If you have one of the 1% of names that are truly so rare that you happen to be the only person in your geographic area with that name, well then, I guess you might want to think twice about being a cocksucker on the forums.

You could just shorten that to "you might want to think twice about being a cocksucker on the forums" and move on.

I cannot understand how anyone can even be for this at all.. it's no added benefit.. nothing gained, only potential headaches.

How anyone in arguing for this, in any capacity, is mind boggling.

agpc, can I ask, why is it you think an employer may not employ you due to playing computer games? In what field could this be a danger? (and if it is, and you are a gamer, you should not be doing it.)

agpc wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:38:

Agent.X7 wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:29:

PropheT wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:25:

JohnBirshire wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:06:
Sissies. Afraid someone will confront you in real life and make you back up your message board crap talk?

Anonymity online is of utmost importance.

No.

But a 5-second free background check yields information on family and friends, too. You can do a lot with that little bit of seemingly insignificant information.

Yes, because of the thousands of John Smiths on the planet, you will know exactly which one to look up.

I see, so they are implementing a system which makes it easy for people with uncommon names to be harassed or tracked online, but very difficult for the John Smiths. Well that makes it just fine, right? I mean, lets say certain nationalities are more likely to be harassed due to their uncommon last names. No lawyer in the world would take that case, right?

I guess the Perlachevski's of the world will just have to deal with it while the John Smiths will troll with unbridled abandon!

Wow.

John Smith AKA John Doe AKA standing in for whatever name you care to insert. 99% of names are common somewhere in the world, at least common enough to make finding the exact person difficult. If you have one of the 1% of names that are truly so rare that you happen to be the only person in your geographic area with that name, well then, I guess you might want to think twice about being a cocksucker on the forums.

Draugr wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:01:

TheDrifter73 wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 00:45:
One thing people keep forgetting when talking about Real ID and comparing it to other social networking places, such as Facebook.
The people in the WoW forums a Frakking INSANE! They're a lot crazier than anyone on any social networking site I've ever seen...

You'll see how 'different' they really are when this goes down. Operating under anonymity can go a long way with people, this is why discussion in on the internet is generally more contentious, they don't feel accountable, adding real life name adds a sense of accountability to their post (even though its mostly just imaginary) and that will give people pause when it comes to trolling/flaming. Which for some people is exactly why they are on the internet.

Personally, I think the forums will become quite 'boring' when this is all done, and for more like everyone else's official forums, at least in comparison of its turbulent past. For better or worse, we'll see soon enough I guess, heh.

An ass is an ass regardless of whether you know their real name or not. I spent a few years in a business interacting with customers where I knew their name, address, phone number, and various other pieces of information. Had I wanted to, I could have driven up to their house, knock on their door, and spoken to each family member by name. And yet, even with them knowing this, many were STILL jerks.
At most, this will cause the paranoid ones to back off in the forums, but as for making the forums totally "different" nope, I doubt it.
In any case, my comment was meant to be partially in jest.
I did mean the part about WoW forums posters being insane though.
Batshit insane.

Agent.X7 wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:29:

PropheT wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:25:

JohnBirshire wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:06:
Sissies. Afraid someone will confront you in real life and make you back up your message board crap talk?

Anonymity online is of utmost importance.

No.

But a 5-second free background check yields information on family and friends, too. You can do a lot with that little bit of seemingly insignificant information.

Yes, because of the thousands of John Smiths on the planet, you will know exactly which one to look up.

I see, so they are implementing a system which makes it easy for people with uncommon names to be harassed or tracked online, but very difficult for the John Smiths. Well that makes it just fine, right? I mean, lets say certain nationalities are more likely to be harassed due to their uncommon last names. No lawyer in the world would take that case, right?

I guess the Perlachevski's of the world will just have to deal with it while the John Smiths will troll with unbridled abandon!

PropheT wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:25:
No.

But a 5-second free background check yields information on family and friends, too. You can do a lot with that little bit of seemingly insignificant information.

For example, you look up Ray Charles because he pissed you off and you wanna fly down and rape him and his family, so you type in his name, and you find out there are 500 Ray Charles in the US, as you don't know where this ray charles in the US lives. yup, you really cracked the case with just his name. That's not to say said victim couldn't make posts that would provide insights such as employment, location, etc. but I consider that more an issue of educating the masses, heh. But, as I understand it, when it comes to posting on the forums its just your name, which could help, but you're not the only person with that name, so~

Once again the foolish blizz employee who posted his info was a fool and was unknowingly giving away more info than his name, (as we knew he worked for blizz and lived in CA) furthermore, he was challenging people to do it, so he signed up for that.

PropheT wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:25:

JohnBirshire wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:06:
Sissies. Afraid someone will confront you in real life and make you back up your message board crap talk?

Anonymity online is of utmost importance.

No.

But a 5-second free background check yields information on family and friends, too. You can do a lot with that little bit of seemingly insignificant information.

Yes, because of the thousands of John Smiths on the planet, you will know exactly which one to look up.

JohnBirshire wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:06:
Sissies. Afraid someone will confront you in real life and make you back up your message board crap talk?

Anonymity online is of utmost importance.

No.

But a 5-second free background check yields information on family and friends, too. You can do a lot with that little bit of seemingly insignificant information.

THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!

ColoradoHoudini wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 01:17:
It's not about how people can find out who you are through other means anyhow..(it's not nearly as easy as people make it out to be)
It's not about stopping trolling (there are far less invasive and better methods)..
It's about how Real ID is NOT NEEDED at all, it's an unnecessary avenue for real life griefing and nothing positive will come of it, only negative.

Couldn't agree with you more that the optional system it is not needed, Thats why you get to opt in. They could have implemented a game spanning system without a push for real ID, but with this they can monetize it more easily. I don't think anything terrible positive or negative will come from it aside from the forums, which will calm down some.

It's not about how people can find out who you are through other means anyhow..(it's not nearly as easy as people make it out to be)
It's not about stopping trolling (there are far less invasive and better methods)..
It's about how Real ID is NOT NEEDED at all, it's an unnecessary avenue for real life griefing and nothing positive will come of it, only negative.

I would also like to add.. that since getting help through the phone from blizzard on technical support matters is a nightmare, and people often use the forums for a way quicker, more accurate response.. you'll see more and more people that need help, refusing to ask for it on the forums.
The first time someone asks for help and they get stalked and no response.. you can bet they won't come back.

This comment was edited on Jul 8, 2010, 01:22.

Cutter wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 00:54:

A loan officer at a bank doesn't operate under a fake name because they think some nutjob will assault them when they turn them down for a loan, is it a real threat, however small? probably, but they don't let it run their life.

Yes, but you also don't have members of organized crime syndicates walking into a bank in full view of security cameras trying to actively defraud said bank. It's a whole different ball of wax when the can anonymously get your name and start extrapolating all your personal information to commit fraud somehwere overseas where domestic governments can't go after them. Nor do pyshcopaths apply for loans when they're interested in stalking, harrassing, and possibly murdering people which a real name on a forum can give them the inside track on.

With one Bnet merger Blizzard exposed millions of people to phishers. How much easier is their job going to be when they can start building on peoples real names? This is a criminal's wet dream.

And ultimately, it's like Riker said, this is a huge middle finger from Blizzard to everyone. Don't like it? Don't post or buy our games is what they're saying. Even trolls aside how can they ever expect anyone to give them feedback, constuctive criticism or any other kind of information with something like this when people won't want to expose themselves? Honestly, it's one of the worst ideas I've ever heard for anything. It also smacks of the dickishness of Kotick no matter what anyone says, because I can't believe that Blizzard is retarded enough to think this is actually a good idea.

Well, I don't wanna ruin the surpise, but phishing is exactly why they do things like this, they wanna cut of that sweet social networking pie that is data mining. I see blizzard as capable of doing this without the influence of Activision, that's nice of you to give them the benefit of the doubt though

Once again, the system is voluntary, so your argument is moot, we

Psychopaths exist everywhere. Basically this is just stranger danger on the internet and thats why I view it as rediculous. Statistically speaking the chances of you being raped/killed/etc from someone you don't know are almost nil, just as its was 10- years ago, it's not like these incidents have gone up since social networking sites have existed. Has fraud? probably a safe assumption, but I'd propose that's more of an issue of people not being careful with information they post on the internet, which is more of a problem with education than any companies fault, their name alone isn't getting all/the majority of the work done for them. It seems to me a lot of people are engaging in fantasies where there is an army of scammers just waiting for the b.net forums to implement real ID so they can make millions - they aren't - they've got way easier marks on Myspace/Facebook that have way more information available than just your first and last name.

The middle finger is they implemented something completely optional? MONSTERS Ultimately I don't think much will come of it and it will just strengthen the non official forums that are prominent.

Draugr wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 00:45:

on the contrary, if everyone who didn't to use real ID didn't buy the game, then ~100% of the people playing the game would be using realID, which means their system was a success, if people just buy the game (btw , I see it for 60 bucks, not 70, but I don't know where you're looking or where you live, of course. nor would I even if I had your name :)) and don't use the system then wouldn't it prove that it is something their isn't interest in? That's the way I look at it.

In terms of receiving feedback from outside of the forum, it's never been required to put feedback through the forum (though in the past and presently that has been the predominant venue for such things) and I imagine that is something they will improve upon,(as it already exists.)

I don't know about you, but if I have a tech support issue I post it on the forums. None of these games have a call center if your game doesn't work properly. Sure, you can try and use e-mail, but I have never had success with this route. Usually you get a form response that doesn't properly address your problem. Also, it takes much longer. Often times, other users/gamers solve your problem for you instead of a company employee. However, I will not be posting my real name on a gaming forum because I do not want potential future employers eliminating me as a potential future employee because I play a computer game.

Whether 100% of users use realid or not is irrelevant to my point. I am stating that its likely the only way Blizzard backs down on this issue is if they see a threat to their bottom line. They have sales targets they want to meet to appease the shareholders of Activision. If this issue does wind up creating a huge backlash and Blizzard does not meet those sales targets, they will reverse course on this decision. The only other way I see it being changed is if something tragic happens and the media latches onto the story.

I doubt that many people will refrain from purchasing Blizzard games due to this realid decision, but I also know I sure as hell won't be buying SC2 or Diablo 3 if they do not change their minds. Blizzard is the 9001 pound gorilla in the PC gaming world and I think they have finally become too big for their britches.

Sissies. Afraid someone will confront you in real life and make you back up your message board crap talk?

Anonymity online is of utmost importance.

Thats true.

But that leaves the question whether its really smart to have such a populace disclose their identities to each other...

Counting on the fact that spammers won't enter wrong credentials is very doubtful since Real ID does not verify anything.

TheDrifter73 wrote on Jul 8, 2010, 00:45:
One thing people keep forgetting when talking about Real ID and comparing it to other social networking places, such as Facebook.
The people in the WoW forums a Frakking INSANE! They're a lot crazier than anyone on any social networking site I've ever seen...

You'll see how 'different' they really are when this goes down. Operating under anonymity can go a long way with people, this is why discussion in on the internet is generally more contentious, they don't feel accountable, adding real life name adds a sense of accountability to their post (even though its mostly just imaginary) and that will give people pause when it comes to trolling/flaming. Which for some people is exactly why they are on the internet.

Personally, I think the forums will become quite 'boring' when this is all done, and for more like everyone else's official forums, at least in comparison of its turbulent past. For better or worse, we'll see soon enough I guess, heh.

A loan officer at a bank doesn't operate under a fake name because they think some nutjob will assault them when they turn them down for a loan, is it a real threat, however small? probably, but they don't let it run their life.

Yes, but you also don't have members of organized crime syndicates walking into a bank in full view of security cameras trying to actively defraud said bank. It's a whole different ball of wax when the can anonymously get your name and start extrapolating all your personal information to commit fraud somehwere overseas where domestic governments can't go after them. Nor do pyshcopaths apply for loans when they're interested in stalking, harrassing, and possibly murdering people which a real name on a forum can give them the inside track on.

With one Bnet merger Blizzard exposed millions of people to phishers. How much easier is their job going to be when they can start building on peoples real names? This is a criminal's wet dream.

And ultimately, it's like Riker said, this is a huge middle finger from Blizzard to everyone. Don't like it? Don't post or buy our games is what they're saying. Even trolls aside how can they ever expect anyone to give them feedback, constuctive criticism or any other kind of information with something like this when people won't want to expose themselves? Honestly, it's one of the worst ideas I've ever heard for anything. It also smacks of the dickishness of Kotick no matter what anyone says, because I can't believe that Blizzard is retarded enough to think this is actually a good idea.

Mhh, i just wanted to say that i should learn how to quote in this forum - i replied to post #1 not #3 (hard to see i admit)

GM's came into the topic because a GM posted his name on the Blizz forum as "proof" that he would do it without a second thought. Which ended in him deleting his facebook account and changing telephone numbers after being harassed .

So yeah

One thing people keep forgetting when talking about Real ID and comparing it to other social networking places, such as Facebook.
The people in the WoW forums a Frakking INSANE! They're a lot crazier than anyone on any social networking site I've ever seen.
In terms of picking someone who might actually kill you after getting annoyed at you in a social networking place, range of 1 (not likely) to 10 (very likely)?
Facebook: 2
WoW forums: 8