Blizzard just made sure ...

[Tal]

Blizzard speaks

Hello everyone,

I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.

I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you'll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.

In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, ( http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/mission.html ) and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning.

Mike Morhaime
CEO & Cofounder
Blizzard Entertainment

[shoju]

I beat you to it!


=P

[Tal]

I beat you to it!


=P

Mine was purtier.

[Treesh]

We win.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread...7278&sid=1

At least they get that. Hopefully they'll listen to folks asking for control in-game and have an option for if friends of friends can see our names or not. But this is a step in the right direction.

[shoju]

I beat you to it!


=P

Mine was purtier.

Well, that is because I was trying to break the news in 3 sites at the same time .

[Tal]

I beat you to it!


=P

Mine was purtier.

Well, that is because I was trying to break the news in 3 sites at the same time .

I was breaking the news on the BEST site at the time.

[shoju]

I beat you to it!


=P

Mine was purtier.

Well, that is because I was trying to break the news in 3 sites at the same time .

I was breaking the news on the BEST site at the time.

I wont argue that

Though bolty might get angry if I bring my rowdy Maintankadiners to the lounge hehe There are a lot of us.

[Zich]

I'm also seriously considering not getting SC2

Sadly I can't cancel my SC2 pre-order in protest, the removal of LAN-only play already made that a no-sale for me and at least 7 other people I know (On family vacations with the in-laws, SC is our "monopoly", link 3 laptops and kill time in the shade)

back to topic: this was repealed just in time, Tal stopped me from posting a 3,000 character diatribe.

I'm still scared, RealID's original intent goes against the very core of Fantasy RPG, and this post still claims RealID's forum implementation was being done ONLY to make the forums a better place for the players. This means that either the blues are truly and completely out of touch (certifiably-insanely out of touch), or the blues are under orders to try to play this down as a misunderstanding, because they can't talk of the full scope RealID had planned.

This goes so far beyond Forum names, I fear on many, many levels. Now corporate Blizz will just bury the rest of their 'big plans' and the masses will be happy we aren't getting called our real names on a forums. Most likely I see us each getting a "character code" tied to our account, so they can continue their plan to implement advertising and networking into the game.

Still, this is a victory, and not a small one. I think maybe, just maybe, the peons' mass anger gave the Blues (who do still seem to care) enough clout to push back against this storm of bad ideas. I hope they can keep enough ground to let the game be a game, and prevent whoever came up with RealID-for-forums from undermining the core of what has made WoW great.

[LochnarITB]

Hopefully they'll listen to folks asking for control in-game and have an option for if friends of friends can see our names or not.

There are people I would like to use RealID with, but this is keeping me from using it. I hope they do create the option. While it can be said that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I don't know that I would say the same for the friend of a friend.

[Kevin]

Sadly I can't cancel my SC2 pre-order in protest, the removal of LAN-only play already made that a no-sale for me and at least 7 other people I know (On family vacations with the in-laws, SC is our "monopoly", link 3 laptops and kill time in the shade)

Bah! I didn't realize they had removed LAN-only play (I haven't really followed development closely). That really sucks.

[Ruvanal]

Hopefully they'll listen to folks asking for control in-game and have an option for if friends of friends can see our names or not.

There are people I would like to use RealID with, but this is keeping me from using it. I hope they do create the option. While it can be said that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I don't know that I would say the same for the friend of a friend.

They also need to allow for toons to be invisible to the in game system too. Where you can option in the toon to be invisible prior to ever logging on with the toon. Some of us like some disconnect down time away from the mish-mash that can go on at times. Put both things in and I would consider using the system.

Currently to me the system is more like calling someone and handing them your person phone list.... in way that can have it chain on and on.

[--Pete]

Hi,

Ah, well. A step *back* in the right direction.

I don't understand Blizzard's rational.

For the fora, it seems that requiring an account with real world information, keeping that information hidden and secure, associating a singular unique user name to that account (which cannot be used in games), and only allow posting with that name would accomplish everything. People would maintain their anonymity from one another, but Blizzard would know the real identity of those that need to get spanked.

In game, RealID would be great if it is optional on the character level, and if people could only see their own friends list. A simple mechanism, like what already exists for forming groups, would be all that is needed to 'make friends' with someone. The only problem I can see is if some of your RL friends are in the other faction or on another server. But that could be handled by a simple out of game app.

--Pete

[Kevin]

A lot of things that made sense from a gamers standpoint.

So Blizzard is a business. They want to make money. Even if they are already making gobs of money they want to make bigger gobs, or perhaps gobs that are more gooey. Either way, they want more than they already get.

This is all mostly SWAG, but follow along if you will.

Blizzard is already tying this RealID stuff to ads and marketing. Facebook and Twitter do much the same. So we know this whole thing was money driven. Not having Real Names on the forums would mean adding another layer. The cost of the extra layer is pretty minimal, but there is some cost associated with it, it requires additional database tables and permissions, very minor transaction costs, a bit of extra programming for the API that will do the translation in the apps that need it.

I'm not sure Blizzard can sell the info or sell the ad space as targeted if things are tied to the forum id and not a real name. If it's on the real name Blizzard can allow the advertisers to farm that info without having to provide it. At least that seems to be where the extra money comes from. With real names on the forums Blizzard could say, "sure we'll put your ads in the games and on the forums, but since you can easily get the real names of the folks, you pay us more." Now to be able to do that, they would have to write something in a EULA saying they can sell your name to advertisers.

I'm sure they are looking at doing stuff like Massive Inc already does and like was done in Hellgate London too. But the settings of their games don't work so well for natural ad placement. I really didn't mind the real ads on the walls in Hellgate, it was an environment where it made sense to see stuff like that you would expect to see it. Just like I don't mind some of the product placement in movies, as long as it's not completely in your face. Other companies under the Vivendi umbrella already use Massive.

So I'm not fully sure, but to figure it out, just try and follow the money.

[--Pete]

Hi,

A lot of things that made sense from a gamers standpoint.

So I'm not fully sure, but to figure it out, just try and follow the money.

What can I say, your SWAG is probably right. As you pointed out before, the only real way to fight it is to cost them more than they would make.

--Pete

[Thecla]

I don't understand Blizzard's rational.

For the fora, it seems that requiring an account with real world information, keeping that information hidden and secure, associating a singular unique user name to that account (which cannot be used in games), and only allow posting with that name would accomplish everything. People would maintain their anonymity from one another, but Blizzard would know the real identity of those that need to get spanked.

Yup, exactly. And it wasn't just to save some pennies in the hope that displaying real-world info would mean less moderation was be required. They had something much bigger in mind, I'm sure.

One immediate thing is that real-world posting names could be integrated directly into facebook (have your forum posts accessible directly from your facebook page or have forum posters added easily to facebook).

Even with the retraction, the whole thing leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.

[Tuftears]

No, real names don't matter to advertisers. I suspect the plan was more to provide in-forum integration with social sites like Facebook, i.e. if you mouse over a forum poster's name, you'd get links to their Facebook page, and receive revenues from these sites for click-throughs.

[Kevin]

No, real names don't matter to advertisers. I suspect the plan was more to provide in-forum integration with social sites like Facebook, i.e. if you mouse over a forum poster's name, you'd get links to their Facebook page, and receive revenues from these sites for click-throughs.

Real names do matter to advertisers. There are companies that harvest or buy info linked to real names and sell that. Deals like my hypothetical one have been discussed, where the info isn't sold, but discounts are given because it's easier to harvest or utilize.

I'm sure they were looking at other streams, like the one you mentioned as well. But the RealID stuff, on the forums, was about the money and folks who didn't think so were likely not seeing the whole picture or following themselves.

[NiteFox]

Incidentally, this whole situation just made sure I won't be using the ESRB again.

Sweet, delicious irony.

[Frag]

Incidentally, this whole situation just made sure I won't be using the ESRB again.

Sweet, delicious irony.

Zing!

Nice find, Fox!
~Frag

[Zich]

Incidentally, this whole situation just made sure I won't be using the ESRB again.

Sweet, delicious irony.

I am on that list of 961 emails that got picked up in the reply-all. The Irony is even more poignant to me, as my complaint had nothing to do with forum-RealID implementation.. bad timing I guess >.<

Fortunately I used a throw-away address that doesn't link to my real life easily. The reply-all chatter that it fired off has been hilarious. I've gotten numerous delicious recipes, discovered pop-tarts are a globally loved food, and been invited to numerous groups and parties dedicated to this goof-up (I'm waiting for the inevitable in-game guild to form, though the server is up for debate atm). I have been quite entertained by the constant stream of replies and the tangents they go out on.

Back to the RealID issue: I've decided my biggest issue is that I am the consumer and I PAY Blizzard for a product. If they want to sell me, then there had better be realized gains on my behalf (opt-in for lower monthly fee?), otherwise that info I gave them to pay for their service isn't theirs to make an extra dime with. End of Story.

Also, every single implemented and planned RealID use I have seen, would be orders of magnitude better and more widely used with a gamertag. RealID is failure to respect the players, in its most pure form. How many 'voluntary' services can you add before you are simply just denying services to equal-paying customers?