Blizzard Entertainment, creators of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft, recently managed to do something it doesn't manage to do often: make people furious. All it took were plans to strip anonymity from its fans by making them use their actual birth names on Blizzard's message boards.
But all the venom of the last few days--this insane outpouring of hatred from devoted but scared forum users--is needed no more. Blizzard has announced that its real-name plans are toast. So, you can stop posting Blizzard developers' phone numbers, pictures, and other freaky information, jerks.
Blizzard community rep Nethaera posted a letter from company CEO Mike Morhaime on the World of Warcraft message board (via Kotaku) this morning explaining the decision.
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.
== TEASER ==From what I gather, a big part of the reason Blizzard wanted to use this Real ID system was to clean up the forums--to keep people accountable for the words they share on the message boards. A vocal minority didn't like this idea. Protest in the original announcement thread was commonplace, as users voiced fears and concerns, like worry over Internet stalking for female World of Warcraft players.
Xx_Bunnyfan_xX4373 Real ID was going to be used first on the StarCraft II message board starting on the game's July 27 release date. The World of Warcraft board was to adopt this policy when expansion Cataclysm launched.
There was an uglier side to the rabble, as documented by VG247 and Kotaku. Some users began throwing out personal details of Blizzard employees, phone numbers and the like, in a sorry attempt to prove a point.
Changes are still coming to the Blizzard message board. Morhaime notes that post ratings and better searching is coming. He also mentions that Real ID in Battle.net games, which is primarily used to help friends communicate, will not be cancelled.
" @Metal_Mills: Yeah, because that information is available on facebook and the phone book. Hell, I can make up a name, look in a phone book and then check the internet for information."
Which where those pesky advertising calls come from.
It's sad to see that Megan Meier lost again. This is why I was in agreement with Real ID: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/686259/the_girl_who_will_change_the_internet.html
It's unfortunate that the harassment can continue and people won't have to answer for for their terrible actions and attitudes.
What's the basis for this statement, I wonder? Perhaps a vocal minority voiced their complaints, but that doesn't mean a minority didn't like the idea...
edit - lol, looks like I was far from the only one to have that complaint about this little article.
@MichaelScott: On the other hand, even people who visit the official forums on a irregular basis have seen what kind of cesspool it can (or has?) become. I remember the drama when Tseric, a community manager, "retired". Anonymity promotes discussion, of course, but it also seriously F's up the signal to noise ratio.
GB is late because Brad is the only one who seems to be interested in SC2. They should make a StarpodCraftcast and invite Husky or some other big community guy!
Also, I think the RealID is a great idea... if there's no way for people to have the name "A. Nonymous".
" It doesn't matter if you use you real name or not. I'm pretty sure those Blizzard employee info is fake. They're just trying to scare people so they can get away with talking shit like they always do. And to prove it: Christopher Hedy That's my name. Go ahead and try to do something. "
http://www.myspace.com/dawnofgaming http://www.facebook.com/chrisdhedy Took about 20 seconds. One piece of information leads to another. Someone who actually wanted all of your information could have it quite readily. There is already a thread with near 50,000 replies on the WoW forums about this. Guess who won? Stop fighting a fight that has already been lost. "
Thanks for proving why real ID is bad. Like the wee man said if I say posted this on 4chan your life would be hell. I do not want my real name on the bliz forums considering how shitty they are (says blizzard) I love how this is the 3rd time Blizzard has changed it mind on something because of the outcry
Brad Nicholson seems to think that exposing everyone's personal information is a bad thing. This article really says more about Brad Nicholson than it does about Blizzard.
Glad they stepped back from the concept. Just the idea behind real ID is baffling to me. I mean there's nothing stopping you from a) using your real name as your nickname if you really want to, or b) telling people you play a lot with your real name.
I'm not sure how it would prevent trolling either, wouldn't people just create alternate accounts to troll or use fake names? Oh, and don't tell me "yeah, if you're bothered by real ID, why don't you make a fake name?", that's the exact role of your nickname fills in pretty much any other forum.
Even in-game (in Starcraft 2), I find it dubious, but at least it's optional. The weirdest thing about in-game real ID is that your real ID friends' real ID friends can see your name (unless they changed it). Also, why isn't this text field scrollable in fireflox?
" There was an uglier side to the rabble, as documented by VG247 and Kotaku. Some users began throwing out personal details of Blizzard employees, phone numbers and the like, in a sorry attempt to prove a point. I strongly disagree with the implication that this was some sort of sorry perverted vendetta. You know, I could just as easily check up on a certain Brad Nicholson. I bet you would be thrilled to read every detail of your private life. "
They are doing the very thing that they dont want to happen to them.
Precisely, therefore they did exactly what was needed. The Activision/Blizzard higher-ups were obviously not willing to listen to the concerns and belittled the risks of identity theft and stalking (as do many consumers, sadly), so why not give them a radical preview of what's really going to go down? There are clinically sick and disturbed people out there, folks. "
Let's be completly honest. How many people, in the WoW were gonna go out and find people's personal info? If people were s so hellbent on trying to find people's personal info, they would try Facebook or Myspace before they would even think about WoW.
It was the internet over-reacting and to try to prove a point, you do something completely unnecessary, you know.. better word: DUMB. You dont have to break the law to prove a point and the sad part about it, that the people who did it, hid behing an internet forum name or "Anonymous".
Invading a REAL person's life isn't worth proving a point on the internet.
Invading a REAL person's life isn't worth proving a point on the internet. "
What makes you so sure no one would do this to you? "
Yes, b/c having to use your real name on a forum that is completely optional is all worth getting all up in arms... And being complete assholes about it.
I rarely post in Blizzard forums and haven't posted anything there in years, but I'm glad they've reversed their position on this. We're all in favor of less trolling and more respectable discussions, but anonymity is not something to be screwed with.
I don't want people knowing who I am and tracking me down. I don't want my employer or future employers or people who might otherwise do a search on me in my life to necessarily see "oh, what's all this videogame crap he spends time with?". I don't want a search on my name to pull up pages and pages of videogame related stuff.
Yo Blizzard, when you're the biggest dealer of the digital equivalent of crack cocaine, if a vocal minority gives you shit, tell to fuck off. They'll be back.
Let's think about this... The Giantbomb staff puts their real names out there. Yet they never seem to get stalked, or have random internet dudes showing up at their house (at least as far as I know, they don't). If it was going to happen to anybody, it would be happening to them all the time. Nobody is going to find you with just your name. I'm betting there are thousands of people out there with my same name. And even if they could find me, well, they were determined, and woulda found me eventually anyway, even without knowing my real name.
I love how these people trying to "prove a point" couldn't prove the point just by giving out a Blizzard name. They had to give out a name, a telephone number, a photo, etc. I think that right there proves that no one has anything to worry about by just having their name known. Otherwise these "point provers" woulda just given out names, and that's it.
No. The only people against this are forum trolls, griefers, and other generally nasty people. Who thrive on abusing internet anonymity.
" The only people complaining are the jerks who have something to hide.
Well, then why not shout your name and address to every random stranger and hand out leaflets with all the personal information you can think of, including a full disclosure of your vocation, finances and sex-life. Why bother with privacy at all? You got nothing to hide.
I'm at least happy their sticking to their guns on real ID for battlenet, the need for accountability is much greater in online games than it is in forums.
And this article is no different in subjectivity than most anything usually posted on here, games journalism is highly subjective - something the editors let us know all the time so we can take away our own opinons. It just appears that this time many people happen to disagree with the tack taken and therefor feel its time to raise a ruckus about journalisitc practice, one we have abided by since the beginning of the site and before.
I don't have much confidence and I see a girl on a RP server and she posts on the forums. I'd want to google her name for her FaceBook and MySpace so I can learn more about her. I'd find our her likes/dislikes, and then figure out if she has any relationship troubles, and then find her location.
I'd want to talk to her outside of the game. I know things would go much better if I were to "accidentally" bump into her as she goes about her regular life in the real world.
As a long time and current WoW player who has little social interaction, Real IDs could help me out and help me find women to fall in love with me. "
EDIT: This isn't my statement, it was posted some where else...as most know here, I hate WoW.
I think this move makes sense for Blizzard. They have always been extremely gung-ho on removing people who cannot act in a manner appropriate for a community.
Employers who want to know what you do can already go on your facebook and look at all your possibly shameful stuff. Does adding WoW to their information really change their perception of you much?
If you don't want people to know anything about you, just don't post anything on the internet at all. Delete facebook, delete your twitter, delete your linked-in, delete your email accounts. Use a dynamic IP and change it every day.
Really don't see how this is such a terrible thing.
@atomic_dumpling Remove your address and finances from facebook then. Why are you posting that sort of stuff on the internet?
Sure everyone has things they don't want the world to know for security reasons (and some because they're jackasses) but that doesn't mean everyone in the world is stupid enough to post it all in forums or sites where access is easily obtained.
I was laughing my ass off at the whole personal info from the blizz employees. That was the perfect sting to prove a point, DON'T put personal info on the goddamn internet for others to see.
Invading a REAL person's life isn't worth proving a point on the internet. "
What I had heard from someone who actually saw the thread involved, is that some Blizzard or Activision employee said everyone was making a big deal out of nothing, and then said something like "to prove that there's no big deal with using your own name on the internet, here's my name: Bob Smith." or whatever.
To me, this sounds like blaming tigers for mauling someone who hopped the fence at the zoo. He asked for it, and he got it.
" I was laughing my ass off at the whole personal info from the blizz employees. That was the perfect sting to prove a point, DON'T put personal info on the goddamn internet for others to see. "
Normally I would say this is totally crossing the line but seeing as this was the exact situation they were about to unleash on all their users (troll or otherwise) I'd say, in this case, it was the appropriate tactic to take. A pretty standard goose/gander situation.
" I think this move makes sense for Blizzard. They have always been extremely gung-ho on removing people who cannot act in a manner appropriate for a community. Employers who want to know what you do can already go on your facebook and look at all your possibly shameful stuff. Does adding WoW to their information really change their perception of you much? If you don't want people to know anything about you, just don't post anything on the internet at all. Delete facebook, delete your twitter, delete your linked-in, delete your email accounts. Use a dynamic IP and change it every day. Really don't see how this is such a terrible thing. @atomic_dumpling Remove your address and finances from facebook then. Why are you posting that sort of stuff on the internet? Sure everyone has things they don't want the world to know for security reasons (and some because they're jackasses) but that doesn't mean everyone in the world is stupid enough to post it all in forums or sites where access is easily obtained. "
Why can't they remove those who cannot act in an appropriate manner? The forum posts are already traceable back to your Battle.net account, what would adding a real name accomplish? If they actually moderated the forums properly they could still remove the trolls' ability to post through their Battle.net accounts
Wow, I hadn't heard about this, but I'm glad they reversed their decision. That sounds like a really bad idea and a complete breach of confidence and trust between Blizzard and their customers. Like, that's almost lawsuit-worthy.
Also, the posting of personal information of Blizzard employees was a completely appropriate and effective response. If Blizzard's going to be doing the exact same thing to their customers, then why should I feel sorry for Blizzard when their customers do it to them? It apparently worked, too.
" I love how these people trying to "prove a point" couldn't prove the point just by giving out a Blizzard name. They had to give out a name, a telephone number, a photo, etc. I think that right there proves that no one has anything to worry about by just having their name known. Otherwise these "point provers" woulda just given out names, and that's it. No. The only people against this are forum trolls, griefers, and other generally nasty people. Who thrive on abusing internet anonymity. "
" Yessir.
Micah Whipple, at your service. Like all employees I've also been in every game manual and credit reel since I've been here. "
That's the blue post which lead to them founding out everything about him. Are they supposed to just repeat "Micah Whipple"?
And no not everyone against this is a troll. "Oh you don't agree with me?! You're just a troll and a nasty person!" What a splendid way of thinking.
@MAST said: "I love how these people trying to "prove a point" couldn't prove the point just by giving out a Blizzard name. They had to give out a name, a telephone number, a photo, etc. I think that right there proves that no one has anything to worry about by just having their name known. Otherwise these "point provers" woulda just given out names, and that's it. No. The only people against this are forum trolls, griefers, and other generally nasty people. Who thrive on abusing internet anonymity. "
You realize, of course, that their point was that they could use your name to find out your telephone number, photo, etc. Right? Give someone your name and they can find out a lot about you. You'd be surprised.
Invading a REAL person's life isn't worth proving a point on the internet. "
What I had heard from someone who actually saw the thread involved, is that some Blizzard or Activision employee said everyone was making a big deal out of nothing, and then said something like "to prove that there's no big deal with using your own name on the internet, here's my name: Bob Smith." or whatever. To me, this sounds like blaming tigers for mauling someone who hopped the fence at the zoo. He asked for it, and he got it. "
Attacking someone is still attacking someone.
I write for the examiner, my real name is on the website, and in all myarticles I link to my facebook and twitter account. I also write for another site which my real name is on, and no one has tried putting my info out there. Becauze I'm not important... look at the Giant Bomb crew, almost everone here knew were the office was and the GB Crew's names and no one made attacks against them.
" It doesn't matter if you use you real name or not. I'm pretty sure those Blizzard employee info is fake. They're just trying to scare people so they can get away with talking shit like they always do. And to prove it: Christopher Hedy That's my name. Go ahead and try to do something. "
http://www.facebook.com/chrisdhedy It's quite possible you put a fake address there for lulz, but otherwise everyone can find your address. I don't want random WoW trolls finding my address, but that's just me. "
Yeah I had to use an old address because my ex got into my Facebook and threatened to have some dudes come down to my house to do some shit. So uuummmm yeah. Try to figure out my new address. Lol. I'm pretty sure it won't happen. "
So if you had not been stalked before, we could stalk you now. Erm. At least you learned the first time...? EDIT: Haha, I found posts on an anonboard of people messing with you by tracking all of your purchases back when you used Blippy. Heh, you're famous. "
Lol. Damn. That's an old card too. Still, good luck with that.
There were 2 groups that I thought were funny in the antiRealID camp. the ones that thought that having their name on the forums would somehow lead to punishment/stalking/bodily harm due to in-game activity. the ones that were up in arms about it being an invasion of privacy yet freely posted all of that information and more on facebook/twitter/myspace.
" It doesn't matter if you use you real name or not. I'm pretty sure those Blizzard employee info is fake. They're just trying to scare people so they can get away with talking shit like they always do. And to prove it: Christopher Hedy That's my name. Go ahead and try to do something. "
http://www.myspace.com/dawnofgaming http://www.facebook.com/chrisdhedy Took about 20 seconds. One piece of information leads to another. Someone who actually wanted all of your information could have it quite readily. There is already a thread with near 50,000 replies on the WoW forums about this. Guess who won? Stop fighting a fight that has already been lost. "
Dude, I'm not trying to fight. Just making a point. All you found was a very old Myspace page and my Facebook page. What can you do with that? Talk crap like everyone else does on the internet? Now, if you can get a hold of my address and phone number, then I'll change my mind. Trust me dude. I'm not some cheap ass 13 year old girl who gets affected by social networking crap. So, have fun.
Everyone is making way too big a deal about this name thing.
1st of all, if someone REALLY wants to stalk you, they will be able too. Groups like Annonymus do it ALL THE TIME. If someone REALLY wants your info on the internet, they will have it.
2nd, nobody cares enough to stalk you. What, you think if disagree with someone, they'll track you down to make you pay? What sort of insane world do you think we live in? Yeah, that's POSSIBLE. It's also POSSIBLE you'll get a type of cancer that effect 1 in a million people, and die. There's no way you can convince me that using my real name will put me in danger in any REAL sense.
It's quite funny, this whole situation. Gaming forums are full of rage and trolls. These forums share that problem on occasion. The big issue is accountability. and with pure anonymity being a big cloak, you can pretty much say what you want when you want without risk of real danger. This is partly why the entire internet is such a spiteful place.
The Steam Forums use a "reputation system" but you can only +rep, not -rep, which is totally useless when it comes to accountability. There are festering amounts of trolls there, specifically the Team Fortress 2 sub forum, and the mods can't really smother them because they are vastly out numbered. It's a damn shame because a lot of people have good discussion ideas that just get shit all over by people with a 12 year old mentality.
On another note, Gamefaqs used to be absolutely unbearable until they added the karma system. It's still relatively bad. But how does one go about auto banning such fools? A finite number of -reputation/karma on a single post, multiple times. like 3 terribly rated posts and they shut the doors on you?
I'm wondering how blizzard is going to make this work.
" It doesn't matter if you use you real name or not. I'm pretty sure those Blizzard employee info is fake. They're just trying to scare people so they can get away with talking shit like they always do. And to prove it: Christopher Hedy That's my name. Go ahead and try to do something. "
http://www.myspace.com/dawnofgaming http://www.facebook.com/chrisdhedy Took about 20 seconds. One piece of information leads to another. Someone who actually wanted all of your information could have it quite readily. There is already a thread with near 50,000 replies on the WoW forums about this. Guess who won? Stop fighting a fight that has already been lost. "
Dude, I'm not trying to fight. Just making a point. All you found was a very old Myspace page and my Facebook page. What can you do with that? Talk crap like everyone else does on the internet? Now, if you can get a hold of my address and phone number, then I'll change my mind. Trust me dude. I'm not some cheap ass 13 year old girl who gets affected by social networking crap. So, have fun. "
I could find out where you lived, if I wanted to. From there, it's really easy to find out pretty much everything about you anyone could ever want to know. Things like the value of your house, educational history, family/relationships...
But I don't feel like being banned from Giantbomb just to prove that to you. Check out whitepages.com and pretty much any googlemaps app. It's scary how easy it is with just a name.
@Lethkhar: See, you have A point, but here's where it breaks down.
Even if you DO find out where someone lives, chances are they live nowhere near you. You'd have to piss off a LOT of people to find one near you that is SO MAD that he feels he has to MEET you in real life.
You can gwet stalked for anything! Maybe I jaywalked one day and some nutjob follows me to stop me from doing it again. Maybe I get a promotion and a disgruntled employee follows me. Who knows? But the chances of someone reading something I wrote ON THE INTERNET and getting so up in arms they visit me at my house is insane.
" There was an uglier side to the rabble, as documented by VG247 and Kotaku. Some users began throwing out personal details of Blizzard employees, phone numbers and the like, in a sorry attempt to prove a point. I strongly disagree with the implication that this was some sort of sorry perverted vendetta. You know, I could just as easily check up on a certain Brad Nicholson. I bet you would be thrilled to read every detail of your private life. "
The thing is. it was BEYOND stupid what the user did. To purposely go out and post a dude's PERSONAL info just to prove a point? They are doing the very thing that they dont want to happen to them. If that happened to any other user, they would flipping table and possibly looking into pressing charges or else. You don't prove a point by being a jackass. You prove it, by being intelligent and engaging in intelligent discussion. "
Wait how is it personal if a simple google search brought it all up. Sorry mate the internet is not private. Was it still a jerk move? yes. Still isn't personal if you voluntarily put it on the net. "
While I agree that it was kind of a jackass move, how else were you supposed to prove the point that Real ID was a bad idea without googling someone's name? "
Every time I Google your name I get images of Steve Carrell... But I do know this:
You work at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. THE INTERNET IS SCARY.
Edit: Also, I support the repeal of Real ID on the forums.
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