Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Official Forums

Update - Added a clarification, your real name will not show up on old forum posts. It will only be displayed on the new forum system.

Oh and since a few people asked, now, I have absolutely no plan to do that on MMO-Champion forums. (And that's not sarcasm, I really don't like the idea of real names on a gaming forum)

Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Forums
Your real name will be displayed on the official forums now. You'd better think twice before you troll a bunch of angry ... trolls.
[blizzquote author=Nethaera source=http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/25712374700/battle-net-update-upcoming-changes-to-forums/]Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature - www.battle.net/realid/ , a new way to stay connected with your friends on the new Battle.net. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about our plans for Real ID on our official forums, discuss the design philosophy behind the changes we’re making, and give you a first look at some of the new features we’re adding to the forums to help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.

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. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.

The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. 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. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.

We also plan to add a number of other features designed to make reading the forums more enjoyable and to empower players with tools to improve the quality of forum discussions. Players will have the ability to rate up or rate down posts so that great topics and replies stand out from the not-so-great; low-rated posts will appear dimmer to show that the community feels that they don’t contribute effectively to the conversation, and Blizzard’s community team will be able to quickly and easily locate highly rated posts to participate in or to highlight discussions that players find worthwhile.

In addition, individual topics will be threaded by context, meaning replies to specific posts will be grouped together, making it easier for players to keep track of multiple conversations within a thread. We’re also adding a way for Blizzard posters to “broadcast” important messages forums-wide , to help communicate breaking news to the community in a clear and timely fashion. Beyond that, we’re improving our forum search function to make locating interesting topics easier and help lower the number of redundant threads, and we have more planned as well.

With the launch of the new Battle.net, it’s important to us to create a new and different kind of online gaming environment -- one that’s highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. All of our design decisions surrounding Real ID -- including these forum changes -- have been made with this goal in mind.

We’ve given a great deal of consideration to the design of Real ID as a company, as gamers, and as enthusiastic users of the various online-gaming, communication, and social-networking services that have become available in recent years. As these services have become more and more popular, gamers have become part of an increasingly connected and intimate global community – friendships are much more easily forged across long distances, and at conventions like PAX or our own BlizzCon, we’ve seen first-hand how gamers who may have never actually met in person have formed meaningful real-life relationships across borders and oceans. As the way gamers interact with one another continues to evolve, our goal is to ensure Battle.net is equipped to handle the ever-changing social-gaming experience for years to come.

For more info on Real ID, check out our Real ID page and FAQ located at http://www.battle.net/realid/ . We look forward to answering your questions about these upcoming forum changes in the thread below. [/blizzquote]
[blizzquote author=Bashiok source=http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/25712374700/battle-net-update-upcoming-changes-to-forums/]One important point which I don't believe has been relayed yet is that the switch to showing RealID on the forums will only happen with the new forum systems we're launching for StarCraft II shortly before its release, and a new forum system for World of Warcraft launching shortly before the release of Cataclysm.

All posts here on the current World of Warcraft forums, or any of our classic Battle.net forums, will remain as-is. They won't (and can't) automatically switch to showing a real first and last name.

All posts in the future on the new forum systems will be an opt-in choice and ample warning will be given that you're posting with your real first and last name. [/blizzquote]
This article was originally published in forum thread: Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Forums started by Boubouille View original post
Published on 2010-07-06 04:39 PM
2074 Comments
Comments 2071 Comments
  1. Snorri's Avatar
    I have to agree that the full name should not be used. That can be abused in many ways when you least expect it.

    But, it might mean I will start reading the forum again. I stopped some months ago because the place was used more for trolling and flaming. That's why I started hanging around MMO-champion forums instead. More information and less trolling.
  1. dmiasek's Avatar
    I don't consider one's name to be all that private. I like this idea. It forces people to take some responsibility about what they say.
  1. Pisholina's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Smoopie View Post
    It will be pretty intresting to see the profiles on facebook/myspace of some of the "top raiders"

    Maybe pull up some DMV records and see what kind of mount they have IRL


    Not really sure how this idea will clean up the forums though, you can still post on an alt
    Are you serious? They said they will place your name and surname, you will not be able to choose who to post with anymore.
  1. Moonchyld's Avatar
    Yea..... So I rarely post on any forums, and I am not a troll so, really, don't go there, but this is not a good idea IMO.
    I will assuredly not be posting on the official forums now. Yea, I know, my info's already out there, blah blah blah...
    I am not going to contribute to handing my personal info out there myself.
  1. fendrix's Avatar
    Quick FYI:

    If you set up parental controls on your battle.net account, you can disable RealID, which in turn would stop your whole name from showing up everywhere.

    On the flip side, you cant use any real ID features, such as cross game chat...though TBH, I rather not have people I know in SC2 bug me when playing WoW or vice versa.
  1. Alianthos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zlodo View Post
    You have no concept of what privacy is and what it is used for.

    Wait until you're applying for a job and get rejected because your would-be employer google your name, find out you play wow and denies you the job because he is prejudiced against it.

    Myself I prefer to keep things separate because really the link between who I am in game, who I am here and who I am IRL are informations that people really don't need to know.

    If this goes through I won't stop posting on the wow forums because I don't want to troll there with my irl name. I will do so because I don't want people completely unrelated to me playing wow find out what I post there, how much I post there etc. - knowing that I play wow, knowing what I do in it or how much I play is simply not their business.
    Nailed it. To all the one who like it, read what i quoted and think again.

    This is fucked up lol.
  1. Buzzinjoe's Avatar
    Well time to stop posting on the official forums.

    I don't want my RL name search on google to return anything related to WoW.

    WoW is still frowned upon generally in society. Imagine you apply for a job, they do a google search about you and find lots of links to WoW forum posts. Fantastic.

    FUCK YOU BLIZZARD.

    I'm out. They only keep making things worse. They really don't deserve anyone's money anymore quite frankly.
  1. Wells's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Soyuz View Post
    I'm sure that 80% of the winers about privacy also has a facebook account where their friends post the most embarassing info.
    Total strangers don't have access to that information either.
  1. Paletusk's Avatar
    I won't be posting on the official forums anymore. I don't feel the need to share any of my personal information with the rest of the world nor do I feel like I have to provide a reason to keep that information private. Call it tinfoil hat, or whatever. I wouldn't give my last name to a random stranger on the street. Why would I give it to the internet?
  1. Raqubor's Avatar
    Wow, this is great!
    Love this change! I was getting sick and tired of all the trolls!

    At Cyloria: relax, why would anyone do that?

    In fact i can see how people will laugh at my name. People at the company always mistake me for a woman when i send mails to the German colleagues.
    My real name is Gyula Kiss. Kiss is my family name and Gyula is actually a male name in Hungary... so yeah, but i always laugh when we talk on the phone ans they go:
    Hello i would like to talk to Miss Kiss, and i go: Yeah I'm Mr. Kiss, how can i help you XD.

    Ok too much info... I'll stop now.
  1. bunnytrail's Avatar
    I don't post on the official forums often, but every once in a while. I think they should allow us to go by a nickname. Most people use nicknames anyway; I have an online nickname that I ALWAYS use online no matter what- Bunny. I'd rather not go around with my rather long full name attached, pl0z.
  1. tilgare's Avatar
    I'm no troll, I don't instigate wars, none of that sort of thing. That does not mean I don't value my privacy. I'm not excited to have my name broadcast to the world... can you even go back and delete posts off the WoW forums? Even if I choose not to post anymore, I've still posted in the past...
  1. BobAwesome's Avatar
    For all the people who are scared of their first and last name being made public, go Google your name. There are over 6 billion people in the world.

    YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD WITH THAT NAME.

    And even if do have some one of a kind name, there's not a whole lot you can do with it. We know plenty of celebrity names and quite a few of the blizzard developers names, and nothings happening to them.


    Every person who is complaining about this change is just upset that they won't be able to troll anymore.


    Oh and my name is Bob O'Connor, get at me.
  1. ThunderBlunder's Avatar
    You just made your King vulnerable, the Pawns will be yelling checkmate and your Queen will moan because she won't have much money in the Treasure chest. See what I did here...

    The Pawns becomes the King, The King becomes the Pawn.
  1. Nalnik's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Asheli View Post
    The ones who don't like this idea like to flame others and start heated discussions and just generally insult people. There are good and bad things about this, clearly. But i believe it will tone down all the negativity that's floating around the wow-europe.com-forums
    I've always been civil on the WoW Forums; got a 24 hour ban once for language (quoting someone who included profanity and replying to their actual message) when I first started browsing the forums, but I've been good since then.

    I'm against this idea. A first name and partial list of characters (80's, most active, whatever), yea, that would be acceptable.

    Using my last name? No, that's too far in my opinion. Yes, with my last and first name, you can find me very easily. I realize it's not everyone in the world, but on Facebook, I'm the only one with my name, if that gives you an idea of things.
  1. ThunderBlunder's Avatar
    Chill, we still have mmo-champion! great move blizzard, making mmochamp more popular >=D
  1. Petraeus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Asheli View Post
    The ones who don't like this idea like to flame others and start heated discussions and just generally insult people. There are good and bad things about this, clearly. But i believe it will tone down all the negativity that's floating around the wow-europe.com-forums
    wrong.

    I know girls who have been estalked by people knowing their name. Once you know ones name, you can start associating other personal information with it. Say a hottie in guild chat lets their hometown slip, you then go on battle net, search for their posts and now you know her name AND hometown.

    e-stalk begin.

    this is just a bad idea overall.
  1. xile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alana View Post
    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.

    I won't be posting on the WoW forums either anymore, it seems extremely weird to have both the names on the post. And it in no way forces anyone to take responsibility for what they say, your name is posted on the web, not your address, what you look like or anything else about you, it is just extremely odd and i wish they wouldn't change it.
  1. Marnem's Avatar
    Not a fan of this one. Would be happy for people to be able to see all the characters on an account (at least removing the whole level 1 alt trolling phenomenon) but I don't really like the idea of people being able to google my name and find out too much about me.

    @Soyuz: True but you can hide aspects of your facebook as see fit, these forums can be viewed by anyone.
  1. Freedom's Avatar
    PEDOPHILES AND STALKERs, REJOICE!!!!! Seriously???? Now how does one go back and delete all the posts you have ever made so your real god damn name does not show up so that any fool or tool on your realm can know your real name?!?
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