Real names on WoW forums..?

[Muraq]

Maintenance day is upon us. Me having nothing better to do, I went to peek around the forums. I found this:

forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041&sid=3000&pageNo=1

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. The classic Battle.net forums, including those for Diablo II and Warcraft III, will be moving to a new legacy forum section with the release of the StarCraft II community site and at that time will also transition to using Real ID for posting.

This is probably the worst idea Blizzard has ever had. It will stop people who care for their privacy from posting on Blizzard's forums.

[Groax]

Think you're one of them people who're taking this bit too far. Not to say that I'd like this change, I already dislike the feature being in-game, even though it's optional. But still.

I've seen plenty of people complaining about this on WoW forums and over at MMO Champion (Though both are also filled with people who bitch about anything, even of free gametime, especially MMO folks) but I've also seen people who couldn't care less/think this is a good change. I'm pretty sure that those folks are more than enough to keep WoW alive and running.

Also, would this Real ID cause a big amount of players to quit the game (Which I don't see too likely, seeing how it's only affects forums, and I'm pretty sure that even the people who write a lot on forums won't stop playing the game itself.) I'd imagine Blizzard to be wise enough to make it optional, or hell, at least not go as far as planting it in-game, since you can already choose to just post with your real name, without including your character names to the post.

Also more than likely, that if people were to quit, they'd come crawling back to play Cataclysm.

But, eh, yeah. I can see this bothering some people that like to post on forums, even if some reaact maybe bit too strongly. Personally, I've already grown tired of realm forums that are these days filled with either a) "funny lol omg" threads b) Flaming/trolling threads c) Roleplaying threads that get locked by GMs. I sure won't miss the chance to post there anymore.

[Brownpaw]

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 the ability to rate posts up or down, post highlighting based on rating, 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, ( 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

Source = forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1

[Aroh]

I'm glad they came to their senses about the forums.

I personally won't use the Real ID ingame. I don't even use facebook so I am kinda paranoid aboout what floats about me around the interwebs. =)