9th of July update: In the wake of some 12 million people complaining about the Real ID name change, Blizzard has reconsidered their wish to bring real names to the forums. Nethaera made a post on the US forums, saying that due to the community’s feedback, they have decided to scrap the idea.
I think it’s nice to see that Blizzard does in fact still have the players in mind, despite people’s claim that they are simply droning for Activisions moneyhogging. It would have suprised me if they had gone through with the idea with all the negative feedback they got on the forums. Blizzard still loves us, and we still love Blizzard. Now, lets go kill some dragons!
The other day, Blizzard released a press statement regarding some of their plans for Real ID in the future. If you have been living under a rock, the Real ID is the new system in World of Warcraft and in upcoming game releases, which allow you to “connect” with friends via e-mail, with no restrictions based on server, faction or even game.
With their press release, Blizzard shared with us their brand new idea: Lets have forum posts show peoples real names! If you have seen my previous post on Real ID, you will know that I think that there are some security and privacy risks with the Real ID system, although they are some that can be circumvented rather easely. These news, however, adds a whole new level of concern.
Blizzard states that their reason for wanting to show players real names on forum posts is to avoid the trolling and the not so serious posts. Their sentiment is that, if people can see your real name – and find out who you are – you won’t be quick to troll them. This makes my face spasm in ticks, because it could also be a way of saying “If someone IS trolling you, well, try and google their name”.
