Unread postby Lthayer3 » July 7th, 2010, 9:00 pm
I don't visit Blizzard forums often, but I highly disagree with this action they are taking. Allowing all the RealID stuff as an option is fine with me. But to force it upon people that might have a very good reason for wanting to remain anonymous is upsetting to say the least. There are so many things that can go wrong with this that I really don't see how anyone in the company could have thought this was a good idea.
Really, though, I don't see how they can legally take the information from that which is provided for credit card payments. And even then, who is to say that the person paying is the one playing on the account? What about those playing with time cards that don't even own a credit card? How can they possibly verify that someone is providing their real name? What about shared accounts? For games without monthly payments, are they requiring credit cards to be linked to the account, too? I had better still be able to get technical support without registering with a real name on their forums.
Clearly, Activision/Blizzard didn't think things through. There is already a fairly large backlash, and I suspect a significant migration to unofficial forums will happen if Blizzard doesn't change their mind. And removing anonymity won't reduce the need for forum moderators -- idiots will still continue to be idiots.
I haven't heard about the bit concerning linking with Facebook until now. Until this mess, Blizzard has had a fairly good reputation. They should stay far away from social networks. Nothing good (aside from a small potential for higher profits) can come from dealing with Facebook.