Anonymity dies on WoW
p2pnet view Games | Freedom | P2P:- Anonymity will soon be dead on the World of Warcraft online forums.
Real ID, Blizzard’s new system, will force gamers to post under their real first and last names, says news.com.au.
People playing Starcraft II, slated for release on July 27, will be the first to be unmasked.
WoW has more than 11.5 million subscribers who pay monthly fees to play the game worldwide, says the story, going on >>>
Other games are to follow, in a move that is being seen as a strong sign that online anonymity is falling out of favour with many companies.
The upcoming change has upset many gamers who prize anonymity and don’t necessarily want their gamer personas associated with their real identities.
Blizzard “hopes that making people use their real names will cut down on nasty behavior in the forums and create a more positive environment”, saysthe story, adding, “Players will have the option — but not a requirement– to display the name of their main game character alongside their real name.”
Blizzard’s decision a “bit of a sad day” in the world of gaming,the story has Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, stating, adding:
“Part of the fun of the online gaming would was the sense that you could construct a character different form who you were in the real world.”
(Cheers, Filip)
… and identi.ca
news.com.au – Starcraft II gamers forced to use real names in Blizzard forums, July 8, 2010
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
July 8th, 2010 at 9:34 am
This is getting the kids used to it to make it seem normal.
July 8th, 2010 at 10:49 am
very observant RW
July 8th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Hmmm, so now they have time, a name and an ip address. wonder who they’ll be selling that information to
July 8th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
As much as I like privacy there is one simple thing to remember, there is not a guarantee of privacy or speech on the internet, that is granted by the country you live in. When you post or present yourself online, it is there forever and some skilled users can crack a lot of the ‘anonimity’ which most users wrap themselves in. If anything this is much like we have seen with facebook, a wake up call about how someone should treat their own information on the internet.
As much as I do not like this, they are completely withing their rights to do such a thing, the game environment itself is completely owned by Blizzard, players rent their characters ingame. In order for Blizz to reverse this decision it would take a player revolt and exodus. The only way to effect change with most large companies is to impact their bottom lines.
That said over all, on the scale of user privacy blizzard has up until this point been a fairly model organization with how they treated their users personal information. The bigger issue right now, which a lot of people do not realize is that inside the game right now addons can get your realid information without you sharing it specifically with that person. That is the bigger security threat then the publishing of names on a set of forums which are used voluntarily.
July 8th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Getting a bunch of under age kids to give out their real names online, I think I know who’ll be interested in this:
http://jamiedubs.com/fuckflickr/data/meme-prints/pedobear.png
July 8th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Just one note: anonymity likely never really existed on the Blizzard forums in full form, given that through logs one could likely recreate an identifiable profile of an individual (unless said individual was working at being anonymous through proxies and such, of course). What this is showing is an end of pseudonymity on their forums, and by extension is threatening to undermine the pseudonymity that players enjoy in the non-forum environments where they use the same pseudonym to play the games.
It’s a nit, but I felt it was important to pick it. I don’t disagree with the general position that this is a bad thing as it pertains to privacy.
July 8th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Since they have no way to find out if it is you real name it does not matter and you can give any name you want.
However the intention is definitively evil.
July 12th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
All I can think of is the scene in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” where they compile a list of people who have pissed them off on the movie forum and go hunt them down and give them a beating. *daydreams of hunting down and slapping around WOW kiddies*