It's a good measure although people can put fake names lol, at least that will avoid a bunch of trolls trolling in the forums. Some people don't know limits and are like mad dogs without chains.
The power of the internet is that you can reinvent yourself. With that freedom some people choose to be assholes, but others are able to avoid discrimination they face in meatspace.
its getting worse from patch to patch since activision has their hands in this
a long time ago blizzard stood for quality games with a good connection to the userbase. somehow nearly everyone was pleased with what they did
now they try to screw with everyone to make more $$$
and now were going to get facebook v2
iam wondering what they have in mind as the next step
rl names ingame, above your character, or in the armory,,,
i really dont understand what they are thinking
take it a little further and i wont be the only one who wont ever again play a blizzard game
and i cant imagine that the employees are too happy how the CEO´s are handling things
I'm wondering how much of these 'awful choices' are Activision at all. They're sure getting blamed for it either way.
or people could just not be complete douchebags online.
see, that's the thing though, if everyone's names are available, you know exactly who that douche is though. would they want to risk doing something retarded under their own name? also, could unregistered people browse?
I'm surprised to see people from this forum jump on the Activision Hate Train over this subject.
I expect that reaction from the WoW or b.net forums, but not a board of professionals.
Here is an interesting comment that mentions a law in Korea that requires any website with over 100,000 visitors to display users real names with their comments.
Rumor I saw on reddit about the folks at blizzard not having a say in the matter. take it with a grain salt though as it's a he says deal and no real proof of source.
ok, lets get away from the activision rant for the moment since its only my opinion
and it´s not the point
the thing is, i dont see ANY good in this
i wouldnt mind this step at all if we would live in a theoretical perfect world without hate and such. but again, then you wouldnt need this
but
most games are build around conflict. so now we have horde fighting against alliance, and of course arena where everyone is fighting everyone
even in pve you roll on loot against others which can be something clonflict like, at least in pugs
now all this is fine, and most players can deal with this kind of stuff without getting angry
but wow has 11million players who play this game. and not all of them are good sports
seen this video of the guy who went to buy cigs and his girlfriend deleted all his wow characters ? and how he snapped and smashed his tft ?
now imagine you pissed him off somehow and he´s checking your name and finds out that you live across the street.
this is just an example and if you read the news, there were some cases where people killed/tryd to kill someone over a fucking game.
yeah.. thats worst case and so on..
it doesnt have to be that heavy. imagine you win something rare in a pug and some 13year old simply hates you for winning the roll. now he has a new hobby. ringing on your telephone every night and ordering pizza´s to your house.
completly anonymous.
all of this already happend. maybe not exactly like that, but it happend.
some people are unstable/stupid/agressive/douches and you cannot change that fact
and there are many many more reasons why this is a bad idea
i simply cannot understand their thinking
now, someone show me the bright side of this and tell me that this things wont happen at all.
...seen this video of the guy who went to buy cigs and his girlfriend deleted all his wow characters ? and how he snapped and smashed his tft ?
now imagine you pissed him off somehow and he´s checking your name and finds out that you live across the street...
But follow that all the way through. Is the kid a total nerdrage dipshit? Sure. And as the anonymous 'DiabloFan' that you can't really identify, maybe he might do something. But under Blizzard's plan, he won't be anonymous. He'll be some guy with a real name that you will know, and HE will know you know. If he's going to show up at your home to kick your ass, he's going to have to do it with the certain knowledge that you know who he is and can report him to the police far easier than you can 'DiabloFan'.
It's one thing to commit a crime; it's something else to commit a crime with a name tag on your shirt that everyone can see.
But follow that all the way through. Is the kid a total nerdrage dipshit? Sure. And as the anonymous 'DiabloFan' that you can't really identify, maybe he might do something. But under Blizzard's plan, he won't be anonymous. He'll be some guy with a real name that you will know, and HE will know you know. If he's going to show up at your home to kick your ass, he's going to have to do it with the certain knowledge that you know who he is and can report him to the police far easier than you can 'DiabloFan'.
It's one thing to commit a crime; it's something else to commit a crime with a name tag on your shirt that everyone can see.
yeah, that may be the case if they are stupid
even so, it doesnt prevent a crime, only thing you can do is point with your finger when it happend
iam not saying that if this goes live everything will end and everyone will get beaten up twice a year, but is it worth the risk ?
its not like you couldnt find anything about a certain person if you wanted to without this.
but to supply this sickos with your full name isnt that smart
yeah, that may be the case if they are stupid
even so, it doesnt prevent a crime, only thing you can do is point with your finger when it happend
iam not saying that if this goes live everything will end and everyone will get beaten up twice a year, but is it worth the risk ?
its not like you couldnt find anything about a certain person if you wanted to without this.
but to supply this sickos with your full name isnt that smart
is it worth the risk to go outside? Drive a car? Have sex with a sexy lady who you just met? Post on an internet forum with your real name?
(which one of these sounds the least dangerous...? I'm thinking it's the forum one.)
its getting worse from patch to patch since activision has their hands in this
a long time ago blizzard stood for quality games with a good connection to the userbase. somehow nearly everyone was pleased with what they did
now they try to screw with everyone to make more $$$
and now were going to get facebook v2
iam wondering what they have in mind as the next step
rl names ingame, above your character, or in the armory,,,
i really dont understand what they are thinking
take it a little further and i wont be the only one who wont ever again play a blizzard game
and i cant imagine that the employees are too happy how the CEO´s are handling things
Blizzard still stands for quality. I think SC2 is an amazing game. Every 'Major' game company is out to make money. Thats what companies do, they make money, they have a responsibility to there share holders. Blizzard was out to make money in 05' when they released WoW. If you want to make money, make great games. I dont understand why this is ignored now all the time and as soon as a company is successful everyone just jumps all over them. Maybe we should just start criticizing Valve with everything they do because they are successful.
Blizzard wont put your real name in-game. The face book integration was totally harmless and I loved it. I could search all my facebook friends that played SC2 and invite them as friends in Bnet. Why is this bad?
You speak of quality with Blizzard. The quality has only gotten better, WAY better. When WoW first came out it was a nightmare of 2 hour long Queues to play the game, constant DC's, broken gameplay (in some areas),and much more.
We just need to take a step back, simplify things a little and realize they are still making great games, and just because my real name appears on there forums...its really not a big deal...at all. ProTip: Dont post.
first, i didnt say they arent making quality games
they still do, but in the past everyone said "blizzard is making really good quality games" now its more like "they want to milk the cashcow"
iam not a fool who thinks they are making all these great games because they love games so much. sure they are in for the money
but in the past they werent that greedy to get the last cent out of their customers. at least thats what i feel
and its really fine that you like the new real id thing, but alot of users dont like it
and they arent a small minority
they had plenty of possible solutions for this, so that everyone could be happy, but they choose the "eat or die" one
i understand thats its not very easy to please everyone at the same time. but this could have been handled alot better. 2min brainstorming and they would have a solution for this
dont get me wrong, iam not jumping on the blizzard hate train and try to badmouth everything they do, in fact i enjoy playing their games, but in the last 1-2 years they drifted away from their normal behavior
and i dont like it
also i dont think people start complaining because blizzard is succesful with their games. i think they complain because they like their products and dont want them to go down the river
first, i didnt say they arent making quality games they still do, but in the past everyone said "blizzard is making really good quality games" now its more like "they want to milk the cashcow"
Why the hell shouldn't they? I really don't get why people struggle with the fact that they make great games and make lots of money. This whole notion of a developer 'selling out' by actually making money from their hard work or worse, by releasing new content for a popular title, is so fucking juvenile. Videogames are a business, and people want new content - so what's the problem?
One thing you can't level at the Warcraft expansions is a lack of effort. Wrath was even more awesome than Burning Crusade, and Cataclysm's shaping up to be pretty epic. Half-assed? They don't care about making good games? Yeah, right.
I also don't see how developing two of the most anticipated titles of the last ten years simultaneously while also releasing regular major expansions to an already massively popular game is milking anything. If they didn't release new content, people would bitch. When they do release new content, or announce upcoming titles, people bitch. Yes, the pet store thing is a bit much, but it's pretty minor considering the bigger picture.
but in the last 1-2 years they drifted away from their normal behavior
and i dont like it
What does this even mean, "normal behavior"?
also i dont think people start complaining because blizzard is succesful with their games. i think they complain because they like their products and dont want them to go down the river.
Again, how consistently releasing new, high-quality content for existing games and developing new titles of massively popular and successful titles is any indication of anything going 'down the river' is totally beyond me.
For what it's worth, there's no way in Hell I'm going to miss SC2 or Diablo 3 just because I'd have to use my real name to post on the forums. Big fucking deal. If they make it any more intrusive than that, then yeah, I've got a problem, but until then, so what?
is it worth the risk to go outside? Drive a car? Have sex with a sexy lady who you just met? Post on an internet forum with your real name?
(which one of these sounds the least dangerous...? I'm thinking it's the forum one.)
Honestly for me the most dangerous is the forum. I can drive a car anonymously, I can drive around with the people not knowing who I am, I can rage at them from inside my car and just dissapear and never see them again.
I can have sex with a lady not tell her my name and dissapear she will never see or hear from me again.
On the forums however everything thing is logged and recorded, every little stupid thing I say is permanently tagged to that name that I created.
All the information can easily be collated grouped together and, what can be done with that information now is scary, what they will be able to do with it in the future will be worse.
My name is mine, mine to give to whom I choose.
Personally I'm not bothered about phsychos finding me in the real world, I'm annoyed with the stuff that people might do online. They might personally insult me using my name, or they might laugh at my name, or maybe they will find my parents or familys names and insult them. Or maybe even they'll make a subtle death threat to one of my family, they would never actually do it, they just posted it in the heat of the moment. They just go away and forget about it. But surely that would be shocking for anyone on the recieving end.
Just to know that the stupid stuff I post is tagged to my real name I wouldnt post half(or any) of it. I thought the internet was a place where I could post without fear of persecution.
I love how the majority of replies in this thread have focused on sex-crazed, crack-addicted psychopaths hunting down their victims through the internet, as opposed to what it's actually about - the requirement to use your real name when posting on a video game website forum.
Guess the facts aren't as exciting as foaming at the mouth about invasion of privacy and how we're all being violated and exploited by Blizzard.
seen this video of the guy who went to buy cigs and his girlfriend deleted all his wow characters ? and how he snapped and smashed his tft ?
now imagine you pissed him off somehow and he´s checking your name and finds out that you live across the street.
Now imagine he's HITLER. And he has a swarm of teleporting bears.
yeah, that may be the case if they are stupid
even so, it doesnt prevent a crime, only thing you can do is point with your finger when it happend
iam not saying that if this goes live everything will end and everyone will get beaten up twice a year, but is it worth the risk ?
its not like you couldnt find anything about a certain person if you wanted to without this.
but to supply this sickos with your full name isnt that smart
Nothing prevents crime. Most states in the US have the death penalty, and people still commit rapes and murders by the thousands each year.
I think that the presumed risks are so small that they're acceptable. More WoW users will die in auto accidents each year than will be stalked by fellow gamers, and I don't think we should ban automobiles. Aesir made this point as well. It's dangerous business walking out your front door.
Honestly for me the most dangerous is the forum. I can drive a car anonymously, I can drive around with the people not knowing who I am, I can rage at them from inside my car and just dissapear and never see them again.
I can have sex with a lady not tell her my name and dissapear she will never see or hear from me again.
On the forums however everything thing is logged and recorded, every little stupid thing I say is permanently tagged to that name that I created.
All the information can easily be collated grouped together and, what can be done with that information now is scary, what they will be able to do with it in the future will be worse.
My name is mine, mine to give to whom I choose.
Personally I'm not bothered about phsychos finding me in the real world, I'm annoyed with the stuff that people might do online. They might personally insult me using my name, or they might laugh at my name, or maybe they will find my parents or familys names and insult them. Or maybe even they'll make a subtle death threat to one of my family, they would never actually do it, they just posted it in the heat of the moment. They just go away and forget about it. But surely that would be shocking for anyone on the recieving end.
Just to know that the stupid stuff I post is tagged to my real name I wouldnt post half(or any) of it. I thought the internet was a place where I could post without fear of persecution.
You honestly think posting on a forum is more dangerous than driving a car or having sex? When was the last time an internet forum killed a dozen people in a freeway accident or gave someone an incurable disease?
You honestly think posting on a forum is more dangerous than driving a car or having sex? When was the last time an internet forum killed a dozen people in a freeway accident or gave someone an incurable disease?
"They might laugh at my name"
Really? That's your concern here?
No, not really, but in those situations, you are not aware of the dangers.
Whereas on forums I am in constant contact with complete strangers any of whom will take offence to any random thing I say. There not really comparable but in a way they are.
No I'm not really concerned about people laughing at my name, some people are though. I will take offence at complete strangers insulting me with my real name though.
I guess we'll have the bullshit mantra of stick and stones etc rolled out any minute. I knew what I said would be picked apart. How dare I take offence at what other people say, how dare I not be one of the billions of people that take everything that everyone else says with a pinch of salt.
Frankly I hate arguments on the internet, its like arguing with madman backwards and forwards forever. At least when I have arguments on the internet with a nickname I can be sure that its not aimed personally at me.
Although I can see why some people would be annoyed (The ones that are sensible but still do not wish for their real life name to be shown) I mean, think of this scenario :
Random Troll Noob - "blizZ shoudl totalyly give rogues sheildzz"
and someone can then look at this real name on google and perhaps find valuable information.
But I do support the idea in some ways.
Nothing prevents crime. Most states in the US have the death penalty, and people still commit rapes and murders by the thousands each year.
I think that the presumed risks are so small that they're acceptable. More WoW users will die in auto accidents each year than will be stalked by fellow gamers, and I don't think we should ban automobiles. Aesir made this point as well. It's dangerous business walking out your front door.
You make it sound as though theres some significant benefit to using your real name that makes the risk worth it. Risk assessment is all about knowing what risk is worth it and when risk is completely unnecessary, you don't take it. Going outside means you get to interact with the rest of the world on a physical level, getting in your car means potentially saving hours of time getting to your destination, using your real name instead of an alias on a game forum gets you... what?
All of the features Blizzard is providing with RealID can easily be done without exposing your real name, there is absolutely no benefit to forcing people to use their real name aside from making them unnecessarily self conscious which can only be perceived as a benefit if you fall into the group of people who expects the social game of real life to apply to the internet.
You make it sound as though theres some significant benefit to using your real name that makes the risk worth it. Risk assessment is all about knowing what risk is worth it and when risk is completely unnecessary, you don't take it. Going outside means you get to interact with the rest of the world on a physical level, getting in your car means potentially saving hours of time getting to your destination, using your real name instead of an alias on a game forum gets you... what?
All of the features Blizzard is providing with RealID can easily be done without exposing your real name, there is absolutely no benefit to forcing people to use their real name aside from making them unnecessarily self conscious which can only be perceived as a benefit if you fall into the group of people who expects the social game of real life to apply to the internet.
I think that real names encourage more civilized behavior. I stopped using my gamer alias a few years back (and obviously changed my name here), and feel the effect myself. I'm more likely to consider what I write before I write it and treat people more respectfully. I guess I didn't much care what people thought of 'Vermilion', but I am carrying my real name the rest of my life, and I'd rather people didn't think Tom Dunne was some kind of raging asshole. Not that I trolled forums before or anything, but it's about owning what I say. I feel like what I write ought to represent me, even in a casual place like Polycount where everyone is pretty laid back and non-judgmental.
I won't speak for anyone else, but I remember here when 'rorschach' became 'Kevin Johnstone' and I thought that was a professional, upfront move. Kevin is opinionated and has gotten into it with people from time to time, but he opted to own what he writes here with his real name. I respected that and it got me thinking that I want to do it myself. My real name's all over the internet and I've nothing to hide, so it's a benefit to me that people know I put my name on the line to back up what I say, that I won't (to quote Calabi) "dissapear" and "will never see or hear from me again."
I'm more likely to consider what I write before I write it and treat people more respectfully. I guess I didn't much care what people thought of 'Vermilion', but I am carrying my real name the rest of my life, and I'd rather people didn't think Tom Dunne was some kind of raging asshole.
This is simply an elaborate way of saying "I'm more self conscious."
Why is it that suddenly attaching your name to your posts made you stop to consider that you don't want to sound like a raging asshole? Because you know there's a possibility that there will be social consequences when you "own what you say." Meaning what you perceive as an improvement in demeanor is merely a means of protecting yourself through self-censorship. This is neither a good nor bad thing, it is simply the way real life works and we all play by the rules of our established social game when we go out, those who don't play by the rules suffer the consequences. But should the internet work like that? Do you force that on everybody who wants to participate?
You said earlier that it's impossible to prevent crime even with deterrents as heavy as the death penalty, yet you're in such a hurry to provide people with the illusion of security from trolls and people saying mean things? If you actually accept that you can't deter bad behavior with negative consequences then you wouldn't be so supportive of stripping people of their privacy to try and solve it. Especially when the solution creates more problems as this entire concept was flawed from the start because all it does is leave legitimate users MORE vulnerable to trolls and "mean people" who have essentially beat the system by using a fake name or worse, the name of some innocent person who's going to have to deal with the fallout of someone else's trolling.
Also a side tangent: Polycount is not worldofwarcraft.com. This is forum is heavily occupied by industry professionals and people looking to get into the industry, where attaching your name to your posts has actual career benefit. It has an entirely different demographic and serves an entirely different purpose. Wow.com is what I would call a bullshit forum, people go there not to discuss anything specific but to gossip, speculate, and rant. Polycount is a productive forum where people come to improve their own work and get feedback from others on how to do that, there is serious personal benefit to acting maturely (even when anonymous) here that does not exist in WoW, you can't really compare the successes here to what will happen there.
This is simply an elaborate way of saying "I'm more self conscious."
Why is it that suddenly attaching your name to your posts made you stop to consider that you don't want to sound like a raging asshole? Because you know there's a possibility that there will be social consequences when you "own what you say." Meaning what you perceive as an improvement in demeanor is merely a means of protecting yourself through self-censorship. This is neither a good nor bad thing, it is simply the way real life works and we all play by the rules of our established social game when we go out, those who don't play by the rules suffer the consequences. But should the internet work like that? Do you force that on everybody who wants to participate?
You said earlier that it's impossible to prevent crime even with deterrents as heavy as the death penalty, yet you're in such a hurry to provide people with the illusion of security from trolls and people saying mean things? If you actually accept that you can't deter bad behavior with negative consequences then you wouldn't be so supportive of stripping people of their privacy to try and solve it. Especially when the solution creates more problems as this entire concept was flawed from the start because all it does is leave legitimate users MORE vulnerable to trolls and "mean people" who have essentially beat the system by using a fake name or worse, the name of some innocent person who's going to have to deal with the fallout of someone else's trolling.
Also a side tangent: Polycount is not worldofwarcraft.com. This is forum is heavily occupied by industry professionals and people looking to get into the industry, where attaching your name to your posts has actual career benefit. It has an entirely different demographic and serves an entirely different purpose. Wow.com is what I would call a bullshit forum, people go there not to discuss anything specific but to gossip, speculate, and rant. Polycount is a productive forum where people come to improve their own work and get feedback from others on how to do that, there is serious personal benefit to acting maturely (even when anonymous) here that does not exist in WoW, you can't really compare the successes here to what will happen there.
You know what? You are absolutely right. I was wrong and you were right. In future discussions involving personal privacy, individual responsibility and public behavior, I will make these points.
And if anyone asks how I've come to this point of view, I'll tell them the truth: It was 'Bibendum'. He or she set me straight.
Apropos of having my name out there, I've had my real name linked to my gamer alias since I got into modding about 12 years ago. I've never had any negative experiences as a result. Basically, I'm just not afraid. If others are afraid and want to live their lives accordingly, I respect that it's not up to me to judge.
I just did a quick google serach for both my real name, and my username.
Both of them instantly came back with a full page of links to me.
so from a whole 30 seconds of effort I can now track myself down, show up at my front door, harass my wife and daughter, and kill myself. Kinda makes the issue irrelevant imo.
This entire thing was a bit of brilliant marketing :poly124:
Blizzard is over the hill when it comes to "any publicity is good publicity"; Anyone who cares about games already knows all about them. Stuff like this can only be bad news.
You know what? You are absolutely right. I was wrong and you were right. In future discussions involving personal privacy, individual responsibility and public behavior, I will make these points.
And if anyone asks how I've come to this point of view, I'll tell them the truth: It was 'Bibendum'. He or she set me straight.
I'm going to just assume you're being mostly sincere and say I'm glad you think I made good points in that book of a post I wrote :poly136:
Apropos of having my name out there, I've had my real name linked to my gamer alias since I got into modding about 12 years ago. I've never had any negative experiences as a result. Basically, I'm just not afraid. If others are afraid and want to live their lives accordingly, I respect that it's not up to me to judge.
No one thinks they need their privacy until they're put into a position where the lack of it has created a negative social consequence, for example that blizzard employee was pretty confident about it when he posted, shortly after his facebook and twitter accounts were deleted and Blizzard announced employee info won't be displayed.
There's a site indexing all public facebook comments with names and photos where you can find posts by a woman who announced she had vaginal reconstruction surgery. Now anyone with her name and internet access knows this about her.
The fact is that most people just don't want strangers to know everything about them.
Replies
+1
a long time ago blizzard stood for quality games with a good connection to the userbase. somehow nearly everyone was pleased with what they did
now they try to screw with everyone to make more $$$
and now were going to get facebook v2
iam wondering what they have in mind as the next step
rl names ingame, above your character, or in the armory,,,
i really dont understand what they are thinking
take it a little further and i wont be the only one who wont ever again play a blizzard game
and i cant imagine that the employees are too happy how the CEO´s are handling things
or people could just not be complete douchebags online.
see, that's the thing though, if everyone's names are available, you know exactly who that douche is though. would they want to risk doing something retarded under their own name? also, could unregistered people browse?
I expect that reaction from the WoW or b.net forums, but not a board of professionals.
Here is an interesting comment that mentions a law in Korea that requires any website with over 100,000 visitors to display users real names with their comments.
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zeroday/2010/07/07/is-korean-law-driving-policy-at-blizzard/
While it hasn't been confirmed as the reason behind the RealID, it seems totally plausible given the SC2 community in Korea.
this probably also has something to do with it...
http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/press/pressreleases.html?100505
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/cna7n/rumor_blizzard_had_no_say_in_real_id_changes/
and it´s not the point
the thing is, i dont see ANY good in this
i wouldnt mind this step at all if we would live in a theoretical perfect world without hate and such. but again, then you wouldnt need this
but
most games are build around conflict. so now we have horde fighting against alliance, and of course arena where everyone is fighting everyone
even in pve you roll on loot against others which can be something clonflict like, at least in pugs
now all this is fine, and most players can deal with this kind of stuff without getting angry
but wow has 11million players who play this game. and not all of them are good sports
seen this video of the guy who went to buy cigs and his girlfriend deleted all his wow characters ? and how he snapped and smashed his tft ?
now imagine you pissed him off somehow and he´s checking your name and finds out that you live across the street.
this is just an example and if you read the news, there were some cases where people killed/tryd to kill someone over a fucking game.
yeah.. thats worst case and so on..
it doesnt have to be that heavy. imagine you win something rare in a pug and some 13year old simply hates you for winning the roll. now he has a new hobby. ringing on your telephone every night and ordering pizza´s to your house.
completly anonymous.
all of this already happend. maybe not exactly like that, but it happend.
some people are unstable/stupid/agressive/douches and you cannot change that fact
and there are many many more reasons why this is a bad idea
i simply cannot understand their thinking
now, someone show me the bright side of this and tell me that this things wont happen at all.
It's one thing to commit a crime; it's something else to commit a crime with a name tag on your shirt that everyone can see.
yeah, that may be the case if they are stupid
even so, it doesnt prevent a crime, only thing you can do is point with your finger when it happend
iam not saying that if this goes live everything will end and everyone will get beaten up twice a year, but is it worth the risk ?
its not like you couldnt find anything about a certain person if you wanted to without this.
but to supply this sickos with your full name isnt that smart
is it worth the risk to go outside? Drive a car? Have sex with a sexy lady who you just met? Post on an internet forum with your real name?
(which one of these sounds the least dangerous...? I'm thinking it's the forum one.)
Blizzard still stands for quality. I think SC2 is an amazing game. Every 'Major' game company is out to make money. Thats what companies do, they make money, they have a responsibility to there share holders. Blizzard was out to make money in 05' when they released WoW. If you want to make money, make great games. I dont understand why this is ignored now all the time and as soon as a company is successful everyone just jumps all over them. Maybe we should just start criticizing Valve with everything they do because they are successful.
Blizzard wont put your real name in-game. The face book integration was totally harmless and I loved it. I could search all my facebook friends that played SC2 and invite them as friends in Bnet. Why is this bad?
You speak of quality with Blizzard. The quality has only gotten better, WAY better. When WoW first came out it was a nightmare of 2 hour long Queues to play the game, constant DC's, broken gameplay (in some areas),and much more.
We just need to take a step back, simplify things a little and realize they are still making great games, and just because my real name appears on there forums...its really not a big deal...at all. ProTip: Dont post.
they still do, but in the past everyone said "blizzard is making really good quality games" now its more like "they want to milk the cashcow"
iam not a fool who thinks they are making all these great games because they love games so much. sure they are in for the money
but in the past they werent that greedy to get the last cent out of their customers. at least thats what i feel
and its really fine that you like the new real id thing, but alot of users dont like it
and they arent a small minority
they had plenty of possible solutions for this, so that everyone could be happy, but they choose the "eat or die" one
i understand thats its not very easy to please everyone at the same time. but this could have been handled alot better. 2min brainstorming and they would have a solution for this
dont get me wrong, iam not jumping on the blizzard hate train and try to badmouth everything they do, in fact i enjoy playing their games, but in the last 1-2 years they drifted away from their normal behavior
and i dont like it
also i dont think people start complaining because blizzard is succesful with their games. i think they complain because they like their products and dont want them to go down the river
my opinion
Why the hell shouldn't they? I really don't get why people struggle with the fact that they make great games and make lots of money. This whole notion of a developer 'selling out' by actually making money from their hard work or worse, by releasing new content for a popular title, is so fucking juvenile. Videogames are a business, and people want new content - so what's the problem?
One thing you can't level at the Warcraft expansions is a lack of effort. Wrath was even more awesome than Burning Crusade, and Cataclysm's shaping up to be pretty epic. Half-assed? They don't care about making good games? Yeah, right.
I also don't see how developing two of the most anticipated titles of the last ten years simultaneously while also releasing regular major expansions to an already massively popular game is milking anything. If they didn't release new content, people would bitch. When they do release new content, or announce upcoming titles, people bitch. Yes, the pet store thing is a bit much, but it's pretty minor considering the bigger picture.
What does this even mean, "normal behavior"?
Again, how consistently releasing new, high-quality content for existing games and developing new titles of massively popular and successful titles is any indication of anything going 'down the river' is totally beyond me.
For what it's worth, there's no way in Hell I'm going to miss SC2 or Diablo 3 just because I'd have to use my real name to post on the forums. Big fucking deal. If they make it any more intrusive than that, then yeah, I've got a problem, but until then, so what?
oh god no if this gets popular people will be able to track me down and SEE ME IN PERSON AND HURT ME PEOPLE ARE SCARY
Honestly for me the most dangerous is the forum. I can drive a car anonymously, I can drive around with the people not knowing who I am, I can rage at them from inside my car and just dissapear and never see them again.
I can have sex with a lady not tell her my name and dissapear she will never see or hear from me again.
On the forums however everything thing is logged and recorded, every little stupid thing I say is permanently tagged to that name that I created.
All the information can easily be collated grouped together and, what can be done with that information now is scary, what they will be able to do with it in the future will be worse.
My name is mine, mine to give to whom I choose.
Personally I'm not bothered about phsychos finding me in the real world, I'm annoyed with the stuff that people might do online. They might personally insult me using my name, or they might laugh at my name, or maybe they will find my parents or familys names and insult them. Or maybe even they'll make a subtle death threat to one of my family, they would never actually do it, they just posted it in the heat of the moment. They just go away and forget about it. But surely that would be shocking for anyone on the recieving end.
Just to know that the stupid stuff I post is tagged to my real name I wouldnt post half(or any) of it. I thought the internet was a place where I could post without fear of persecution.
thumbs up for blizzard!
oh wait, i don't play blizzard games.
Guess the facts aren't as exciting as foaming at the mouth about invasion of privacy and how we're all being violated and exploited by Blizzard.
Now imagine he's HITLER. And he has a swarm of teleporting bears.
Thanks, blizzard.
Nothing prevents crime. Most states in the US have the death penalty, and people still commit rapes and murders by the thousands each year.
I think that the presumed risks are so small that they're acceptable. More WoW users will die in auto accidents each year than will be stalked by fellow gamers, and I don't think we should ban automobiles. Aesir made this point as well. It's dangerous business walking out your front door.
You honestly think posting on a forum is more dangerous than driving a car or having sex? When was the last time an internet forum killed a dozen people in a freeway accident or gave someone an incurable disease?
"They might laugh at my name"
Really? That's your concern here?
No, not really, but in those situations, you are not aware of the dangers.
Whereas on forums I am in constant contact with complete strangers any of whom will take offence to any random thing I say. There not really comparable but in a way they are.
No I'm not really concerned about people laughing at my name, some people are though. I will take offence at complete strangers insulting me with my real name though.
I guess we'll have the bullshit mantra of stick and stones etc rolled out any minute. I knew what I said would be picked apart. How dare I take offence at what other people say, how dare I not be one of the billions of people that take everything that everyone else says with a pinch of salt.
Frankly I hate arguments on the internet, its like arguing with madman backwards and forwards forever. At least when I have arguments on the internet with a nickname I can be sure that its not aimed personally at me.
But don't worry, polycount is here, and:
Random Troll Noob - "blizZ shoudl totalyly give rogues sheildzz"
and someone can then look at this real name on google and perhaps find valuable information.
But I do support the idea in some ways.
some more nerd rage fodder for your brains
http://hellmode.com/2010/07/06/why-real-id-is-a-really-bad-idea/#more-390
All of the features Blizzard is providing with RealID can easily be done without exposing your real name, there is absolutely no benefit to forcing people to use their real name aside from making them unnecessarily self conscious which can only be perceived as a benefit if you fall into the group of people who expects the social game of real life to apply to the internet.
http://kotaku.com/5583405/blizzard-scraps-plans-to-display-real-names-in-forums
lol, I've already seen one, they made it worse. I'm not mad honest.:poly142:
Anxienty is a real condition by the way, I'm not saying I have that though, I just (maybe) take things too seriously sometimes.
I think that real names encourage more civilized behavior. I stopped using my gamer alias a few years back (and obviously changed my name here), and feel the effect myself. I'm more likely to consider what I write before I write it and treat people more respectfully. I guess I didn't much care what people thought of 'Vermilion', but I am carrying my real name the rest of my life, and I'd rather people didn't think Tom Dunne was some kind of raging asshole. Not that I trolled forums before or anything, but it's about owning what I say. I feel like what I write ought to represent me, even in a casual place like Polycount where everyone is pretty laid back and non-judgmental.
I won't speak for anyone else, but I remember here when 'rorschach' became 'Kevin Johnstone' and I thought that was a professional, upfront move. Kevin is opinionated and has gotten into it with people from time to time, but he opted to own what he writes here with his real name. I respected that and it got me thinking that I want to do it myself. My real name's all over the internet and I've nothing to hide, so it's a benefit to me that people know I put my name on the line to back up what I say, that I won't (to quote Calabi) "dissapear" and "will never see or hear from me again."
haha qft.
All blizzard had to do was read through the 6 pages of arguments against it and they would have canned the idea.
didnt expect them to actually pull back because of bad responses
edit : i should read the whole article first !
Why is it that suddenly attaching your name to your posts made you stop to consider that you don't want to sound like a raging asshole? Because you know there's a possibility that there will be social consequences when you "own what you say." Meaning what you perceive as an improvement in demeanor is merely a means of protecting yourself through self-censorship. This is neither a good nor bad thing, it is simply the way real life works and we all play by the rules of our established social game when we go out, those who don't play by the rules suffer the consequences. But should the internet work like that? Do you force that on everybody who wants to participate?
You said earlier that it's impossible to prevent crime even with deterrents as heavy as the death penalty, yet you're in such a hurry to provide people with the illusion of security from trolls and people saying mean things? If you actually accept that you can't deter bad behavior with negative consequences then you wouldn't be so supportive of stripping people of their privacy to try and solve it. Especially when the solution creates more problems as this entire concept was flawed from the start because all it does is leave legitimate users MORE vulnerable to trolls and "mean people" who have essentially beat the system by using a fake name or worse, the name of some innocent person who's going to have to deal with the fallout of someone else's trolling.
Also a side tangent: Polycount is not worldofwarcraft.com. This is forum is heavily occupied by industry professionals and people looking to get into the industry, where attaching your name to your posts has actual career benefit. It has an entirely different demographic and serves an entirely different purpose. Wow.com is what I would call a bullshit forum, people go there not to discuss anything specific but to gossip, speculate, and rant. Polycount is a productive forum where people come to improve their own work and get feedback from others on how to do that, there is serious personal benefit to acting maturely (even when anonymous) here that does not exist in WoW, you can't really compare the successes here to what will happen there.
And with a long experience of the internet, I wouldn't be surprised if some death threats to families were sprinkled on top.
You know what? You are absolutely right. I was wrong and you were right. In future discussions involving personal privacy, individual responsibility and public behavior, I will make these points.
And if anyone asks how I've come to this point of view, I'll tell them the truth: It was 'Bibendum'. He or she set me straight.
Apropos of having my name out there, I've had my real name linked to my gamer alias since I got into modding about 12 years ago. I've never had any negative experiences as a result. Basically, I'm just not afraid. If others are afraid and want to live their lives accordingly, I respect that it's not up to me to judge.
Both of them instantly came back with a full page of links to me.
so from a whole 30 seconds of effort I can now track myself down, show up at my front door, harass my wife and daughter, and kill myself. Kinda makes the issue irrelevant imo.
- nice to know I'm so poular though
Blizzard is over the hill when it comes to "any publicity is good publicity"; Anyone who cares about games already knows all about them. Stuff like this can only be bad news.
No one thinks they need their privacy until they're put into a position where the lack of it has created a negative social consequence, for example that blizzard employee was pretty confident about it when he posted, shortly after his facebook and twitter accounts were deleted and Blizzard announced employee info won't be displayed.
There's a site indexing all public facebook comments with names and photos where you can find posts by a woman who announced she had vaginal reconstruction surgery. Now anyone with her name and internet access knows this about her.
The fact is that most people just don't want strangers to know everything about them.