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. jesy's Avatar
    http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ATVI <--- HAHAHA
  1. Donmc's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gogetaex View Post
    This is funny as hell. Our names are already out there everywhere, I CAN understand people not wanting their privacy exposed though. Some people are just iffy on that.
    As true as that may be, people can't look at the name of your avatar and track you down.
  1. silendeath's Avatar
    I rarely even post on the forums, and I REALY dont like like the idea of broadcasting my name to a bunch of a holes I know
  1. mmocb6717e7d29's Avatar
    This is bullshit, glad I'm not using wow forums.
  1. LoLHellcy's Avatar
    oh irony: my account got perma-forum banned posting trying to protest a change that would show real names on the forum...well i guess its not my problem anymore
  1. fenway's Avatar
    "The price is too high."

    What?

    I mean, really?

    You're being serious? You're comparing having to use your name on an OPTIONAL forum for a COMPUTER GAME to be the same as being unjustly convicted for murder? Where do you guys come up with this stuff?

    "They're making all my private information public!"

    No, they aren't.
    1. It's just your name. Something which, sorry to break it to you, is in no way whatsoever private information. You have absolutely ZERO legal rights to keeping your name a secret. You don't have to go around telling strangers every time they ask, but don't be shocked if a cop doesn't need a warrant to make you tell your real name.
    2. YOU DON'T HAVE TO POST THERE. If you don't like it just keep posting on mmo-champion. It's a nice site.
  1. Amerrack's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tharkkun View Post
    Short Story: Contact the authorities before it gets out of hand. You can't go around life thinking everyone who knows your name is going to disagree and kill you. That's ridiculous. We have law enforcement to handle issues for a reason and they will. End of story.
    You hit the nail on the head.
  1. Sungamnori's Avatar
    People troll on level 1 alts because they don't want their main's reputation tarnished. To remove the majority of trolls, link all character names on the account.

    You do NOT need to display real names in order to get rid of trolls.

    They need to stop feeding us excuses for ulterior motives, we're not that stupid.
  1. oddf3llow's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by notmyrealname View Post
    This is a major lack of respect for my privacy!

    I do NOT want to show my real name in-game, not even to friends!
    I do NOT want to show my real name to all the users of the blizz forums!
    I WANT my real name to be PRIVATE, cause that's the way i like it!

    If Blizzard doesn't show any respect for my privacy then i will have to reconsider if i want to keep on playing this game. There are other great MMO's on the way that DO have respect for my privacy!
    THIS!!

    I was horrified when I invited my missis to be my RealID buddy our REAL NAMES showed up in the list!!

    Not only do you have to give people your real email address, but then they also know your real name, and YOU HAVE NO CHOICE!!

    Also, you can't log on in "invisible" mode. All my friends know what i'm doing, where I'm playing and when, and I CANNOT change it!

    I just ask this; HOW LONG UNTIL OUR REAL NAMES ARE DISPLAYED UNDER OUR IN-GAME CHARACTER NAMES???! Hey, it's a great new RealID feature!.... /shakes head
  1. Vasz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by pVVn3c| View Post
    Bottom line, if you are so afraid of it then maybe you shouldn't use the service. I for one will.


    This just proves to me that no one is able to find my real information. Keep digging, I've never posted my real current address anywhere on the internet, and I don't work for your average employer. There is nothing to be found, if you don't want to be found, I suggest you don't post your true information anywhere either.
    And yet i found: pics of your car, your workplace, pics of yourself, your wow character, your mums name, your parents adress, pics of your parents neighborhood, your parents phone number, your bosses name and though Myspace i found the name of all your friends and their details as well. And it took me SECONDS.

    Seems you got worried enough to remove your Myspace profile, but that's irrelevant. I did it to prove a point, not to hunt you down or order Taxi's, Skips and Pizzas to your house.
  1. Reciprocity's Avatar
    I understand the benefits of forging online memories and relationships with people, but I am more well aware of the downsides that occur from exposing private information to everyone, even those we do not choose to do share it with. Unless I have missed the concept of this "REALID", it is a bad idea. What with cyber-bullying and how easy it is to locate someone through Facebook/GOOGLE, privacy rights have gone out the window.

    If I *chose* to share my ID with someone, I could look up a poster, find their realm and drop my contact info into the mail system. Or, just wait on an alt. But the minor positives (forging relationships, pushing out trolls) are far outweighed by the negatives (privacy issues, cyber-bullying and or stalking, privacy hacks, etc).

    People play behind avatars for a reason and if they choose to release their true identity, so be it, that's their choice. I have yet to find a successful forum that required people to utilize their main ID, UNLESS they also had a private website that was accessible ONLY by private members. Even then, the membership was nowhere near as large as WOW's (11,000,000+).

    But, I'm guessing with deep pockets and lawyers, all of these legal issues have been addressed?
  1. jericho's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ssateneth View Post
    The people whining about this are typically trolls hiding behind some anonymous name. I for one am for this.
    Quote Originally Posted by Vevilair View Post
    If you don't like it, don't troll or don't post.
    Yeah, its comments like this that make it clear that some people just don't get it.

    People want their anonymity. Not everyone on the internet is "safe". What Blizzard is basically doing, it giving out information about you that you wouldn't give out anywhere on the internet. You, wouldn't go walking around on the street with a name tag giving your name and address would you? No, because you open yourself up to a whole world of danger.

    There are many ways to remove some level of anonymity on the Blizzard forums without outing everyone's person information. Blizzard needs to think long and hard at implementing some of those instead of this one.

    I don't post much on any forums, but since my longtime raiding guild (MC-Ulduar) decided we weren't going to raid anymore, I use the forums to sign up for raids. I have also had the need to use the customer service and tech support forums more than once in the past 2 months. This doesn't just effect trolls. It effects everyone playing the game and is a HORRIBLE idea. Not only does it share personal information, but it opens up Blizzard to a heck of a lot of legal liability issues, when the first person crosses statelines to molest someone. (It happened before Real-ID, it will happen after Real-ID only easier.)
  1. fenway's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zombikilla View Post
    oh irony: my account got perma-forum banned posting trying to protest a change that would show real names on the forum...well i guess its not my problem anymore
    You have absolutely no idea what the word irony means. That's not even close to being ironic.
  1. cloudpulse's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by pVVn3c| View Post
    Find my real address, my real phone number, or my real employer and I will concede. I'm waiting.
    Sure, what's your full name?
  1. s_bushido's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jesy View Post
    http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ATVI <--- HAHAHA
    EA, NVidia, and THQ (for example) are down about the same % as well. What's the point of these posts?
  1. Darger's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ozzmodious View Post
    I couldn't agree more, that this will probably put a very big stop to the trolls <cheers>

    But I do not like the fact were giving up our privacy. Not everyone needs to know who I am, and it is no one else business either. For blizz to think that this is ok to do, makes me wonder just how private our information is that they do currently have. Not a good idea at all blizz.
    Your foolish to think that trolls will stop. Infact with all this happing now, 250+ pages on the wow forums, trolls are going to be 100x worse. It wont be the simple ones either it will be the real assholes who dont care ig or irl if ppl hate them.
  1. Sungamnori's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by fenway View Post
    "The price is too high."

    What?

    I mean, really?

    You're being serious? You're comparing having to use your name on an OPTIONAL forum for a COMPUTER GAME to be the same as being unjustly convicted for murder? Where do you guys come up with this stuff?

    "They're making all my private information public!"

    No, they aren't.
    1. It's just your name. Something which, sorry to break it to you, is in no way whatsoever private information. You have absolutely ZERO legal rights to keeping your name a secret. You don't have to go around telling strangers every time they ask, but don't be shocked if a cop doesn't need a warrant to make you tell your real name.
    2. YOU DON'T HAVE TO POST THERE. If you don't like it just keep posting on mmo-champion. It's a nice site.

    Its called an analogy, and its a perfectly legit one.
  1. bigjenk's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by carenard View Post
    or just head over to http://www.intelius.com/

    search for your name across all states(do not include middle initial)

    for me.. 1 result.. me, there might be 1-2 other ppl in the world with my name(english first name, german last name)

    Im prbly gonna go delete all my old official forum posts and never post again

    also alot of people that I know of let the city they live in be public, and unless you have an extremely common name there would only be 1-2 ppl with that name in said city.
    E stalking is somewhat prevelent in this game already as is hardcore raging i can guarantee almost no girls will post on forums again unless they at least have an ambiguous name.
  1. Gamdwelf's Avatar
    I want a pizza just like Tim, but can mine be pepperoni? Mauricio Lang
  1. mmoc778a83792b's Avatar
    [Because I am French, I'm not sure my words are well written. If you see a mistake, please disregard.]

    Quote Originally Posted by Vevilair View Post
    If you don't like it, don't troll or don't post.
    So this is "love it or shut the fuck up"?

    Just because I do not want my life InGame interferes with my life InRealLife does not make me a troll, you bloïting blit!

    At Blizzard, they could ensure that we have a unique nickname for each account, rather than using our true identities! I like to have a barrier between IRL and IG.
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