Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Official Forums

Originally Posted by Bogrim

When did I mention killing? People aren't going to commit murdering knowing someone's real name. That's you trying to make my opinion sound hysterical to devalue my opinion. What you continue to fail to understand is that right now there is no doubt, and this change introduces that doubt. We don't know what this change will bring, and that is the problem.

And stop dodging every point made against you, PROVE it wrong that people can use information against you and GIVE me a reason for why we cannot have a feature to turn it off.

The danger that come from people seeing your real name is similar to going outside your home. I would even dare to say it's much less. I admitt, I did feel strange when I first heard about the idea but common sense tells me there is nothing to worry about. Also, this opened my eyes that my personal information is already on the internet because internet is going this way.

The idea of the internet should not be hiding yourself but being smart about your personal information. That means that people can find your name but nothing more. Very often strangers can here my real name when I'm doing some official stuff and that is more dangerous that people seeing my real name on the internet. Why? Because following me in RL from one place ot other is easier than finding my adress on the internet.

I am not agaist possibility of turning the option off because I am all for freedom of choise but I do think hiding your real name is paranoic since I totally don't understand what giving the real name will hurt people. I actually think that the illusion of annonymity on the internet does it a lot of harm because it encourages behaviours majority of people would not do if people knew their name. It's much more about psychological impact that someone actually hurting you.

What a terrible idea... official forums are going crazy with complaints... I hope sooooooo much this change will not go live

All the people saying "Stop QQing, your name is not unique" needs to shut up and stop making fools of themselves.

Matter of fact; googling my name returns only results pointing to me (Looking past partial matches that is). Meaning, more than likely, my name is entirely unique.

Come on - not all of us live in the US with names picked at random from the top-100 popularity list of names at birth.

Real ID is one thing(I use it BUT it's limited to my brother, mother, and two friends from college I know and trust with some personal information: security wise too.)

Originally Posted by kojinshugi

I didn't know there were shops that can fit millions of 15-30 year old males with a high prevalence for social disorders in at the same time.

And all of them will go to the other side of the world just to kill someone. (I assume some might but then probability is similar as one already living close enough).

I actually wonder if FB increased the rate of stalckers...

account hackers must be very happy

Originally Posted by Lilija

The danger that come from people seeing your real name is similar to going outside your home. I would even dare to say it's much less.

Then I'm really sorry, but you're an idiot.

Even putting aside the massive differences in scale, there's other factors.

People whom you are likely to meet in your own neighborhood, even dangerous, psychotic people are strongly deterred from assaulting or harming you, because there are countless witnesses, and they are likely to be in a familiar area.

People who target you online have the full benefit of anonymity and distance. They can turn your life into a living hell with very little provocation. They can sit at their computers and find out so much personal, private information about you that they can use however they see fit.

A stranger on the street has to physically follow you to your place of residence to get any sort of personal information about you, since thankfully we're not required to print our full names on our foreheads quite yet.

will there be an `opt out` fucntion? if thats a NO then this will break the UK`s pirvacy laws.

just look at how much **** facebook got into when they amde everything public.

Originally Posted by Lilija

And all of them will go to the other side of the world just to kill someone. (I assume some might but then probability is similar as one already living close enough).

You play in the EU. It costs like 20 euro to fly to Poland from anywhere.

And yeah, the likelihood you'll get KILLED is very slim, but not impossible. The likelihood that you'll get harassed online, that you'll receive disturbing phone calls, that someone will sabotage your personal life because they fixated on you online is much higher, and not affected in the slightest by geographical distance.

EDIT: And how many people live close to you, and are likely to encounter you? Maybe a few thousand?

This is orders of magnitude smaller than the amount of people on the WoW forums or the internet in general.

Originally Posted by Sungamnori

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin

You might have heard it as "Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither", "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." or some other variant, but the sentiment most definitely applies.

If you are willing to give up your liberty of posting in character for the security of no more trolls, then you will end up without liberty OR security.

Enjoy.

wow definately QFT, people need to realise this and stop laughing at trolls as if their the only ones being affected by this

i dont want to be the person in charge for this decision right now. i mean... you have like 95% of your playerbase against your decision, if this really goes live this could be the breaking point for WoW...

other and upcoming mmos dont have to be better games anymore, its more like a decision if you really want to sacrifice your privacy in exchange for your voice to be heard or if you want what you should have (and had) in the first place.

Originally Posted by WingsOfDaidalos

Now you're just ignoring my (valid) arguments, which proves to me that you've run out of whine-gas. My work here is done.

On topic, I personally wouldn't mind if this goes through. However, Blizzard has a history of changing their minds based on the whining of the masses, so I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow they cancel the whole idea.

I don't care about how your arguments, valid or not. I just want to know your name because I don't like what you're saying and I'm one crazy ass motherfucker so I want to get at you for that. And you're too scared to give me your name, but if you post on the blizzard forums you won't have the option to not give out that information. So thanks for proving my point, giving out your real name might not be safe and if you're saying "LOL ITS OK GUYS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT" but refuse to give out your information you're nothing but a hypocrite.

It's no crime, but even on Facebook or any other Social website you get the choice to put in whatever name you like, and edit that name freely (whenever you want). Whereas with Blizzard, you can't.

Taken from Battle.net support pages:

The following details will only be changed by us under exceptional circumstances:

First name
Last name

That's the bullshit part. Unless you have official documentation of a name change from your local council/state then they won't change it and you can't change it yourself either, you need to contact them to do so.

I'm truly shocked that they are going to be doing this. I fail to see what advantage they gain by forcing someone to use their real name over, lets say, a Nom de Plume/Pseudonym tied to their account.

Having a single name to post on from a battle net account I do think is a good idea to help prevent trolling, or at the very least make it more obvious. It also helps remove the anonymity of posting from some lvl 1 char. However to force this to be based on a persons real name is opening all sorts of problems and potential security issues.

---------- Post added 2010-07-07 at 12:02 PM ----------

I'm truly shocked that they are going to be doing this. I fail to see what advantage they gain by forcing someone to use their real name over, lets say, a Nom de Plume/Pseudonym tied to their account.

Having a single name to post on from a battle net account I do think is a good idea to help prevent trolling, or at the very least make it more obvious. It also helps remove the anonymity of posting from some lvl 1 char. However to force this to be based on a persons real name is opening all sorts of problems and potential security issues.

Originally Posted by Airbuster

Well if you ask me we all just want to live our lives our way so blizz should give us a option to switch between the two......

If there was a choice, I really doubt people would even choose the first and last names to be displayed. People have entrusted their information with Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. How is Blizzard any different? If someone really wanted to harass you, they already have the means to do so.

Originally Posted by Lilija

The danger that come from people seeing your real name is similar to going outside your home. I would even dare to say it's much less. I admitt, I did feel strange when I first heard about the idea but common sense tells me there is nothing to worry about. Also, this opened my eyes that my personal information is already on the internet because internet is going this way.

What you makes you assume that the damage has be done in real life? For example, I run an online business and for that reason people could very easily find my business once they know my real name. They'd be able to spread false rumors and hurt my income, and be anonymous about it at the same time.

Originally Posted by Lilija

The idea of the internet should not be hiding yourself but being smart about your personal information. That means that people can find your name but nothing more. Very often strangers can here my real name when I'm doing some official stuff and that is more dangerous that people seeing my real name on the internet. Why? Because following me in RL from one place ot other is easier than finding my adress on the internet.

Your life doesn't represent the millions of people that the change can affect. If it doesn't affect you then that's good for you, but that doesn't mean you should defend Blizzard for a single moment. That is what has allowed Blizzard to get away with so many stupid things over the years because most of their customers can't put themselves in someone else's shoes.

Originally Posted by Lilija

I am not agaist possibility of turning the option off because I am all for freedom of choise but I do think hiding your real name is paranoic since I totally don't understand what giving the real name will hurt people. I actually think that the illusion of annonymity on the internet does it a lot of harm because it encourages behaviours majority of people would not do if people knew their name. It's much more about psychological impact that someone actually hurting you.

The only reason for the forum has a bad atmosphere is because Blizzard allows it to be that way. Go to a forum like voluntary technical help and discover the amazing difference in the forum's atmosphere when rules are upheld and the goal is constructive posting. This isn't about how people behave on a forum, but many people will stop using Blizzard's communication services because of the vulnerability in forced display of personal information.

Funny enough, every of those unruly posters you so despise probably doesn't have anything of value attached to their name, while every respectable poster is more likely to have something you can "google".

Originally Posted by kojinshugi

You play in the EU. It costs like 20 euro to fly to Poland from anywhere.

And yeah, the likelihood you'll get KILLED is very slim, but not impossible. The likelihood that you'll get harassed online, that you'll receive disturbing phone calls, that someone will sabotage your personal life because they fixated on you online is much higher, and not affected in the slightest by geographical distance.

EDIT: And how many people live close to you, and are likely to encounter you? Maybe a few thousand?

This is orders of magnitude smaller than the amount of people on the WoW forums or the internet in general.

The dangers you are talking about could happen if someone could connect my name with my phone or home adress. If I'm not having those connections visible my name is no danger. I do think people should always keep safe those connections - not the information on their own.

I don't deny the internet dangers but I do think the internet awareness should change. A lot of our personal information is already at some sort of danger on the internet. What we should focus is protecting some connections - not hide entirely.

Bad bad idea.

Originally Posted by Bogrim

What you makes you assume that the damage has be done in real life? For example, I run an online business and for that reason people could very easily find my business once they know my real name. They'd be able to spread false rumors and hurt my income, and be anonymous about it at the same time.

If knowing your name can hurt your company then it means it can hurt it already of whatever reason. Someone can do it because you look funny at them on the street. Someone can do it because they didn't like sth about your company. The possibility someone will do it after your name is visible in WoW is exacly the same that someone will do it now.

Originally Posted by Lilija

If knowing your name can hurt your company then it means it can hurt it already of whatever reason. Someone can do it because you look funny at them on the street. Someone can do it because they didn't like sth about your company. The possibility someone will do it after your name is visible in WoW is exacly the same that someone will do it now.

actually, no