Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Forums

[Deleted]

For ppl that think this is good just imagine that you are going to a job interview and the guy who will be doing the interview, decides to google you, and finds out that you are an hardcore player that likes to raid 6h a day, and thinks that Palas are OP.

[Naquada]

About time. I like this change.

[Deleted]

I guess all the trolls will migrate to mmo-champ and others now :f

Maybe they're going for quality over quantity. Not saying it's a great idea but I think the pros outweigh the cons.

[Pikabanga]

Your name is not unique. You are not a special snowflake.

Many people have unique combinations of first and last name, making it easily traceable.

[Smoopie]

What private information? You can't do very much with a First and Last name.....tinfoil hat more please

[Wells]

Why do you consider your name to be private information?

Because combined with an IP its not hard to get more information about someone.

And for everyone making a Facebook comparison, people don't add random strangers to their profile.

[Solfire]

They need to allow us to have a nickname or something. I tell NO ONE my real name. I enjoy giving feedback on the class mechanics of priests and trying to help the priest community. Plus bumping guild recruitment threads or just chatting. No trolling or flaming, but I won't be able to post anything if my real name is on it.

In fact aren't blizzard GM's required to not tell anyone their real job? I recall reading a post by Ghostcrawler joking about his identity, and about how even his guild didn't know who he was. Now that him, and every other GM will be posting with their real name, they'll be easier to find.

[Gunmist]

Trolls will always be trolls.

[jd5]

Yikes, incoming s-storm...

Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water, sure you will stop some trolls, but you will also stop helpful posters who (for whatever their own personal reason) don't want their real name known.

I didn't mind realid having my name shown as it only goes to my friends in game, but this will stop all my posting on the wow forums. We have a troll of epic proportions on my main server that has managed to keep playing past several bans (buying new accounts, moving characters, re-rolling, etc.). This is the kind of loser that has tried to track people down before he had access to peoples proper names, don't want to see what will happen once realid names are out.

Blizz needs to rethink and add in nicknames even if only for the forums. It should be up to them (Blizz) to police us, not each other. They already know our accounts and names, they can stop trolls by simply monitoring and banning any idiots.

PS - For those who say "it's only a name, what can they do with that"... a lot. Your facebook page, little comments here and there about where you live or location in the city you live, etc. If you are clever enough you can track down people with only a little bit of starter info.

[cyloria]

I am female, and i do worry about so many people having my real name. I like the less annomity, but i feel weird with strangers all having my name. A few years back i was stalked. I actually moved from the area. Which is why i don't like this idea. Sure there are probably a ton of people with my name in the world, but the paranoid side of me does not like it.

[Deleted]

Well, I don't like this either.
Showing first name is ok but last name too.. :/

[DiscostewSM]

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it.

Um...the purpose of RealID in the first place was for friends and relations to stay in contact with you when playing the same or different Blizzard games. Since when did total strangers get added to the list?

In one aspect, people won't be posting on their lvl 2 alts they made specifically for the forums, as their name will always be displayed, but what about the good people of the community that don't want their name shown to the world? Why must they get forced into something that isn't needed?

[darkfenix_rizen]

Too bad they will be forcing off a lot of non-trolls who just don't want people to know their real names. Myself included.

[Cilraaz]

I'm usually one who argues the pro-Blizzard side of arguments, to the point of being called a sympathist or fanboy. I think this change is absolutely insane, though. If your name is John Smith, you may not care. Personally, I have a (literally) unique name. I am one of 4 living males with my last name. It would not be difficult for a job recruiter, for instance, to look me up and see my interest in WoW. While I don't really care who knows that I play WoW, I'd rather not be turned away for a job because a recruiter has a wild hair up their ass.

On top of that, Blizzard has said all along that Real ID was optional, and if you didn't want someone to have your full name, just don't add them as a Real ID friend. This kinda defeats that. You want a more pleasant official forum? Create a dropdown box under the person posting with a list of each of their characters on the account (or a link to go to a page to see all of the characters). Right there, unless someone's willing to pay $15 a month to troll the forums on a separate account, the problem is solved.

[Gilles]

Guess I won't be posting on the official forums anymore

[Irony]

Not a huge fan of this change.

[Alana]

I do not like. I don't want people to know my name. That's an invasion of privacy. I don't troll the forums, but I don't think I'll ever visit them again when this goes into effect.

[Tickles]

/cheer

[Lardacus]

I wonder if Blizzard somehow forgot that account phishing/hacking was already a huge problem, all this is going to do is make it even easier.

[Deleted]

I was ok with ingame Real ID.
You accept people you trust, and people that most likley already know your IRL name. But the forums? I dont know.
As a female player I rather not go out with my name, and rather not always reveal that I am female in the first place unless I want to. There are still people to take the oppinions diffrently if you are of a diffrent gender. And I rather dont want new "omg-girl" stalkers ingame.

I wouldnt mind some kind of nickname that is connected to all characters I post to. So people would know that this lvl 80 dude and this lvl 1 dude is the same person.