Goodbye World of Warcraft

[Logan Darklighter]

And I mean forever.

On Tuesday, Blizzard announced that it will begin forcing
participants in its game discussion forums–where players go to gab about
World of Warcraft and other games–to post comments using their real
first and last names. The change will go into effect mid-July on forums
for Starcraft II, an upcoming online game, and follow after that for
World of Warcraft discussion forums.

In a post
on its discussion forums, Blizzard said its forums have “earned a
reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other
unpleasantness run wild.” (A “troll” is Internet slang for a discussion
group provocateur who likes to rile up other chatters with nasty or
off-topic posts.) That’s largely because Blizzard has allowed its
discussion forum participants to identify themselves by their in-game
character names.
When asked if there was any way to opt out of this 'service', players were told, "Don't post on the forums."
In Blizzard’s discussion forums, game
players said the policy would lead to everything from identity theft to
spam to stalking by “Internet crazies.” One poster said he was worried
that a new girlfriend will could discover his “closet-gamer habit” by
Googling his real name.
And all of these people are being told, in effect, if you don't feel comfortable
posting on our spiffy new troll-free forums, then... go away.
So let me get this straight -
If I want to play your game, that means that AUTOMATICALLY my user info will be shared with facebook? My REAL name? Potentially my address? Where I work?
FUCK. YOU. NO!!!
This all may seem alarmist, but... when one of the Customer Service reps posted HIS name, within 5 minutes the results were in. Someone with his name, living in the same state, had their FULL information posted, their Facebook page slammed, their phone ringing off the hook. A player posted their name as a demonstration, and within 20 minutes, another player unknown to them was calling their work telephone and reciting facts about their house, their car, their pet, and their recent vacation.
What about people who are in actual DANGER if their personal information gets out? Like women? How about LGBT?:

I’ll just put in my two cents as one of many of the 15 million
(according to CBC article) players worldwide. As a member of the LGBTIS
community posting my real name ona forum with a reputation like World
of Warcraft’s is a very real personal danger for people like us. If you
don’t believe that, just use Google to search for “Transexual hate
crime” and see what comes up.

As a female player who’s been harassed several times, I can say that
this is going to be a horrible change. I absolutely refuse to post on
the forums under these conditions. If I have a tech problem I’ll just
have to use the in-game feature to report it now, rather than going to
the forums. This may mean a longer wait, but why would I want 11+
million other people to view my name? I did research and only 5 other
people have my first and last name in the U.S. There needs to be
stronger laws against this.

Another commenter says:

After 5 years with Blizzard, ACTI stock,
14 accounts including my own, wife, children, and other family member
accounts, as well as every game they’ve ever published I’m finally
pulling the plug and calling it quits with this company. Enough is
enough and I refuse to spend another dollar on a game that i’m paying
for only to have my real name plastered all over the internet due to
this idea of “social gaming”. Now you’ll be able to log-in to play a
game but leave that game with real life people looking up your
information or possibly even stalking you just because you play?

I didn’t sign up for Facebook due to privacy issues and had I known
that the Activision/Blizzard merger would lead to this I would have
never invested my money, time, or personal information to this company.
It’s a sad day when you see a company that used to love it’s customers
start to love the money more to the point that it will be it’s downfall.

And:

Rule one on the internet has always been to keep one’s personal
information private. There are employers who may reject applicants who
are found posting on World of Warcraft boards. There are people who
play WoW who have ex-spouses or ex-lovers who might do them harm. There
are people who play WoW who are in professions and jobs that discourage
having their real names on the internet. At a minimum, this will put
women and people with non-white sounding names off of the forums, since
there’s a very high probability that their posts will be met with
ridicule and harassment.

Why is Activision/Blizzard pushing for this?

Why do you think? They think they can make more money.

Activision has entered into a partnership with Facebook to "cross-pollinate" the social media site with data culled from the players. When they accomplish something, it'll get posted. When they get some nice gear, it'll be posted. When they level up, it'll be posted. All in a gambit to get the person's friends to try the game out. At least that's their theory. I think the whole thing is going to be short-circuited by people making completely false identities in order to play. To say nothing of the people who are just going to quit outright in justified anger.
I haven't even played the game in over 9 months. I have less than 50 forum posts to my (in-game) name. But now I'm going to be calling their customer service to make DAMN certain that every scrap of private information that they might have had on me is GONE and I'm going to be telling them in no-uncertain terms why I will never be coming back.
Congratulations Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision Blizzard)! You finally found a way to kill the goose with the golden eggs!
I always wondered what it might take to carve away the massive share of the market that WoW represented. I sure wouldn't have called this, though!
This makes me unutterably sad as well as angry. I loved the Warcraft world. Loved the lore (even as inconsistent and changeable as it could get.) Loved the concepts and the art. Loved the races (I played mostly alliance, but Horde stuff was still awesome.)
I am sad that I will never be able to visit that world again. But this is the end.

[OpMegs]

...is it sad that my main reaction here is "Oh, thank god, now I have a completely JUSTIFIED reason to avoid going to the Starcraft official forums!"

All in all, it appears to be a really, really stupid move, but...well. As schadenfreude-tastic as this is, at least one particular point here is valid, however horrific a move this is from a business point of view.

Don't want your info posted? Don't use the official forums. There's already dozens of unofficial forums that Blizzard has no real say over, in part BECAUSE of the reputation their official forums has that they're trying to avoid. This just adds another reason why people will avoid them. If this were something needed to play the game? I could see the massive uproar. As it is, I see cause for a major facepalming. But really, common sense disarms the danger. If one cafe where you go to chat with your friends put armed bear traps in their front entryway, would you give up coffee? No, you go down the street to the next cafe.

I don't particularly mourn people leaving WoW, but I find the degree of "this is the last straw!"-ness rather impressive for something that has no actual effect on the game. It's more a "geeze, Blizzard, that was stuuuuupid" moment than anything else.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

[Logan Darklighter]

There is something you need to know about how Blizzard uses their forums.
You can't get proper tech support from them in person. If  you call, they direct you to the forums. If you petition in-game, they direct you to the forums.
So if you have a technical issue with the game not working? Latest patch won't install properly? What if you've tried everything and gone to these other private forums and they are stumped? Guess what? You have to sign in to use the forums, and then your ID is fair game with this RealID which has already proven hackable. At that point you have a choice. Run the risk or cancel your account and uninstall the game.
Maybe there's a way around it. But at this point, I'm not - and many people aren't - going to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt. They've proven themselves not to care very much about their customers privacy and safety. They've proven that they are not willing to put the control of their customers private information in the customers own hands. It's an overall corporate policy which needs to be STOMPED FLAT by the customers as soon as possible.
If they reverse themselves on this, I'll warily think about hooking back up again. But I won't EVER trust that company fully again.

[Logan Darklighter]

Oh - and just in case - here's a VERY cautionary tale on cyberstalking... I mean... yow..

[Wiregeek]

RealID is fucking terrifying, morally wrong, and may in fact be legally actionable.

Read Logan's link.

this is the single most offensive thing I've seen out of Blizzard - ever. I have been waiting ten years for Starcraft II. I got into the Beta, for fuck's sake.. and now I can't have it. I cannot risk having my Real Name spread across something as high profile as the WoW forums, or as insecure as Facebook.

And I'm a straight white nonreligious male. I don't have any of the 'risk factors' for randomly getting harassed/raped/murdered by some intolerant scumbag.

I am having trouble putting a line of thought together here, I just keep seeing dead queers lying in ditches.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Logan Darklighter]

Here is someone who writes and says it SO much better than I possibly can. ---
Shades of Grey - An Open Letter to Blizzard

We loved the fantasy, we loved putting our
words out there for you to hear, but now we can’t do it unless we want
to expose our real first and last names to the world. Sure, it may help
your internet troll problem — but in doing so you are silencing the
voices of thousands of players who just want to offer the player base
help, advice and creativity. Some people may be okay with putting their
real names out there for all to see. Some people, however — many of my
friends even — aren’t.

You’ve heard from parents expressing
concern that their child’s name would be exposed. You’ve heard from
women that live in constant wariness of predators that could easily
track them down if they had that first and last name. You’ve heard from
military personnel that are concerned with the safety of both themselves
and their families should their real names be somewhere easily found.
You’ve heard from members of the GLBT population who are still in the
closet out there in the real world, but free to express themselves under
the blanket of anonymous fantasy that you’ve provided.

“It’s optional,” you say. “Optional to post
on the forums.”

What you have created is a community. A
beautiful community full of amazing people and yes, jerks here and
there. These people have grown to know each other under that safe
blanket of anonymity, where they can simply be whoever they want to be
without having to worry about whether or not their next door neighbor
will find out anything unsavory about them. Where they aren’t judged on
how they look, how they dress, how they speak, what they drive, what
they wear. Where they are just voices sharing thoughts and ideas, and
ears hearing thoughts and ideas in return.

And you are taking that community away.

“It’s optional,” you say. “Optional to post
on the forums.”

You gave us a playground that over 11.5
million people love to play in. We felt comfortable and safe there. We
aren’t feeling so safe anymore. You’re not only killing the voices of
trolls, you’re killing the voices of thousands of players who simply
don’t feel comfortable sharing their names.

Seriously - go read the rest.
EDIT: And here's ANOTHER extremely comprehensive look at why this is a monumentally bad idea. Very well written.

[Florin]

I'd like to say that this is an overreaction, it is after all scientifically impossible for WoW forumites to not overreact to the slightest change, but this is an insanely bad idea. It'll help stop trolling? No, no it won't it'll make it worse. After all, personal attacks are so much more fun when you can add actual personal information. And as much as I hate the crazy violent video gamer sterotype the Law of Big Numbers ensures that they're are some players out thier who will respond to a forum attack or an in game ganking with RL violence.

Makes me glad that I'm only playing WoW to kill time before FFXIV and SWO:KOTOR come out.
--
If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. 

[Black Aeronaut]

Holy Fuck.

The Department of Defense is gonna have a field day with this one. Do you guys have any clue how many servicemen play WoW?

Gonna feed this one up my chain of command, because info that needs to remain secure is gonna get leaked, and probably faster than the DoD can do anything about it.

[Bob Schroeck]

You know, I'm really, really glad I never got into World of Warcraft.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Logan Darklighter]

Oh hell, BA, I hadn't even THOUGHT about that. Yeah... that's... I really don't have much in the way of words anymore. Damn. 

In the meantime, here's an interesting rumor from the boards that someone else linked to: 

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... id=1#38466

“Got in touch with my ex-flatmate, whose sister works as a
GM for Blizzard, to see what the internal buzz on this was. Apparently,
at the moment the employees are largely as pissed as the players, and
she stated that despite attempts to keep it hushed, it has become known
that the big creative players within Blizzard are pretty much as unhappy
about this as we are. Everybody has been told they are not free to
comment on this situation outside of specially prepared statements.

It’s still going ahead, however (and here’s where in-house rumours
and hearsay really start coming into play): from what they’ve picked up,
the Blizzard leads have been told in no uncertain terms that the
non-gameplay-related direction of the game is working to a different
blueprint now. GC and company are free to play with shiny new talent
trees all they like, for example, but for the first time the decisions
regarding Battle.net implementation, Real ID, and plans for the general
acquisition of new players for the business are no longer in Blizzard’s
own hands, and that’s not going down too well.”

Interesting, if true.

[Bob Schroeck]

So, wait... who's calling the shots, then? Is Blizzard now owned by some bigger corp that's imposing new policies?

(Mm. Actually, that's ringing a bell faintly, the idea that Blizzard got bought out.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Black Aeronaut]

I seem to recall something about Activision being mentioned.

[The Wanderer]

Yes. Blizzard has been owned by Activision for a while now. (Actually, the official parent company name is now "Activision Blizzard", which owns both of the older two companies.)

[ECSNorway]

You know, I'm really, really glad I never got into World of Warcraft.

QFT
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Norgarth]

You know, I'm really, really glad I never got into World of Warcraft.

QFT

ditto  
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

[Logan Darklighter]

You know, I'm really, really glad I never got into World of Warcraft.

QFT

ditto  

Kinda wish I hadn't, at this point. Knowing I'm not likely to ever return to that world kinda hurts. After investing as much time in it as I did. I guess it would hurt even more if I had been currently playing it when this news came down. Because I know I would've still canceled my account.

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

There's just no way this is actually going to get implemented.  It'll be shot down hard and soon.  This is illegal in several countries in which WoW is popular.
In other words, yes this is a horrible stupid idea, but I don't think we really have to worry about it.  It's a numbskull suit decision that won't make it much further at all.
--Sam
"This is graveness."

[Ebony]

Judging from how long this has been going on (three or four weeks now, from the RealID bombshell up to this), I think it's going to take the actual Board of Directors of Activision and/or Blizzard to be cyberstalked before they realize how stupid this is. And maybe not even that, given the obsession with the bottom line.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[robkelk]

Judging from how long this has been going on (three or four weeks now, from the RealID bombshell up to this), I think it's going to take the actual Board of Directors of Activision and/or Blizzard to be cyberstalked before they realize how stupid this is. And maybe not even that, given the obsession with the bottom line.

One of Logan's earlier posts (#9 in the thread) indicates that the orders to do this are coming from above that level in the corporation.

Somebody really should mention international privacy laws to those people, before they have another "Government of Canada vs. Facebook" on their hands...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Morganite]

Sooooo.... Anyone want to give Final Fantasy XI a try? *innocent innocent* *But actually has some offers if anyone's interested...*

That is one of the reactions I've seen on Allakhazam's FFXI forums - that this'll bring more players for FFXI and FFXIV if it goes through.

Don't want your info posted? Don't use the official forums.

Some people are worried that it's not going to stop at the forums, and that eventually a player's real name will be visible within the game.

-Morgan.

[Logan Darklighter]

Don't want your info posted? Don't use the official forums.

Some people are worried that it's not going to stop at the forums, and that eventually a player's real name will be visible within the game.

-Morgan.

There have, in fact, already been known glitches in the system that have done exactly that. I recall earlier today even seeing screenshots of same. (I'll see if I can find them later if you like. this is just off the top of my head.)
Because a fatal error in the RealID system makes it so that even if you friend no one else, you automatically friend yourself. And the hackers can take advantage of that.
So the system is already compromised even as it stands. And they haven't even gotten to the point of forcing people into this.

[VladimirTherin]

Yes. They were bought out by Activision.

Which is currently run by "Bobby Kotick" aka: the biggest douchebag in the games industry.

Link for reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Kotick

http://www.gamespot.com/n...=latestheadlines;title;1

This is a direct quote from him:

"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"

[LynnInDenver]

...and to the depths which one of the greats has fallen.

Companies aside, I recall seeing Second Life attempt to roll out verification of identity, and the screams from other countries that it was illegal to do that. Between that sort of thing, other decisions there by the powers that would be, the people who tend to get involved, and stuff elsewhere on the net... I've gotten to the point personally that I'm feeling like the internet is more and more an unwelcome place, between flame wars, lack of personal accountability, companies turning around and chasing the buck at the expense of the users they wooed, and even places shutting down without warning. It's all summed up that I now have a serious 'lack of trust' in the internet in general, as far as social and community aspects.

It's bad enough that I have to see immense benefits, not just a place for a hobby, before I'll even consider signing up for a new forum. I'll stick with my console collection, or with hanging out with my friends in what some derisively call 'meatspace'.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[Logan Darklighter]

There's just no way this is actually going to get implemented.  It'll be shot down hard and soon.  This is illegal in several countries in which WoW is popular.
In other words, yes this is a horrible stupid idea, but I don't think we really have to worry about it.  It's a numbskull suit decision that won't make it much further at all.
--Sam
"This is graveness."

Interesting that you should mention this idea.
Because further info has come up suggesting that one of the drivers of this policy is South Korean and Chinese laws that have recently been implemented.

EDIT: Found another article with more detail, at least about the Chinese law.

[Black Aeronaut]

... Seriously, WTF? Someone had better do something before the DoD decides to just yank everyone's internet privileges for safety's sake.