Blizzard Forums to use real ID name

[Hurlshort]

It wouldn't bother me here or there, honestly. I would love to ditch the name hurlshot, but I've just been using it too long.

[LadyCrimson]

lol, exactly. And this is one of the better forums I've ever been a member of.

 

My main issue is I don't like having everything I type trickling into search engines. In real life we can pick & choose who to tell what to, based on trust and friendships etc...with impartial search engines, you never know who is going to read it. Thus you might end up with a lot less interesting 'net conversations if ppl feel they can't talk about stuff w/out being paranoid of who may one day read it three years from now.

 

But yes, bottom line it's Blizzard's forum and they can do what they want. It will be interesting to see how it works for them.

[213374U]

I think the idea is that if people have a small level of anonymity pulled away, they may think twice. This may not be the case.

 

Though if Mr. Public Official was a gigantic douchebag in the Paladin forums, it certainly would be laugh out loud funny if his antics were exposed haha.

 

I was thinking more along the lines of derailing and general disruption, which could be more work for the mod team instead of less.

 

George W. Bush: I can't believe the last pally nerf. Like, totally useless!

 

John Doe: OMG hihi mr president u sure can dodge shoes

 

Joe Blow: Jews did 9/11

 

Serious account and ID management can also keep alts to a minimum and maybe even be a useful and non-invasive DRM system.

 

 

But I suspect this will likely increase in the amount of fake names. Having said that, I heard that that is VERY risky should your account be compromised. I recently had my account compromised and things all went off without a hitch. Imagine calling Blizzard Support saying you're name was Amanda Huggingkiss

Yeah, I guess it will depend on how strict they want to get with regards to personal data. If you can use a fake name to register the account, the whole system is pointless.

 

 

The better question is, how many of you would post here under your real name?

*raises hand*

 

I mean, no way my real name could be more ridiculous than my current handle.

Edited July 7, 2010 by 213374U

[Purkake]

Also, if everyone would do it, it wouldn't really matter that much anymore.

[Calax]

Thing is if you need tech or customer support that a GM in game can't handle, they say "go to the official boards" so that the tech crew can work on it, meaning that if you want GOOD tech support you HAVE to let your name be seen.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

At the very best we'll get tons of Alan Smithee. Although I have to admit that if they only displayed people's first name, it'd be fine. Much harder to stalk/scam/etc... people.

[Hurlshort]

Is Alan Smithee the canuck version of John Smith? That's weird.

[Enoch]

Is Alan Smithee the canuck version of John Smith? That's weird.

From on the rules of the union that Hollywood directors all belong to, it's the one pseudonym that directors are allowed to use if they don't want their real name associated with the end product. E.g., David Lynch's adaptation of Dune was officially directed by Alan Smithee.

Edited July 7, 2010 by Enoch

[Amentep]

The better question is, how many of you would post here under your real name? >_

 

I posted for many years on USENET under my real name and on other message boards.

 

When I joined BIS back in the day, the norm was pseudonyms so I went with what was the norm.

 

In retrospect, I prefer pseudonymously posting - not so I can troll but for my own personal reasons.

[Gizmo]

It's not like anyone is forcing you to post on their boards. Their boards their rules.

 

Bad idea (as we all know).

 

I'd be surprised if their forum moderators would be comfortable with that.

 

Just look at the Justin Bieber fiasco (never heard of him before yesterday), but just imagine the havoc this will cause.

If by "Justin Bieber fiasco" you mean epic trolling and by "havoc" you mean hilarity, then I agree wholeheartedly.

Both

 

(but I really meant the more malicious [ and character defaming] 'pranks' that some would commit if they had a grudge ~and a real name to pin it to.)

[Thorton_AP]

Last I checked the forums were still a gongshow.

 

At the same time, it's probably easier to get the trolls to just leave of their own volition, then to get 1000 moderators to try to keep up 24/7.

Point taken, but I'm still not convinced that using real names is going to discourage the career trolls that much, if they aren't also convinced that Blizzard will somehow use that to better police/punish trollish behavior.

 

 

I think one of the main "features" is that it removes posting under the level 1 alt. THough that could have been fixed by just using a standard user name. This is a bit brute force.

 

Given the "outcry" so far, I think this is already convincing a lot of people (trolls or otherwise) to rethink their postings on the WoW forum. Some people have already gone back and deleted old posts in case the change is retroactive.

 

The cynic in me wonders if that's because they acted like a dip**** and don't want people googling their name and seeing what a retard they can act like when they aren't accountable for their behaviours. The people claim it's because they just want to protect themselves and so forth, but I'm always skeptical. If there's one thing I've learned not to trust, it's people on the internet

[Thorton_AP]

Thing is if you need tech or customer support that a GM in game can't handle, they say "go to the official boards" so that the tech crew can work on it, meaning that if you want GOOD tech support you HAVE to let your name be seen.

 

In my experiences with Blizzard, if you want good tech support you go online and file help tickets on their website without actually using the forums whatsoever.

[LostStraw]

This has to be one of the worst ideas.. ever. This will not take away the power from trolls, it will give them more tools to be even more malicious instead. Now they'll be able to imitate real individuals as well as be able to harvest a wealth of information on posters they want to harass online and off. This might get rid of the casual trolls but it opens up so many more avenues of attack that it's just appalling.

 

It's not like blizzard doesn't have the income to hire more moderators and implement some decent forum systems that would reduce the trolling problems they have....

 

Protesting folks are already harassing one of the mods who gave out his real name (see the comments):

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/American...Gameriot.com%29

[Jorian Drake]

How does Real ID know what your name is?

 

Certainly if its manual entry then all you have to do is pick something that seems like a real name. If its pulling off your billing information, I'd be a little worried about data privacy.

not to mention it is hard to check it if you aren't american

 

 

...and now imagine how the names will look as if you see those of asian peoples, you will not get any more clever from looking at "scribble"

[Tigranes]

I feel sorry for that particular mod, but in the grand scheme of things, this just shows you what this poorly thought out idea can do. It'll be very very easy to use twitter, facebook, workplace websites, google maps, etc., and get all kinds of material about a lot of posters. If it happened here, with the small tidbits about each regular member that I remember (e.g. mkreku was/is a video game journalist) I could look up a lot easily - hell, if I was lucky, I could do something like ring Hurlshot's home with only a small amount of effort.

 

It doesn't really solve any problems, either - all it does is make Big Brother that much more real.

[Jorian Drake]

I feel sorry for that particular mod, but in the grand scheme of things, this just shows you what this poorly thought out idea can do.

I agree

 

 

It doesn't really solve any problems, either - all it does is make Big Brother that much more real.

this is "big sister" not "big brother"

 

big brother watches over you and protects you, but does not really mess with your life and criticize your decisions, while big sister does

 

 

People use an alterego for a reason, if Blizzard doesn't realize it then it will lose some people of its millions of supporters, although I guess it wouldn't be a difference to them yet

 

 

 

EDIT: btw when did you become a mod Tig?

Edited July 7, 2010 by Jorian Drake

[Calax]

uh, a while ago now...

 

that said, I should check the "blue tracker" to see if they've responded anymore

[Hurlshort]

A couple things that strike me:

 

That mod who got his info. posted apparently has an open facebook account. You can pretty much expect that sort of thing when you put all your information in an easy to find place. I'm sure someone here could do some decent research and come away with my vitals, but it wouldn't be a one step process.

 

Also, are folks aware that the mod probably doesn't make any money doing that job? Maybe Blizzard is the exception and they pay, but moderators on forums typically get nada.

 

I see this also as a case of eventually being too much information to really be a problem. If we know the real name of everyone, it no longer becomes all that powerful. For example, I deal with bad drivers on the road all the time. I could follow them home or to work and create problem for them, but that is insane. Right now it is a novelty, but that will wear off and most folks will realize what a waste of time it is and how it isn't worth tracking down every internet bad driver.

 

Except for the few psychos, they will have a field day with this.

[Tigranes]

I've always been a mod. Before I was working as a mole to try and gain your trust.

 

Hurlshot - eventually, perhaps, but that 'eventually it won't be that bad' is no good reason to open a slippery slope and leave open room for exploitation.

[LostStraw]

A couple things that strike me:

 

That mod who got his info. posted apparently has an open facebook account. You can pretty much expect that sort of thing when you put all your information in an easy to find place. I'm sure someone here could do some decent research and come away with my vitals, but it wouldn't be a one step process.

 

Also, are folks aware that the mod probably doesn't make any money doing that job? Maybe Blizzard is the exception and they pay, but moderators on forums typically get nada.

 

I see this also as a case of eventually being too much information to really be a problem. If we know the real name of everyone, it no longer becomes all that powerful. For example, I deal with bad drivers on the road all the time. I could follow them home or to work and create problem for them, but that is insane. Right now it is a novelty, but that will wear off and most folks will realize what a waste of time it is and how it isn't worth tracking down every internet bad driver.

 

Except for the few psychos, they will have a field day with this.

The Facebook account of the moderator was recently closed, possibly due to the harassment. The mod in question is a paid employee of Blizzard and he's an important community manager working with Diablo 3 mostly. On the forums there are blue names and green names for moderators. The blue names are are Blizzard employees while the green names are volunteers from the community, I'm not sure how much power the green names have though.

 

The forums have been quite bad since the game launched and it worries me that the people who troll the forums and cause it to be the cesspool it is right now will have access to this extra bit of information that will make identifying a person that much easier.

 

The thing about data mining is not necessarily that one piece of information will reveal your identity but rather many small pieces will. People are upset about the change because they still want to participate in the official Blizzard community but also want to keep their real life and their game life as separate as they can. This can be especially important if ones peer group would ostracize them for playing such a game. It can also be important in terms of finding a job, employers already search through social networking sites and I expect this would be another potential avenue. The thing with social networking sites is that when I post information I expect it to be public and attached to my name.. not so much with a game forum.

[Tigranes]

The next step is an automatic aggregator of available internet information on a person that employment services, police and other institutions can use to comb the web, and then make basic checks about what forums they participate in, their level of internet activity, etc.

[Thorton_AP]

While he made his point, I do honestly hope that that godmode chap faces legal ramification for his actions.

 

We can sit here smugly going "hahaha told you," but the reality of it is he demonstrated his complete lack of integrity in doing what he did. In order to prove a point, he decided to post someone's information all over for all to see. There are better ways he could have gone about doing it.

 

But he justifies himself because the mod shared this information. Tsk tsk.

 

Sometimes I wish humanity would just hurry up and eradicate itself. I'm not a religious person, but I doubt any of us really deserve anything but the eternal damnation that would supposedly come to us.

 

Le sigh.

 

 

As the "blue" said, his name has already been in the game manual of every game he's been a part of. It's not like his name is a secret.

Edited July 7, 2010 by Thorton_AP

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I'm still open to this if it's first name only.

[LostStraw]

The next step is an automatic aggregator of available internet information on a person that employment services, police and other institutions can use to comb the web, and then make basic checks about what forums they participate in, their level of internet activity, etc.

http://www.spokeo.com/

I only searched for a few folks and couldn't find them but this does seem to be a popular site for people searches. There was a lot of information on the people who did come up in the results though.. although I can't be sure how accurate that information is. When looking up myself it gave some outdated address information and said I was in my mid 90's. There are probably better sites with more available information but it's not really something I want to dig into

[Gorgon]

I dunno, I mean first of all I don't care because this is WOW, but it does seem like they are asking too much of people. I blame facebook.