Update: Blizzard have thankfully decided to bench this change for the time being.
Recently (Activision-)Blizzard has updated the Battle.net service. Part of this update is the RealId feature. RealId is supposed to be an all encompassing profile for all games linked with battle.net (Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo) allowing players to read and broadcast messages amongst their friends. Seems fairly innocent enough, need a 10th player for a WoW raid, grab someone from their Diablo III game, it’s basically Facebook for games (That’s pretty much what they’re aiming for). The implementation is contentious though, the amount of information shared about exactly what you’re doing and who you are friends with is rather over the top and there are no granular controls to change this. This really isn’t a huge problem though – for the most part, people will only become friends with people they trust, alternatively they don’t have to use it at all since it’s voluntary and there are simple alternatives – However, the latest advancement of the RealId programme is rather a step too far. Here’s a snippet from a press release yesterday:
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. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.
A couple of quick things about the WoW forums: There’s nothing forcing you to post on there (there are thousands of other sites you can discuss the game on) but it’s widely read, contains very useful guides contributed by the community and allows communication with Blizzard themselves. From late July, every post anyone makes will be under the account holders name. This is Bad. Bad bad bad. Here’s why:
- Diminishment of the community – This is the overall consequence of the change. For the reasons below, many people will stop posting, be they trolls or people who genuinely contribute. Lower posts offer less opportunity to join in, lower amounts of content means less reason to go there in the first place. For all their faults, trolls make discussions. They may be ultimately pointless, but they can often be amusing.
- People won’t post because of the social stigma – If you work freelance, apply for a job, have curious/drunk friends you will at some point be googled for. You may have locked down your Facebook profile so that your mother cannot see those photos of you feigning indecent acts with a stuffed tiger but they can still see your responses to “If you could have one WoW ability in real life, what would it be?” and they will not be impressed by your answer of “Stealth, so I could rob banks and see in girls showers lol”.
- People won’t post because of fear of backlash – If you ask an innocent question on the forums you can still be lambasted by others who see your inexperience as stupidity. By revealing your real name you can open yourself up to a whole new level of abuse, spammed Facebook profiles, blogs. If you are female I am sure you’re probably aware of the horrors revealing your gender to a load of gamers can lead to. If you have an eastern European (Where are they all coming from…?) name you may be vilified on British servers. If you are famous you risk being hounded or your opinions of the usefulness of Glyph of Disease being discussed in the Daily Mail. If you have a unique name then you can start to be tracked down in real life. If you don’t have a unique name…
- Others can suffer for your retarded nature – You may be called Galileo Galilei, there may be only two people with that name on the planet, you and some science guy, but he’s just been placed under house arrest because you argued that the Earth isn’t the centre of the universe on the WoW forums. In slightly less veiled explanation, many people (read legal professionals) keep immaculate Internet profiles in order to be seen as reputable and professional, this can be undone by some 15 year old with the same name having a flame war with some 44 year old on the Tanking forum. The same thing applies if you’re a kid and using an account in your parents name.
- Legal issues – This one isn’t that important (unless you’re Blizzards legal team) but I’m pretty sure there are legal issues with children revealing their full name. I know a few european countries take the issue of privacy very seriously so Blizzard could be walking into a minefield here.
- What does it precede? – If they can get away with this, what comes next? The Armory displaying your full name, your character sheet in game? In the same way Facebook pushed more and more of it’s customers information into the public domain there has to be a stopping point. I say that it should be stopped before it gets this far.
A quick mention of the main reason Blizzard is doing this, with the aid of Penny Arcade:
So the idea is that by revealing full names, people are less likely to make an idiot of themselves. While this is true, there are alternatives to making us all suffer in order to cut down on the idiots. Agressive moderation of the forums (See Elitist Jerks, but not Elitist Jerks, cos that just makes people too scared to post) combined with tougher punishments (ban them from the game for a week, not just the forums) sets a tone that the forums are not a place to be an idiot. The higher the consequences, the lower the number that will try to push the rules.
I don’t agree with “Just don’t post”. I think that we should be encouraged to contribute and become part of the community and the same is true for any community. I laugh at John Gabriel’s comic theory the same as most people, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. A normal person plus anonymity and an audience of like-minded people can lead to an amazing transformation for the better, free of backlash because of their name or origin and a few mouse clicks away from disconnection should they feel uncomfortable. Some may choose to reveal their identities and take the plaudits in the limelight, for others, anonymity lets them continue their work carefree and the world is a better place for it.
Final Note – I’m aware of the irony of complaining about the social stigma of playing WoW on a public blog under my real name. I also very rarely post on the official forums anyway, I just think this is a very, very bad move.