Yet another Blizzard blunder

[Ricky_Honejasi]

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041&sid=3000&pageNo=1

In ultra short, on July 27 for their future new Blizzard forums (SC2 and WoW?), your newer posts will show your account's real name instead of your player name (but you can show the player name as well optionally). It seems to be a very bad attempt to counter their forums' reputation to be for troll wars, flaming and such.

Unfortunately, with all the questionable past decisions, it does further make you question Blizzard. However, I do expect that they will switch to only optionally show your real name while showing up your player name at some point. Otherwise, they will get lawsuits about privacy and such.

In my case, at least my "real" name is - - . Totally not trusting real information. :p

I did like this specific post in the concerned thread :

Code of Conduct - NO POSTS CONTAINING PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT OTHER PLAYERS.
So when did a full name become non-personal information? Seems like Blizzard is violating their own rules. Not to mention those of us with uncommon names will get our Facebook (DEFINITELY PERSONAL) stalked by some of these crazy raging nerds.

I USUALLY love Blizzard and stand by anything they do... but this is just utterly retarded.

EDIT : There is also a WoW thread equivalent that is already at 110+ pages at the time of this edit.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1

[Taeradun]

ahahahahaha

another site I use had a screwup with disclosing real names but it was nowhere near as bad as this

[Ricky_Honejasi]

While this can be relatively "avoidable" by ...
1) not posting on their future forums
2) Having a false "real" name.

It does raise a really bad question to me : What will be the next bad decision Blizzard will make that I will REALLY dislike?

With their latest decision (even if they turn back on that one), anything could be possible at this point.

[UntamedLoli]

They could have avoided any problems by just letting you show an alias instead of your name and fixing the forum spam by permanently banning entire accounts/keys off the forums, trolls are going to troll regardless of how you limit them.

It's no different than the RealID used in the games being retarded that you can't just have cross realm/game friends by their ID's, no we need their login/real name because you never have online only friends that play multiple games right? and you can also see the friends of your friends.

Bright side is third party forums will get alot more use than they do now.

[Ricky_Honejasi]

you can't just have cross realm/game friends by their ID's, no we need their login/real name

Well, actually you are supposed to be able to add friends again by internet IDs due to the latest Identifier change (basically you would add like name.999). I believe it was confirmed by a blue Blizzard post somewhere.

[IskatuMesk]

How is this going to curb trolls/flaming, exactly?

[UntamedLoli]

You can only talk to be people cross realm/game with their RealID.

[Thalraxal]

You can only talk to be people cross realm/game with their RealID.

That's what I hate about the RealID system.  It's designed so you can easily communicate with your real-life friends, the ones who already know your real name and e-mail address.  You know, the people who can already communicate with you cross-realm/game because they know your e-mail address/MSN/AIM/whatever.  The whole system is designed to discourage you from using RealID with the people who'd benefit the most form this.  Namely: people who you know in-game, and want to keep in contact with in-game but don't want to give your e-mail/real name/MSN/AIM to.  It's rediculous.

[Theia_Loki]

Am I allowed to say that this is the mother of all Bulls***y moves since the mention of having no LAN support?

Completely destroys the purpose of being anonymous. Seriously, Blizzard.

[IskatuMesk]

I CHOOSE YOU, INTERNET HATE MACHINE! USE YOUR PRISMATIC PISS ATTACK!

[Black Dream]

"Prismatic core failing...We require assistance"

[Master Jademus Sreg]

I must say I was extremely surprised by some of the blogs I read regularly that mention it, including Pharyngula on ScienceBlogs. Ars Technica wasn't a shock. The Consumerist reports something hilarious, so it is quite worth the brief read. BrokenToys has a good, infuriating article.

Also, same day Blizzard announced it, this happened.

This may become a Big Deal in the various news media.

EDIT: Buying their games is an implicit endorsement of their policies.

[wibod]

I like how it won't let me change my real name on battle.net, what a bunch of horseshit.

[Ricky_Honejasi]

I like how it won't let me change my real name on battle.net, what a bunch of horseshit.

Yeah, according to some posters' posts, they can't change their real names either. Pretty much like if it was locked on purpose right after the announcement.

On a side thing, some sites already start having their public opinions such as this one : http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20100707

[UntamedLoli]

You couldn't change it before either without contacting Blizzard IIRC, theres no retarded conspiracy going on its just them being incapable of seeing its a gaming platform not a social platform.