Blizzard just LOL'd at privacy

[NoQuarter]

If you don't think you can piss off anyone here you clearly are not trying hard enough.

Lol, true - but I surely would acquiesce before pushing something that far, I just don't have it in me Whereas playing an MMO as intended, without being a dick, can still end up pissing someone off.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Blizzard to Associate Player’s Real Names With World of Warcraft Forum Accounts, Perpetuate Largest Cock Block in Human History.

In a surprising move earlier this week, Activision-Blizzard announced that they would be displaying all forum poster’s first and last names using the RealID system following the release of the latest WoW expansion, Cataclysm.

“We think that this will dramatically cut down on the amount of abuse and flaming currently present on the forums.” said Blizzard Community representative Ron Winters, “For too long, abuse, threats and flaming have been commonplace in the forums and we feel that this move toward using a poster’s real name will shift the general tone of the forums to one of mutual respect, level-headed discourse and a healthy spirit of competition.”

“Also, we’re going to take away what little chance those fucking forum nerds ever had of having sex in the first place. As soon as someone Googles their name: boom. No one wants bang a level 80 Warlock who spends the better part of his Thursday nights debating the finer points of high level cooking recipes, listing the stats of Teebu’s Blazing Longsword and firing off 16 page missives as to why we can’t sell a $25 glowing brine shrimp mount. Well guess what fellas? Fuck. You.”

The World of Warcraft forums have exploded following the announcement, with an overwhelming percentage of posters opposing the move.

Cory White is one of the posters most upset with the changes.

“I’m just, you know, afraid that my personal information will be exposed. I use the forums to be a complete douchewad to people I don’t even know, so that I can feel better about myself and now Blizzard is going to take away my anonymity? It’s completely unfair. Where else can I go on the internet to be a random shithead to strangers so that I can distract myself from my boring and otherwise meaningless existence? Exactly: nowhere.”

He added,“And even if I do decide to post on the forums, any woman could Google me and see what I was posting. Any woman at all could Google Cory White, 32567 Lexington Avenue, Sacramento California, 94204 and find out that he works part time at Hot Dog on a Stick at the mall but gets off of work at 8 and you could reach him at 408.658.2579. Any woman could do that. Seriously. Any woman.”

 

[waggy]

hahahah nice post JS

 

[SunnyD]

My simple reaction in the end is that I simply want to know exactly how many people (percentage) will quit WoW based on this action. The game, not the forums.

Anyone? Anyone?

 

[ViviTheMage]

I do not care, hopefully will detour all botters/spammers.

 

[NoQuarter]

My simple reaction in the end is that I simply want to know exactly how many people (percentage) will quit WoW based on this action. The game, not the forums.

Anyone? Anyone?

0.1% of the forum goers which is 0.001% of the WoW population. Even the ones threatening to quit are too addicted to follow through.

 

[kalrith]

My simple reaction in the end is that I simply want to know exactly how many people (percentage) will quit WoW based on this action. The game, not the forums.

Anyone? Anyone?

To Blizzard all that matters is the following calculation:

# of subscribers added - # of subscribers lost > 0
​

To answer your question, I seriously doubt many people will quit playing WoW because of the change to the forums. However, I could see quite a few people quitting WoW if they make RealID in the game mandatory. I know if they make it mandatory on Battle Net, I'll be much less likely to go on there.

 

[Jschmuck2]

hahahah nice post JS

<3 Please feel free to check out the website in my sig FOR MOAR HILARIOUS GOOD TIMES

 

[smackababy]

I really don't understand how all of you are so against this, yet quite a few of you post way more detailed information on Facebook and such.

The Blizzard mod made a huge mistake. All those douche bags posting his information did it anonymously. When that isn't the case, they wouldn't have done shit.

 

[NoQuarter]

I really don't understand how all of you are so against this, yet quite a few of you post way more detailed information on Facebook and such.

The Blizzard mod made a huge mistake. All those douche bags posting his information did it anonymously. When that isn't the case, they wouldn't have done shit.

Cuz people Facebook to Facebook and WoW to WoW?

And when will these people not be able to post the info anonymously? That info was first posted on 4chan afaik. Even if they couldn't post it anonymously you think that would stop them? Shameless people are shameless.

 

[Modular]

I really don't understand how all of you are so against this, yet quite a few of you post way more detailed information on Facebook and such.

The Blizzard mod made a huge mistake. All those douche bags posting his information did it anonymously. When that isn't the case, they wouldn't have done shit.

I have a choice concerning who sees what on my Facebook account. I can even hide my public profile so that no one can ever see it. Good effort though...

 

[Dumac]

Anonymity is the best thing about the internet.

I really don't see how anyone could be FOR it. Maybe you could not care and be apathetic, but FOR it?

What the hell are the pros?

 

[kalrith]

Anonymity is the best thing about the internet.

I really don't see how anyone could be FOR it. Maybe you could not care and be apathetic, but FOR it?

What the hell are the pros?

[idiot]"cuz it cutz down on dee trollz and makez ppl accountibull"[/idiot]

 

[BoberFett]

so do the post office, the phone book, utility companies, schools, work places, web registrars, and on and on. Home address ? oh no !, lol
My information has been public for over 15 years online, never had a single problem.
Are people really that paranoid ? Go outside , experience the real world.

Are you truly trying to equate the post office having your address with some unstable jerk you pissed off online having that information? To the post office you're just one address among millions. To that guy you killed repeatedly online, you're a focus for his anger.

I can think of numerous ways to make your life miserable from halfway across the country without ever leaving my chair. I'm guessing that Blizzard employee has learned his lesson. Clearly you haven't.

 

[Paladin3]

Standard business practice of transferring the costs of doing business onto the customers. Blizzard can either pay to police their forums or pass a simple realID policy fucking everyone over and cleaning things up at the same time. I pay for the game, pay a monthly fee to play and now I've got to pony up my real name too if I wish to continue slaying pixel monsters in my spare time?

And, yes, my last name is VERY unique. I just googled it, 794 results, and only 4 hits from the first 5 pages I browsed through were not family. I knew there was a good reason I stopped playing WoW.

 

[Zargon]

my real name + my location = hit on my employers website with my work email and phone #, my bosses email and phone # ETC. Not to mention my office address.

I'm just lucky I don't have a home phone I guess


this makes me want to not buy starcraft 2 if I cant play online without this BS.

 

[smackababy]

I have a choice concerning who sees what on my Facebook account. I can even hide my public profile so that no one can ever see it. Good effort though...

You also have a choice not to post on the official WoW forums. You also have a choice not to buy the game in the first place if you don't agree with how it is run.

But I guess those choices are too hard to grasp. Good effort.

 

[coloumb]

I really don't understand how all of you are so against this, yet quite a few of you post way more detailed information on Facebook and such.

The Blizzard mod made a huge mistake. All those douche bags posting his information did it anonymously. When that isn't the case, they wouldn't have done shit.

Myspace, Twitter, Facebook... you can use a fake name or a different variation of your real name. I do it to ensure that only people who know me are on my friend's list.

As for examples of your name listed with the phone book, schools, utilities, banks, post office, etc - other than the school - that information is NOT public knowledge. You can opt out of the phone book [and probably the school listing] and most places won't just hand out your name, address, etc.

My name is so unique that I've encountered only 1 other person who had the same first/last name [he died of old age about 15 years ago - never met him - found out when the government sent me a tax notice that showed I had died].

I do see you can change your contact information on Battle.net. I wonder if I could change my name, delete my credit card info, and if I chose to play, use a game card? Hell - you could probably easily just fake a court ordered name change to have them change the name on the account [and pay using a gamecard].

Maybe if I was a trashy tv attention whore then I'd be jumping up and down for joy for RealID. Or maybe if I was a famous movie star - I'd also be happy for RealID so people would know who to spam when I wanted to play anonymously in the game... /smirk

 

[NoQuarter]

You also have a choice not to post on the official WoW forums. You also have a choice not to buy the game in the first place if you don't agree with how it is run.

But I guess those choices are too hard to grasp. Good effort.

Yep, but it's pretty silly to not be able to play a game because it offends your sense of privacy and I would choose not to play it myself. But it's a game. It shouldn't be controversial.

Facebook et al allow you to participate *and* adjust your privacy settings to accommodate your preferences. There's no reason a game should be more imposing on your privacy than a social networking site.

 

[Modelworks]

Are you truly trying to equate the post office having your address with some unstable jerk you pissed off online having that information? To the post office you're just one address among millions. To that guy you killed repeatedly online, you're a focus for his anger.

Sure. What is to stop a worker at a post office who doesn't know me from coming after me because he hates the magazines I read ? People like that are the minority , but if you live your life in fear that they are the majority that would be a sad life. How many players on WoW ? To them you are just one name in millions. In a way I think people must feel special in some way that out of all the millions of players they are the one that everyone will go after. Ever read news pages or blogs ? millions of people post much more personal information and often about inflammatory topics and I don't see hundreds of attacks.

I can think of numerous ways to make your life miserable from halfway across the country without ever leaving my chair. I'm guessing that Blizzard employee has learned his lesson. Clearly you haven't.

Anything you do in the physical world can be traced back to you. Are you willing to risk jail just for a game ?

 

[flashbacck]

Anonymity is the best thing about the internet.

I really don't see how anyone could be FOR it. Maybe you could not care and be apathetic, but FOR it?

What the hell are the pros?

I have no idea if it'll stop douchyness on the forums, but I do enjoy watching everyone freak out. That makes me for it.

 

[Jschmuck2]

What are you people doing that you're afraid of someone coming to kill you?

My name is in my profile. Boom.

THERE YOU GO INTERNET! ARE YOU HAPPY?!

 

[Bill Brasky]

"I, the poster, am one of the following:

-Paranoid
-A woman
-Ethnic minority
-Conveniently of an alternate sexuality
-Wearing a tinfoil hat
-Protested at G20 summit
-Retarded
-Durrrr hurrrrrr blurrggggghhh

I will:

-Pretend to cancel my account then go back to playing World of Warcraft
-Find other things to complain about, because that's what I dooo
-brb mom made kraft dinner"

LOL

THERE YOU GO INTERNET! ARE YOU HAPPY?!

You show 'em who's boss. :awe:

 

[Modular]

You also have a choice not to post on the official WoW forums. You also have a choice not to buy the game in the first place if you don't agree with how it is run.

But I guess those choices are too hard to grasp. Good effort.

If you'd taken the time to read my posts in this thread you would know my issue is with the fact that I believe this to only be the beginning of the privacy invasion.

I'm aware that I don't have to post there, but where will this stop? Nice attempt.

Yep, but it's pretty silly to not be able to play a game because it offends your sense of privacy and I would choose not to play it myself. But it's a game. It shouldn't be controversial.

Facebook et al allow you to participate *and* adjust your privacy settings to accommodate your preferences. There's no reason a game should be more imposing on your privacy than a social networking site.

Exactly. I think a few people work for Blizzard here. That, or their too inept to understand invasion of privacy.

 

[CKent]

I made a new bnet account under a false name. I'll probably transfer the characters I want to play to it, then sell the original account (after getting it forum-banned, of course).