Blizzard to force forum users to use their real name.

[Flames0910]

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.

It also adds some of those real life repercussions.

I can see how some people don't like it but you don't HAVE to post on the forums.
IDK. I kind of like it. Nice to see some leadership instead of more of the same.

[Lithium]

Maybe now online people will act their own age out of fear.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo

Billing Name/Address associated to the account credit card. You have to have one....even if time is only added with the prepays.

Easy to get a secondary card in a different name.

[Raekwon]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

Easy to get a secondary card in a different name.

Except that if its in a different name you couldn't transfer toons to your other account.

[Hack&Lube]

This must use your real name thing is a ######ed idea by Blizzard.

A Blizzard employee posted up his name claiming that the system was perfectly safe. Within 5 minutes people posted back with all his personal information completely discovered and exposed. They had to close the thread.

[burn_this_city]

Probably one of the dumber ideas I've read in a while. I guess the only solution will be to skip the forums and just play the game.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

This must use your real name thing is a ######ed idea by Blizzard.

A Blizzard employee posted up his name claiming that the system was perfectly safe. Within 5 minutes people posted back with all his personal information completely discovered and exposed. They had to close the thread.

Exactly. We've seen many threads in OT about things on other forums that involved hunting down a person in real life.

Heh, that's a perfect way to make sure they either don't do it, or remove it almost instantly, just keep posting pictures of people's homes from streetview.

[Flaming Choy]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

This must use your real name thing is a ######ed idea by Blizzard.

A Blizzard employee posted up his name claiming that the system was perfectly safe. Within 5 minutes people posted back with all his personal information completely discovered and exposed. They had to close the thread.

Reminds me of the story where the CEO of an personal information security firm posted his SIN to prove how effective his services were.....bad idea.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...identity-theft

[psicodude]

I just don't understand the reasoning behind it. If it's to clean up the forums by adding accountability to it, then surely there are other steps that can be taken (similar to this forum!) before going to the extreme of forcing people to use their name.

If their idea is that this is step one of creating some sort of social networking thing, then I suggest they stick to their core business of creating and support great games. How about instead of wasting resources on this, put them into releasing an expansion for WoW more than once every 2 years?

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I'm starting to hear that female players are worried about this. They are afraid they will be hit on continuously in game.

Works both ways - will they also show your characters names as well on the forums? If not then I don't see what the problem is because there is no link back to the character.

I think it will stop people acting like moronic 12 year olds on the forums if your RL name is attached to it. The fact that this will have real consequences, such as when someone searches your name and finds out you've been a real dipsh*t on SC - good luck getting a job.

[Arbitor]

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=128252

This article shows a time line of events that have occurred following the merger of Blizzard and Activision. With some notable quotes from Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick such as:

"The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."

[starseed]

Is it really necessary to post on Blizzard's forums?

[WilsonFourTwo]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

I think it will stop people acting like moronic 12 year olds on the forums if your RL name is attached to it.

Except for the moronic 12-year olds.

Just sayin'......

[GreenLantern]

So when you go for a job interview your boss googles your name and your WOW account pops up...?

Annthing I say on the message board I am now accountable for with potential job suitors? Give me a break. I play MMO's to unwind and take on the persona of another person. In Ultima Online and DAoC I just PKEd the crap out of everyone, no mercy, greifing was fun. In real life I am the nicest guy you will ever meet and will go out of my way for strangers. I don't think my online profile accurately reflects my attitude, nor do I want it to.

This has fail written all over it, and with the launch of KOTOR could spell bad news for blizzard.

I will say one thing though, all of the posters using level 1 toons to act like ######s does need to be fixed. It should be your highest level character on the account is your automatic posting toon, you can change it if you have one the same level. That would solve a lot of problems.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

So when you go for a job interview your boss googles your name and your WOW account pops up...?

Annthing I say on the message board I am now accountable for with potential job suitors? Give me a break. I play MMO's to unwind and take on the persona of another person. In Ultima Online and DAoC I just PKEd the crap out of everyone, no mercy, greifing was fun. In real life I am the nicest guy you will ever meet and will go out of my way for strangers. I don't think my online profile accurately reflects my attitude, nor do I want it to.

I find this very interesting - I’m not singling you out by any stretch, but I’ve been reading this thread because I’m interested in seeing opinions on this development.

Other than for reasons of personal safety and privacy, which I feel are vastly overblown, I’m somewhat surprised that people are so keen to maintain two totally separate identities, their online one and their real world one. What really surprises me is that the main reason, though, ultimately, is that there is no internal consistency between the two, and people do not want their real world image affected by their online behaviour.

I wonder if this trend will reverse at some point in the future, when people realize that the internet is not going away, and having a corpus of good content and contributions on the internet, or at the very least, signs of a healthy mental outlook, will be integral to your real world image, rather than an adjunct to it.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Other than for reasons of personal safety and privacy, which I feel are vastly overblown, I’m somewhat surprised that people are so keen to maintain two totally separate identities, their online one and their real world one. What really surprises me is that the main reason, though, ultimately, is that there is no internal consistency between the two, and people do not want their real world image affected by their online behaviour.

Yes, the personal safety issue is a total red herring. Look at all the people that have things like blogs, Facebook, etc. Oh look, they're still alive.

Basically it seems to boil down to "gamers are a bunch of freaks", if you think that showing your real name will somehow result in you getting shivved.

[Raekwon]

Exactly, it all boils down to accountability. People need to own up to the things they do on the internet instead of hiding behind it.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

So when you go for a job interview your boss googles your name and your WOW account pops up...?

Annthing I say on the message board I am now accountable for with potential job suitors? Give me a break. I play MMO's to unwind and take on the persona of another person. In Ultima Online and DAoC I just PKEd the crap out of everyone, no mercy, greifing was fun. In real life I am the nicest guy you will ever meet and will go out of my way for strangers. I don't think my online profile accurately reflects my attitude, nor do I want it to.

This has fail written all over it, and with the launch of KOTOR could spell bad news for blizzard.

I will say one thing though, all of the posters using level 1 toons to act like ######s does need to be fixed. It should be your highest level character on the account is your automatic posting toon, you can change it if you have one the same level. That would solve a lot of problems.

I remember that incident where a woman didnt get a job because her potential employer found facebook pictures of her when she was drunk on Halloween.

I think this is a bad idea simply because its unnecessary. People should have the right to their anonymity up until the point where they decide what degree of it they determine acceptable to shed.

Taking CP for instance, its all good and anonymous for most people, but some decide that it is acceptable to sacrifice some of that to play Softball or Hockey on forum organized teams. Sure its easier because CP is a lot more local, but in the end I think its just like anything else, people should have the right to choose.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Locke

I remember that incident where a woman didnt get a job because her potential employer found facebook pictures of her when she was drunk on Halloween.

I think this is a bad idea simply because its unnecessary. People should have the right to their anonymity up until the point where they decide what degree of it they determine acceptable to shed.

I don't know what your example has to with the your second second statement. Facebook has always said that you need to sign up with your real name. There has never been an expectation of privacy from them.

And when was it ever acceptable to publish drunken pictures of yourself, even before the internet?

Taking CP for instance, its all good and anonymous for most people, but some decide that it is acceptable to sacrifice some of that to play Softball or Hockey on forum organized teams. Sure its easier because CP is a lot more local, but in the end I think its just like anything else, people should have the right to choose.

People had the "right" to choose over at Blizzard as well. As it stands, their forums are totally useless. They have chosen to try to improve them via this policy. Heck, who knows if it's going to work. Having said that, I do post on forums that require real name usage, and their user bases are far larger than CP's.

It seems the choice is quite simple - don't post there then.

[GreenLantern]

I am kept honest on Cpuck because multiple RL buddies read and post here.

I couldn't lie if I wanted too


Let me define for some of you what MMORPG means..

Massive Multiplayer Online ----====ROLE PLAYING GAME====-----

To suggest that I should relate my in game persona to my RL persona is contradictory to the definition of the very game in which I am playing.

True, you can role play yourself if you so would chose, but last time I checked there were no Tauren Druids running around in Cheetah form outside the Seven Eleven. I got into RPG's to take on the role of the main character, in MMORPG"s I am that main character.. so the role is my choice.

If I chose to be a devious Dread Lord with a tower in the forest full of player skulls, destroying all who come near and scarring the land scape, that is my choice. That is my persona, that is my role. It is no ones business which RL name or persona is connected to it, it should not matter.