Yup, it only has to happen once, or even appear to happen, and things will get ugly. It's one thing if you start out as a social network and add games (Facebook) but it's a whole different issue if you start out as a game (WoW) and then import a social network. There's a perception of bait and switch there when it comes to anonymity no matter how much notification Blizzard gives.

No, because right now people can not match a 'name' with an 'in-game character'. Yes, everyone can take my name randomly from a phone book or whatever. But nobody can link my name to my character, and know it is me who "ninja'd that token" "declined my application" "kicked me out of that pug" and so on.

My real name is rather unique, if you google my name everything that shows up will be me (or my dad's wife, since we bare the same last name). Someone coming across my name because I'm friends with a friend of his via realID and he can see my name there... I am not happy with it, but I can live with that. Yes, random people will know that a person called "so and so" plays wow on some server. But that's pretty much the limit I can take. Having my name splashed on a forum, allowing everyone to actually connect my in-game character, my gaming schedule and everything, to my real person, that's something entirely different.

Taking this a bit to the extreme, I don't want my boss going "of course you're tired and useless today, been up playing wow at 5 am last night". And I definitely don't want an eventual future employer to google my name and come across a bunch of wow forum posts. Same as I don't want to worry when I get whispers like "omfg !@#$#@# noob you @#$$##ing ninja'd that from me, !@#@#$@ idiot, I'll find out where you live and come !@#@#ing blow your head off". Yes, chances are not huge that it will actually happen, but it's something that would make me feel uncomfortable, there's always the "what if..."

Because they don't want people to vote on something they know they would lose. It would be going to far to say that they don't care at all but that post was just an advance notice of what they are going to do with RealID. No discussion invited, just that: an advance notice.

In my opinion there is no need for first and last names on battle.net for RealID.

The ID should be a username not a real name.

But i suppose most people will just go along with it and the 2% that complain ( and have the right to do so ) will be ignored.

This is not possible, if you are in a conversation with a group of people anyone who is not on your friends list cannot see your real name, they can only see the current character that you are playing

This may be quite a good thing if it forces people to take forum posting a lot more seriously.

Edit: too slow, 3 people already said what I said...

The "2% that complain"? There are close to a thousand pages on the thread about this change, and if 2% is going to reflect any statistic, then it's the people happy about the change. Just read 100 random replies out of the 17,000+. The vast, vast majority of posters is revolted. I very strongly doubt people will just "go along with it".

On future moves that may expand Real ID, Manditorily adding it to all armoury profiles and/or in-game WILL result in massive lawsuits based on bait and switch and while they might win in the US the odds are very bad in the EU, especially if it ends up in one of the supranational juristictions such as the European Court of Human Rights or they run afoul of the EU parliamentary machine. Just ask Microsoft how much fun it is getting on the wrong side of Brussels and they are a fully US company. As has been mentioned before Blizzard has very strong ties to France.

In comparison to the total number of accounts, >12 million im sure there won't be much more than 2% voicing their concerns ( 240,00) people.

Look at one of your friends in your RealID Friends list. You can see everyone they are friends with, first and last name.



On a side note, I hate tough internet warriors looking up personal information of people, posting it and pretending to stand on moral high ground by doing so. (like it happening with the Blizzard employee).

Also, I don't think the harassment will be anywhere near the level the fearmongers project. Even the biggest creeps think twice before signing a threat with their real name.



Disclaimer: I do not on any level agree with the proposed change itself. And I'm sad I feel the need to put a disclaimer in.

On other hand, Chinese legislation is decidedly against Internet anonymity, and the majority of Blizzard players happen to be in that sector. Could there possibly be a link here?

Go ahead. Name me one company of a significant size whose business suffered due to its treatment of people's private data.

Nevermind that wow-china is a mess that may never come back. The Chinese government will have access to all that detail by having an official wander down to the local service provider with a 100% legal court order for all the details on player XYZ. Hell if your local government enforcement agency (FBI etc) wanted to talk to you about a an illegal post you made they could do the same thing.