Blizzard demand that people use their real names when posting on their forums (WoW, SC2). - Edit 1
Before modification by Werthead at 08/07/2010 12:58:59 AM
Blizzard are rolling out a service called RealID on their forums which will require that people's real names (gleaned from their payment details, so you will only be able to call yourself 'Thundarr Splatterthog' if you've legally changed your name to it) will be displayed on their forums. So far this is only on the forums, not actually in-game.
The community's reaction has, how shall we say this, 'been somewhat negative'.
Blizzard's intent is that by forcing everyone to post under their real name, this will discourage trolling. Criticism of the idea has pointed out that it will actually make it far easier for trolls to get hold of people's real information to stalk or confront them in real-life. A Blizzard employee boldly said that wasn't easy and posted his real name to demonstrate. Predictably, within roughly ten minutes, his address, telephone number, Facebook details and private family photographs had been found by users (not even hackers, just people with excellent knowledge of Google's advanced search features) and displayed online.
The reason for Blizzard's decision - the latest in a series of astonishing own-goals from a company whose previous form in dealing with fans was impeccable - appears to be related to new legislation from South Korea, which requires by law that people use their real names when posting in forums with more than 100,000 members. Several big American companies not dependent on South Korean revenue, such as Google/YouTube, have successfully won exemptions from the law, but it appears that Blizzard cannot do the same, since an enormous number of STARCRAFT players and a growing number of WoW players hail from South Korea. Blizzard's desire to integrate all players from all countries into one combined forum/BattleNet service apparently makes it impossible to keep the Korean-language forums separate so as to comply with the law.
Given the almost unanimously negative reaction to the news, it will be interesting to see if Blizzard presses on with it.
The community's reaction has, how shall we say this, 'been somewhat negative'.
Blizzard's intent is that by forcing everyone to post under their real name, this will discourage trolling. Criticism of the idea has pointed out that it will actually make it far easier for trolls to get hold of people's real information to stalk or confront them in real-life. A Blizzard employee boldly said that wasn't easy and posted his real name to demonstrate. Predictably, within roughly ten minutes, his address, telephone number, Facebook details and private family photographs had been found by users (not even hackers, just people with excellent knowledge of Google's advanced search features) and displayed online.
The reason for Blizzard's decision - the latest in a series of astonishing own-goals from a company whose previous form in dealing with fans was impeccable - appears to be related to new legislation from South Korea, which requires by law that people use their real names when posting in forums with more than 100,000 members. Several big American companies not dependent on South Korean revenue, such as Google/YouTube, have successfully won exemptions from the law, but it appears that Blizzard cannot do the same, since an enormous number of STARCRAFT players and a growing number of WoW players hail from South Korea. Blizzard's desire to integrate all players from all countries into one combined forum/BattleNet service apparently makes it impossible to keep the Korean-language forums separate so as to comply with the law.
Given the almost unanimously negative reaction to the news, it will be interesting to see if Blizzard presses on with it.