Hello hot button topic! If you keep up with Blizzard news at all you have probably heard something about this Real ID on the forums. If you haven’t, here’s a link to the original blue post. The thread on the WoW forums (as of this writing) is up to 1210 1379 1969 pages… WOW.
There are places all over discussing this issue at the moment. You have my old stomping grounds, Leftovers and there’s the Starcraft Legacy Forums. There are of course tons of blogs chiming in about it, Matticus and Lodur pt. 1 / 2 of World of Matticus, Saresa (the first person to tag me EVER) at Destructive Reach, and KiwiRed from One of These Alts. KiwiRed’s post has a fuckton of links in it.
All the different discussions / blog posts have given the pros and cons but most everyone is against the change. Most of the green posters on the forums (the community helpers) have posted out against it.
Personally? I want to be on the side of “this is bad” but I just can’t bring myself to it. It’s probably because I never really used the Blizzard forums or it’s because I like to argue and being on opposing side allows me to do more of that. I might randomly read them but for the most part… I consider them useless. I’d be willing to wager that 50% of the people posting in that big thread on the B.net forums don’t or haven’t ever posted there before.
The internet is growing and anonymity isn’t what it used to be. We aren’t living in the movie Hackers where everyone is known by their handle. We live in a Facebook / Myspace / Twitter era where people know you (even if you don’t know them). Where information is shared (not always to your benefit). You can learn to move with the times or you can sit back and bitch about the new fangled technologies. Their are consequences to every action but I think in the end this will be a benefit to the majority.
People keep mentioning the crazy fuckers who have gone out and killed someone because they got gank’d… those people are nucking futs! They tracked down people with just a handle. They are still nucking futs! It wouldn’t have mattered if they had your real name… they would have just killed the person faster.
I think what pisses me off the most about the situation are all the juice bags that have decided to show just how bad we can be. Bashiok (a blue poster) posted his name, Micah Whipple, and those juice bags have taken it upon themselves to harass the person and be distasteful. Way to prove just how pathetic some of the human race can be.
Now I’m ranting.
My point is that Blizzard is going to do this whether you want to or not. If you don’t want your name on the forums then don’t post there.
– Oh you are afraid for your child? Go into parental controls and turn off Real ID. This will keep your childs IRL name from showing up in game and prevent them from posting on the forums.
– Oh you are mad you can’t post on the tech support forums? Search them first then because your problem has already been solved. It hasn’t? Blizzard has an email address you can send to for technical support.
Treat the internet like you would treat taking nekid pictures of yourself. Don’t do something you’ll regret. Removing the anonymity is a good change that will help make the internet safer and more respectful. Plus, if someone starts calling you cuz their nucking futs you have evidence to get a restraining order.
Have a good day!
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