Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Official Forums

Well, now I'm glad my battle.net account name is fake.

Originally Posted by Rezzyk

So now two months later it's OK for our names to be plastered over everything on the official forums? No thanks.

I'm pretty sure there's a law against this, or if not there should be. You should always have an option to keep your personal information private. Hell, Facebook recently with their whole integration to other sites had some user information set as Public initially and that was a huge privacy shitstorm. This is worse, because you Cant. Turn. it. Off.

I think the idea would be that if you don't want your name appearing in google, you shouldn't post to the boards. It certainly isn't illegal to display the name of someone who posts when they ought to know that their name will appear.

Now if they retroactively added names to old posts, then I would sympathize, but I don't get the impression that this is what they're going to do.

Your real name is public information. It actually has no meaning if others don't know it. The point of your name is a title or label so that others can remember you and associate information with you. If there were no other people on the planet but yourself, you wouldn't even need the damn thing. Its just a name and if people knowing you play wow is going to be an issue, you have larger things to worry about, stop freaking out.

lol whats with blizzard trying to turn wow into a social networking game 0o

Originally Posted by madethisfor1post

No more lvl 1 alt named Youmadbrah piloted by some 13 year old talking shit on the forums.

I dunno, man...it says you'll have the option of displaying your main character. One has to wonder, though, what dictates a 'main character'. It may mean you can only post on level 80's, but that would exclude new players from using the forums. In all likelihood, it will probably mean you can choose a 'main character' to post on, which means you may still have a level 1 named "Youmadbrah" talking about how your idea sucks on the Suggestions forum...you'll just have a useless name to go with it that doesn't really tell you anything about their age.

/shrug

Clearly this WILL scare some of them away though, but the fear is seemingly illogical.

Originally Posted by Ansible

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.

Actually, like others have said, I kinda am.

Googled my name. First result was me, with the schools I had attended listed and a picture of my from high school. Now, someone has my name, hometown, schooling history, and a picture of me that is still fairly recent.

What was that you were saying?

I predict 700 pages of QQ by the end of the day.

This is definitely most controversial feature to be implemented. Some will like it, others won't. The most affected will be the poor trolls who hide behind low lvl chars.

Originally Posted by AgentBuckwald

I like this. Less trolls and internet super heroes.

Exactly.

And funnily, almost everyone whining about this have probably at some point plastered their first and last name, mobile number, or other personal information elsewhere on the internet such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. So why are they suddenly worried that their first and last names will be shown on a WoW forum where no one would care about looking for them, anyway? Because these are the people that post on those level 1 alts trolling other people due to lacking the balls to post on their main. The sensible ones who will have posts worth reading will recognize this as a beneficial change, while it chases the trolls and e-thugs away along with players that have a tendancy to knee-jerk react to changes, making the WoW forums a better place to visit.

Kudos, Blizzard.

Originally Posted by sandbenders

The official forums are searchable by Google. I work in technology. When I apply for a new job, at some point in the future, someone will Google my name. A lot of companies wont think that a heavy WoW poster would be such a great employee. I have a family and other responsibilities... I don't need problems getting a job. So as much as I'd like to participate in a new, troll-free forums, I will not be posting *at all*.

-SB

Why would a company be upset if you make posts on a forum? Unless those posts are derogatory or show poor character there's no reason to really be so concerned about it.

Originally Posted by Vengeblade

I can't describe how amused I am at how many people complain about privacy......LOL. You have no idea how much about you is just floating out there waiting for someone to find it. Believe it or not, you don't have as much privacy online as you think.

But the reality is that:
-Most people who have or can gain access to your info don't want it or even care about it.
-Online communication is so commonplace that it should be treated like face to face as far as basic information available and behavior. I mean, we talk to friends and family online, we have business meetings, conference calls, stay in touch with people, meet strangers, etc. We do this all online so much more, stop acting like this is something that wasn't bound to happen somewhere online.
-This isn't the age of the dangerous internet like in the 90s, most people online really don't care who you are enough to help or hinder you, stop acting like the world is out to get you.
-AS far as people talking about future employers not hiring you because of WoW......ROFL. Are you serious? I'm in college for business and I can tell you it won't prevent you from getting hired, unless you slack on your job because of it. We are living in a an age, where if possible boss in under 30, its becoming acceptable to text message them instead of calling, because that's the standard. What if the future boss is under 25, I was told by someone who goes over resumes and helps people find jobs to actually send a text or even send a message via Facebook. What we think about how people see things like hobbies and networking are vastly different than even 5 years ago.
-As for any extreme case of stalking people try to list.....don't care, statistically irrelevant. We could also talk about how knowing a real name could prevent harassment or even help locate dangerous people faster (pedos and serial stalkers come to mind).

Really, people need to start thinking before they act and think about the general rules and not the exceptions when deciding how good something is. This is a huge improvement that helps FAR FAR more than it hurts. But people will whine about how stupid on unsafe this change will be, but will open a door to a stranger or answer a phone call that they can't see on the caller id.

I really don't see how this makes it any less safe, going to a bar or club seems more dangerous than this. AS for privacy, like I said, it really isn't as private as you think online, so that's a non issue and a moot point to tear anything down about real ID just yet.

The burden isn't on the anonymous to prove that going PUBLIC with information like your full name is DANGEROUS.

And it's irrelevant to prove the opposite, because the only harm that comes from anonymity is the ability to say what you really want to say. As much trolling as that permits, it also allows people to be MUCH more honest.

i am glad that i never post on the official forums...

What's wrong with an alias? I think this is just Blizzard's idea to get people to stop posting on their forums. They are sick of peoples legitimate complaints about stuff and would rather just not see it than have to pretend to deal with it.

I feel bad for the female players who are about to get lolustalked by the 14-16 year olds.

ZOMG i love it. Blizzard takes the Nerf Hammer to the Trolls. This is a great idea. In one sweep they will have nerf Trolls to the ground. Love it. Now that the troll nest is ruffled they are MAD!! REAL MAD!!!

MMO-Champion just because my new home for Forums posting.

To hell with their Boards.

the real ID in game is fine since people have to actually know to see your name but now its open to the public i dislike this idea =/

I think I'm going to be able to have great fun with this. When I google my name some other person's Facebook account is the top result. So I can troll to my heart's content while the poor guy gets stalked and turned down for jobs etc...

Guys get over yourselves. If somebody tries to tie you to what you say or do online by doing a google search and matching your name (no pic) then you can just deny it, or sue (if yer american).

Whatever it is the people at blizzard are smoking... I WANT IT.

Originally Posted by Herecius

Bwahahahahaha. I lolled. I'm sure people will call this the death of Blizzard. Me? I find it hilarious and fairly harmless.

Really hilarious. I'm not shameful about my real name, nor am I afraid to post under the auspices of my real name. My privacy honestly isn't being breached, because none of my actual personal information - beyond my name, which is shared by many - is being shared. Feel free to call me Matthew, MMO-Champion forums, I don't give a rat's ass. :P

You forgot your last name.

they've seen that farmville addicts fill pockets, so they've decided to adapt their logics.

Originally Posted by Frozenbeef

lol whats with blizzard trying to turn wow into a social networking game 0o

Activision said that they would be taking blizzard games in this direction, saying they wanted to make it more like xbox live, etc.