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I think that's the point though, to minimize trolling and take away the shroud of anonymity (sp?) that the internet provides.Originally Posted by Davih
Depending which one you're talking about the european data and privacy laws as said earlier this year are due to being 'updated'.
I'm fairly certain regardless of what, if you give your consent by agreeing on something that says you does.
You can't do anything about it you agreed upon it and saying 'will Sir Judge the contract was too long so i didn't read it!' isn't going to work in a court room
So all they have to do is put something on it when you start using forums again after the changes come true and they are save, there are other laws that go on about handing out personal information outside the european zone but i'm fairly certain forums are still split by continent and it's highly arguable if a name is enough to even make something out of it all.
In other words, don't hold your breath that this will be undone due to a law case, as those who attempt it won't have a leg to stand on.
I think that's the point though, to minimize trolling and take away the shroud of anonymity (sp?) that the internet provides.
[Today 09:38 AM] Reev: The older I get, the more I think those Greek philosophers were just annoying hipsters.
Guess I won't be providing technical support in the forums anymore then.
Oddly enough, there's five people with my name on Facebook.
In any case, I'm neutral to the point of disliking this immensely. To me, having studied law, this really encroaches on my freedom of privacy here, but legally I can't do squat because I agree to the terms when I sign the EULA and log onto the game. So, as such, my only options is to accept and abide by it, or move on.
For that matter, I choose to move on and simply not use their service. It simply is not worth my time and I rather not.
However it is interesting to note that a lot of people state that future job employments are at risk when it comes to this move. Due to us posting on a gaming forum, we may potentially shoot our foot for jobs that may come up in the future. I will admit that I know quite a few people that are higher placed in the world that play video games and have no problems stating so, therefore why is it that we are innately afraid of a person to know we play video games? What has made it so bad? Why is there even a stigma still associated with this? I can understand 10, even 20 years ago, but nowadays video games are mainstream as much as any other activity in the world. I wonder why it is that we have such a bad and wary look about being spoken out as a gamer.
No, every employer I've had knows that I play games and I am a gamer and an avid fan of MMOs. It has not deterred me once from getting a job I wanted either. Maybe it's just me but I never found it as a detriment. I find the arguments about that, as such, to be interesting.
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Oh I can't wait for even more spam when gil-sellers/marketing bots latch onto this.
I'm really glad I wasn't interested that much in Cataclysm. Now I *really* will not be sticking with WoW. Smart or not, it's absolutely disgusting to me.
Yeah I get what you're saying, I don't use those forums either I just think it's a shame that this will potentially dissuade people who genuinely have a reason for posting on there, to engage a CM or the GMs there for example, from doing so.
It's also fairly poor PR as this thread suggests. Tabloids, privacy campaigners and the like will absolutely make hay with this.
oh i know it's you because of the donor picture thread =P
Great move by Blizzard, no more negative postings all over their boards because all the people that criticize Blizzard will be gone.
Awesome!!!
Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Kodo mit seinem Rind.
so my main concern/question is simple.
Is there (or will there be) a way to request, receive, and follow through on customer/technical support from Blizz, without using the forums?
If not...that's a real problem. I believe strongly in my right to privacy. I pay to play WoW, and I think customer/technical support are provided as part of that subscription. If I can't contact support without having my private information displayed on a public forum, where other third-parties *not blizzard* can capture that info...then I have a real problem with this.
Mainly I guess I'm worried about "marketers", scammers, hackers, and other third-parties, who aren't Blizzard staff or customers themselves, having access to my private information.
Now, if Blizzard were to set the forums, so that only registered, paying-users and official blizzard staff members could acess (read) them - that might help to address my concerns.
//B
You'll always have ingame customer service and customer service thru phone and email if you do not wish to use the forums, that's a given.
Seeing identity is an issue mostly if people who don't play WoW pick up your name, would this be solved by making the forums private and only accesable and viewable if you owned a WoW account yourself?
Let me first say this: After spending over 15 years on the internet, I've come to terms that there are some things you just can't hide if you spend a lot of time there. Such things are your name, the country you live (and maybe city) and age. Somehow or another, depending on exactly what you do, is out there. For someone like me who also uses my name in my e-mails, I've come to accept it.
However, WoW is not a place where I want to share my name. The only people in WoW that knows my name are my guild mates and I'd like to keep it that way. I have a very unique name (if you search for it on Facebook you'll get 1 result only, and almost everything on Google is related to me) and imagine if 11 million subscribers to WoW could see my name... yeah, that's not exactly what I had in mind.
Sure, "stop writing on the forums" you say. That was my initial plan, especially since I don't write that often. But why should I be hindered to just doing simple stuff like reporting our guilds progress in a progress thread on our realm forums? Or just announcing a pug I'm starting? Or just having a laugh over the world PvP war we had with some allies?
I can totally understand why they're doing this. Having 11 million people write on your forums is bound to have flaming and trolling... but that's probably just a small percentage of the people actually doing something worthwhile. Should everyone else be punished for just some bad apples? And really, putting their own names on the forum isn't really valid. If you want to know who's working at Blizzard, you can probably just do Google search and that's it. It's not like they're keeping it a secret, you could consider them public anyone.
I think this is terrible idea. A full step in the wrong direction.
I have to totally agree with that statement. There is no legitimate reason to have "real" names publicly displayed on the WoW forums.
Forum Trolls can easily be stopped with some hard love moderation. Blizz can start with that when every they choose too.
Blizzard /rolls a 0
Self Crit for max damage.
Totally agree with you. We need the choice to display this information. A Persistent alias would more than fufil the purpouse, whatever it is.
As a gamer who is also a High School Teacher, who teaches many students that play various Blizzard games, I don't really like this idea. I don't really want my students to know everything I say on the WoW forums, SCII forums, etc. I don't make "troll" posts, but if I do want to comment on something, I'd like to do it in a way that won't result in 50 students assaulting me the next day for my opinions, and I would also like to be able to comment without risking my job.
I am not allowed to have any electronic communication with students personally, or I risk losing my job. I'm not even really supposed to answer an email that asks me what the homework was. If I start posting on Blizzard's forums and some of my students reply, I could get into trouble with my school system and lose my job - yes, the Catholic School System around here is PARANOID about that kind of stuff. I once had a former student track down my facebook page and they friend requested me. I declined the request and posted " I cannot accept friend requests from former students " and almost got canned for it simply because I replied to the student. I have since made my facebook page totally private, and its rather annoying.
I'm not sure how I could create a "psudonym" when my 3 WoW accounts are already merged with my 1 Battlenet account. The one bit of info you can't change on your Battlenet account info is the NAME. I've already changed my email address associated with my Battlenet account so that I could friend people in the Starcraft II beta without giving them my primary email address, and that was fine, even if it was annoying. This will basicly take away my ability to post on any Blizzard forum, no matter how constructive the post, because I really don't want to be hassled by students over my posts. Some of my former students know I game, and what games I play, and that's fine. I chose to tell them that info, but I've NEVER given them my character name/server so that they could track me down on the forums/in game.
I rarely post on the wow forums, since our guild forums are quite active and I lurk here at tankspot a lot as well.
However, I am of the opinion that this action by blizz accomplishes their stated goals for the changes, but it goes too far. They are solving one problem (or several problems, depending on how you look at it) but they are creating another problem. Sure, not everyone cares if their name is all over the internet, but some people do. With this change they are, in effect, removing from their official game forums part of what they are trying to generate with the change (i.e. responsible, constructive interaction).
It's a boneheaded move.
Maybe they consider it the lesser of two evils, but there's gotta be a way to maintain the privacy of those who want it, while removing some aspects of the total anonymity the countless trolls enjoy.
"Stop trying to hit me and hit me!"
~ Morpheus
Yeah they do. Remember that we agree to [/i]their[/i] terms of service. Not the other way around.
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....16898018&sid=1
Apparently addons can pull your RealID info, even if you do not have any RealID friends.
This is a pretty serious and poorly thought out direction to go. The common response might be "if you don't like it then leave", and I am seriously considering whether or not to spend any further money on Blizzard products at this point.
I honestly believe their real aim with this is unstated. They just want to lower traffic on their forums.
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