Blizzard Forums (WoW, SC, Diablo) now to post your real name beside your post

[Automata]

They are making some changes to the forums.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041

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. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.

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.

Since there are well over 1060 pages (20 posts per page) on the WoW forums, I thought I'd create a discussion here. I've added a poll to the top. Feel free to vote and voice your opinion.

Personally, I want to see Rainless' response along with a few others. You guys usually have a lot of opinion, which is what I'm looking for.

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Personally, I'm on the fence for this one. I like that it would effectively remove trolls from the forums, but I think it is going to introduce other issues. I have no problem that people know my name, even if you could get my information quickly (last name isn't common).

 

[Quigsby]

I agree that Trolling will be removed, but seriously... WoW has a lot of phishing (with regards to WoW accounts) I can't help but be concerned that something more serious will come of this. Maybe it's been the past year of a barrage of phishing emails that has me jaded.

 

[Dolk]

I've been playing this game since Alpha Beta, and back when the game first started, the forums were fun. You could poke fun of other guilds, and actually create wars on servers using the forums. Now its a pool of filth no better than /b/. People who post on there are over-achieving arsses that don't have anytime but to brag, or argue about things going on in WoW.

The WoW forums are nothing what they used to be and this will further degrade the forums. The 11 million strong player base now has the ultimate stalker ability... a real person's name. You have a name, you can have everything; thats how the saying goes.

Even though this can get rid of the problem where people log into different accounts to agree with a pathetic post he/she originally made, it will not fully get rid of the /b/ baby that is WoW forums.

 

[nightelph]

"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."

Can't say I agree with this statement.

 

[bchur83]

I dont think it should be an automatic enabled option. It should be an opt-in. I have accounts at other forums that allow you to add your real name to posts, but it is an opt-in option.

 

[Automata]

Would something in middle work? For example, first name a few letters of the last name? I know some others made suggestions such as "Pick one character as your 'main'" and it always posts from that. What if I switch my main or move servers? Etc.

I'd really like to see who is actually posting something (even without their real name), but I don't think this is the best solution.

 

[SteveLord]

Don't agree with it at all.

But I also do not use their forums...for reasons others have mentioned.

 

[Leviathan41]

I think it's a terrible idea. Stopping a few trolls is not worth the risks that come along with it.

 

[TheGreySpectre]

To me this ranks up there with the worst ideas on the internet. I don't want my name appearing on gaming forums when it is googled (I have a unique name). I don't think females should have to worry about the security concerns of people knowing that they are actually female and what there name is. And to top it all off a good number of people are immature jerks offline as well as online.

As I have a fairly unique last name, with my name you can pull up the apartment complex where I live.

If they do anything they should just make it so that people are locked into posting under one character/username.

This is just ridiculous, makes me glad I don't post there.

 

[BenF]

I can see the need to stop all the trolling that takes place on the wow forums. Just reading a couple pages in the thread the OP linked to demonstrates this. Using real names to stop online trolling will do nothing though, it will only lead to IRL trolling imho. This is just a terrible idea. I think they could solve the problem with better moderators (or perhaps more moderators). That is one of the reason's OCforums is awesome, there is rarely trolling or flame wars and if one pops up, the mods shut it down immediately. I understand that the wow forums have a much larger user base which would make this more difficult, but not impossible. Also, if bliz insists on having a single forum name why don't do they something like first name, first couple letters of last name, or require all posts to be done under one character name. The internet is not the place to post personal information, you'd think people would realize this by now.

 

[Shelnutt2]

I voted no and while I think having a real life name next to it might help, what is to stop people from making fake names? (Unless it's tied to your cc/payment option?) Also what about minors? I personally feel that real names of anyone under 18 shouldn't be shown, but then you'd be pointing them out like a soar thumb! To me there isn't a good option for this, besides not to enable it however. I think it is a good experiment and I'm interested to see how it turns out.

 

[BenF]

I voted no and while I think having a real life name next to it might help, what is to stop people from making fake names? (Unless it's tied to your cc/payment option?) Also what about minors? I personally feel that real names of anyone under 18 shouldn't be shown, but then you'd be pointing them out like a soar thumb! To me there isn't a good option for this, besides not to enable it however. I think it is a good experiment and I'm interested to see how it turns out.

I believe most people setup their wow accounts with their real name. Once your account information is set up you are unable to change it without formal legal documents. For example if someone gets a legal name change, they would be required to send blizzard the proper documentation. You are also unable to have account information deleted from your account.

 

[cornbread]

Never again will I purchase a Blizzard game, so there is my answer. Was going to get SC2 (and Diablo 3), but not now, nothing will change that.

According to Blizz they are doing this to help make the forums a better place and to help with trolling..yada yada yada.

My opinion, Blizz moderators just need to step it up and do their damn jobs. For example, our names are not posted here on ocforums.com, yet the moderation is flawless, granted I know these forums do not draw the same amount of people as the Blizz forums, but still, they (Blizz) could more more people to moderate if needed.

Also, from what I read about this subject, blizz is allowing people to "opt-out". BS! Because you cant opt-out if you need to post on the forums for support or whatever you may need without having your name posted as well. The only way you can opt out is if you never plan to post, so if you need some type of help...your screwed. Or you could call them on the phone, lol...GL with that. Back in my WoW days you could never get through to anyone.

 

[whooping_a_panda]

i've managed to own and play every blizzard game from the original warcraft, including a stint of wow stretching vanilla launch to ulduar and never once did i have a need to post on the forums. i dunno, since the starcraft battle.net launch i decided the blizzard community (especially en masse) was never worth my time to invest in and the less interaction i needed to subjugate myself to it was for the best. expanding on dolks 4chan reference. the battle.net community has been as bad as /b/ since it was launched, expecting those same people to behave different on forums instead of an irc chat is just silly.

which leads me to my stance to the name requirement. inherently i don't agree with it, but in reality i don't care because it would never affect me.

i have used their phone support, and its a pain to get ahold of anyone but after about 30 minutes of redails and 40 minutes of wait time got me through to a rep on three separate occasions, so its surely not impossible.

 

[darkknight187]

Question one, as an ex wow player who may have made a post or two previously my name won't be tacked on to posts I made before they made this choice?

Otherwise I'm fairly on the fence for this one I do see their reasoning and logic but I don't see it working as intended. Even if Blizzard only used paid moderation staff I find it hard to believe it would cause a huge dent in their monthly income/expenditure sheet to be considered an unfeasible way to handle the matter.

They could have also just plain worked on solving this problem with the forums while it was growing and not after things snowballed out of control.

Then again this is the same Blizzard that had a blessing of might and warrior ap shout mishap to then create the same identical problem with blessing of wisdom and the mp regen totem during their next update. (the shorter or distance relevent buffs would overwrite the 30min not distance impaired and sometimes improved buff)

 

[Automata]

Question one, as an ex wow player who may have made a post or two previously my name won't be tacked on to posts I made before they made this choice?

As stated in their post, it is NOT retroactive.

 

[cornbread]

They could have also just plain worked on solving this problem with the forums while it was growing and not after things snowballed out of control.

Exactly!

Could you imagine if someone post on these forums (OCForums) screaming, kicking, cussing, etc. I would imagine they would get a warning, then followed by a ban switftly if they continued.

The opposite happens on the Blizz forums. I remember during my WoW days people would cuss, be rude, yell out threats, whatever and the mods would just ignore it. On occasion they may ban someone, but the way the WoW forums are today is proof they didn't do enough.

I expect people to say, "well, blizz has 11 million subscribers, yada yada yada, it makes it hard to moderate the forums". If that is your thinking, that is an excuse...simple as that. Second, not all 11 million or whatever post on the forums.

And just to clear any confusion that may or maynot be out there, this isn't related to just WoW, if and when it is implemented, it will be Blizzard forums as a whole, SC2, Diablo 3, WoW, etc.

Blizzard has three serious issues I see. One is hacking gone crazy, although I agree it is up to the user to secure their account, it is also up to blizz to help out, authenticator is an excuse and more ways to make $$$. Second would be customer service. No one should have to wait on the phone (if your lucky enough to get in a que) hours on top of hours just to get an issue addressed. Third would be the issue of forcing people to use something just to be able to use something else, IE RealID.

Times have changed at Blizzard and it started with Activision.

 

[whooping_a_panda]

I expect people to say, "well, blizz has 11 million subscribers, yada yada yada, it makes it hard to moderate the forums". If that is your thinking, that is an excuse...simple as that. Second, not all 11 million or whatever post on the forums..

i think the operative word in this statement is missing. blizz has 11 million paying subscribers that will throw tantrums equal to that of their current disposition when told what to do.

its easy for us at oc to say there's the door because we provide a free service. its another thing if we required 15 dollars a month out of users and said, don't like it there's the door.

 

[Slayn]

I voted no, but upon further reflection, I don't really care. Blizzard honestly has one of the worst fanbases out there and the forums are absolutely horrible. I have NO reason to post there. I like these forums and I also post on Gamefaqs. I think gamefaqs has about the same amount of traffic as Blizzard on their forums, and it isn't nearly as bad. Blizz forums are just insane.

I can see this being bad though. The trolls will continue to troll, they don't care. The really bad trolls though will just find ways to grief the 5% of non-trolls left. I cant imagine people knowing my full name on the BLIZZARD forums of all places, then going on my facebook and looking up all my friends and sending them all messages saying im a blah blah, whatever.

 

[Puer Aeternus]

Its a interesting idea to make people accountable for their actions. Its a really bad idea if you are under 16....too many predators out there.
Perhaps if they moderated their forums a bit better, they would have less idiots. We dont use our real names here and this forum is very well run w/ lots of mutual respect, its the only forum I frequent.
The best solution....stay away from forums where idiots lurk.