Bnet forums to be Real Name Only - Page 110

On July 08 2010 11:10 cucumber wrote:
The big problem with Blizzard's change, to my mind, is that it's either shockingly ignorant & misguided or completely disingenuous.

"Anonymity" isn't the issue. This is a solved problem. For example, read this.

If Blizzard really believes what they say, the problem is they are embarrassingly and completely incompetent.

If Blizzard doesn't mean what they say, maybe they're not incompetent with respect to this issue but then there are deeper and more pernicious problems.

It's all just incredibly bad.

On July 08 2010 11:08 GMarshal wrote:


Fine, say that instead of cheesing this psycho you happen to refuse him from your clan in the blizzard clan recruitment forum, or you post a suggestion to nerf his favorite unit on blizzards forums and he just snaps, it can happen its easier for him to find you if he knows you by your real name rather than a handle that cannot be related to your real life.

Also the next logical step is to stop BM and Spamming in game by making you use real id there too

On July 08 2010 11:17 kajeus wrote:

Sounds like a lot of arm-chair theorizing to me.

Maybe this is a great idea! Maybe it will stop trolls and spamming. Maybe the Blizzard forums will become clean and useful for tech support and other things. Maybe it will save them lots of money. Seriously, who knows?

And, to repeat, I just plain don't accept that this carries nearly as many risks as so many of you assert. Privacy is a powerful western value, but I don't think it saves our lives or even makes them especially more convenient. Might it save one life out of 100000? Maybe? I don't know! Is anything really going to stop a "psycho" from tracking somebody down and murdering them? (How often has this happened in the history of the Internet?)

And I know, you've told me that people will get phone-harassed. Well, at least they're not getting hurt. And if you turn out to be right---if there's widespread carnage, with people calling other people up and calling them names---then the experiment is over. You win.

On July 08 2010 11:20 cucumber wrote:


Can you explain what "arm-chair theorizing" means and how Blizzard's thought process or yours is any different from mine, except that I have cited a world-famous computer security expert in defense of my position?

I agree that a lot of this and Blizzard's related thread is pure paranoia, but my point is that all of this could have been avoided if they have chosen a batter solution. That solution would have been (1) more moderators who moderate heavily; and (2) enforcing accountability on users who post.

On July 08 2010 11:19 Calamity wrote:
Look at how many little kids play these games, look at how many females play these games, then look at how many desperate stalkers and pedophiles are out there.

Sure older people won't need to worry about this but look at the more vulnerable people. Kids especially are just dumbfounded when it comes to their own privacy, even having Facebook with their numbers and address on them. Pair them with an Internet and you got yourself abductions.

On July 08 2010 11:28 cucumber wrote:
I agree with your points (2) and (4), but I don't think that's a critical problem.

I don't think it would cost a lot of money in the grand scheme of ATVI though and I see the possibility of (3) but I'm not too concerned about it.

We can agree to disagree about this without getting into a flame war, though.

On July 08 2010 11:10 cucumber wrote:

If Blizzard really believes what they say, the problem is they are embarrassingly and completely incompetent.

If Blizzard doesn't mean what they say, maybe they're not incompetent with respect to this issue but then there are deeper and more pernicious problems.

It's all just incredibly bad.

On July 08 2010 11:32 Gnosis wrote:
Or do what Valve does: "volunteer (not an employee of Valve) moderators".

Blizzard made 4 million dollars in 24 hours selling that mount. 4 million dollars can hire 80 people at a salary of 50 grand for a year. Next year they can sell another mount.

On July 08 2010 11:33 kajeus wrote:

A solution I'm positive they've considered and tried...


4 million dollars can do a lot of things. 4 million dollars could go into the next Blizzard game.

On July 08 2010 11:34 shalamadoooo wrote:

rofl

Any company is all about minimizing costs and maximizing profits, right? Well, a full staff of round-the-clock moderators who monitor each of the (tens of?) thousands of posts made each day on the Blizzard forums will definitely up those costs, I'd say.

On July 08 2010 11:36 ta2 wrote:

+1

On July 08 2010 11:37 kajeus wrote:

I see you boys are neither economists nor businessmen...