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
Comments 2071 Comments
  1. sicness's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dreaded View Post
    Well personally I could many things: I could get your facebook thus your email and maybe telephone number; or I could get both through other means; then I could email you get your IP address port scan you find an open port and hey presto the guy you hate on the forums gets owned.

    Btw it's an opt-in choice (whoever chooses to allow people to see their real lames ill lol); if I just wish to use your 'avatar' you may ofc.
    And do what exactly? Call him and tell him he's an idiot or something?

    The primary reason people troll is not only because it's anonymous but for the little bit of 'e-fame' that comes with it. If you take that out of the equation, which 'trolling' in real life does do, you take out the primary reason people troll in the first place, making them highly unlikely to do so in real life. Not to mention that so few people who play wow actually have any idea of how to do half of what you just said that it's likely it won't happen anyways.
  1. james1337's Avatar
    Found it! This is why the trolls be afraid of RealID forums. Sorry if it was already posted somewhere in this thread, but it's funny enough to be posted again if so. LOL

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/
  1. Kyocere's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaneiac View Post
    Wow, can't even post on the forums without everyone seeing your first and last name?

    Great. What the fuck is the point of this?

    I can see the benefits with it stopping people from being anonymous assholes, to an extent, but with our privacy gone?
    What privacy do you need? You are posting in a forum. It is not like you are taking naked pics and hosting them on an account without a name associated. once again what privacy do you need to respond to a post? Are you that ashamed of yourself?
  1. Battlegrounds's Avatar
    With a name like Ngu Yi, people are going to think I'm a gold farmer. This sucks.
  1. mmoc433ceb40ad's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eversor View Post
    Giving away your real name on Facebook or similar sites - totally fine.

    Blizzard putting your name next to your post in their forums - OMG THEY TAKING AWAY OUR FREEDUMZ


    Hilarity.
    This is because both serve a different purpose. Facebook is a social networking site. You chose your friends and who to socialise with. Your personal information is very limited for non-friends who visit your site.

    WoW-Forum exist to discuss a video-game. Forums aren't about socialising and aren't about making friends. Real-ID is fine in combination with WoW and the Battle-Net but not for a Video Game forum.
  1. my ledge ends's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by starfish View Post
    I just entered my own first and last name on the PIPL search engine, and frankly I'm a bit scared about the implications this will have when going live.

    My first and last name showed my pictures of myself, forums posts, newgroup posts, etc. Stuff I forgot I had written. Luckily I always behave nicely on the net, but suppose you were a jerk sometime and wrote something "not so clever". Not sure I would want all the people in the world knowing when and how much I play WoW or everything I post on the web.

    Try it out for yourselves actually. You might find something you forgot you wrote someone on the internet
    I can't post links but google "PIPL" and see for yourself.
    I did two searches on PIPL, one with my real name and one with the name of a different poster who claimed his name was "highly unique". I generated seven results for the latter (within the US alone) and I didn't even see the "real" me. I'm still unphased by this.
  1. Mynsc's Avatar
    If this actually goes live... get ready for a lot more traffic Boubouille. The official forums will become a boring empty place.
  1. NaughtyNordi's Avatar
    Everyone is looking at this as if it is somehow gonna stop people from trolling.. there are trolls aka asses/bullies in real life.. everywhere, you see them in person... does that stop them from being what they are? No. and yes the trolls will be easier to filter out now.. but who really suffers? You have to look at this change from a very broad perspective.

    ex: 10yr old sally/billy who loves to play wow, now has her/his full name easily obtainable on the forums.

    And find it hard to believe that people are nieve enough to think that stalkers/violent offenders don't use information easily obtained.

    The real trolls/criminals know better than to give their real name on anything online.

    I am 100% against this change.
  1. Edimasta's Avatar
    Great idea - i LOVE IT!!!

    This may stop all the trolling and spamming and stupidity in the forums, because NOW everybody can see, which lamer is behind the computer posting bullshit.
    Yeah!!
  1. zyo666's Avatar
    I for one think this is a bad idea, and I rarely post on the forums, and am not a troll. I also do not think its a great think that anyone on my real id friends list can check out everyone else on my list. I dunno. I might be alone in that, but I doubt it.
  1. rantus's Avatar
    Plus, everyone here probably agreed to this in the terms of use and agreements and whatnot.
  1. Vengeblade's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nyn View Post
    We're definitely never going to agree on this. I'll just leave it with three things:

    One: In my job, I am 100% positive you are wrong.

    Two: Just because someone has other avenues to get information, doesn't mean you hand them another one. You owned up to the phone being a stretch, please tell me you see the fault in that logic too.

    Three: Stalking? You need a darker imagination.
    The funny thing is, I actually agree with you to some degree, but here's the thing-I'm not reckless or paranoid. This change will not affect me because I know enough to protect myself from bad things, so I'm speaking from that point. As for those less secure, they will be at a loss, but I think most people are actually capable enough for this to have little effect in reality.

    AS for your job, I'm sorry you work with such close minded folks, its a terrible place but trust me as an upcoming graduate, the world is changing to more accepting in those areas, we have other problems, but that's not one of them.

    AS for being darker, I haven't even touched the surface. When your job is to run a villain in a D&D game fro folks who just aren't offended or affected by anything, I've learned to think creatively, however a public forum would warrant some restriction out of courtesy to those who might not appreciate such things.
  1. Anobix's Avatar
    absolutely asinine idea. In my guild (of 3 years) less than a handful even know my first name, why the hell would I want to give that out to every person who views the OBoards?
  1. zarbus's Avatar
    Fucking bad.

    I have no other words.
  1. dreaded's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by sicness View Post
    And do what exactly? Call him and tell him he's an idiot or something?

    The primary reason people troll is not only because it's anonymous but for the little bit of 'e-fame' that comes with it. If you take that out of the equation, which 'trolling' in real life does do, you take out the primary reason people troll in the first place, making them highly unlikely to do so in real life. Not to mention that so few people who play wow actually have any idea of how to do half of what you just said that it's likely it won't happen anyways.
    People are under the impression that you can't do shit with an IP; thats utter pesh, but thats for you to find out.
  1. Tyrianth's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nyn View Post
    You kinda just proved my point about being unimaginative. It's not going to be so obvious as 'Hey! You have no clue who I am! Where do you live?' I have your real name. Now from the forums I have your server and guild. I app, join, and wait. One day we all (the whole guild in /g) have a fun chat about...something, and Tyrianth reveals he lives in Utah. Now I have a state and a full name. Now try to tell me I can't do anything.

    And please spare me the 'you can't get into my guild we're family'...blah blah blah. I was giving a single possibility for something I've never actually done before (stalking). I'm sure I can come up with more.

    And just FYI, you could be lying about me finding you. I know I would.
    You completely missed the pointed of my post. If I'm Mr. Paranoia I wouldn't be partaking in that conversation because everyone on the internet is out to stalk me.
  1. manniefaces's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by zaneosak View Post
    Do you know how to control the trolls without doing RealID to forums? Get some moderators, pay them out of your billions, and ban the fucking trolls from the forums. How hard is that? Iliketits, Level 1 Gnome Warrior posts something retarded, match up the battle.net account and Banhammer him from the forums, case closed.
    Actually this is easier and cheaper. Welcome to Econ 101.
  1. frott's Avatar
    bottom line is if i posted my real first and last name here, right now, it would take anyone about 5 minutes to be able to:

    1. call me at work.
    2. call my boss at work. I'm sure to tell me i'm very pleasant and helpful.
    3. stop by my house or job and bid me a good day.
    4. read my amazon.com reviews and reply kindly to them
    5. locate clients of mine and give them an update as to my opinion of them.


    Are you out of your fucking mind? Do you think I'm concerned about this because I like to post ASCII middle fingers?
  1. Rellekk's Avatar
    This is an amazing idea. Trolls can go QQ on /b/ about being anon
  1. Buckwald's Avatar
    I just posted on the FB post linking here. Guess which one is me.

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