Would you steer away from this post if you had to use your real name to leave a comment here?
Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision Blizzard just put that question to many of its customers. In a post earlier this week on its Battle.net forums, the game developer informed players of its popular Starcraft and World of Warcraft games, among others, that they would soon have to use their legal monikers when chatting about their in-game exploits on its forums.
Blizzard defended the change as a necessary move to stop spamming and trash-talking:
Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before.
As of this morning, 74 pages of comments follow that post. The ones I’ve read don’t seem too positive about Blizzard’s move. Typical reply, from “Marine71”: “What an awful idea. Who comes up with this trash? Seriously. What happened to you, Blizzard?”
Hmmmm… would you comment on Dvorak Uncensored if you had to use your real name?
Yes
Yes.
Why not. I got nothing to hide.
“…dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations…”
Why would anyone playing WOW want to contribute to a more positive forum environment or promote a constructive conversation?
Bitch, Mac Guy IS my real name.
GOSH!
I’ve used my real name since I started using the internet (was not true of BBS’).
What hit me as soon as I saw this was I seem to recall John C. advocating this very same idea for online interaction as a whole.
Am I mistaken on that point, Dvorak?
In the context of a game, I can almost see it — very good side bar on Metafilter about wanting to avoid being exposed to racist/sexist comments in-game. But comments, forum posts, etc.?
I’m still of the opinion that it should be a requirement. And I’ve been “Max Bell” the whole time — more than 20 years.
And certainly I think it’d be a great thing if a lot of you just shut up, finally. *Laughs*
Yes.
Sincerely,
Cranston Snord
Tuktoyuktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada
The First Amendment guarantees free speech. Anonymity only guarantees asswipes will open their mouths with impunity.
The biggest problem with this is that it’s retroactive to when the game started. They forced their playerbase to join battlenet a few months ago using their original sign up information and now that information will be broadcast on their forums if you post.
Battlenet was optional, then it became mandatory to play their games.
RealID was optional, then it became mandatory to post on their forums with.
How much time till it’s mandatory to use RealID to play their games?
That’s part of the problem without even getting into the idiocy of showing real names to a crowd like Blizzard forum fans.
I’m sure the blizzard employee who put his real name out on the forums will have a fun time explaining it to the pissed off citizens of Cal who have the same name as him and are getting phone calls 24/7.
Anyhoo just my rant, it’s a stupid idea based on greed over “social networking” that too many tech companies are chasing while they forget their original speciality.
Anyone who won’t use their real name in a post clearly has nothing of conviction to add to a discussion
Anonymity is dangerous.
Letters to the editor have to be signed.
People need to stand up and be counted.
oh and the “74 pages of comments follow that post” is now 2000 pages,95% negative and that’s just the NA forum same thing is happening in European forums and in replies to most major news media reports.
I’d be selling any ActiBlizzard stock I have.
Hmmm, and then there is the girl who swears that her real name is Jenny Swallows – and she does.
I would post if it required my real name if I had something intelligable and constructive to say…but thats never as much fun as being a total douche and causing an argument that results in me laughing my ass off at the expense of everyone else. And I think that goes the same for everyone else. So I suppose its just a matter of if everyone is ok with missing out on the lighter side of life.
Yeah, it’s bullcrap. I’ll bet half of these people are Koreans.
Yes, for Dvorak Uncensored, but perhaps no for some other places.
I rarely use my real name online because most folks don’t believe its my real last name. Despite it being a simple 4 letter word that is also a noun for something you see every day*, people want to mispronounce or misspell it. And get your minds out of the gutter. My name is G rated, and I share it with a nineteenth century lord mayor of London.
Now, would I perhaps clean up the language, occasional viciousness, sick humor, etc. Perhaps.
* Say the secret woird and win an extra $100. Oh, thank you Mr. Fenneman!
This doesn’t seem enforceable at all. How are they going to prove that something is someone’s real name?
Would I post someplace that required me to post my real name? Maybe. I don’t know. I tend to think that places that require that are too uptight. It isn’t like I make my birth name hard to find. Just click my name and it takes you to my blog which has my “real” name. I use jccalhoun everywhere though. Search for jccalhoun and chances are it is something related to me. In fact you will probably find more things about me than with my real name since my real name is a bit unusual and search engines often return hits for part of my name. Online jccalhoun is just as “real” as my birth name.
I like the names:
John Smith and Jane Doe
Interesting.
AND in what way will they PROVE identity?
I use a representation of my name ALL the time.
THOSe are my initials.
I can see it NOW, that it will be REQUIRED to have a Credit card verification to WRITE on a Forum.
I think you can get MORE info by using IE/FF and asking THEM. you will get MORE data then you want/need.
Its another way to get INFO beyond the NEEDED/NORMAL on those posting.
>> # 3 jpfitz said, on July 8th, 2010 at 7:55 am
>> Why not. I got nothing to hide.
Spoken like a naive person who has never been stalked, harassed, Googled by a prospective employer, had their identity stolen or was monitored by the Bush Administration.
No freakin way. Too many bad guys out there.
Can I suggest something?
If they are having problem, they should send a EMAIL(its in the registration) to the person causing problems and discuss it.
IF NO REPLY, BAN them. So whats the PROBLEM?
Its only to get MORE UN-NEEDED INFO ON YOU.
>> rjann said, on July 8th, 2010 at 8:47 am
>> Anonymity is dangerous.
How about privacy? You afraid of that, too?
I posted my irl name on Dvorak because I believe the blog is less exposing than WoW and more imporatantly, is viewed by people less petty than your run-of-the-mill World of Warcraft player.
Like getting looked up and prank called at 5 in the morning by a 16yr player that didn’t agree with your forum post?
YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH
I wouldn’t want anyone to know I played “World of Warcraft.” Who would?
Probably not. I’d be afraid Alfred1 would come out of retirement, hunt me down and try to save my soul.
BTW< if Alfie and his ilk are right and the world is only 6000 years old, what does that do for the abiotic oil thread?
Just set up a fake i.d. and don’t worry about it.
Terms of Service are not criminal law.
It’s like sneaking in candy in to a movie theater. Just because some pimple-faced manager puts up a sign doesn’t mean you have to obey. The worst case scenario is getting kicked out.
Besides, World of Warcraft isn’t going to vet even 0.1% of their players.
>> Animby said, on July 8th, 2010 at 9:40 am
>> Probably not. I’d be afraid Alfred1 would come out of retirement, hunt me down and try to save my soul.
He’s gone? I didn’t notice.
Even though I’m a devout Christian, he really disliked me. There isn’t a place in the conservative world view for liberal religious people. (There isn’t room in many liberal worlds, either.)
It depends on the forum, the discussion, what I have to say and what mood I am in.
The name I usually use, was my radio call sign when I was in the OTC. I suspect that a lot of names people use are pointers to something about them, or inside jokes.
There are some occasions when people will just not post if they cannot do so anonymously.
Blizzard has admitted that it cannot force people to use their own names. Your RealID will be tied to your CD key but it certainly does not have to be your own name. Big hoopla over nothing.