Big changes to Battle.net forums!

Blizzard has taken a big step with the new Battle.net forums. The upcoming update will require users to use there real id names as there screen name for the forums, this means that you'll be seen as your first and last name currently on your battle.net account unless you create a new account, this is among other changes and it is pretty interesting what there doing, I'm not exactly sure what my opinion is yet.

heres the full blue post,

Source: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041

 

I ike most of what they're doing, but i dont like the real name I.d plan. I came to the internet to be known by a different name and do things that would have me lynched in real life.

 

The Real ID change is a terrible, terrible idea.

Rating system is awesome.

Real ID? Terrible.

0.02$.

 

Fake real ID here I come.

 

real ID is one of the most stupid moves I have ever seen from Blizzard. Sometimes I think Blizzard is missing a few jobs in their organizations, mostly those that actually know what the customer wants, and knows how to tell stuff to him(the way they announced the awesome trilogy blowed. Instead of saying 'two expansion packs coming', they said 'split the campaign in 3'.)

 

i hope this is just a second layer of "friends" instead of the only one. "bnet friends" and "realID friends." that's OK for games, i guess... trying to make it more facebooky.

now, doing it for the forums, that just makes me want to stay away from the b.net forums even more.

 

I really don't see why the whole RealID thing is such an issue. I was just reading a flame-war about it on b.net and it only proves Blizzard's point. With anonymity out of the question, nobody is going to simply flame their hearts out with streams of curses. For once people will take the time to come up with an actual argument rather than ranting about how someone is wrong.

Oh dear, someone has your name. Why is that a big deal? I'm pretty sure molesters don't look through video game forums to find their next target.

 

No.

But the person you piss off saying the wrong thing does. Then, boom, facebook, boom, address, boom, anonymity - GONE.

 

Lol. That's the point, without anonymity you won't be so quick to flame. Either way, you can just adjust the privacy settings on Facebook. My address isn't even on Facebook as well, you don't have to put it on there.

 

I agree, if that tracing actually happens it's not because of the real ID on the forums, it's because of your settings on Facebook. And if you befriend every stranger just to increase your friend count who then sees your details then you're asking for it.

I find it funny how the people favouring anonymity think of themselves as so important that people are out to get them.

 

Probably, but a trace can be started from a real I.d search, now for people who dont have a facebook, myspace, or whatever do not want their name to be found this is bad.

 

I know the power of /b/


Just wait until you cheese someone who is part of the legion of anonimity. Everything you have will be smapped.

 

Ijff is right, when 4chan whants something done, they get it done. Its very rare when it happens, but god help you if its you in their sights.

 

Do you think 4chan would really do something because someone beat the poster in a video game? As far as I know 4chan with its manhunt missions have been fighting for good causes - this would just make the initiater pathetic and would probably backfire immensely.

 

I think that it is quite possible that any image board will overreact. Maybe not 4chan but there are image boards which are actually made for so-called 'raids'. I can imagine those needing little excuse, cause otherwise they'd just be bored all day.

 

Hah! I didn't bother to read this properly until it got all the way to PZ Myers...
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/...s/pharyngula+(Pharyngula)&utm_content=Twitter

Edit: And on the actual topic... I will have to fail as a contrarian for once and join the crowds saying that it is a terrible idea. Although I am one of the people whom you can find all sorts of personal information simply by searching my nickname (not this one, my main one) but I still recognize the potential impact it has on the discussions Blizzards forums and especially the more serious ones at large. The Pharynghula blog post I linked actually brings up many good points against this change in the comment section.
I really want to scapegoat Activision for this but although I sort of could have done that with Battle.net 2.0 I think this is really just Blizzard making a mistake.

 

The cancer within the chans has been changing this. But then again the "4chan is not your personal army" doctrine still holds. But if that breaks we're all screwed regardless of RealID or not.

I am glad Blizzard is finally fixing their forums so i might enter them again but they have added this RealID thing many years too late so no one is used to constructive posts there anyway.

It is quite amazing that a company of their size and reputation has one of the worst forums around...i guess they want to see if throwing a spanner in the works will make it more constructive, it'll be interesting to see.

 

Yes.

 

A problem with the RealID change.

 

never used the forum besides to get into beta, so this doesnt really affect me.

But, this is a stupid idea. I really wouldn't want people to know my full name through an internet forum. If I must, I'd create a fake name to use to protect my real identity.

Does Blizzard honestly think this will stop spammers and flamers? I bet it'll make it worse. Like Husky said, this would allow someone to not only flame you in the forum, but also on your facebook; or even IRL if they use your name to find your location/phone number.

EDIT: to add to that, what right does Blizzard have to disclose the names of its users to complete strangers? This seems like a major privacy risk they are needlessly incorporating into the forum, rather than just fight the problem by making their forum moderators actually do their job.