Battle.net’s Real ID – Is it really all that evil?
I’ve been crazy busy recently, alphas, betas, whatever-comes after betas, you name it. I’ve been playing a lot of World of Warcraft as you no doubt expect and I’ve been loving it more and more. Recently Blizzard introduce the Real ID system into WoW. This meant that we could ‘friend’ our real-life friends and gain the ability to see them on any server, not have to populate our friends lists with all their alts and even see when they are missing out on all the fun by playing some space game (Just kidding, StarCraft 2>WoW 
).
I wasn’t sure about it at first but I’ve grown to love it. I’ve added some of my current guildies and some of my old-old-old guildies from when I first started playing the game. It’s a great way to keep in-touch in the game without spending a fortune on server transfers or splitting my playtime across 6 different servers. Do I care about them knowing my Battle.net name? No, I’v got an authenticator (Though I should note: this was only added recently after I was hacked due to using a computer that was compromised with a keylogger.) Do I care about them knowing my real name? No, I’ve always displayed both my real name (Mark Turpin) and my internet name (Turpster, The T, The Chosen One, you name it I’m called it) publicly.
So yesterday Blizzard turned around and said, “LoLz We are in your base broadcasting your real name to the world” (not an actual quote). In brief, shortly before StarCraft 2 comes out and then before Cataclysm’s release they will be changing the forums to display your Real name above that of your character’s name. Now as I said earlier, I really am not bothered about this personally since for me it’s not a huge amount of difference to how I choose to display myself publicly on the internet anyway. But that is my choice. I totally get why some people don’t want to have their name out there for anyone (read: Google) to see and I know that there are a lot of unsavoury people already out there just waiting to know who you are.
I would like to share a story with you all, one that came to mind when I heard the news and the predictable outcry from the WoW community. When I was younger I had a part time job in a department store selling Computers and all that stuff. There was this lovely lady who worked with me who had been in retail for a long time, but I wont lie to you, she was a fox. A cougar if you will. It’s kind of beside the point but she was hot, and as you by now know, a woman!
The store we worked in decided that to help give better customer service (and I think in part to make Staff more responsible for their actions in front of customers) that everyone would have to wear name badges. Not a big deal to many people, loads of other store already did this and it was kind of a natural progression for the store. Now this smoking hot slightly-older lady (did I mention she was blonde?! SHWING!) wasn’t too happy about this, apparently she had worked at one of these other stores where they had name badges before and, I guess due to being fairly attractive, was victim to unwanted attention from some of the customers that in one extreme case this turned into stalking. Because she wore a name badge this creep was able to glisten more information about her and eventually find out where she lived etc.
So, understandably so, she was pretty upset about this change and went to the management to complain. She laid-out her reasons intelligently, calmly and sexily (What?! You had to be there, something about ladies getting passionate about stuff…). The management took what she had to say fairly well but then pointed out one flaw in her argument. You see, this lovely lady was wearing a nice, albeit slightly tacky looking necklace, and on this necklace was her name… (I know, epic fail! I thought so too)
After all this arguing and attempted reasoning she forgot to notice that she was already sharing her name with anyone who walked into the store and had been for some time. As I said, she was blonde (I kid, I kid, Blondes are no smarter or ‘un-smarter’ than any other hair colour)
So I guess what that long winded story was all about is just to ask you guys to have a good think about how you are already featured on the internet. You’d be surprised as to how easy it is for many people to find out information about you already without your real name courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.
Do I disagree with people’s fears about this new forum system? Hell no. But I do think that it will make the forums a more accountable place which will make it more palatable for myself to visit more often than my bi-annual (Got to be careful how you spell that one!) trip. But enough with my pointless tales and vanilla views, What do you guys think about the Real ID changes? I’d love to hear more from you.
My real name here doesn’t stop me from trolling
TLDR
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The T Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 8:26 am
Very true but that is funny trolling so I can get behind that!
~T
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Couldn’t agree more T. While this is a drastic change for Blizzard to make, it really isn’t all that different from Facebook or MySpace or any of that social networking crap.
Although, while people like yourself, TB, Octale and myself to an extent are known within WoW and most know our real names, there are others who only have there character name in-game. Looking at it from the regular perspective, I can see why people would be upset, but it’s a stupid reason. There are a million different ways to find out someones real name on the internet already. Why bother creating an uproar with this one forum change?
A forum change which is for the better I might add.
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I totally agree with you. One of the problems with internet forums and the like is that people can be completely anonymous and say the most offhanded, offensive, and invalid points without any fear of recourse. At the VERY LEAST this forces people to stop and think, “Do I really want this comment/post accredited to my name”?
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I agree with you turpster. So many people are freaking out about this because they dont want their name revealed to 12 million subscribers. Guess what…your country already has your information. Your work place has all your information. Your school have all your information. Your colleges, your banks, and anywhere you spend money has your personal information because thats the way the world works these days. Everything is digital.
If you have a worry about people knowing your name…guess what..we have an option for you…dont add people. Dont post on the forums.
I am not worried about people knowing my name. I am not worried about certain people having my email. I keep all my personal information secured. If you do the same thing it shouldnt matter.
Just my two cents…
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Displaying yourself publicly on the internet ftw!
Ya, storm in a teacup. I find wanting to write things publicly without putting your name to it far more insidious. We’ll look back on this and laugh, and laugh, and laugh… oooh boy.
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I like the change. Who really posts on the forums of a game anyways? The community forums are and always have been the place to be. Elitist Jerks for WoW, Blue Garter for FFXI, so on and so on.
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I couldn’t agree more; sure, some people will be put off posting on the official forums, but let’s be honest, isn’t that a fair price to pay to get rid of all the “Cool story bro” posts?
It’s been years since particle physicists at CERN developed the Greater Internet F*ckwad Theory to explain troll behaviour: Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total F*ckwad.
Blizz really want to solve their troll problems; they must spend an absolute metric tonne of cash on forum Mods. They’re not going to remove the ‘Normal Person’ from the equation; that’d solve the forum problems but lose them their entire revenue stream in the process. The same argument goes for the ‘Audience’ factor. So, they rightly go after peope’s Anonymity to take care of the trolls.
I look forward to the day when the WoW realm forums (EU-Darkspear, for full disclosure) aren’t artificially inflated by the 6 or so leet trolls that typically spout new 4chan memes until the cows come home.
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Warning, also getting longwinded here (it’s what I do ^^).
Yeah, but imo you have to distinguish between the scale of a shop and the scale of the official WoW forums which are public, so EVERYONE can read them and the names there, unless they change something.
People like Bob Smith etc. may not care much but people with not quite as common names will be easier to find out information about.
ie. there are only a few people with my name worldwide, when googling I’m on the first page, the rest is pretty much related to one other person sharing that name. Fortunately he seems to be a writer so there are far more search results for him so I’m lucky in that department. On Facebook there is not a single other person with that name.
but fortunately you can theoretically change your name there if you wanted to, something that’s not possible in WoW. And you can decide what information you want to share etc. even whether or not you even show up on searches for someone who’s not your Friend or Friend’s Friend.
Yes, I’m on Facebook, I’m aware of the possible hypocrisy
I don’t troll on the WoW Forum but sometimes I try to derail trolls, call them out on their shit etc. (pointless as that may be) so I’m not to hot on the idea of them knowing my name.
My idea (contradicting the “Normal Person + Internet/Audience + Anonymity = Huge Fucking Idiot” idea) is that people who deliberately gank others, ninja stuff, troll, ruin other people’s playtime may not be the most socially adept people and maybe not as far above harassing people in real life as one might think.
Yes, chances that you actually do get harassed, stalked etc. are very low but if you happen to be the 1% or something that sucks for you.
Not to even mention the problem of people wanting to keep their personal lives, professional lives etc. seperate.
Just a quick example what could happen: look for the name of a person on the forums you want to mess with in real life. Check their guild/realm forums, especially on the guild forums chances are they at least share their location. No harm in someone knowing that the toon Boobcat2000 lives in…. whatever, TinyTown, Germany. Now the person behind the toon that’s a whole different matter. Now they have your name + your location, that’s a start to look for more information.
Yes, the problem already exists in some way with sites like Facebook but at least there you have the choice to share your name or not, with this RealID it seems you won’t have that choice. The only choice is simply not to post on the official forums ever again after this goes live.
Given the public nature of the WoW forums, the amount of people playing WoW etc. this is just making stuff easier for the troublemakers in my opinion.
I’m a little paranoid about stuff like this anyway but I don’t think I’m exaggerating here (much).
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T that was truly an awesome story. BTW – Can I have her name? She sounds like she just might be around my age. No? Dang! Can’t blame a guy for trying right?
When you said, “So I guess what that long winded story was all about is just to ask you guys to have a good think about how you are already featured on the internet. You’d be surprised as to how easy it is for many people to find out information about you already without your real name courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.” It really rang home. So many people really do think hiding behind a pseudonym gives them a license to be irresponsible at best, but actually just end up being asshats.
One other point maybe, did we not learn anything from the Ferraro debacle last year?
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I’ve never had a reason to use the official forums, and I don’t for see this changing with the release of Cataclysm. If anything with the cleansing power of sunlight beating down on the trolls maybe I’ll be more inclined to use them.
To sum up: don’t like it, don’t post.
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Good read T. Or should I say, The Chosen One? One day you will bring balance to the Force.
I, too, am open about my identity on the internet. This will solve the trolling on the forums. Lord knows it needed some work. My friends know that I play this game. My friends know the connection between my name and my characters. But the masses are not aware of that connection, and it is unsafe for them to figure it out. Warcraft is already plagued with (digital alter-ego) identity theft, which you were a victim of T. (/hugs) Hacking and gold farming is there for one purpose: to make money, at an individual’s expense. I certainly don’t need a target painted on my forehead for real life identity theft, which would certainly be a much more direct route to their goals. When you’ve been connected to the interwebs as long as some of us have, there is no authenticator option for real life. I am not stupid enough to post sensitive information about myself online, but you’d be surprised what you can find about yourself in a place like Google or Archive.org.
Here are the thoughts that I shared on my blog last night:
I like Real ID. I absolutely love being able to connect to real friends through the game on their alts, cross-realm, cross-server. When I had the opportunity to test StarCraft II and the integration with Facebook, I thought that was pretty nifty too. I am open about my identity online with the people that I actually know, or even people that I have known for some time through these games.
I am absolutely NOT ok with having my identity available to the millions of people I don’t know. I do not post on the forums very often, but I certainly won’t be posting on them again once these new and improved (?) forums go live. My web presence is fairly open. I am not terribly private. I have nothing to hide. I don’t troll. I prefer to treat everyone with respect whether or not I am anonymous. Most of my posts on these forums have been to recruit for my guild, with much success I might add. But there are always applicants that are not accepted to our guild, usually for immaturity (we are very open, friendly, and easy going folks).
In no way will I allow someone on these forums to have the ability to connect my forum posts to my real identity, track me down with a simple Google search, and harass me for whatever reason (not agreeing with me, not being selected for the guild, whatever…).
I do understand and admire that Blizzard would like to do something about the negativity on these forums, but this feels exactly like betrayal, not a solution. The forums were a tool, but now they are off limits to those with sense. Might as well show real names in trade chat too at this point. The promise was made when Real ID was introduced that no one else would see our real names except for our real life friends. It took only 2 weeks for Blizzard to break that promise, and destroy one of its greatest tools in the process. Access to technical support as well is now limited.
I hope Blizzard beefs up their GM staff and email and phone customer support, because people will not be posting in the forums for answers to their technical questions either. This is now a service supported by our monthly fees that is no longer safe to use.
Yes, I can easily opt to not post in the forums. The majority of players already steer clear of the forums anyway. This will indeed solve the trolling problem, which is outstanding. But unfortunately, it also means that there are plenty of good people that will now not feel welcome. The RP community as well is based around the choice to suspend one’s true identity for awhile. Hard to do while slapping each other in the face with real names. This will divide the community and people will scatter to other areas of the internet. For me, it simply means that I can read and not respond, and guild recruitment will be done elsewhere. Perhaps on wow.com or wowprogress.com or *shudder* trade chat if necessary.
Others all over are definitely over-reacting, supposedly canceling their subscriptions over it. I say, if your sole purpose for having a subscription was to troll the forums, then perhaps your departure is an ok thing. This is not something I will leave over. But I am cautious. I trust Blizzard, but they really have to be careful what their next move is with Real ID, and what kind of assurances they give out. I don’t think they want to break their promises to their customers like this again. Especially, if (as Wryxian on WOW-Europe said this morning) this is something they have been planning for a VERY long time.
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THINK OF THE 12 YEAR OLD’s, think of all the young ones that play wow, i am i5, and i started playing wow when i was 11, my parents wouldn’t of let me play if it required that as both my parents play wow also, soo maybe this dosent mater all that much, but think of the wee noob-lets
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admin Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 8:25 am
Yeah, though I believe the forums aren’t suitable in most cases for younger players, I believe there are also parental controls that will stop kids posting on the forums if their parents aren’t happy with them doing so.
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The use of real names is, for me a big issue, I do not troll forums, I don’t say anything harsh and I certainly have no extremist tendancies. RealID is something I choose to share with friends I trust, when this system goes in I will choose to remain anonymous and lose my voice on the most important WoW forums and I am sure many other will too.
Sure if Blizzard want to refer to me on their forums as “Dave” or “Dave (Evlyxx – Shadowsong EU)” then I would have no issue but using “Dave Walisniuk” is going to make me very identifiable. Why bother with having character names in game, we all have real life names so why confuse the matter further, lets just make all our characters have our names. So your female priest will now be known as “Mark Turpin”, how stupid would that be?
Another issue will be people who share the same name, my friend Mark Turpin plays wow and has really extremist views on all kinds of subjects. He is a troll supreme and really doesn’t care if what he says on the official forums has his real name against them or not. He makes post after post on the forums with the name Mark Turpin next to them, everyone learns to hate him and he gets banned regularly, a proper jackass. At BlizzCon, as you walk around the conference hall proudly displaying your VIP badge with the name “Mark Turpin” on it, people start to realise that you’re the annoying troll from the forums, the one that had all these extremist views, people start to point and laugh as you walk by some even start to heckle you trying to provoke a reaction as you would have done on the forums, except, that wasn’t you it was the other Mark Turpin, but you’re now having to defend yourself against the actions of another person that just happens to have the same name.
Also, in your story, I would guess that the lady in question would have had no issues with a name badge with “Jane” on it or even “Jane D” but by revealing more of her identity by having “Jane Doe” she becomes much easier to identify, and I am sure her necklace only had her first name on it as I have never encountered such jewellery with a surname on it.
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The T Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 9:04 am
You raise some very interesting points.
For RPer I think this is a massive downer, and hopefully on the RP forums there will be an option to toggle peoples names off for your own display, so that the illusion isn’t broken from your point of view if you don’t want it to be.
I wouldn’t like to think that anyone would be defaced by the actions of someone with the same name but I guess to some people it might appear at first glance that they are the same person. Don’t really think there is much of a solution but I guess that could happen in any situation where it is name only. I’m fortunate enough to be known as a jackass for my own reasons and not that of another Turpster or Mark Turpin.
As for the lady in the story, it was only a first name badge and she had objections about it. She later wore her badge and received no issues because of it but that is not to say that it couldn’t happen, just that the worst case scenario didn’t happen.
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Great post T, your personality transfers into your writing very well.
In my opinion it should be your choice. If you’d like your name it be displayed, you have the choice to.
For me, its really not that big a deal. But i do see why people would get angry about it. A full name can lead the wrong person right to your facebook/myspace/etc
I personally think instead of your real name you should be able to pick a name you are already know by. For example instead of displaying Mark Turpin it would display Turpster.
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Turpster, I’m unemployed and looking for work. One of the things I found out recently is that the HR department of any company I apply for does two things when I submit my application. They check for spelling errors and they Google my name. If they see Facebook status updates that are unprofessional in nature, or hobbies that are unprofessional in that HR person’s opinion alone, then my application goes in the bin. A lot of corporations feel that gaming is unprofessional.
I completely agree with you about your decision to be a known internet celebrity and it helps you with your podcasting career. It would ruin mine if I did the same thing. All I want is the option to make that decision for myself, and RealID for forum posting is not my option to make.
Identity theft websites all agree, if it feels like a bad idea, trust your instincts. RealID feels bad, man.
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The T Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I totally get how this affects you and it is a very good point, the only thing I’d hope is that they wouldn’t be able to tell that you are the same ‘you’ that is posting on the WoW forum rather than just someone with the same name. Guess it depends on the HR which isn’t the greatest thing. Best of luck in the job search!
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haha you have to watch out for those older blondes. It’s clear this topic is a sensitive one and honestly I’m glad Blizzard is at least trying something different in order to attempt to change the culture. It remains to be seen if it will work but it’s going to be fun to watch.
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I don’t think I’m very comfortable with the idea that anyone viewing my posts can also view my first and last name. Especially if my character’s name is attached to it. You never know when some random whacko thinks you are giving them a reason to harass you (even if you aren’t).
Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I have been stalked before. And I’m not talking about some 16 year old boy driving by my house every 10 minutes. I am talking about a middle aged man turning up on my doorstep when I came home from work one evening. I won’t get into it because it’s a long story and I have no intentions of boring anyone until their eyeballs pop out. Anyway, it has been resolved and thankfully no one was hurt.
To me this is just Blizzard letting the trolls win. They have trolled so long and so hard that they have actually forced Blizz to take drastic action. Sure they probably won’t post on the boards anymore, but neither will I, and I have been nothing but a polite (though occasional) contributor to the forums. Bummer for me and all the other innocent people that this has an impact on.
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I stopped playing WoW over a year ago, but if I still did play this change would make me seriously consider quitting!
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I hear a lot of people discussing how this would or wouldn’t effect them, then basing their position off of that… And while I have no problem with that… I genuinely feel like my position would be the same regardless of whether I use the forums or not. I see this as a short-sighted decision on Blizzard’s part. They want to cut down on flaming and trolling. This implies that they think that the trolls and flamers actually consider the consequences of what they say in advance.
In this day and age of embarrassing and foolish choices being broadcast regularly on YouTube and Facebook, without a second thought about future consequences (i.e. Beauty queens losing their crowns over past indiscretions, etc.), what makes Blizzard think that Mr. 16 yr old Wtfpwnurfacelulz is going to care that Jordan Finklestein shows up next to his posts now? The well meaning folks who want to maintain a level of privacy and show maturity in their decisions, such as considering consequences prior to their actions, will be the ones with the most reluctance to post their well-considered opinions.
I’m a Blizz Fan Boy from way back… And I believe they really do have other cool plans for this system. I just think this choice is cavalier towards the feelings of their core fan base and will cause them more problems than it solves. Showing respect for your customers’ desires for privacy is never a bad thing, and responding with “don’t like it, don’t participate” reinforces that feeling that they might not care what we think.
Their blue post responses so far haven’t changed that feeling. But I still believe in you Blizz! Don’t let us down!
P.s. I already hate that the RealID system in-game doesn’t let me use an alias. But I can accept that at this point.
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As I posted on another comment thread for a different site. I think people are just afraid of the change, and are entering defensive mode.
Most crimes are committed by those closest to you. There is a better chance a family member, friend, guild mate will cause some sort of harm to you or a loved one than a total stranger.
Look at the news, almost every bad story is a friend, family member, friend of the family, boyfriend, ex boyfriend, what ever situation, very rarely do you see the stranger story.
We’re not going to see this huge increase of murders or beatings because WoW is using real names on the forums. I bet you see the opposite. People will not troll as often, and most the kids or immature adults will keep from posting empty flames/threats out of fear of it being bound to their name, and them being held accountable.
I’m glad someone is finally doing this.
I’ve been using my initials for quite some time now for all my forums, sometimes I use my first initial and last name. I’ve got nothing to be afraid of. I goggled myself and anyone who wants to find me, can and will. This wont change anything.
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Turpster, you have a voice on the matter. Will you please remind people that their avatar in the game and their real name are only linked *if they choose to link them*! I can ninja to my heart’s content and post on the forums without anyone being able to link the the character to the person.
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Damn, Just as they are moving to finalize the 3rd installment of Diablo… This will put yet another hold on it…
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