Users Revolt Over Blizzard's Requirement Of 'Real Names' In Forum Comments
from the not-everyone-wants-to-be-known-as-a-gamer dept
Wasn't sure if this story was worth discussing here, but everyone keeps submitting it, so here goes. Blizzard, once again showing how little it seems to actually understand its own users, has decided that to curb annoying commenters in its forums, it's now going to require everyone post with their real first and last names. Anonymity be damned. I've always supported allowing some form of anonymous commenters in certain forums, though I can see why some sites prefer to require real names. But a World of Warcraft forum seems like a very odd place for such a requirement -- especially since it involves worlds where people rarely, if ever, use their real names.There are some legitimate privacy concerns here as well, as some note that there is a stigma attached to people who play such games in certain areas, and that it could scare off lots of people who would like to partake in the forums, but would prefer Google searches on their names don't reveal to the world their WoW obsession. Others worry that in the heated world of online gaming, it really might not be such a good thing for people to know the real names of others that they play with.
I can understand the desire to bring about more civility to a forum (though, let's face it, we're talking about a game where civility is not exactly the main goal), but it seems like this step goes far beyond the comfort level of many participants.
Update: Well, it looks like with enough user complaints, Blizzard has backed down.
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Filed Under: forums, real names, world of warcraft
Companies: blizzard
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It's not like people can just say "Okay, my real name is Lolpenis Roflnuts" and use that.
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Not even that if they were smart enough to use a fake name to begin with.
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It seems like there may be better ways to accomplish that goal though. A community karma system shared between the boards and the game would attack the problem in the same way while allowing people to retain anonymity outside the WoW community.
I don't quite understand the angle of someone who wishes to preserve their anonymity while simultaneously linking their game progress to their facebook, twitter, and multiple forum accounts, and it's hard to respect the privacy fears of the people who act so outrageously towards other people.
Fears about being hunted down and killed for ninjaing someone's cloudsong seem like the kind of example that is brought up in every conversation, yet has no chance of ever actually happening. Yes, people have committed violent crimes over games before, but it's erroneous to pretend that the presence of whatever medium was involved is the only relevant factor. You can name a category of anything in the world, and show that something bad happened over it, or in it, or because of it. You can even find stories about things like that for games that did let users post anonymously in their official forums.
WoW players react so hyperbolically to anything and everything that I don't think the community reaction can really be a sane gauge of anything anymore. People who are sane usually don't actively participate in the WoW forums anymore. Anyone who tries will inevitably be driven away by the sheer pulsing hysteria of it.
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*For those unaware, it's the practice of starting a semi constructive post and then transitioning to the lyrics to the theme for "The fresh prince of Bel-Air"
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Oh yes, but we still worry about how our personal information can be potentially misused, and we do like to stop things at the top of the proverbial slope.
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Michael Jackson's tour was canceled due to his death. Thought you should know :)
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Now touring in the underground music scene.
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I already responded to your silly obsession with concert problems in the comments. It's not the story you think it is, and the fact that you keep pushing it is really getting silly.
Once again, though, if you really think the fact that a few poorly organized/managed concerts are being cancelled means that using concerts for a business model doesn't make any sense (not that we ever suggested relying on concerts made any sense) then you must also admit that the decline in CD sales means that relying on selling music doesn't make any sense too. Right?
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Touche!
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If that happens they'll get sued for infringement. Free market capitalism indeed.
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Umm, huh? Setting aside for a moment that this string has nothing to do with the topic at hand; unless I'm misunderstanding it, that argument makes no sense. It sounds as though you are arguing that copyright laws (and the misuse thereof) are proof that free market capitalism is a failure. If not, then stop reading my post here.
The reason free market capitalism is "failing" has nothing at all to do with free markets or capitalism at all. It's because douchebags keep regulating shit that shouldn't be regulated, which makes the market fail, and then saying "see! it doesn't work! we need MORE regulation!"
/#tangent.
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Some people on the forums have also been raising concerns about stalking (female gamers, for example), harassment, etc. You know those occasional stories where the crazy person gets upset over something in game tries to take revenge upon the other person/people?
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True Names?
I can maybe see why you might need to provide one (possibly) to the admin or whatever, but why would you require true names in a public venue?
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Not a big deal...
Also, you don't have to link your real name to your in-game name, that is optional. So long as there's no way of getting to gameplay statistics from your real name, how can a Google search reveal an "obsession"? All it might reveal is that you play the game...
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Re: Not a big deal...
Next, no one has stated that Blizzard can't do this, just that it's dumb to do this.
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Re: Not a big deal...
The real story is it's for their (Activision) Facebook integration deal announced two months ago. They basically want to create the social network of gaming and that won’t work if everyone is hidden from everyone else behind character names
"Also, you don't have to link your real name to your in-game name, that is optional. So long as there's no way of getting to gameplay statistics from your real name, how can a Google search reveal an "obsession"?"
While some are concerned about being stalked in game, that has you say is harder unless you show your character name as well. But it’s not too hard to figure out your game characters unless you are very careful (never give clue to server/faction/class you play) due to the hackability of the real id system in game.
But vast majority are concerned by the other side of this, game affecting real life. Many people who play WoW would defiantly prefer that information not be in the public domain
As an unfortunate employee of blizzard discovered when he posted his real name to "prove everyone was overreacting" and had his photos (some rather embarrassing), facebook page, home address, telephone numbers, house value, family member’s names and address, even his criminal record posted online within the hour. Blizzard was fast to pull that as it’s against the current ToS to post people’s, even your own, real details (ironic that) but not fast enough, it’s now on the internet forever as it was copied to multiple sites and they have not said a word about the whole plan since.
No company should be giving people the choice of don’t use all or part of our service unless you want everyone to know you are our customer. Like hell only a few weeks ago Apple was getting blasted for just putting users email addresses on an insecure system, now we have a company intentionally advertising their customer’s real names and some people actually try to defend it?
But no matter how much their customers complain doubt it will be dropped, actually most likely be expanded over time, the CEO of Activision really wants his “social gaming network”, customer privacy be damned
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Idiot move?
This will simply drive even more players to sites like Wowhead, which is easier to navigate, has more information and more accurate information, and doesn't even require a link to your account.
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The bad idea part comes in when the "one name" is the real name. It really doesn't need to be. Use the main char's name, or something. Or ask someone to pick one name for the forums that'll be linked to every char they have, visibly, or whatever.
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There are many reasons that I don't use my real name with WoW, starting with the fact that I have a vagina and prefer not to be bothered in-game or stalked in real life.
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Is it retroactive?
This would make it a sort of bait and switch where you posted under an alias to have your real name revealed later. That is very bad karma.
Otherwise the offical forum is blizzards playground, and they can make whatever rules they want to impliement. If you want to use it well and good, otherwise don't use the official forum, it's not like there are a shortage of others.
Not sure it's a good call.. but it's blizzard's call to make. Just making it retroactive would make it 'evil'.
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Posts have (I assume) some sort of identifier to indicate who made the post. That identifier is used to know the (fake) name of the poster and to load their avatar and signatures and whatnot to be able to render that information in the post. If their system is somewhat generic, the hard part would be NOT to include that information on older posts.
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Re: Re: Is it retroactive?
Probably more of case of their lawyers stopping them
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This issue is slightly different than game changes which people always cry will "kill WoW"
There's some statistic out there that for every person who posts on the forum, there are 100 who don't. So what does that mean then, that there are now over 30,000 (2200 pages and counting) posts on just the *official* thread, 99% of them constructive complaints and protests over this change.
This is by far the largest outcry from WoW players ever. The longest thread ever on the forums before was a measly 500 pages. These aren't a "vocal, insane minority"
Do the math... If each post there represents even 50 people who agree but don't go to to forums or ever post... That's 10 million potential players who would disagree.
I think it's fair at the point to conservatively estimate that 80% of the player base is against this change.
Many do realize that this is just to post on the forums. However, Blizzard customer service and technical support *often* send customers to the forums for help...
Not to mention that there are strong indications in the new Terms of Service and elsewhere that RealID won't stop with the forums. Your real name is currently available in game whether you've opted in to RealID or not. There are scripts an addons already in circulation that can mine that data.
All in all, a very disturbing trend for those of us who don't want our game world and our real world to intersect...
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1. This is clearly upsetting a significant percentage (possibly even a majority) of their current forum posters and most loyal players (e.g. see https://greyshades.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/an-open-letter-to-blizzard/)
2. It almost certainly won't achieve their stated goal (e.g. see http://habitatchronicles.com/2010/07/realid-and-wow-forums-classic-identity-design-mistake/ and, more amusingly, http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20100707).
So even people like me that originally saw at least some merit in the idea now think Blizzard would be insane to proceed (since the user community are far more likely to create an "unofficial official forum" somewhere like Wowhead rather than continue to post to the Blizzard forums).
(Like Rose, I'm someone that uses my real name in a lot of "serious" forums, such as here, but keep it away from the WoW-related forums, using the name of my main character instead)
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Mixed Feelings
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Re: Mixed Feelings
Anyway ... I do play WoW and it is not a secret, I also have my real identity linked to my account here (via my LinkedIn Profile) so I suppose it is not as big a deal for me. That being said I am not exactly thrilled about the idea, I like the optional part of the RealID system {I can see my 'Real Life' friends online even when they are on a different realm(server) or even on another Blizzard Game}. I can however foresee situations where I might not want to have my real name show up when posting on the forums.
I agree that something needs to be done to curb inappropriate behavior in an online forum, and unlike this site the Blizzard forums (I am just guessing here, but I would speculate that they get an order of magnitude more posts than even a popular site like TechDirt) are simply to large for easy monitoring by moderators.
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It's an awesome system. Personally, I think that's what Blizzard needs to do to their forums. I don't use them now (except for tech) but I would be much more likely to use them if they had a great system like that.
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So how do they keep cabals from forming to game the system by uprating each other's posts?
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Regardless, it's been my experience that the highly-rated posts are the most useful, and the downrated posts really are dumb or trollish. Mostly dumb, honestly.
I don't know if that means that a system is thus far unnecessary, or if there's a successful system in place already. :)
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A good idea!
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Re: A good idea!
I ask because that's what Blizzard requires, and you can easily find my physical address and telephone number online with my real name.
The ratio of lonely-crazy-stalker-types seems to be much higher with WoW players, and I'd prefer not to let that community know that I'm female, and give them an easy way to find me in real life.
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If it's really that bad people will just create their own forums where anonymity is preserved. Every other game I've ever played had server forums on 3rd party websites.
I still can't see why anyone even wants to use the WoW forums, it's so full of immature kids, trolling, and LOL INTERNET quality posting.
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Easier to use (MUCH!), better information, and private.
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http://static.bwerp.net/~adam/2010/07/08/
What's particularly notable here is that there are 12,755 unique posters thusfar. Several of these, on each page, are discussing how until this is settled they have canceled their accounts, and noting how many of their friends have canceled as well.
Mike, I am honestly not sure why you feel that this isn't noteworthy given your talk about privacy in an online environment, and your discussions about how there are several non-tangible goods that any kind of service and provide. Blizzard has, up to this point, had a non-tangible value that has been the reason that it has become the giant it is today - a feeling that it treated its players with respect, as valued customers. It would seem that now they are trying to trade in on that, treat players as commodities, and hope that noone notices.
Well, people have been noticing. I canceled my sub earlier today - and I had to wait a good thirty minutes to do so. I feel that that is worth pointing out - the servers used to cancel subscriptions are being so overclogged, there is a substantial waiting line to be able to close an account.
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This is about Blizzard (or Activision) wanting to get in on the social networking craze, but instead of just making it all optional, they're forcing it down everybody's throat. I think *that* is what upsets most of the people: not being given an option.
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Secondly, the forums have been a part of the game. Agree or disagree, like it or not, some players have accustomed themselves to using the forums in a certain way. Changing that against the will of (the majority) of your users is just plain bad business sense.
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Wall of Text Machine GO!
- What if knowing that someone is actually male helps prevent dirty old men from living out their fantasies on slow teenage boys?
- Why should I be ashamed of playing WoW or Starcraft or any other video game in the first place?
- What if I steal someone's loot and they Face Axe me in the face in real life?
- What about all of the other Lolpenis Roflnuts' that exist in the world. How will their actions affect peoples' perceptions of me?
- What if my dad pays for my account, since I'm too irresponsible for a credit card, will my actions be reflected in his name?
- What about all the stalking and "Hai sxi pics or gtfo" that I'll be bombarded with when people learn I'm a girl?
- What about making it more difficult to anonymously stalk people when they know my real name too?
- What about all the stalking and "Hai sxi pics or gtfo" that I'll be bombarded with when people learn I'm a boy?
- What's forcing me to participate in the first place? I hear Sims 8 is coming anyways...
- What if I already share my identity with the people I feel should know it. What does letting everyone else see my identity accomplish?
- What if sharing my identity makes it harder to troll forums?
- What if sharing my identity doesn't change my trolling actions at all?
- What if sharing my identity makes it harder to state opinions, regardless of what they are?
- What if this is an awesome experiment just to mess with the natural state of things? Forum rage is more entertaining than the game itself!
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Don't think it's a huge violation of privacy?
May be an over reaction, but a good example of why this is serious problem.
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Wouldn't Bother Me
The using of real names doesn't stop all the trolls. One of my hobbies is amateur radio, and one of the most active message boards is the site www.qrz.com where we post under our amateur radio call signs, which easily link back to our real names and in most cases, our home address. And there are still some really obnoxious trolls. Personal attacks, outright lies, false accusations, etc don't seem to be as prevalent on that forum as I've found on others.
The free speech issue. I've thought about this, and for me, I think, if I have to hide the identity behind the words, is the speech really free? In this example, it is cited that being known as a WoW player could be a problem for employment, I ask, would you really want to work for someone who would make such a judgement?
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Re: Wouldn't Bother Me
For instance, discussing certain religions might cause you to be sued or worse.
It is a sign of progress that we can discuss more things without fear than in the past. Some things, however, we still cannot discuss openly.
Somewhat related link: http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html
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Re: Wouldn't Bother Me
Next, and most important to me personally, is that you can easily find my physical address and telephone number online with my real name. Unfortunately, the ratio of lonely-crazy-stalker-types seems to be much higher with WoW players (and gamers in general), and I'd prefer not to let that community know that I'm female, and give them an easy way to find me in real life.
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Money Talks
I give it 3 months max and then they'll come out and say that they're reverting back to their old system because they understand that we all value privacy.
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Has just put commenting back online with the catch that you have to link your account to a credit card and use your VERIFIED real name (And pay $0.99 for the privilege). I will not participate. I hope the initiative goes down in flames.
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Just look at the forums. It's all there. Development always has a sound idea as to why they want something done. They post it straight up. The problem is, any legitimate gripes are now viewed as "QQers", and they pay no mind. They HAVE lost their touch with the people that made them. Less important now is the core group of players, the players that made World of Warcraft successful to begin with, and that's given way to "MORE SUBSCRIBERS = MORE MONEY".
Now, they're a business. Obviously they want to make more money, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. The problem is, they have countless ways to do this while still keeping that thrill IN the game for people who DO choose to devote large portions of time to it. They've failed to do so, and honestly, Cataclysm is the final straw in that.
The RealID thing, well, it's a sound idea. Let people communicate across Blizzard games. Obviously the way of social media pretty much makes that necessary to be on the cutting edge. I do understand the weight of using your real name, and that having an impact on how someone may act online. But really, let's think about this. How many accounts are under PARENT'S names. More importantly, how many parents want their kid to pass out their first and last name online? Yea. Not many that I'm aware of. When trying to educate people to not give out personal information online, this is really an idea that wasn't thought out with anything in mind but Blizzard.
The bottom line is: Fail. Incoming Bioware MMO that will give Blizzard the first legitimate competition it's had in the MMO market. I sincerely hope they realize that and actually start catering to their players now, as opposed to enforcing ideas that're 'thought to be right', but come off like knee-jerk reactions.
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However, there are quite a few people with the same real name and decent Google footprints.
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Facebook: I don't use my real name. Twitter: I don't use my real name. gmail: I don't use my real name. WoW Forums: I won't use my real name. It's no one else's business what my real name is. My name is actually a helluva lot more common than the nickname I use,
"Anonymous Coward" is a pretty common nickname around here...
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I like the fact that I can talk cross server/faction to my friends, but man, did they really have to take it this far?
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Real Name?
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Re: Real Name?
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Blizzard should watch out
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Will Blizzard force you to change your name to use their service?
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It is only a matter of time until a hacked account (which up until now usually represented a temporary loss of virtual goods for that one account or sometimes also the guild bank) leads to a cascade of stolen real money and real life identities.
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Oh yea! FTW!!!
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/09/mike-morhaime-real-names-will-not-be-required-on-official-fo rum/
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It sickens them that they have to have accountability with their actions
Sad!
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Blizzard's idea is an interesting one, but it almost certainly won't work and has significant negative side effects on the diversity of their forum population. I can see why it seemed like a good idea when they discussed it internally, but the discussion with the wider audience has made those two points quite clear.
Fortunately, as the AC above posted, Blizzard were convinced to change their minds by those discussions and have now dropped the idea of requiring the use of real names on the updated forums (one of the forums announcements from Blizzard: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1&pageNo=1.
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"1. Activision Is The Dominant Partner
You can read this multiple ways, but in general, the company whose chief exec becomes CEO in a 'merger' such as this is in the driving seat, business-wise. One good, if more extreme example of this was the GameStop/EB 'merger', which concluded with the EB executives and name largely removed from positions of power in the company.
In this case, Activision boss Robert Kotick will be President and Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, and Vivendi Games' Bruce Hack will be CCO of the combined company. Vivendi is still majority shareholder, but as for who's actively running the business - you do the math."
So....Take a wild guess where the idea originally came from.
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Won't somebody think of the children?
I wonder if Third Party liability will extend to the first person raped by a stalker who was only able to locate them because of the inability to use Blizzard's service anonymously?
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Bad move, blizzard.
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Of course, now the community is railing that this was Blizzard's plan all along and are still evil and not listening to the community.
Seems like a large company can't win no matter what they do.
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