Blizzard Forums will soon display real names

[Anarky]

http://kotaku.com/5580585/blizzard-foru ... -real-name

Kind of an interesting idea to combat flame wars and stupid post.

[Flip]

Yeahhhh, i sort of have a problem with the privacy issue. People with obscure unique names will get blown up on facebook and something tell me this could lead to something even worse.

Luckily for me, i dont care. Go ahead and try and look up Michael Lewis and tell me if you can find me, haha.

[Lox]

Yeah, or Alfonso Mchelberburgstein! Oh, wait....

[Anarky]

[Eric]

Uhh, the whole "We're doing this to combat forum trolls" is nothing but a PR spin.

Blizzard(Or Activision rather) has some long reaching goals they want to do with Battle.net, and basically turn it into the gamer version of Facebook, part of that is forcing people to show their real names and be social. There's money to be made in this, this is a business decision, nothing more nothing less, if you look at the thread http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 4700&sid=1 the negative feedback is ridiculous.

Yeah one of the community managers just pretty much confirmed that:

Just to respond to those that don't think we read through all of these responses and threads, we do and have been. We will continue monitoring feedback as well.

We put a lot of thought into this change and have a long-term vision for the Real ID service and wanted to make sure that we communicated ahead of time and very clearly as to what will be changing and how. Keep in mind that posting is optional, and we recognize that some players will choose not to utilize the Real ID feature in game or post on the forums and support everyone's individual choice on using or not using it.

This is obviously new ground for us and for you as well, but we want to make sure we're creating a great social-gaming service that people will want to use. We just want to make sure that if people are sharing feedback, that they keep it constructive, and yes, as I said, we are reading.

[Flip]

http://www.gamona.de/games/activision-b ... 69743.html

Rough translation/summary:

In order to defend the new Real-ID feature for BNet 2.0, community manager Bashiok posted his real name on the SC2 forums. Within minutes users were able to get information not only on his CV, but his telephone number, address, age and preferences as well. In addition, they were able to publish his wifes name, that of his cohabitants and the name of his childrens school.

To top it of they found a picture of his house via Google Street View.

Bashiok has already canceled his twitter account.

[Shrinweck]

This is on the same realm of stupidity as that CEO who released his social security number as part of the advertising campaign for that identity theft prevention service.

And, yes, his identity did end up getting stolen multiple times.

[Flip]

I feel bad for the forum moderator, it isnt like it is his policy, but he is the face of the forums. He has canceled his facebook now, too.

[Eric]

[Eric]

http://seewhatyoudidthere.com/2010/07/0 ... /#comments

I’m really not so sure about what’s so devastating about putting a name out. My real-life name is (removed). My cousins have problems finding me on facebook and social networks because when they try to search for me, there are hundreds of results. Your real-life name is very likely not going to be unique.

I don’t see how knowing someone’s name can turn into knowing everything about them. I welcome anyone to come to me where I work, then, if you can figure it out by my name, and ask me about my WoW characters.

Or call my cell phone, it will be on. Throwing myself out there.

I may be a decent human being, but it’s nigh-impossible for me to resist a dare like that. I set to work.

With just his first and last name and his wow toon’s name, I was able to find his twitter, facebook, home address, home phone number, work address, work phone number and parent’s names. The whole process took about 20 minutes. I immediately called the house, but no one was home. I sat on the idea of calling his work for a bit, and eventually decided to do so (he did ask for it).

The following is an ACTUAL PARAPHRASE of the phone conversation when I called his work (names and addresses have of course been removed):

Coworker: Hello?
Me: Hello, could I please speak with So-And-So?
CW: Um, sure, hold on.
Me: Thank you.
::hold music::
(a new person, female, answers)
Manager: Hello, this is Kimberly SomeLastName, can I help you?
Me: Yes, I was wondering if I could please speak with So-And-So?
Manager: ::pause:: Sure. Please hold.
Me: Thank you.
::hold music, five minute wait::
::(Male Voice)::
MV: Hello?
Me: Hello, is this So-And-So?
MV: Yes.
Me: First and foremost, I want to apologize for calling you at work, and I also apologize if this doesn’t make sense, but are you Sikketh, from Thunderlord?
MV: ::pause:: Yes.
Me: So yeah, that took me about 20 minutes and it was pretty easy.
MV: Wow. Ok.
Me: Also, just for shits and giggles, is your address ?
MV: yep.
Me: Phone number 555-555-5555?
MV: yep.
Me: I know your parents’ names are Name1 and Name2, I know your room is painted blue and I know you have a cute dog. I know where you were on the 4th of July and I know when you got back. Don’t worry, I’m not a crazy, I’m not going to do anything with it, and I’m not going to post your address or anything anywhere. I just wanted you to know that what I did was very easy and very free, from just your name and toon’s name. You have a good day, and thanks for being a good sport about it.
MV: Hey, I did basically ask for it – thank you. I was wrong about RealID.

[Don]

What's stopping you from using fake names for this? Are they going to require a credit card or some other form of ID to just play Starcraft 2?

[Eric]

A while back they changed login for WoW so you had to change from a basic account name/password to their BNET system/password, it wasn't optional, but it wasn't a big deal, just had to login with your email/password now as opposed to the old login system.

A good majority of users(Myself included) signed up and used their real information, obviously because you don't want to have issues down the line with the shit that's tied to your WoW account, and there was no reason to lie, Blizzard's WAS pretty good about keeping our information private.

Fast Forward to Real ID, and now they want to plaster all of the information we've signed up with on their forums. Had we known their full intention, yes we probably would have used fake information. I'd be Phoenix Wright or Apollo Justice ;p.

As it stands now though, there's no way to change your BNET name, short of calling their billing department with legal documents proving you've changed it, or gotten married, etc etc.

[Don]

Yeah that's what I figured, but if you haven't had an account yet you can easily just say your name is John Smith right? Of course you'd have to buy all 3 games again to do that, like the video said!

[Kupek]

If you signed up with your real name assuming it would never be "published" in any way, then I understand being upset. That's a breach of trust, but I don't feel that it's a breach of security. Given a person's name and usually one piece of information about them, you can uncover lots of this stuff using Google. That's just the world we live in now. Having your real name on a Blizzard message board would just be one more of hundreds of potential places your name will pop-up.

Anticipated response: "But it's better if we have one less." Not really. I agree it's marginally better, but only in the sense that using an eyedropper to remove one drop of water from a flooded basement is "better." I think it's more important for people to realize the world we live in now: anonymity is no longer the default.

[Flip]

Kupek, i think you are underestimating the gamer community and overestimating the amount of personal knowledge out there. It doesnt take much to piss off a random gamer, it doesnt even have to be a troll post, just winning a 1on1 PvP battle can draw his ire for him to start ordering pizzas to your doorstep. This doesnt happen now all that often because the current system is fine, an avatar name alone cant do anything... I dont care if my personal info is out there already, i still dont want it to be so easily in the hands of other random gamers. Just like i wouldnt post my name on 4chan.

[Don]

While all the personal info is clearly out there, it is not easily linked to places where you don't want it to be known. Your bank requires your name, and so does EBay, but you don't expect an angry buyer from EBay come try to kill you for selling something. You also generally believe these organizations will do something to protect your identity even if it doesn't always work as intended.

On the other hand the Internet forums is a rather volatile place. And currently it's actually pretty hard to figure out that Nostradomous on server XYZ is John Smith in real life unless you have a page somewhere that says "I am John Smith and I play as Nostradomous on server XYZ" (and in that case you presumably understood the risk to have something up). Yes people can obviously piece stuff together with enough work but it's a lot of work. If someone wants to look for Nostradomous right now they'd have to follow where you post, figure out what your interests are, and eventually they might figure out enough to make a reasonable guess who you are. Well the RealID eliminates all the guesswork.

[Julius Seeker]

I used to not give my real name or birthdate to bouncers at clubs and casinos when I was younger. Ah, how I miss those fine summer nights "Mr. Papageorgio! Your Lamborghini is waiting out front, we look forward to your business again. Please, have these two fine bottles of champagne on the house. Again, a true and honourable pleasure having you here."

[Anarky]

Blizzard finally decided it was a bad idea for the moment.

http://kotaku.com/5583405/blizzard-scra ... e=true&s=i

[Flip]

"Hello everyone,

I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.

I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you'll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.

In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters (http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/about/mission.html), and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning.

Mike Morhaime
CEO & Cofounder
Blizzard Entertainment "

[Flip]

WHat the! We both posted at 1:30 forum time! I wanted to wiiiiiinnn!!!?!?!

[Eric]

Owned newb! *Trolls you* ;p

[Kupek]

If you regularly participate on a message board, it's going to be hard to not share enough personal information that the other people can't figure out who you are without much effort. Combine that with Facebook, LinkedIn and personal websites and it's game over. We're fast approaching a society where you can point your phone at a stranger in a crowd and learn their name, profession, employer, DOB and probably see pictures of the last party they attended.

[SineSwiper]

http://www.gamona.de/games/activision-b ... 69743.html

Rough translation/summary:

In order to defend the new Real-ID feature for BNet 2.0, community manager Bashiok posted his real name on the SC2 forums. Within minutes users were able to get information not only on his CV, but his telephone number, address, age and preferences as well. In addition, they were able to publish his wifes name, that of his cohabitants and the name of his childrens school.

To top it of they found a picture of his house via Google Street View.

Bashiok has already canceled his twitter account.

That's just fucking epic. The epic fail of all epic fails.

[Tessian]

Publishing your customers' PII is not a good business move... you have to do what Facebook does and expect your customers to do it themselves.

I love the amount of backlash this is getting, it's about time people decided where the line was, and Blizzard crossed it this time.

[SineSwiper]

If you regularly participate on a message board, it's going to be hard to not share enough personal information that the other people can't figure out who you are without much effort. Combine that with Facebook, LinkedIn and personal websites and it's game over. We're fast approaching a society where you can point your phone at a stranger in a crowd and learn their name, profession, employer, DOB and probably see pictures of the last party they attended.

Frankly, I think Facebook and MySpace started this whole mess. For a time, people were content with just using usernames. Now, with the social sites demanding you put in your real name, the lines have blurred. Eventually, linkages form between the username and the real name, and that's exposes everything.

[Don]

If you regularly participate on a message board, it's going to be hard to not share enough personal information that the other people can't figure out who you are without much effort. Combine that with Facebook, LinkedIn and personal websites and it's game over. We're fast approaching a society where you can point your phone at a stranger in a crowd and learn their name, profession, employer, DOB and probably see pictures of the last party they attended.

Frankly, I think Facebook and MySpace started this whole mess. For a time, people were content with just using usernames. Now, with the social sites demanding you put in your real name, the lines have blurred. Eventually, linkages form between the username and the real name, and that's exposes everything.

A site like Facebook will be completely useless if you didn't reveal your identity. It only exists to share your real identity. You can sign up there as John Doe but the site is obviously intended to be used to find your real life friend. I suppose you can agree ahead of time with your friends that you'll all use some kind of code names but that'd just be way too much of a hassle.

[SineSwiper]

I know that, but before they existed, most everybody wasn't advertising their real name on the net.

[Zeus]

A site like Facebook will be completely useless if you didn't reveal your identity. It only exists to share your real identity. You can sign up there as John Doe but the site is obviously intended to be used to find your real life friend. I suppose you can agree ahead of time with your friends that you'll all use some kind of code names but that'd just be way too much of a hassle.

I don't use my real name on Facebook. The best part about that is that no one ever just finds you on it. I don't have people who I haven't talked to in 20 years finding me on Facebook and trying to establish a faux relationship again. I just keep in contact with my friends and family that I want to rather than 1000 people who happen to find me and message me.

There's something to be said for not using your real name if you want to stay in contact with sheep who happen to be your friends and family and don't want to use anything else.

[Zeus]

I know that, but before they existed, most everybody wasn't advertising their real name on the net.

That's because you mostly had nerds who were socially ostracized and lookin' for some level of social interaction on the net before then. Jocks and princesses didn't inhabit the 'net regularly until it became a social hub. Then the lunacy started

[Don]

A site like Facebook will be completely useless if you didn't reveal your identity. It only exists to share your real identity. You can sign up there as John Doe but the site is obviously intended to be used to find your real life friend. I suppose you can agree ahead of time with your friends that you'll all use some kind of code names but that'd just be way too much of a hassle.

I don't use my real name on Facebook. The best part about that is that no one ever just finds you on it. I don't have people who I haven't talked to in 20 years finding me on Facebook and trying to establish a faux relationship again. I just keep in contact with my friends and family that I want to rather than 1000 people who happen to find me and message me.

There's something to be said for not using your real name if you want to stay in contact with sheep who happen to be your friends and family and don't want to use anything else.

All those guys will have to know that you go by Zeus or whatever you call yourself on Facebook, and so on. It might work for a few people but it'd be extremely difficult to have an entire network based on that because it'd be difficult to keep track of everything.

[bovine]

If you don't want to post your real name on the forum you post on.... Maybe you are posting on the wrong forum. /shrug/

[Zeus]

A site like Facebook will be completely useless if you didn't reveal your identity. It only exists to share your real identity. You can sign up there as John Doe but the site is obviously intended to be used to find your real life friend. I suppose you can agree ahead of time with your friends that you'll all use some kind of code names but that'd just be way too much of a hassle.

I don't use my real name on Facebook. The best part about that is that no one ever just finds you on it. I don't have people who I haven't talked to in 20 years finding me on Facebook and trying to establish a faux relationship again. I just keep in contact with my friends and family that I want to rather than 1000 people who happen to find me and message me.

There's something to be said for not using your real name if you want to stay in contact with sheep who happen to be your friends and family and don't want to use anything else.

All those guys will have to know that you go by Zeus or whatever you call yourself on Facebook, and so on. It might work for a few people but it'd be extremely difficult to have an entire network based on that because it'd be difficult to keep track of everything.

I talk to the people IRL that I want to stay in contact with and I put them on my friends list. Then, once a month or so, I go on and see if I have any messages, maybe check the last couple of wall posts, and close the 10,000 suggestions Facebook has built up for me.A very limited, very specific use for it for those who don't really do email anymore or I don't have their email addy. It's not rocket science, it's just not the way most people use it.

[Zeus]

If you don't want to post your real name on the forum you post on.... Maybe you are posting on the wrong forum. /shrug/

So Bovine is your real name?

[Kupek]

Facebook and MySpace were inevitable. People are inherently social. The internet has became just another another way of communicating with other people, rather than something whose use is limited to a few technical people. As far as I'm concerned, the landmarks in the history of communication goes something like: written language -> printing press -> radio -> tv -> internet.

[SineSwiper]

Understood and I agree, Kupek. I'm not blaming them for creating something interesting. I'm not blaming them for anything, but it just happened to be a bad side effect of what they created.

Hell, it really makes me wonder how I can remove those linkages between my nick and real name. The links are everywhere, even my email address. From there, there's plenty of real name and city links (or real name/job links), which practically gets it down to one person.