Blizzard Entertainment Tears the Anonymity

[Psalm Of Fire]

The internet has a veil, known as anonymity. I'm sure we're all familiar with the GIFT theorum. Blizzard is trying to counteract that by forcing poster's real first and last name to be displayed on the Starcraft II forums -- this change plans to be rolled-out sight wide soon after.

G4TV's report and reaction

Blizzard's Original Announcement

So, good, bad, ineffective, going too far, about time? What do y'all think?

[gman391]

I believe I already posted my reaction in Kirai's thread.

[Psalm Of Fire]

Hm, I arrogantly assumed I was the first to post this.

Right then, feel free to prune the post, good mods.

[Kirai]

While GIFT is indeed a problem, it's a price I'm willing to pay for annonimity. We have damn little anyway.

It just allows for more interesting discussions because you can say things you wouldn't say otherwise, not even necessarily because you want to be an asshole, but becaue you can get in trouble for your, perfectly legal and maybe even reasonable, oppinion.

[Magnificate]

Allow me, who known nothing about the case, to ask a question: How does Blizzard get poster's real first and last names?

[Kirai]

Credid card info and such.

I can only guess of course, but that seems to be the most likely source. There will probably be ways around it, but to post on the forums you will have to give an aproximation of a realname. And Blizzard will get closer than most to real names I think.

[Magnificate]

Credid card info and such.

Really? Isn't Blizzard a private company? Or perhaps the protection of identity laws are different in US.

[Nebula1701]

In order to use a credit card online you have to give your name as well as the credit info (security code and such for verification). Blizzard is also linking tightly with Face Book... they intend it to be a big portion of player interaction outside of Star Craft 2 and others... Along with their multi-game-chat so people in WOW and SC2 can talk to each other.

Oh and btw if people forgot Blizzard is owned by Activision now.

[Lthayer3]

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.

[doc.exe]

I'm just going to point out what I believe is the major reason why you should never force users to give up on anonimity when it comes to the Internet: Phishing and other criminal activities related to the net.

Seriously, I have read about cases in my country of kidnapers who tracked their victims by visiting social networks.

[Tempest Kitsune]

And suddenly I am very thankful that all the people that I talk with on facebook are people I've already met face to face through work or knowing them growing up.

[Kirai]

Thanks for reminding me. Just deleted that facebook account with fake info I had. Still too much info for my tastes^^

[Kirai]

Epic Troll Dance^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NgAkWxc ... r_embedded

[Nebula1701]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddd Blizzard has retracted this idea... no Real_ID... is req. (for now and hopefully ever.)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJq1Al37N5A