RealID -- Unethical and Dangerous

[Krenian]

Nailed it on the button Ciderhelm. I'll completely agree with what was stated here. You are removing the freedom to allow us to give out information or not. It's a huge invasion of privacy and completely unethical and has seriously damaged my view of Blizzard if they go through with this.

Not impressed.

[Kawdi]

With almost all negative reaction, you would think blizzard would start to second guess this decision. Possible repealing it. We'll see i guess. I'll still be posting on the forums but i don't have much reason to not, since i don't act like a tard monger on there...much.

[grindcor369]

What do you mean by Blizzard having "another breach in their account system"?

[Viertel]

I fully agree with Ciderhlem. And while I agree with the issue of privacy being comprised, what scares me more is that I could put my future at stake for simply playing a video game. What if my future employer googles my name and sees my recruitment thread I bumped multiple times a day? What if someone in a gay and lesbian friendly guild gets googled by their employer? I don't post on alts and I never say anything questionable, but even playing video games in itself can be questionable in the eyes of many employers. I'm frankly scared of this change, and while being pretty laid-back about most changes, even ones I dislike, Real ID may eventually be the reason I quit playing.

Maybe Blizzard thinks this is a strong business move, but I desperately hope they look at these communities and see that the response is almost fully negative. They are chasing off a lot of us, and the more they do with Real ID, the more people there are who will leave. This isn't good.

On the note of trolls, why can't they just make all accounts under one character? That way, even if you're posting on an alt, everyone can still see your other 80's? Your privacy isn't compromised and the troll population has been decreased.

This is a prime example of situations that people simply don't think about when they advocate Blizzard in the pro light. Simply put, I am gay and I've refused to use Facebook for this very reason: I am between jobs at the minute after graduating from culinary school and I refuse to lose any potential job opportunities due to an employer looking at Facebook and perusing my profile.

People need to wake up. It doesn't matter if it's legal or not to judge based on Facebook, or their sexuality, or even their preferences in hobbies (i.e. video games) when you are looking at a potential applicant. It is only illegal if you officially state that is a reason for declining them.

I didn't like the direction Blizzard was taking WoW with WotLK and was merely going to pass on Cataclysm unless something groundbreaking happens. But now, with this RealID situation, I don't even think I'll pick up Starcraft II or Diablo III simply because it's that disturbing to me.

[Samius]

/strongly agree.

terrible. idea. I feel so strongly about this that I will share my post on my guild forums earlier as soon as I found out:

So.....

Blizzard just implement this "super cool" RealID feature. I for one hated the idea from the get go. But what im hearing today is nothing but red cards:

First known security flaw with the system:
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/securi...e-names-witho/

Completely retarded, meaning you don't even have to "opt in" to the system to be a potential victim of cyber stalking.

But if that isn't enough......

Super fantabulous, cool new forums:
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/offici...-be-displayed/

So basically you cant even use an alias on an online forums?!?! what is this madness?


Honestly I think blizzard are really starting to cross that line of privacy. Their goals to prevent trolling are maybe a good thing, but you will never be able to stop it.
The problem arises when blizzard apparently take no notice of any of the potential security flaws or concerns that people have. Real names may be half way ok if it were not the full name. Half of the beauty of online gaming is the ability to use an alias, sure you can give people your full name if you want to, but blizzard are all out trying to penalize people that do not wish to share their real names (no new improved friend list, no ability to post on forums).
Did it ever occur to blizzard that some people like to keep a low profile, but still be active under their "alias" ?

I dunno, I hate this direction they are taking and I hope to hell they add some security layers to this soon. I would love to use real id if it wasn't so intrusive to my privacy. (most importantly my battle.net e-mail). But finding out that its possible to get my real name without me using the system is retarded to say the least.

[Pharos]

Hi folks. I've been playing and raiding since 2006. Today I woke up and was appalled at this.

I posted about this to them, and they locked my first post and banned me. I logged in on my room-mates account, they banned that too. The posts were saying NO to Real ID.

That is two accounts now. One with a 72 hour ban.. one forever. I'm not a happy customer right now at all. I've cancelled my sub, my roomie has, even my mother has.. and a friend of mine and her plus the other 4 people she lives with are also going to cancel for good with this.

That is 8 accounts right there quitting after the way we've been treated on these forums, and from this fascist change about to be implemented.

The main post is:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...d=1&pageNo=679

Now on the verge of tipping 14,000 posts. Their stock dropped today, this sounds like the Cataclysm that Blizz speaks so highly about. Who would of thought.. the real WoW killer could in fact be WoW itself.

I am not impressed, and they are on the verge of killing their company.. and facing lawsuits. I've never seen an online RIOT like this in my life.

[Viertel]

Interestingly enough, I saw this posted on the ZAM forums (of all places), where it's almost all fanbois:

What Blizzard is telling you here is, "You will give up your right to control this piece of personal information (and all the other personal information it may provide access to), or you will be less of a customer than those who do. Your voice will not be heard, and your feedback and opinions will cease to have value, and a major avenue for technical support and questions will be closed to you."

[kasanagi]

I fear the impending outbreak of trolls, usually confined in the official forum, looking for alternate source of trollage when they don't want their real name to be exposed and destroy every fan-based forums I visit D:

Someone need to start a facebook group protesting this just for irony sake.

[kasterd]

well on the other hand i think its great i can talk to my friends cross game cross realm etc. who cares its just a first and last name, i dont think your employer would even know what a guild is even be bother to investigate such things if he or she wanted you as an employee i dont think they would be bothered about your sexuality or game status

[kasanagi]

And what is stopping forum spiders datamining the official forums for targeted ads and emails?

[Manginae]

what abouts da trolls who make another battlenet account and fake name troll

[reepicheep37]

Due to the overwhelming community reaction, I have a strong feeling that Blizzard will amend the new policy. My feeling is that they will ask you to come up with a permanent thread pseudonym, or hell, maybe a full on battle.net pseudonym to link to your battle.net account. This solution feels right to me, and hopefully Blizzard sees that same solution.


That being said, I also think that the community reaction is way too paranoid and over the top. They cite extreme cases that would happen whether or not your name showed up (and hell, they did happen without a name). Even so, they complain that this change makes it easier to locate you, etc, etc (I'm sure you've all read the same forums I've been reading, so you know the story)...and that may be true, but I'm willing to bet that the same people who would do this with a name, would do it without a name. And the whole "Oh noes! Future employers will find out I'm a gamer! QQ!"...because a few employers have done it with facebook. In today's climate, I highly doubt any employers would care that you're a gamer...hell, they probably are as well. As long as you're not being an ass on a forum, you shouldn't have a problem. And if they DO find your name in the forums, they don't come with pictures, so you can easily claim ignorance.

As for the arguments about unique names or female players, I feel like those 2 are valid and worthy of recognition. I have a semi-unique name, and I personally wouldn't mind anyone knowing it, but I can understand those who don't want theirs known.

Lol, hell, I hardly ever post on forums unless there's a hot topic going on where I feel like putting imput *coughcough*

Have a nice day!

[Ajren]

Fully agree with you Ciderhelm. I'll be yet another player who will no longer be participating in the forum community.

[reepicheep37]

To add on to my last comment, I think that adding in

"Their other, less-discussed goal is the creation of a Blizzard-owned Facebook which they can directly monetize and which can also provide an advertising platform for future games."

to your post Ciderhelm, is pure conjecture and makes your argument look weak. Once I got past it, it was hard for me to keep taking you seriously. I did, because I'm sure you didn't mean for it to sound the way it does.

And don't they already use the forums as a platform to advertise for future games? I think I remember seeing a forum post about SCII when it was announced...

[tharapper]

Fully agree with you does anyone know if we could petition up and going I would be the first to sign it of course using my real id name lol

[Bludstorm]

Due to the overwhelming community reaction, I have a strong feeling that Blizzard will amend the new policy. My feeling is that they will ask you to come up with a permanent thread pseudonym, or hell, maybe a full on battle.net pseudonym to link to your battle.net account. This solution feels right to me, and hopefully Blizzard sees that same solution.


That being said, I also think that the community reaction is way too paranoid and over the top. They cite extreme cases that would happen whether or not your name showed up (and hell, they did happen without a name). Even so, they complain that this change makes it easier to locate you, etc, etc (I'm sure you've all read the same forums I've been reading, so you know the story)...and that may be true, but I'm willing to bet that the same people who would do this with a name, would do it without a name. And the whole "Oh noes! Future employers will find out I'm a gamer! QQ!"...because a few employers have done it with facebook. In today's climate, I highly doubt any employers would care that you're a gamer...hell, they probably are as well. As long as you're not being an ass on a forum, you shouldn't have a problem. And if they DO find your name in the forums, they don't come with pictures, so you can easily claim ignorance.

As for the arguments about unique names or female players, I feel like those 2 are valid and worthy of recognition. I have a semi-unique name, and I personally wouldn't mind anyone knowing it, but I can understand those who don't want theirs known.

Lol, hell, I hardly ever post on forums unless there's a hot topic going on where I feel like putting imput *coughcough*

Have a nice day!

I am sorry but I do not think that the forum is overreacting on this one. Potential employers do and will google your name when you apply for a job. It has become standard procedure now. Googling your name does not bring up your XBox Live details, your Xfire page or anything. Why should it bring up my warcraft threads?

I am sorry mate employers do care if you game. MMO's in general and WoW in particular have a stigma attached to them. Potential Employers DO NOT LIKE GAMERS as employees. Oh they cant tell you that face to face but you will find that your resume has joined the metaphorical bottom of the pile. Gamers are considered to be unreliable Man-Children. If you have a unique name (as I do) posting on the new Blizzard forum is tantamount to adding a line in your resume that says "I play a game that allows me to run around as an elf casting spells and has received bad press about being addictive"

There is also harassment. My name is fairly unique (The first page of google results point to pages with me in them) and unmistakably non-caucasian. I do not want any thread that I open to descend into racial epithets.

Also If I need product support for a game I bought and one that I pay money to play every month why are my only two options expose my real name online or call the telephone line only to wait on hold for eternity and then get told to post on the forums.

[Mhoram]

Hmmm... All of a sudden, everyone's against this. A few hours and another thread ago, everyone was for it.

What could have changed?

Mind-boggling.

[Khue]

Not a lot brings me out of lurking, but I completely agree Cider's sentiments. I am not sure who the responsible party was at Blizzard that failed to point out what's wrong with this concept, but they need to be canned.

[loadtoad]

I never thought I would see this. Guys RealID is an untested security nightmare waiting to happen. Mark my words there are already security researchers, and bad guys working on breaking this system. I have made it my next project. There are already addons that can pull this information out.

Blizz should go talk to the Steam guys about producing a quality digital distribution and communication system.

From an information security practitioner my advice stay away from RealID if you can.

Lets hope blizz rethinks this position.

[reepicheep37]

Hey, I didn't say that there wasn't reason to complain. In fact, complaining in this case I feel is justified, just not on certain basis. Like I said in my first post, I feel that people with unique names or that are female have valid concerns, and I wouldn't insult them to say that they're not.

What I did say in my post, was that there was an overreaction. The overreaction being certain parts of the argument. If you don't have a unique name, there is no picture or other information included, so there is no employer that could confidently conclude that the certain poster is you (again, this doesn't apply to people with unique names...and to be perfectly honest, if your name isn't something like "Apple" or something similarly strange, I would be willing to bet that there are other people with your name). I understand that certain employers would have unfair prejudices, but unless they had previous prejudices about you (say you had a spotty work record or something), I doubt many would make the connection without other personal info.

Also, I would think that racial epithets are strictly enforced, given the way most organizations I have ever been a part of operate. If someone spouts hate-speech, I'm sure they'll be flagged and removed from the forum. And if they don't, well, that's another issue.

But again, I agree wholeheartedly that this implementation needs to change. I'm just trying to sharpen the edge of the argument against it by weening out, what is in my opinion, the weak parts.