Blizzard has revealed today their plans to fully utilize the Real ID functionality of Battle.net. Yes, this does include their forums which means that your real, full name will show up anywhere and everywhere you ever make a post on the official World of Warcraft forums.
To say the community is ticked off about this news, might be a bit of an understatement. First, here is what Blizzard has to say about these changes.
The gaming community? Yeah, they're not taking this too lightly. The thread on the official World of Warcraft forums is currently sitting at 912 pages of very angry responses (over 18K replies, plus another 1,100+ posts that were deleted) since about noon (EST) on July 6th, and growing at an alarming rate. The Battle.net forums are sitting at "just" 50 pages of responses.
Privacy concerns are obviously the biggest and most major concern with these planned changes. Blizzard highlights the obvious good outcome of real names, but seems to overlook the negatives that comes from a lack of privacy on the Internet. There are some crazy people out there.
To say the community is ticked off about this news, might be a bit of an understatement. First, here is what Blizzard has to say about these changes.
The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. The classic Battle.net forums, including those for Diablo II and Warcraft III, will be moving to a new legacy forum section with the release of the StarCraft II community site and at that time will also transition to using Real ID for posting.
The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven't been connected before. With this change, you'll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well. (...)
With the launch of the new Battle.net, it's important to us to create a new and different kind of online gaming environment -- one that's highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. All of our design decisions surrounding Real ID -- including these forum changes -- have been made with this goal in mind.
We've given a great deal of consideration to the design of Real ID as a company, as gamers, and as enthusiastic users of the various online-gaming, communication, and social-networking services that have become available in recent years. As these services have become more and more popular, gamers have become part of an increasingly connected and intimate global community – friendships are much more easily forged across long distances, and at conventions like PAX or our own BlizzCon, we've seen first-hand how gamers who may have never actually met in person have formed meaningful real-life relationships across borders and oceans. As the way gamers interact with one another continues to evolve, our goal is to ensure Battle.net is equipped to handle the ever-changing social-gaming experience for years to come.
The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven't been connected before. With this change, you'll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well. (...)
With the launch of the new Battle.net, it's important to us to create a new and different kind of online gaming environment -- one that's highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. All of our design decisions surrounding Real ID -- including these forum changes -- have been made with this goal in mind.
We've given a great deal of consideration to the design of Real ID as a company, as gamers, and as enthusiastic users of the various online-gaming, communication, and social-networking services that have become available in recent years. As these services have become more and more popular, gamers have become part of an increasingly connected and intimate global community – friendships are much more easily forged across long distances, and at conventions like PAX or our own BlizzCon, we've seen first-hand how gamers who may have never actually met in person have formed meaningful real-life relationships across borders and oceans. As the way gamers interact with one another continues to evolve, our goal is to ensure Battle.net is equipped to handle the ever-changing social-gaming experience for years to come.
The gaming community? Yeah, they're not taking this too lightly. The thread on the official World of Warcraft forums is currently sitting at 912 pages of very angry responses (over 18K replies, plus another 1,100+ posts that were deleted) since about noon (EST) on July 6th, and growing at an alarming rate. The Battle.net forums are sitting at "just" 50 pages of responses.
Privacy concerns are obviously the biggest and most major concern with these planned changes. Blizzard highlights the obvious good outcome of real names, but seems to overlook the negatives that comes from a lack of privacy on the Internet. There are some crazy people out there.
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