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Yeah, this is a perfect example of what is going to happen to everyone who posts on one of those forums. Address, phone number, and other personal information will be available to everyone. Sure hope Blizzard realizes that these thousand posts here are by in large against this change.
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On July 07 2010 07:17 InfiniteIce wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:14 Scientia wrote:
Whether this stems trolling is irrelevant. They're breaching upon ethical codes with this, and blatantly disregarding their consumer's right to privacy.
Isn't this against their ToS? So much for "Blizzard will never share your personal information". On this note, and this is an extreme long shot, does anybody know the process of starting a complaint with the appropriate boards in USA? I'm thinking of how the Korean FTC did with the SC2 EULA. This is probably not even viable, but something that could (should?) be explored... PS: Micah's Facebook was created on July 1st, 2009. So it's (most likely) not just some alias set up in advance to prepare for the shitstorm this change has created. Now I really feel bad for Bashiok.
Huh? You CHOOSE to post on their forums! Your "right of privacy" is being 100% respected, unless you CHOOSE to post!
Seriously, this is getting so weird...
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On July 07 2010 07:15 MuTT wrote: Yes this change will actually work in our favor. Some people are surely going to send hate mail to his house or give him a text or call on restricted. It is good for us because now they have repercussions of what they announce to the public and the choices they make. I dare one of the Blues to post " LAN will never happen, for your enjoyment " with their real name. Before we could only threaten with omgggzz ima cancel my preorder but now we can do much much more *mauhahahaha*
Im soo curious to know how many phone calls he has received to his house. Will he be forced to unplug his phone when he goes to sleep?
If 4chan decides to do something about this, this poor guy is going to have such a rough time.
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On July 07 2010 07:19 InfiniteIce wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:16 kajeus wrote:On July 07 2010 07:13 maybenexttime wrote:
This is one of the dumbest decisions made by Blizzard yet.
Blizzard's official forums attract some of the worst people on the internet. It's almost a given that someone will make use of that sort of information... I would be interested to know how often the following people have been personally targeted by creepers or murderers for have their names known: Jinro, Nony, Day[9], HuK, Idra, Artosis, Goatrope, KawaiiRice, TheGunRun, Liquid`Nazgul, Tasteless... Man, I guess I could just go down the streamer list... THe thing about this is that they aren't forcing *US* to respond to them, ask them questions for the Day9Daily, Ask Idra!, or anything else, using our real name, on a service we paid for, that can ONLY be used while connected to the internet, a place where anonymity is key. Plus, people actually like the players/casters/people you mentioned.
HuK, Idra, Artosis, and KawaiiRice have been involved in many a flamewar/feud, man. :D
Blizzard is not forcing YOU to post on their official forums! Something you did not pay for, fyi.
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On July 07 2010 07:20 im a roc wrote:Yeah, this is a perfect example of what is going to happen to everyone who posts on one of those forums. Address, phone number, and other personal information will be available to everyone. Sure hope Blizzard realizes that these thousand posts here are by in large against this change.
Yeah, someone's gonna spend their time gathering information about the thousands of people who post on the bnet forums. Yup.
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On July 07 2010 07:08 kajeus wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:07 baskerville wrote:On July 07 2010 06:49 Shirolol wrote:
I honestly don't see what the problem is at all, why would I care if someone knows where I live and what my name is? Or anything about me for that matter.
I think you're all being a tad paranoid here talking about e-stalking and the likes, this change means nothing apart from the people that act like tumors might stop now - and is that a bad thing? I don't think it is.
Either way I never post on the blizzard forums, it provides nothing I can't get elsewhere - and generally of a higher quality. (Here, for example.) good for you, how bout kids who don't know better and are careless about what they divulge online? blizz/activision are setting a dangerous standard for game forums And what stopped kids from doing this before...?
ohhh nothing you are so spot on
now they'll do it thinking it's expected, that's hardly an improvement
since the launch of the internet the proper authorities have declared endlessly that the ONLY way to protect people from the dangers of the internet is to prevent (mostly kids and fragile people but it concerns everyone) from divulging their identity online (and any other info that are liable to be used by dangerous people) ... it's the only way that the professionals advocate, who are we to disagree?
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On July 07 2010 07:20 kajeus wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:17 InfiniteIce wrote:On July 07 2010 07:14 Scientia wrote:
Whether this stems trolling is irrelevant. They're breaching upon ethical codes with this, and blatantly disregarding their consumer's right to privacy.
Isn't this against their ToS? So much for "Blizzard will never share your personal information". On this note, and this is an extreme long shot, does anybody know the process of starting a complaint with the appropriate boards in USA? I'm thinking of how the Korean FTC did with the SC2 EULA. This is probably not even viable, but something that could (should?) be explored... PS: Micah's Facebook was created on July 1st, 2009. So it's (most likely) not just some alias set up in advance to prepare for the shitstorm this change has created. Now I really feel bad for Bashiok. Huh? You CHOOSE to post on their forums! Your "right of privacy" is being 100% respected, unless you CHOOSE to post! Seriously, this is getting so weird...
So Blizzard will only receive feedback from people who don't value privacy. I don't want their decisions involving the games I want to enjoy to be swayed by people who are fine having their personal information broadcasted to everyone on the internet.
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On July 07 2010 07:18 kajeus wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:14 InfiniteIce wrote:On July 07 2010 07:12 kajeus wrote:On July 07 2010 07:09 InfiniteIce wrote:On July 07 2010 07:08 kajeus wrote:On July 07 2010 07:07 baskerville wrote:On July 07 2010 06:49 Shirolol wrote:
I honestly don't see what the problem is at all, why would I care if someone knows where I live and what my name is? Or anything about me for that matter.
I think you're all being a tad paranoid here talking about e-stalking and the likes, this change means nothing apart from the people that act like tumors might stop now - and is that a bad thing? I don't think it is.
Either way I never post on the blizzard forums, it provides nothing I can't get elsewhere - and generally of a higher quality. (Here, for example.) good for you, how bout kids who don't know better and are careless about what they divulge online? blizz/activision are setting a dangerous standard for game forums And what stopped kids from doing this before...? Nothing. But what compelled/forced kids to do it before? Nothing. Huh? First of all, young kids legally can't post under their names anyway. Secondly, your argument is first that they "don't know better," and then second that they "are forced." There doesn't seem to be any logical consistency to what you're saying.  It's bad that they're forced because they don't know better...? I believe you are not reading the replies accurately. I'm not the droid you're looking for... (You didn't originally quote my post. I simply responded to yours. The "don't know any better" isn't my argument.) Ohh, sorry. So YOUR argument is simply that they're being forced now and that's bad. Well, they're only forced if they choose to post and can legally use their own names on one particular public forum. So they have two choices: don't post or take responsibility for their posts!
I direct you to the Bashiok articles linked to in the previous few pages, where he gives his full name.
You have my argument correct. You argument is:
a) dont post
b) take 'responsibility' for your posts.
Define responsibility in context here. If you go to the forums to make a serious balance feedback post, and it is generally well-received, is responsibility in this context extendable to being harassed by phone, email, social networking sites, even in person at your home?
It only takes one fuckup who disagrees with you to make 'responsibility' ruin your life.
Since you are in defense of this, will you then post your full name? Take responsibility?
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On July 07 2010 06:49 Shirolol wrote:
I honestly don't see what the problem is at all, why would I care if someone knows where I live and what my name is? Or anything about me for that matter.
I think you're all being a tad paranoid here talking about e-stalking and the likes, this change means nothing apart from the people that act like tumors might stop now - and is that a bad thing? I don't think it is.
Either way I never post on the blizzard forums, it provides nothing I can't get elsewhere - and generally of a higher quality. (Here, for example.)
maybe this trend concerns more than just you?
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On July 07 2010 07:19 Shirolol wrote:Does anyone else feel a bit uneasy at how pathetic the entire blizzard community is acting about this whole thing? Ok, so you now know that guys name.. So you googled him (Why?), found out a bunch of pointless information about his preferences (again, why?) and then felt strongly enough about his preferences to make a blog about it and then claim that hell is opening up and we are all going to be swallowed. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you have to - in most normal situations in life people just don't really care what your favourite movie is, where you live, or even what your name is. But suddenly when the internet comes along, if anything about you personally is ever found out it's the worst thing to happen since.. I spilt some tea on my leg the other day - and it was still luke-warm tea aswell, nasty. You can find all the information you want about anyone in the world right now, without your name being shown on a forum to do with blizzard games. So what's the difference if you can see them? Fact of the matter is: Stop over reacting, step back and look at how ridiculous you are being.
This is the assumed reaction. If you're going to make a retarded decision that breaches others privacy for some completely unknown reason, guess what? We'll prove the point. I hope they call the shit out of that phone number, I even hope he gets a few fake death threats, maybe the message will sink in for the higher-ups that make these wonderful decisions.
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On July 07 2010 07:03 heishe wrote:lol this is so fucking good. I hope he gets stormed with phone calls now.
I actually like the real name idea, to a degree. I think this is the direction technology is heading but we aren't there yet. The reason I quoted the above user is that I think we don't realize that often our username is just as identifying as our actual names. It took me less than a minute to learn the full of heishe by just the username. This system just makes it obvious, but most people including myself use the same username across many access points making it not to different from your real name. Of course since they are so close to the same, why not less us choose a RealID ID that is good for your whole account and doesn't change.?
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On July 07 2010 07:22 baskerville wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:08 kajeus wrote:On July 07 2010 07:07 baskerville wrote:On July 07 2010 06:49 Shirolol wrote:
I honestly don't see what the problem is at all, why would I care if someone knows where I live and what my name is? Or anything about me for that matter.
I think you're all being a tad paranoid here talking about e-stalking and the likes, this change means nothing apart from the people that act like tumors might stop now - and is that a bad thing? I don't think it is.
Either way I never post on the blizzard forums, it provides nothing I can't get elsewhere - and generally of a higher quality. (Here, for example.) good for you, how bout kids who don't know better and are careless about what they divulge online? blizz/activision are setting a dangerous standard for game forums And what stopped kids from doing this before...? ohhh nothing you are so spot on now they'll do it thinking it's expected, that's hardly an improvement since the launch of the internet the proper authorities have declared endlessly that the ONLY way to protect people from the dangers of the internet is to prevent (mostly kids and fragile people but it concerns everyone) from divulging their identity online (and any other info that are liable to be used by dangerous people) ... it's the only way that the professionals advocate, who are we to disagree?
First of all, young kids can't legally post on a public forum with their real names.
Second, how on earth did you decide that, because the Blizzard forums are real-name-only, everyone is going to assume that addresses and school names are also OK to share?
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On July 07 2010 07:21 kajeus wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:19 InfiniteIce wrote:On July 07 2010 07:16 kajeus wrote:On July 07 2010 07:13 maybenexttime wrote:
This is one of the dumbest decisions made by Blizzard yet.
Blizzard's official forums attract some of the worst people on the internet. It's almost a given that someone will make use of that sort of information... I would be interested to know how often the following people have been personally targeted by creepers or murderers for have their names known: Jinro, Nony, Day[9], HuK, Idra, Artosis, Goatrope, KawaiiRice, TheGunRun, Liquid`Nazgul, Tasteless... Man, I guess I could just go down the streamer list... THe thing about this is that they aren't forcing *US* to respond to them, ask them questions for the Day9Daily, Ask Idra!, or anything else, using our real name, on a service we paid for, that can ONLY be used while connected to the internet, a place where anonymity is key. Plus, people actually like the players/casters/people you mentioned. HuK, Idra, Artosis, and KawaiiRice have been involved in many a flamewar/feud, man. :D Blizzard is not forcing YOU to post on their official forums! Something you did not pay for, fyi.
I paid for a battle.net account. I expect to receive all of the benefits that you get. That includes forum access, which requires a CDKey, and soon a B.Net loginID to post on.
I did pay for it. Are you even reading the posts in this thread or just responding like a whiteknight?
+ Show Spoiler [long quote] +On July 07 2010 06:56 Drakan wrote:
I found this post in the WoW Forum.
Is from a Lady that plays WoW (the wife of somebody)
It's actually a really good post with valid arguments against ACTIVISION proposal... I dislike the idea to mention that Blizzard came up with the idea, since i like blizzard and i hate activision (i'm just being a fanatic, yes.)
I just got off the phone with Blizzard's Technical Support (nice gentleman who helped answer my questions by the way) so now I feel a bit more secure about making this post. Also the 30 minute hold time gave me a few moments to gather my thoughts so I can speak thoughtfully without fear or anger leaking through.
Before I voice my opinion I will state that I have a recorded converstion from a Blizzard employee saying that the posts made today and before the new Real ID system goes into place on these forums WILL NOT show our information. Only posts made after Real ID is put into the forums will have this information.
This new system is a horrible idea. There are already well over 80 pages of people stating their ideas on this subject so I doubt what I say will be heared but I will try to present my arguments against Real ID in the hopes that someone will listen.
1. UNIQUE NAMES: Some people (including my husband for one) have very unique names. The linking of a person's real name if you have a common name is less troublesome because that person would be hard to track with a name alone, but if you have a name that is very uncommon linking it to a public forum is very invasive to that person. It could lead to that person being harrassed or annoyed (I will not overreact and use the word stalked) while trying to interact with their hobby.
People play this game for relaxation on their off time. But, for example, if you had a unique name and applied for a job and the potential employer googled your name and found posts on a gaming forum they may not hire you because they have ill conceved notions about gamers. In this exaple the employer may be working off an unfair stereotype but it still would hinder that person getting a job. And FYI without a job that person wouldn't be able to have the money to play WoW. Just a thought Blizzard.
2. COMMON NAMES: For those on the other side of the fence having a fairly common name can also lead to harrassment in a different way. You could be mistaken for someone else entirely and that can lead to confusion not only on the forums themselves but also outside of them.
The last thing I need is someone tracking me down via a google search of my fairly common name, getting my WoW info because I asked a question on a forum about a game I paly for fun, and contacting my character in game, or on the forums to yell at me about alamony payments when I dont have a ex-husband.
3. GENDER: As a female this one bothers me a lot. Not only do I not want to be petitioned by random people for cyberlovin while I am playing a game, but more importantly I do not want to be a target offline. Most males my not understand the fear women have in today's world about this but it is a real and genuine threat that does, sadly, happen. Women are stalked, hurt, even killed every day and we are taught from a young age to be careful and cautious when dealing with the unknown (aka strangers and the internet). It is a terrible reality about our society and I wish it wasn't so but fact is it happens.
I have been occasionaly harrassed while in game for cyberlovin (can not use the real words they use due to being banned on the forums if I do) and I have reported it when it does and Blizzard has never done a thing about it (repeat violations in some cases and their toons are still in the game with no reprocussions). I can't imagine what would happen if more of these perverts knew I was an actual girl. I shudder the think about it.
4. MINORS: Similar to the gender issue. There are minors that play this game and giving out their information to the general public is a bad idea. Even people who are 'adults' aka 18, 19, 20 can still be very impressionable and giving out their real names to the world wide web can only lead to trouble.
5. IDENTITY THIEFT: I know you can't steal a persons ID with ONLY their name but hainvg someone's full name is a great place to start.
6. WoW CRAZIES: Most people who paly this game are what would be classified as 'casuals'. But some people take this game way to seriously. I have been shocked and even fealful of a few of the players I have come across and giving them the ability to track me down and potentally harm me because I beat them in a duel frightens me.
7. INTERNET CRAZIES: Even worse these are the stalkers and child molesters that pray on people on the internet. I dont want then to have access to my full name!
8. SPAMMERS: Giving the internet as a whole your information can lead to spamming and flooding of your e-mail.facebook, exc even more then it is already. Gold sellers are going to have a hayday with this one.
If your name was Jerry Sienfled and you had a wow forum post I bet you ever single variation of your name at most popular e-mail hosters is going to be flooded with fake Blizzard emails. JerrySiefeld@hotmail, @gmail, @yahoo, exc. and now the gold sellers and hackers will have a way to customize those fake mails to your real name! Dear Jerry, We at Blizzard are please to announce you are in the beta! Please visit our fakelink to get your account hacked.
9. SAFETY OF BLIZZARD: Just like giving out a real name to fellow players is a bad idea, giving out the names of all your forum moderators is just as bad or worse! Your poilcy now is to have your phone representatives only use their first names for thier own safety (remember I recorded the conversation) and now you are going to change that! You could have an employee tracked down this way and come to serious harm. Not safe or smart.
So what can you do instead of using a person's full name? How aobut only being allowed to post on one toon? You have to pick a toon and that is that. Or using a set handle? Set up Real ID with this and I would use it in game as well.
And for all the people who say the forums are optional I will remind you that I pay the same subscripion fee that you do and so limiting what I can do with it doesn't seem like the most fair solution. I feel I should be able to use the forums to get information and to share ideas. I agree the trolls are a pain but there has to be a better more secure way then this.
-Quira
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lol, this has nothing to do with trolling on the forums. Blizzard is building the scaffolding to cash in on the social networking/micro-transactions cash cow, and this is best accomplished by forcing people to integrate their RL persona with their online/gaming persona, thereby causing them to be more financially invested in it.
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On July 07 2010 07:19 Shirolol wrote:Does anyone else feel a bit uneasy at how pathetic the entire blizzard community is acting about this whole thing? Ok, so you now know that guys name.. So you googled him (Why?), found out a bunch of pointless information about his preferences (again, why?) and then felt strongly enough about his preferences to make a blog about it and then claim that hell is opening up and we are all going to be swallowed. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you have to - in most normal situations in life people just don't really care what your favourite movie is, where you live, or even what your name is. But suddenly when the internet comes along, if anything about you personally is ever found out it's the worst thing to happen since.. I spilt some tea on my leg the other day - and it was still luke-warm tea aswell, nasty. You can find all the information you want about anyone in the world right now, without your name being shown on a forum to do with blizzard games. So what's the difference if you can see them? Fact of the matter is: Stop over reacting, step back and look at how ridiculous you are being.
"We" googled him to show how easy it is to exploit personal information.
"We" found a bunch of "pointless information" that is actually important. How would you feel if you get 15 telemarketing calls a day? Phones are important to most of us.... so yeah big deal bro.
again "We" feel strongly because facts like where i live, my phone number, and my relatives are important to me. How about you?
Those are not the details we are complaining about bro l2read
and lastly, you cannot find all the information you want on anyone in the world right now. If we could we would have captured Bin Laden atleast
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On July 07 2010 07:25 kajeus wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:22 baskerville wrote:On July 07 2010 07:08 kajeus wrote:On July 07 2010 07:07 baskerville wrote:On July 07 2010 06:49 Shirolol wrote:
I honestly don't see what the problem is at all, why would I care if someone knows where I live and what my name is? Or anything about me for that matter.
I think you're all being a tad paranoid here talking about e-stalking and the likes, this change means nothing apart from the people that act like tumors might stop now - and is that a bad thing? I don't think it is.
Either way I never post on the blizzard forums, it provides nothing I can't get elsewhere - and generally of a higher quality. (Here, for example.) good for you, how bout kids who don't know better and are careless about what they divulge online? blizz/activision are setting a dangerous standard for game forums And what stopped kids from doing this before...? ohhh nothing you are so spot on now they'll do it thinking it's expected, that's hardly an improvement since the launch of the internet the proper authorities have declared endlessly that the ONLY way to protect people from the dangers of the internet is to prevent (mostly kids and fragile people but it concerns everyone) from divulging their identity online (and any other info that are liable to be used by dangerous people) ... it's the only way that the professionals advocate, who are we to disagree? First of all, young kids can't legally post on a public forum with their real names. Second, how on earth did you decide that, because the Blizzard forums are real-name-only, everyone is going to assume that addresses and school names are also OK to share?
So you are not fine with sharing adresses and school names then?
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On July 07 2010 07:12 kajeus wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:09 InfiniteIce wrote:On July 07 2010 07:08 kajeus wrote:On July 07 2010 07:07 baskerville wrote:On July 07 2010 06:49 Shirolol wrote:
I honestly don't see what the problem is at all, why would I care if someone knows where I live and what my name is? Or anything about me for that matter.
I think you're all being a tad paranoid here talking about e-stalking and the likes, this change means nothing apart from the people that act like tumors might stop now - and is that a bad thing? I don't think it is.
Either way I never post on the blizzard forums, it provides nothing I can't get elsewhere - and generally of a higher quality. (Here, for example.) good for you, how bout kids who don't know better and are careless about what they divulge online? blizz/activision are setting a dangerous standard for game forums And what stopped kids from doing this before...? Nothing. But what compelled/forced kids to do it before? Nothing. Huh? First of all, young kids legally can't post under their names anyway. Secondly, your argument is first that they "don't know better," and then second that they "are forced." There doesn't seem to be any logical consistency to what you're saying. It's bad that they're forced because they don't know better...?
so in short you care about ?
cause personnaly i'm thinking of my kid a fiew years from now thinking it's a cool thing to do...
and i like my kid in one piece
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On July 07 2010 07:23 baskerville wrote:
maybe this trend concerns more than just you?
Yes, what I posted applies to most people.
From what you said you THINK you're not of of those people, so what makes it so life-ending for you if I can see your real name? I'd love to know.
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On July 07 2010 07:16 kajeus wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:13 maybenexttime wrote:
This is one of the dumbest decisions made by Blizzard yet.
Blizzard's official forums attract some of the worst people on the internet. It's almost a given that someone will make use of that sort of information... I would be interested to know how often the following people have been personally targeted by creepers or murderers for having their names known: Jinro, Nony, Day[9], HuK, Idra, Artosis, Goatrope, KawaiiRice, TheGunRun, Liquid`Nazgul, Tasteless... Man, I guess I could just go down the streamer list...
Are you implying that they have their names posted in hundreds of posts on the Blizzard forums or that TL = the official Blizzard forums?
Not to mention they're all community contributors.
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On July 07 2010 07:26 InfiniteIce wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2010 07:21 kajeus wrote:On July 07 2010 07:19 InfiniteIce wrote:On July 07 2010 07:16 kajeus wrote:On July 07 2010 07:13 maybenexttime wrote:
This is one of the dumbest decisions made by Blizzard yet.
Blizzard's official forums attract some of the worst people on the internet. It's almost a given that someone will make use of that sort of information... I would be interested to know how often the following people have been personally targeted by creepers or murderers for have their names known: Jinro, Nony, Day[9], HuK, Idra, Artosis, Goatrope, KawaiiRice, TheGunRun, Liquid`Nazgul, Tasteless... Man, I guess I could just go down the streamer list... THe thing about this is that they aren't forcing *US* to respond to them, ask them questions for the Day9Daily, Ask Idra!, or anything else, using our real name, on a service we paid for, that can ONLY be used while connected to the internet, a place where anonymity is key. Plus, people actually like the players/casters/people you mentioned. HuK, Idra, Artosis, and KawaiiRice have been involved in many a flamewar/feud, man. :D Blizzard is not forcing YOU to post on their official forums! Something you did not pay for, fyi. I paid for a battle.net account. I expect to receive all of the benefits that you get. That includes forum access, which requires a CDKey, and soon a B.Net loginID to post on. I did pay for it. Are you even reading the posts in this thread or just responding like a whiteknight? + Show Spoiler [long quote] +On July 07 2010 06:56 Drakan wrote:
I found this post in the WoW Forum.
Is from a Lady that plays WoW (the wife of somebody)
It's actually a really good post with valid arguments against ACTIVISION proposal... I dislike the idea to mention that Blizzard came up with the idea, since i like blizzard and i hate activision (i'm just being a fanatic, yes.)
I just got off the phone with Blizzard's Technical Support (nice gentleman who helped answer my questions by the way) so now I feel a bit more secure about making this post. Also the 30 minute hold time gave me a few moments to gather my thoughts so I can speak thoughtfully without fear or anger leaking through.
Before I voice my opinion I will state that I have a recorded converstion from a Blizzard employee saying that the posts made today and before the new Real ID system goes into place on these forums WILL NOT show our information. Only posts made after Real ID is put into the forums will have this information.
This new system is a horrible idea. There are already well over 80 pages of people stating their ideas on this subject so I doubt what I say will be heared but I will try to present my arguments against Real ID in the hopes that someone will listen.
1. UNIQUE NAMES: Some people (including my husband for one) have very unique names. The linking of a person's real name if you have a common name is less troublesome because that person would be hard to track with a name alone, but if you have a name that is very uncommon linking it to a public forum is very invasive to that person. It could lead to that person being harrassed or annoyed (I will not overreact and use the word stalked) while trying to interact with their hobby.
People play this game for relaxation on their off time. But, for example, if you had a unique name and applied for a job and the potential employer googled your name and found posts on a gaming forum they may not hire you because they have ill conceved notions about gamers. In this exaple the employer may be working off an unfair stereotype but it still would hinder that person getting a job. And FYI without a job that person wouldn't be able to have the money to play WoW. Just a thought Blizzard.
2. COMMON NAMES: For those on the other side of the fence having a fairly common name can also lead to harrassment in a different way. You could be mistaken for someone else entirely and that can lead to confusion not only on the forums themselves but also outside of them.
The last thing I need is someone tracking me down via a google search of my fairly common name, getting my WoW info because I asked a question on a forum about a game I paly for fun, and contacting my character in game, or on the forums to yell at me about alamony payments when I dont have a ex-husband.
3. GENDER: As a female this one bothers me a lot. Not only do I not want to be petitioned by random people for cyberlovin while I am playing a game, but more importantly I do not want to be a target offline. Most males my not understand the fear women have in today's world about this but it is a real and genuine threat that does, sadly, happen. Women are stalked, hurt, even killed every day and we are taught from a young age to be careful and cautious when dealing with the unknown (aka strangers and the internet). It is a terrible reality about our society and I wish it wasn't so but fact is it happens.
I have been occasionaly harrassed while in game for cyberlovin (can not use the real words they use due to being banned on the forums if I do) and I have reported it when it does and Blizzard has never done a thing about it (repeat violations in some cases and their toons are still in the game with no reprocussions). I can't imagine what would happen if more of these perverts knew I was an actual girl. I shudder the think about it.
4. MINORS: Similar to the gender issue. There are minors that play this game and giving out their information to the general public is a bad idea. Even people who are 'adults' aka 18, 19, 20 can still be very impressionable and giving out their real names to the world wide web can only lead to trouble.
5. IDENTITY THIEFT: I know you can't steal a persons ID with ONLY their name but hainvg someone's full name is a great place to start.
6. WoW CRAZIES: Most people who paly this game are what would be classified as 'casuals'. But some people take this game way to seriously. I have been shocked and even fealful of a few of the players I have come across and giving them the ability to track me down and potentally harm me because I beat them in a duel frightens me.
7. INTERNET CRAZIES: Even worse these are the stalkers and child molesters that pray on people on the internet. I dont want then to have access to my full name!
8. SPAMMERS: Giving the internet as a whole your information can lead to spamming and flooding of your e-mail.facebook, exc even more then it is already. Gold sellers are going to have a hayday with this one.
If your name was Jerry Sienfled and you had a wow forum post I bet you ever single variation of your name at most popular e-mail hosters is going to be flooded with fake Blizzard emails. JerrySiefeld@hotmail, @gmail, @yahoo, exc. and now the gold sellers and hackers will have a way to customize those fake mails to your real name! Dear Jerry, We at Blizzard are please to announce you are in the beta! Please visit our fakelink to get your account hacked.
9. SAFETY OF BLIZZARD: Just like giving out a real name to fellow players is a bad idea, giving out the names of all your forum moderators is just as bad or worse! Your poilcy now is to have your phone representatives only use their first names for thier own safety (remember I recorded the conversation) and now you are going to change that! You could have an employee tracked down this way and come to serious harm. Not safe or smart.
So what can you do instead of using a person's full name? How aobut only being allowed to post on one toon? You have to pick a toon and that is that. Or using a set handle? Set up Real ID with this and I would use it in game as well.
And for all the people who say the forums are optional I will remind you that I pay the same subscripion fee that you do and so limiting what I can do with it doesn't seem like the most fair solution. I feel I should be able to use the forums to get information and to share ideas. I agree the trolls are a pain but there has to be a better more secure way then this.
-Quira
You did not PAY for an anonymous forum. That's just a fact. Blizzard has zero obligation to supply you with one.
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