Blizzard to force forum users to use their real name.
Blizzard has announced that their new forums for Starcraft and Cataclysm are going to force users to use their real names instead of a screen name. This article (written by PC Gamer) states that they are attempting to move to a social network type of model, and that it's going to be a disaster.
Quote:
“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.”
Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable posting something on a massive forum like that using my real name. Isn't the point of games to temporarily remove yourself from "real life"?
Seems like a pretty huge risk to take, although I guess people will just move to fan sites instead.
Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable posting something on a massive forum like that using my real name. Isn't the point of games to temporarily remove yourself from "real life"?
You command armies from three interstellar races in the future for real?
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I won't be posting on the forums anymore, but I only did a few times anyway. I keep my internet presence pretty private in terms of giving out information so I see no need to increase that.
The thing with social networking is you're supposed to know all these people. Everyone on my facebook account I've met in real life. Otherwise they wouldn't be on my facebook. You create a social network where people don't know each other and then that is kind of weird. Something I would not be willing to do.
In Ultima Online there was a lot of Koreans that played on our shard, they would always squabble IRL about in game matters. Like house lootings and stuff.
I remember reading about a dood who cut another guys head off over an item in EQ, and also about a guild that raided a rival guilds Internet Cafe over in game antics.
Crazy stuff.
We had a guild on our server that ended up screwing some dood over with a multi thousand dollar bill at his internet cafe, and he raged on the message boards it was pretty funny. Thats where my saying "damn son of bitch" comes from.
Here is the post he made, it supplied us with meme's for years to come.. it is known as the Sacred Scroll of Fukman..
Subject: Some guys are damn f***
because ... They are Thief of Real Life
They are playing Game My Internet Shop.. long long time ..
But They Don't pay my shop... many money in Real life Money..
So I Call ...
I ask for demand payment them
But They are disconnect phone.
I very angry.... I hate them.. I come back uo..
I will speaking This story... I shout They are F***man!!!!!!!!!!!!
I Closing KK Website...
I Write here ######man's Name
Sprite, Madlore,<= he is very very F***man
redsky
Rose mari
BIDUMI (sis, the girl)
Ra
hojun = this fucj guy is sprite and if i call him he just said " hello? hello?" and disconnect.he cheated me to come and give money. and he is very ulgy man who dare to play drama in Dea-Hak-Ro.but he is too fatty and short to play.
juhyuk=he does too bad like others (redsky)
daewoo=bidumi he is like other guys.
park-kwang-rae = this f*** guy disconnect from irc when i log in. and he didnt pay a bit of money to play.(Ra)
and i wanna say others guys f***ing story. but have no time..damn son of bitch.
if he didnt have able to play. dont play!!
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I'm starting to hear that female players are worried about this. They are afraid they will be hit on continuously in game.
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Yep. I'd put money on this being an Activision idea. I will officially be off both the WoW forums if I return and the SC forums when I arrive at that game.
Their redefinition of Battle.Net continues to totally miss the mark by trying to be a Facebook/MySpace equivalent.
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This reminds me of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Going to everyone's house that posted bad things about their movie and beating them up. They only had forum handles. It would make life easier with real names.
This reminds me of Jay and Silent Bob strike back. Going to everyone's house that posted bad things about their movie and beating them up. They only handle forum handles. It would make life easier with real names.
I was just thinking that, I would love to get the home address of some of the dirty corpse campers on our server and go slash the tires on their moms minivan.
Thankfully, having access to someone's real name should fix that.
I agree with the poster who mentioned gaming as a separation from real life. There's no reason (beyond an eventual & understandable Blizzard profit motive) that the world needs to see "Bill Smith" instead of a screen name.
Hell....from a Professional point of view, there's no way in heck I'd want people to associate me with WoW.
How would they be able to force users to use their real name? There are always ways around stuff like that and you'll end with a community where everyone's name is John Smith.
This reminds me of Jay and Silent Bob strike back. Going to everyone's house that posted bad things about their movie and beating them up. They only handle forum handles. It would make life easier with real names.
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How would they be able to force users to use their real name? There are always ways around stuff like that and you'll end with a community where everyone's name is John Smith.
Billing Name/Address associated to the account credit card. You have to have one....even if time is only added with the prepays.
Billing Name/Address associated to the account credit card. You have to have one....even if time is only added with the prepays.
With WoW maybe but not with Sc2.
Quote:
The thing with social networking is you're supposed to know all these people. Everyone on my facebook account I've met in real life. Otherwise they wouldn't be on my facebook. You create a social network where people don't know each other and then that is kind of weird. Something I would not be willing to do.
Twitter?
You don't have to know somebody in real life to form a kind of relationship with them. I've been in really tight guilds and forum communities for other games. I think it's a great idea.
I don't know if I like this, people are incredibly abusive and while doing it in real life has pretty serious and immediate consequences, online can have the same psychological impacts but the repercussions are sometimes nonexistent. Having someone's real name means being able to take it into real life much easier.
Plus there's lots of underage players, players in guilds where they may not want their names associated with (i.e. a gay guild and they haven't come out).. many girls online go to great lengths to hide their gender because harassment and such does still exist out there (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007...ender.blogging).
If they go ahead with this I think at the very least it has to be an opt-in and if you don't you don't get access to the new forum, but the old forum goes away.. no post history. Otherwise you're making something that was once anonymous not, which isn't what people signed up for.
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Blizzard to force forum users to use their real name.
