REAL ID & Blizz Jumping the Shark!

[Dlarah]

I dont use Facebook or similar things and its still quite easy to find me if you got my real name simply because the government thinks its a great idea to have the lists of what people earn, how much tax they pay and how big their registered fortune is displayed to the public. And because everyone loves to see how their neighbours are doing every goddamn online newspaper fights over who can display the lists in the most interresting way. And then there are the online phonenumber searches. Both the tax lists and number searches displays where you live and what your numbers are. I didnt choose to display those things and it isnt easy to remove them(perhaps the numbers if i make my number hidden).

Imagine then all those people who had problems with people trying to track them down because of simple things like getting kicked out of guilds or loosing a roll? They wont post on these forums any more because they fear it will be easier to track them down.
If anonymity is going to be removed from the internet there is one thing that should be in place first. A proper set of rules on how local police in all the countries involved should handle threats and ways for them to easily take actions across borders. Also there is the problem that local police are often undermanned and flooded with work already so something as minor as a online threat would most likely be brushed aside until someone dies.

[elv]

And so my quest to hunt find and kill welcome those on my nemesis friends list begins....

Elvys gonnna get ya!

laters elv

[Mangala]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NgAkWxcPBE&feature=player_embedded

[Mangala]

Split topic from Cata discussions.

[Mangala]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.

I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you'll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.

In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters (http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/about/mission.html), and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning.

Mike Morhaime
CEO & Cofounder
Blizzard Entertainment

U TURN

[Keggi]

yeah pn has now done a u-turn too after seeing that article

[Dlarah]

That was fast... I was just getting into lotro again damnit!
Just spent hours on my first trip to GA instances with my guardian. Wich also was the first proper go at tanking a instance too. 

[Taith]

Fascinating incident, really.

Any change - any change - results in angry posts on forums from people who don't like it. This is a fact of the internet. What's different about this thing is that people simply freaked. The anger came second.

Amazing to think anyone could look at the bad Facebook press of the last twelve months and think, "I want a piece of that." They must have really thought they'd make a lot of money out of it.

[Mangala]

Amazing to think anyone could look at the bad Facebook press of the last twelve months and think, "I want a piece of that." They must have really thought they'd make a lot of money out of it.

2 words.

Bobby Kotick.

[Gunnarr]

(I don't use Facebook or any other social networking site. I suppose that makes a difference?)

I suppose you not being a girl makes a difference too.
(I don't post on forums so if they had gone through with it, I'd probably just have switched parental controls on to kill the RealID feature and forget about it. )