World of Stalkercraft

[Sword_Of_Truth]

The eleven million pound gorilla of online gaming has made headlines in the real world again. The virtual juggernaut previously made the news for various quirks like the accidental simulation of a plague outbreak that caught real world researchers attention, the prank ruining of a simulated in-game funeral for a real life death and the arrest of a would be terrorist threatening to carry out another 9/11 in real life over the games chat systems.

Now Blizzard and its parent company Activision are stirring the pot yet again with their announcement that all future posts on the companies official forums (including those for the best selling Starcraft and Diablo series) must be made under the users real life name. The official WoW forum thread on this issue is on fire, having reached a staggering 2,100 pages in less than a week.

Mila Kunis (That 70's Show, The Book of Eli) achieved Nerd Sex Goddess status when she announced quitting World of Warcraft when her identity became known. Two months ago in France, a counterstrike player stalked and stabbed a rival in real life over a defeat in an online game. Police forces in Korea (where Blizzard games have all but supplanted Christianity and Buddhism as the countries chief religion) have entire units dedicated to combatting game related crimes, including what they call "offline PKs" (player-killing, as opposed to killing computer controlled opponents). Blizzards own representatives do not reveal their in-game characters names in public for fear of constant harassment.

So why then, is Blizzard intent on turning "Kworgen Deathmonger" who fed you his battle axe in Alterac Valley or "GnomesterTrucK' who ran you over at the Shimmering Flats Raceway into real names that can be searched on whitepages.com?

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Maybe some WOW players will take this as an opportunity to get a real life ..

 

[Aoidoi]

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179819 has some discussion on the realID change.

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

I should have checked that forum before posting this, I guess.

I figured that a software company requiring the posting of personal information in public for things like basic tech support would come under "Social Issues".

 

[tesscaline]

I should have checked that forum before posting this, I guess.

I figured that a software company requiring the posting of personal information in public for things like basic tech support would come under "Social Issues".

It is a social issue. It does belong here, as well as in the other section. Most of my comments about the subject in the other thread have been about the impact of such a change on the game. I think the overall social issues surrounding said change would be well addressed in a separate thread like this one.

In any case, I've got to run, so I'll be commenting more later

 

[Archangel]

Blizzards own representatives do not reveal their in-game characters names in public for fear of constant harassment.

Firstly, they will be showing their real names with this change.

Secondly, it's Opt In/Out therefore you do not HAVE to show your name if you don't want to.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

seems this only applies to the forum, not the game itself

are the forum IDs (and thus real names) tied to the ingame avatars? IE is there a way you can tell Joe Blow on the forum is ElfStomper138 in the game?

 

[Cassandrena]

Firstly, they will be showing their real names with this change.

Secondly, it's Opt In/Out therefore you do not HAVE to show your name if you don't want to.

As a Wow player (and yes I do have a life ), I have been keeping tabs on the whole event. The issue players are having is the only "choice" you have with the RealID change is you can choose not to post on the WoW forums. If you post, your first and last name will be shown when the new change occurs. And while many do view the forums as optional, for many it is a valuable source of information, as well as a main way of communicating with Blizzard on everything from tech support and glitches to discussions about in game content.

 

[Meadmaker]

I can't see any possible reason that this would be a good idea. Is there an explanation forthcoming from Blizzard? (Or can someone explain to me the benefit to users?)

 

[Cassandrena]

I can't see any possible reason that this would be a good idea. Is there an explanation forthcoming from Blizzard? (Or can someone explain to me the benefit to users?)

Their stated reason is to cut back on people trolling and flaming, that people will be less likely to post crap when their real name is attached to it.

Blizzard's Annoucement

From Blizz:

The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.

Though I figure the same could be done by having everyone have one name they could use, not necessarily their real one. That would eliminate people being able to swap their characters at will to hide behind.

 

[tesscaline]

Firstly, they will be showing their real names with this change.

Secondly, it's Opt In/Out therefore you do not HAVE to show your name if you don't want to.

It's only really "opt in/opt out" for the in-game portion of the system. If you post on the forums after they implement the changes, you must show your real name.

seems this only applies to the forum, not the game itself

In the game, the real ID system is optional, however there are already flaws with it that allow your real name to be discovered even without you opting in. http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/security-flaw-allows-addons-to-expose-full-real-life-names-witho/

are the forum IDs (and thus real names) tied to the ingame avatars? IE is there a way you can tell Joe Blow on the forum is ElfStomper138 in the game?

The forum ID's are real names, not just an ID tied to a name, and yes, they are tied to in-game avatars. All of your avatars. You will be able to tell that Joe Blow on the forum is not only elfstomper, but also trolldude, and mysticman, as well as know all the servers that person plays on.

The potential for abuse and harassment with this implementation is huge. Especially for people with relatively unique names, where a simple google search could take an in-game dispute into the real world. A simple demonstration was done in more than a few cases. See for reference:

http://seewhatyoudidthere.com/2010/...ry-real-ease-of-stalking-in-the-internet-age/
http://carywhy.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-letter-to-blizzard-or-it-seems.html
http://asnowstormbyanyothername.blogspot.com/

 

[Arkayik]

I thought their real motivation was to be able to hook their forums to social networks such as facebuch et al...

 

[tesscaline]

I thought their real motivation was to be able to hook their forums to social networks such as facebuch et al...

Yes, they want to change the name of the game from World of Warcraft to MyWorld of Facecraft. The goal is to line their pockets by selling the real world information of their player base.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

The forum ID's are real names, not just an ID tied to a name

i understand that thats the case after the change, but what i meant was prior to that forum users are obviously using a screen name not their real name

anyway, thanks for answering my question, in light of your answer, i agree this is a very bad idea


followup: do you know if this will be retro-active? i mean will all previous posts under an anonymous username be renamed with the real name? (like when someone changes their username here) i cant see how that would be legal, but its definitely a scary bug that could pop up upon implementation

I thought their real motivation was to be able to hook their forums to social networks such as facebuch et al...

heh, i dont use my real name on facebook

 

[Cassandrena]

followup: do you know if this will be retro-active? i mean will all previous posts under an anonymous username be renamed with the real name? (like when someone changes their username here)

No, Blizz officials have already said that the change won't be retroactive. It will only happen to posts made after the change is implemented.

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

Firstly, they will be showing their real names with this change.

I should have been more specific.

We already know who they are on when they post on the forums. For example, "Kalgan" and "Tigole" are lead designers Tom Chilton and Jeff Kaplan. But what we don't know, and they won't tell us, is who their characters are in-game. Wether they use their real names on the forums or not doesn't reveal anything new.

They don't tell us this because they don't want to be stalked and harassed in game.

 

[HansMustermann]

Well, I guess I won't be buying Cataclysm after all. I was mildly tempted to restart my subscription for that, but I guess I was more tempted by the upcoming COH: Going Rogue anyway. So I don't even have a hard time voting with the wallet there.

 

[Naddig74]

It's been a few months since I played WoW, but I'm getting the itch again.

I think this is a damn good idea, tbh. The anonymity of the internet allows behaviour towards others that would never be countenanced face to face.

Keyboard Heroism needs to stop if the image of MMORPGs, and all online gaming in fact, is ever going to improve amongst the vast majority of people who aren't involved in them.

IIRC, your posting name on the Blizzard forums is always that of one of your characters, so the devs must have made alts and used them as posting names.

 

[HansMustermann]

Unfortunately, things are not that simple. Things can be used asymmetrically. Just because you've put your contact information dutifully on the page, doesn't mean that a wannabe stalker or bully has to do the same thing.

E.g., it's trivial to create an anonymous email account from which to bully people whose data you harvested on such a forum. Just because everyone doing it on the forum has to obey some rule, doesn't mean everyone has to do it on the forum.

E.g., really there's nothing on WoW to prevent creating a harrassment account with bogus personal information. All you need to create a Battlenet account is an email address (see above) and some means of payment. But the latter doesn't necessarily mean credit card and true RL address. It can mean something as anonymous as a prepaid time card.

So, really, if I wanted to play online keyboard-hero, there's nothing to stop me from creating an account whose RL name says James Randi and includes an address in Fort Lauderdale. Voila, now I can act like a complete douche without any personal repercussions. In fact, better yet, it's Randi who has to deal with the angry vigilantes.

That in itself is just creating another tool for harassment. Instead of James Randi, I could create an account in the name of an ex-girlfriend, or whatever, and let them deal with the flood of irrate vigilantes.

(And if anyone doubts that people would buy new copies of the game and create accounts just for harassment purposes, then they never played UO. It happened verbatim.)

E.g., linking the names of people's characters doesn't do jack squat against someone who treats his characters as disposable harassment tools. Again, it's something that happened already on UO. Gathering a posse and hunting down such a character, just gave some loser a lot of attention, or in other words, fed the troll, rather than being a deterrent.

And again there's nothing to keep one from creating a second account for harassment, in which case only the characters on that account will be listed.

Basically it's a solution which just wouldn't work. And because there's no way to enforce a level playing field anyway, far from exposing the a-holes, it just lets them skew it even more asymmetrically in their favour. It just makes most other people list their real data, while they can still bully them anonymously, and just got more data to work with.

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

It's been a few months since I played WoW, but I'm getting the itch again.

I think this is a damn good idea, tbh. The anonymity of the internet allows behaviour towards others that would never be countenanced face to face.

Keyboard Heroism needs to stop if the image of MMORPGs, and all online gaming in fact, is ever going to improve amongst the vast majority of people who aren't involved in them.

IIRC, your posting name on the Blizzard forums is always that of one of your characters, so the devs must have made alts and used them as posting names.

I think its a horrible idea. As others have pointed out, those out there to harrass will simply give false information.
On the other hand, it can be very disadvantageous for people playing the game.
While I do not play WoW, I used to play EQ and posted as my character repeatedly on a forum. Since I played a necromancer and I like staying in character a large number of said posts would be considered highly unpleasant without knowing the context in which they occurred.
However I always made sure they are linked to a fictional character I played, not to my actual name as it was just that. A game, with the comments ment only for the game.
So if someone googles my real name, all they get are links to work sites and publications I've made in my profession. Since its a well known fact that potential employers tend to google you, I am glad of that. I would not want my private life smeared all over the internet, nor personal and sometimes confrontational opinions open to anyone that types in my name (and since I notice you don't post here with your real name, I assume you feel the same).

Of course, the solution will probably be simple. Some enterprising spirit will open a forum that DOES allow anonymity, advertise it trough word of mouth and watch the money from advertisers seeking to court the millions of players.