Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Official Forums

as of now you get an instant perman ban when posting inforums of another language in a realid thread. instead of giving them a week "of the forums" they perman ban the users, wtf. Now blizzard fucked up big time

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/931/unbenanntdd.png

Originally Posted by Rodgar

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Am...AL-ID-function


this

"Damnit, I tried to call from skype just to fart on the phone and tell him that "you see why this real ID is a bad idea?" but he didn't answer."

lmao

lol Activision

this is wrong, on so many levels i dont know where to begin.. but hey you go guys!

Originally Posted by Bugmenot

keep dodging ;-)
Its not blizzards fault, everywhere else you should note give personal informations away, even when you are required by LAW to do so (websites imprint, company informations, domain registration, etc). Funny argument. And no, I do not think you should be anonym everywhere. I support imprints on websites, I support laws that forbid anonym company websites, etc

I'm not dodging ... I'm stating something I belived in long before I started playing WoW - you should know who you are giving your contact information to. I don't want random people calling me or visiting me so those information should not be visible to strangers.

As for company sites - ok, I'm not an expert but are you really obligated to give your home adress and phone there? Because being forced to do so is not ok. There should be other ways for authorities to fully identify the person and I do believe this should be the only way to do so (like majority of us can be tracked by our IP adress already). What I mean I do understand you need to give some personal information on the web but they should not be visible to just everyone who knows your name, because in the long run for someone really persistant, your real name won't be a secret for too long.

Like CAD comics points out, it swings both ways.

If most of don't care about your real names (but it's still a problem when some *do* care), most of trolls don't care about their real names as well.

Why should they? In most cases they know nobody will "harass" them because they are trolling (afterall, they are doing the trolling).

Another reason this change won't really change behaviors, it just has the potential to get people harassed for their words.

A very lose-lose situation in my book.

Originally Posted by fotm

facebook is a place where a lot of people use their real name and surname (at least, what they put in as their rl name and surname - just like what I did on battle.net). not using FB, though, just pointing out that blizzard might not be doing a crime against humanity, after all.

Facebook is very different. Ever heard of the general tip of not posting anything on facebook that you don't want your boss to find out about you? I'm sure that many bosses out there are very negative to gaming and a simple google search might make a boss choose the other guy instead of you. I do think this is true, even tho it's rediculous.

I just don't get it that blizzard didn't see that coming.

Originally Posted by Doylez

"Damnit, I tried to call from skype just to fart on the phone and tell him that "you see why this real ID is a bad idea?" but he didn't answer."

lmao

That dude simply does not go on his phone. I have to try in the evening I guess again.

I don't really post on the Official Forums, so this change doesn't bother me one way or the other. However, all of you doomsayers are blowing this thing way out of proportion. Just look at your everyday/weekly activities. Pay for gas/food/shit at wal-mart with your credit/debit card, the attendant or cashier has your real name and your credit card number. Go to the Doctor and guess what when its your turn to go to the exam room the nurse calls out your name, now the entire waiting room knows your name! If you are still in high school the entire school knows your name, and what about at graduation maybe there's a man in attendance writing down everyone's name. Heaven forbid you get a job at a big fancy corporation, then people in other countries may learn your name. FFS its a damn name, if you are seriously worried about people sending mail to your house then you are retarded, who is going to go through the trouble of typing up and printing out, then buying a stamp to mail something to someone whose name they saw on the wow forums? Most of you more than likely have a twitter/myspace/facebook account where everyone and their mother can find out way more than just your name.

My name is James Isaac Starling and my name is not all of my private information, because it isn't private at all.

On one hand, I approve of this as an effort to scare would-be trolls, and the line of reasoning that it would encourage more quality posts. But on the other hand, giving your real name (with no choice of anonymity) is an idea I'm uncomfortable with. Personally, I think it is somewhere in a grey area of First Amendment violation if it can be in fact established that personality/identity rights extends to virtual representations of ourselves. There is no clear law on the matter as far as I know currently, but I am hoping one will soon make things clearer.

So I'm kind of mixed on this issue as I see it will definitely reduce trolling, but my personal concern (and I think also for most here) is at what cost? Reduce community involvement with each other and with Blizzard? There may be more implications I'm ignoring, but I'll come back to that as I think about this issue more.

But at the end of the day, I am certain about four things:

1. Blizzard has long contemplated this action and in all likelihood done thorough research on the legal implications of the matter. Yes, they are a bit smarter if not more ruthless than we take them credit for.

2. Blizzard owns all our characters. All our accounts, and everything virtual in those accounts. That means they are free to do with those in however manner they see fit. One has got to love the TOS agreement we all ignorantly agree to everytime we log on to play. It's that "Accept" button on the TOS every week we take for granted. So we actually have no right to bitch about the use of blizzard accounts. It's as simple as "Don't agree to it? Then don't play"

3. Ok so I lied about "as simple as" in my last statement. I am speaking for myself and even with all its annoyances and quirks, I still love WoW, and probably brainwashed enough by it that I absolutely must be able to continue playing. I wouldn't know what would happen if I stopped. So addiction is an entirely different issue but one which will control our behavior and our decision whether to continue playing or not in the more permanent term. Said addiction and lack of control of the desire to play WoW will inevitably force those affected to accept these terms. Kudos to you if are one of those who can go cold turkey.

4. In case this comes to pass, I would simply read the forums, or pm people I think I would want to PM, but not ever again publicly contribute to worthwhile topics on the official forums because I prefer to keep my anonymity. Alternatively, this could herald the birth of a new unofficial forum somewhere on the internet for most people (and sadly trolls) to post about WoW topics and talk to the WoW community at large while maintaining said anonymity. Such examples would include these forums, elitist jerks, wowhead, and tankspot to name a few. Or even better, a sort of portal that can organize all these external WoW forums in a manner convenient to the poster. That said, I believe that a great majority of the people that play WoW definitely do not want their real names used on forums (a gut feeling, doesn't take much to realize people's tendencies towards paranoia in this day and age)and on the extreme but likely case that the Blizzard Official forums would turn into a ghost town. The only thing we would miss are blue posts, or an actual reply from an authorized representative of the company regarding whatever issue we would like addressed.

Originally Posted by Starsack

I don't really post on the Official Forums, so this change doesn't bother me one way or the other. However, all of you doomsayers are blowing this thing way out of proportion. Just look at your everyday/weekly activities. Pay for gas/food/shit at wal-mart with your credit/debit card, the attendant or cashier has your real name and your credit card number. Go to the Doctor and guess what when its your turn to go to the exam room the nurse calls out your name, now the entire waiting room knows your name! If you are still in high school the entire school knows your name, and what about at graduation maybe there's a man in attendance writing down everyone's name. Heaven forbid you get a job at a big fancy corporation, then people in other countries may learn your name. FFS its a damn name, if you are seriously worried about people sending mail to your house then you are retarded, who is going to go through the trouble of typing up and printing out, then buying a stamp to mail something to someone whose name they saw on the wow forums? Most of you more than likely have a twitter/myspace/facebook account where everyone and their mother can find out way more than just your name.

This is exactly what I'm talking about tho I do have a tendency to be a bit chaotic in my words so maybe some people couldn't read this from my posts.

Besides, if someone does decide to harras or discriminate you because you play WoW or said sth on the forums you should by all means contact authorities. Because this is the real threat to free speech. When you speak annonymously it isn't that free really...

Originally Posted by Pnad

: /

just got banned, guess I have nothing to worry wbout.

Apparently posting on a lvl 3 tuaren named John Connor telling people not to worry about skynet (Bnet) obliterating humanity is considered trolling.

i love you.

Originally Posted by Starsack

I don't really post on the Official Forums, so this change doesn't bother me one way or the other. However, all of you doomsayers are blowing this thing way out of proportion. Just look at your everyday/weekly activities. Pay for gas/food/shit at wal-mart with your credit/debit card, the attendant or cashier has your real name and your credit card number. Go to the Doctor and guess what when its your turn to go to the exam room the nurse calls out your name, now the entire waiting room knows your name! If you are still in high school the entire school knows your name, and what about at graduation maybe there's a man in attendance writing down everyone's name. Heaven forbid you get a job at a big fancy corporation, then people in other countries may learn your name. FFS its a damn name, if you are seriously worried about people sending mail to your house then you are retarded, who is going to go through the trouble of typing up and printing out, then buying a stamp to mail something to someone whose name they saw on the wow forums? Most of you more than likely have a twitter/myspace/facebook account where everyone and their mother can find out way more than just your name.

My name is James Isaac Starling and my name is not all of my private information, because it isn't private at all.

And you're still posting without having answering a single of the many valid arguments made for keeping privacy despite arguing against them, while generalizing people who would argue against you and blindly supporting a change that has nothing to do with how the game is played.

But whoa, you just saw the truth and got Lilija to agree with you, whose been doing the same thing all thread.

White knights never cease to amaze me.

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......

This

Employer: Ah, hello. Why don't you take a seat. Would you like anything to drink?
You: No, I'm fine. Thank you though.
Employer: We've taken your job application into consideration, but found things linking you to "Destruction" "Assasination" and something about the entire planet blowing up. Besides that, I see things linking you to the notorious game World of Warcraft, we believe that all these things together make you a bad candidate for any position at our company. We suggest being more careful with your personal information in the future and good luck with finding a job.
You: Oh, geeh. Thank you Blizzard for ruining my job oppertunities with your obsession for less privacy.

orwell much?

Originally Posted by Starsack

I don't really post on the Official Forums, so this change doesn't bother me one way or the other. However, all of you doomsayers are blowing this thing way out of proportion. Just look at your everyday/weekly activities. Pay for gas/food/shit at wal-mart with your credit/debit card, the attendant or cashier has your real name and your credit card number. Go to the Doctor and guess what when its your turn to go to the exam room the nurse calls out your name, now the entire waiting room knows your name! If you are still in high school the entire school knows your name, and what about at graduation maybe there's a man in attendance writing down everyone's name. Heaven forbid you get a job at a big fancy corporation, then people in other countries may learn your name. FFS its a damn name, if you are seriously worried about people sending mail to your house then you are retarded, who is going to go through the trouble of typing up and printing out, then buying a stamp to mail something to someone whose name they saw on the wow forums? Most of you more than likely have a twitter/myspace/facebook account where everyone and their mother can find out way more than just your name.

My name is James Isaac Starling and my name is not all of my private information, because it isn't private at all.

Really, funny, a friend paid that dude on the gas station 25$ per cc, bought notebooks for 100 000$ from sony, sold them for 20000$. Yeah, totally a good idea to give your cc to not thrustful persons. Your example blows, and you know it, credit card frauds and online phishing are rising every year …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiauaGbxipA

Originally Posted by Migito

Employer: Ah, hello. Why don't you take a seat. Would you like anything to drink?
You: No, I'm fine. Thank you though.
Employer: We've taken your job application into consideration, but found things linking you to "Destruction" "Assasination" and something about the entire planet blowing up. Besides that, I see things linking you to the notorious game World of Warcraft, we believe that all these things together make you a bad candidate for any position at our company. We suggest being more careful with your personal information in the future and good luck with finding a job.
You: Oh, geeh. Thank you Blizzard for ruining my job oppertunities with your obsession for less privacy.

And then blame McDonalds for being fat...

Besides, if there is a company that rejects people who play a computer game I sure would not to work in that place. I know finding work is sometimes hard but how long will you stay in place that makes you feel miserable? I am all for fitting in for the better good but there are limits. I want to be able to speak freely about my hobbies at work.

Ok Ok, now come on blizz.... I know just like you know that you have access to everyone's real name....... all you have to do is go into your database and type in a characters and BOOM there is their real name... so why O why do we have to show our real name.... I don't like the idea of someone looking up my name and possible calling, emailing, or possibly even finding my real address. You know as well as I do that there are hackers that can do it. Blizz BAD idea.