do. It wouldn't surprise me if threats have already been made to Micah, and he has probably had people come up to him on the street (both of which can be quite frightening under the best circumstances).

 

True, but with the sheer amount of litigation they're currently involved in, I'm sure Activision Blizzard have great lawyers.

I'm more concerned about the unlucky people who have his old phone number that was posted online. I cannot imagine the amount of harassment they received, probably had to disconnect their line by now. Poor guys probably didn't even have a clue what a 'Blizzard' was and thought lots of kids were angry at them because of the weather.

 

Yes, because WoW forums are at the same level of maturity as pro audio sites. Those pro audio kiddies like to flame your ass to next year when you post something they don't like, right? Oh wait - pro audio enthusiasts have this thing called "maturity" which is unfortunately missing from 80% of Blizzard's player base.

 

Agreed. I am a member at a big audio enthusiast forum, and I have members phone numbers, I've visited several members' houses and apartments, had people over my house, carpooled with people, gone out to dinner with people. I use my real name as an alias, and I've posted my phone number and address, and never had an issue.

That's because most of them are age 25-50, many have families, they have enough money to afford to spend $$$ on the gear, and are in general an intelligent and friendly group of people. Sure, there are arguments (Don't EVER ask if high-priced cables make a difference), but the maturity level is so much higher. People will disagree, but they will make solid points, will not resort to personal attacks, and will not hold grudges or take the argument outside of the topic it is occurring in.

The average age of the Warcraft 3 player (not sure about WoW, probably similar) is around 17. Much more likely to cause trouble.

And, again, this is not some e-peen "Well I'm not afraid if some punks want to come fight me IRL, I can take them" ********. That is a tiny chance. What more of us are concerned about, more so than the ability for friends or employers to read forum posts by us, is the loss of privacy and the ability of /b/tards and the other teenage trash that are addicted to Wow to take any possible forum grudges to other avenues of communication that may disrupt our personal lives. At this point, the biggest form of harassment possible would be trash talking in a forum and maybe some mean Private Messages, which could be resolved by a Moderator. If they have access to e-mail addresses, mail addresses, phone numbers, etc. there is a much stronger potential for trouble, either by direct harassment messages or by sending slanderous messages to friends, family, and colleagues, with the only recourse of getting a Restraining Order.

 

sure looks like Blizzard are listening

and here's his Blog post

edit: also just found this rumour that Blizzard employees have not got any say in the implementation of RealID:

http://www.masterofwarcraft.net/2010/07/rumor-blizzard-had-no-say-in-real-id.html

 

thats a bit irrational...
I'm exposed to the public all the time and i not scared of them....i get along with them.
If you feel like you want to be cocooned away from the public, you're doing it wrong.
Walking through town in the daytime is more dangerous than posting your name online - even if your nice in real life and a **** online.

 

I agree, except if they were to do this I would expect they'd experience real-life consequences involving law enforcement and the like... which I think is the whole point. People have disagreements all the time but harassment on the level the nay-sayers are suggesting doesn't happen. Obviously these immature people exist and they realize what they can easily get away with without repercussions.

RealID is supposed to bring this element onto the forums. Whether it works or not.... that's left to be found out.

Personally, I think the system works fine as-is. Only thing better is the one time user-id creation bound to your serial number. If you behave horribly and get banned.. you have to spend $60 on another copy of the game.

 

In real life a person quite literally has to expose themselves to the public. It's an unavoidable part of being a corporeal being. Why do so online when you don't have to? If a person has no reason why they should give out their name unwillingly, then any reason why they shouldn't is enough. Leslie has stated a reason not to: the risk of people potentially harrassing each other.

 

I guess no one remembers Selena and John Lennon, both of which were killed by fans. Many others had close calls.

I have had threats, people show up at my door, and more. Not all had bad intentions, but fans are a weird bunch. They can turn on you for stupid reasons. I'm not cocooning myself away, but I'm also not going to be stupid about it. More and more employers are watching what people do online, in terms of hiring and firing. I don't think many realize the long term implications of this sort of thing.


As for walking through town, it depends on where. I can take you to streets where I know you won't come out the other side, but for the most part, you are rather safe in most places.

 

Trying to force people on the internet to do something is like trying to tell the wind which way to blow.

 

All the ingame API can do is access Real IDs you already have in your friends list, you can't access Real IDs from other people.

 

@ the "Don't post" crowd:

That is a **** solution and it should stop being spouted.
I'm sorry but that's just a lazy poor attitude with no real thought process involved.
What if Bit-Tech instituted the same policy?
"Just post intelligently, or don't post at all..." is that fair? ********.

I'm all for accountability. The last post I made on this topic in a different article
I said tie everyone to a common handle for their account that isn't their log-on name:
Alt123@Faulken Alt999@Faulken, etc etc etc.
There's your accountability right there.

"But Facebook already does this."
1) They give privacy options.
2) NO ONE FREAKING SAID FACEBOOK IS DOING THE RIGHT THING.

I'm sorry if this seems pissier then my norm,
but the fact that anyone is defending this crock of crap...
It makes me sick, almost literally.

 

Pro Audio sites are NOT polluted with the same immaturity that the WoW forums have. If you have ever spent time in the WoW forums, you would learn that some of the lowliest of the low on the web "troll" around there.

And this is where the problem lies. I have no trust in the whole of the WoW community to not use my name in a bad way. Pro Audio forums are pretty much visited by professionals in the field, which brings a lot more trust to the board.

 

Its missing for 80 percent of gamers altogether.I dont know why people have to be assholes when they game online.
This is for all ages.
But i must say that the bit-tech fourms are a nice place with a alot of honest people

 

If you go a read the link he quoted you will see why he was banned. It wasn't anything he himself wrote. It was because he linked to some ones blog who had personally identifying material about other people on it. I understand he was trying to make a point, but I'm not surprised he was banned. If he had left the blog link out he would have been fine.

-

Still, if Blizzard/Activision can't see why this is such a terrible idea then they deserve the drop in sales and the lawsuits that will follow.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiauaGbxipA

 

Lawsuits? For what exactly?

 

Well perhaps there wont be any against them directly as I'm sure they will cover their backsides in the agreement you have to ok to to use their forum. But I can easily see people being negatively affected because blizzard/activison are sharing peoples personal information with the whole world. You telling me if some WoW troll goes and maims/kills/stalks another WoW troll because they share peoples real names, that there won't be a some kind of a reaction?

 

No i'm not saying that, but I fail to see how anyone would successfully be able to sue Blizzard for anything that might happen after they consent to having their real name disclosed on a public forum.