Real ID

[yerkyerk]

If I got the story straight, Blizzard decided to introduce Real ID, a 'feature' that forced people to use their real names when posting on the battle.net forums. This way, they wanted to transform the Battle.net forums from a cesspool of despair into a decent user forum with constructive criticism.

They got a lot of slack and told the community they considered their complaints, than said they would still go on (disregarding the complaints). Later on they broke down and decided to remove the feature.

What are your thoughts on real ID? Keep in mind the terrible state of the b.net forum community, they really want to clean stuff up there. Would you still post there? Would you post here if Crate decided to introduce something like real ID? Do you think it helps in reducing the trolls? Is the company morally accountable by blocking you if you're not willing to give up sensitive information about yourself to the world?


Personally, I'm not a big fan of sharing sensitive personal information on the internet (my friends/family/colleagues are often confused why my email adress doesn't consist of my first+last name...). I do think that a horrible community should be cleaned up, but I'm not at all convinced that revealing users real id will help. I'm more for the zero tolerance policy. Give players rewards for using the forums so they'll value their forum accounts, than suspend them for an extended period every single time they flame/instigate/troll/make duplicate accounts.

[Void(null)]

The Blizzard Forums are the reason I have not, shall not, will not play World of Warcraft... ever.

An MMO is a social experience and my playing Diablo 1 & 2, and Blizzards inability and unwillingness to moderate its community was enough to convince me to never partake in Wow, and the Blizzard Forums and constant WoW Account Phishing Scam E-mail I receive even though I have never had a WoW account has done nothing but convince me that I made the right choice.

I am a fan of internet anonymity, but that is quickly disappearing. Between Facebook and Twitter, Things like Real ID and the BioWare Social Network is just the next logical Step.

I honestly don't think it will change the way people behave or interact online, but it will make stalking a hell of a lot easier. Right now it takes months to track people down so that you can stab them for things that took place in game (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101031-Counter-Strike-Knife-Fight-Leads-to-Real-Life-Stabbing), and I think that 6 months is far too long to have to wait for vengeance.

[Scryer]

I like that they revoked their intentions of making user's real names available on the forums. Their new goal is to have a Blizzard account ID that can be used across all forums. It's different from your log-in name, which is now your e-mail address, and will accomplish the exact same thing as a real name.

Because your Blizzard ID will help people recognize you no matter what forum you go to. Also, they will be introducing some new tools for forum goers, like rating a post up or down, this will help cut down a lot of flame wars, or make them much less visible.

Anyways, as for Real ID in general, right now I enjoy it a lot, especially on WoW, where my friends often play on other servers. We can now keep in touch whenever we're both playing, it's been pretty fun.

Also, I did want to say that I don't believe forcing people to use their real name will scare away trolls. People troll because they can, there's very little that can be done about it beyond banning them from the forums. However, having a single account name does reduce the likelihood for someone to troll, because there's less chances to get away with it. For example, on the WoW forums, you can change your character in order to troll more effectively, or start flame wars more effectively. With one account name, and the new features being added to combat trolls, people who want to troll will find their tools of the trade being stripped away to the bare minimum.

Anyways, that's just my opinion.

[jiaco]

I honestly don't think it will change the way people behave or interact online, but it will make stalking a hell of a lot easier. Right now it takes months to track people down so that you can stab them for things that took place in game (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101031-Counter-Strike-Knife-Fight-Leads-to-Real-Life-Stabbing), and I think that 6 months is far too long to have to wait for vengeance.

Exactly what I was going to say, HILARIOUS that the company behind the game behind that "incident" wants to unmask its user base. Whatever.

[Void(null)]

The Stabbing was over Counterstrike which is Valve, Not Actisatan/Blizzard.

Although there was a stabbing in Korea over a guy cheating at Starcraft.

[Malpheas]

What are your thoughts on real ID? Keep in mind the terrible state of the b.net forum community, they really want to clean stuff up there. Would you still post there? Would you post here if Crate decided to introduce something like real ID? Do you think it helps in reducing the trolls? Is the company morally accountable by blocking you if you're not willing to give up sensitive information about yourself to the world?

My following opinion rant has little to do with the Blizzard forums and more to do with the idea of anonymity.

The idea behind sharing your information to large companies is a moot point. You don't like it, but it's become almost a requirement. Regardless of what they actually do with your information, they say they keep your information private. Whether that's true or not is meaningless in my diatribe here: They have rules, as businesses, to try and keep your information private. Individuals adhere less to those rules and are liable to do things personally with that information, see identity theft for an example.

So my question is, would international identity reveal really matter if everyone were subject to it? If everyone were kept on an even playing field it wouldn't matter; at least idealistically.

So, being on the leading edge or precedent is a tough thing to do.

Personally, I don't like the idea of getting in to it, but if it were common practice I would have no problems with it. Just as other institutions have been established, and we are now complacent to them, so this would become.

In the mean time, good luck Blizzactiv.

/ramble rant

Malpheas

[Algonkin]

How in the world will they know that your ID is in fact authentic. The only solution would be to provide them with a valid credit card number...and I'm not too keen on that.

I do however like the idea. There's enough crap in forums as it is.

[ASYLUM101]

I hate the new system. Like Void said, I enjoy my anonymity. By linking ASYLUM to my name, there brings a load of trouble. Not cause I get myself into situations with stabbers in FPS games, but because there's alot of lunatics out there, as I'm sure you're all aware. Having those loonies know who I am... not cool.

[medierra]

So my question is, would international identity reveal really matter if everyone were subject to it? If everyone were kept on an even playing field it wouldn't matter; at least idealistically.


You'd only be on an even playing field if you were equally irrational, psychologically imbalanced, and had nothing to lose.

Of course, even then, the playing field may be equal but that doesn't mean it is a good field to be on.

[yerkyerk]

How in the world will they know that your ID is in fact authentic. The only solution would be to provide them with a valid credit card number...and I'm not too keen on that.

I do however like the idea. There's enough crap in forums as it is.

They don't. They were planning to focus on fake-looking names. A somewhat doubtful practice ofcourse.

I wonder if Blizzard planned on relying on the threat of the psychotic nature of (part of) their fanbase to deter people from trolling.

[Malpheas]

You'd only be on an even playing field if you were equally irrational, psychologically imbalanced, and had nothing to lose.

Of course, even then, the playing field may be equal but that doesn't mean it is a good field to be on.

Which would be no different than what there is in smaller locations. All you have to do is up the size.

[sevrun]

I think the overall idea of the RealID was illconcieved to begin with for a number of reasons already mentioned here in this thread. I'm not sure I trust the press release version of the reason they wanted to do it. I am certain that something needs to be done to clean up their forums, and I see a lot of forums out there that do not require information nearly so useful for ID theft that manage to maintain a civil atmosphere quite easily... So I can't believe this was the first, best option they could come up with. Find some hardass mods that aren't afraid to hurt people's feelings and let em crack down on the BS. I'm guessing they'd see maybe a 5% decrease in subscriptions in the short term before their reputation for terrible social climate started to mend and subscriptions picked back up. There are a number of ways to dampen this impact, including implementation just before the release (or in conjunction with) the expansion pack expected out soon. I could go on with ways to fix the ridiculously dated overall package to induce greater numbers to at least try the game, but that's not really the point of the thread.

[medierra]

Basically you're saying they need Evil_Medierra

[Void(null)]

You cant give your secret weapon to the enemy, that would be madness!

[space-time mogul]

In short: I don´t like RealIDing and I wouldn´t participate in a community that required me to give away my real identity.

And as was said, there are, probably thousands of, other forums that don´t have that much of a problem with trolls, flamewars and the like.
Of course you don´t have to be surprised to get things like that on a forum full of 12-16 year olds and die-hard gamers to which their game is one of the most important things in their lifes.
That comes naturally.

Solutions for that have already been named and have worked out and proven their effectiveness over many years throughout the internet.
First thing to have is moderators. And enough of them.
Second thing is rating systems that enable the guest/participant to quickly judge a thread or a user based on a given rating, and to rate those threads and people themselves.
Of course this has to be thought through to really be effective, but I do think that a customer can expect a multi-million-dollar business to get this done.


Most important thing, in general, regarding this topic is anonymity and the importance of it.
The internet is not the streets.
If people hear you shouting on the streets or making a fool of yourself, they don´t know who you are until they call the police to identify you.
Even then only the people directly involved know your name.

On the internet people would not have to call the police, they would know your name instantly; as would EVERY person reading a posting of you.
And as if that weren´t enough - all those people could access EVERY posting you ever wrote while being RealIDed.
Came home drunk and wrote something really stupid? It might be there forever.
Your new boss sure will be interested.

Taking away anonymity on the net would in the end take away freedom of speech; which is in my opinion a much greater good than is having neat and tidy forums.
It would be, in fact, taking away the very thing that defined the internet and made it such a great success.

[Sacred]

Basically you're saying they need Evil_Medierra

Yes, that's all they need but we wont give you up so they have to find another solution ;)

I seriously don't know why they have a problem. Before you can post anything you have to register an account and enter a cd-key to one of their games (atleast it worked like that before).
When people misbehave, ban the key from the forum.
It will take a while but soon all the trolls keys would be banned and I don't think they'll be interested in buying games over and over just to be able to post crap on the forums, and if they did; good for Blizzard.

Oh and the Real ID thingy is their worst idea yet.

[TECHNOmancer]

In short: I don´t like RealIDing and I wouldn´t participate in a community that required me to give away my real identity.

Taking away anonymity on the net would in the end take away freedom of speech; which is in my opinion a much greater good than is having neat and tidy forums.
It would be, in fact, taking away the very thing that defined the internet and made it such a great success.

I agree wholeheartedly!

TECHNOmancer

[Scryer]

Well, I play WoW with my friends, I find it's pretty awesome talking with them through WoW to SC2 Beta and what not.

I'm kind of glade they decided not to go along with the whole real-names in the forums, that would have been a disaster.

[orionite]

I had all this stuff written down only to loose it to the forum timeout... lovely.

Ok, condensed:

I don't enjoy MMOs anymore because, too many people think that Freedom of Speech = Freedom to insult and spread hatred. And, because they are known as 1337KiLlaX they can do so without fearing repercussions.

While RealID has some issues, how about a "NetID" that is unique to you. Let's assume you can only get one once you reach a certain age and have to verify your identity (driver's license, passport, SSN, whatever). No one would see the link between the NetID and yourself as a person, but you would only be able to play certain online games and participate in certain forums, if you register using your real ID.

This would allow me to easily ban/ignore users based on their NetID, if they have built up a reputation as a person, I don't want to associate with.

I'm the first to agree, that this is quite radical, but what do you think?

[eisprinzessin]

I had all this stuff written down only to loose it to the forum timeout... lovely.

Ok, condensed
What is a forum timeout :confused:
If this your condensed version - perfect length :p - we should be happy, that you lost the other one ... I might regret it, but how about using Lazarus: Form Recovery (https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/6984/)?

Edit: But the above isn't what you asked for ... if there will be such a netID, then criminals will certainly trace it back to you. Other culprits will have multiple netIDs. And worst - there will be bug, which will block some unlucky users in every place in error. Even if not, if you will be blocked by your first online service for whatever reason, then all following might just decline your registration by default.

[orionite]

It was good stuff! Really, you would have enjoyed reading it :P

Thanks for that Lazarus link. I'm installing it now.

[ASYLUM101]

I can vouch for lazarus, that thing is awesome. I used to hit the "back" mouse button all the time when I went to left click "submit", but lazarus keeps those posts saved temporarily, so it's pretty nifty.

[eisprinzessin]

Now my last post is at the end of the previous page and you have already replied ... read my actual answer (http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16053).

[orionite]

One would think that Facebook, Myspace, etc. already provide plenty of opportunity. Heck, you only need to do a little dumpster diving 'round the neighborhood if you really want to find out people's names, phone numbers, etc.

Every bit of information can potentially be used against you. There is no 100% security. However, I'd rather risk what I perceive as a relatively small risk (compared to other sites and pieces of info) and actually enjoy my online experience.

You're from Bielefeld? I thought the existence of that town was a conspiracy... anyway. Not to derail this thread ;)

[eisprinzessin]

Stating I was located in Bielefeld is perfect for my privacy ... Bielefeld Conspiracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_Conspiracy). :p

Visit http://pleaserobme.com/why to read how information you share on purpose, can be combined to find out, where you live and when you are not at home. :eek:

[space-time mogul]

@orionite: A "NetID" wouldn´t be better.
One thing is, like Eisprinzessin stated, that your identity still can be tracked.

In fact, assigning a single unique NetID to every person would even be much much worse than simply forcing people to register with their real name when wanting to use a forum, game, or whatever.
Because then with this ID your EVERY move on the internet, EVERY statement you´ve ever made, and in extension possibly even every site you EVER visited since using this ID could be tracked back to your ID, and therefore to you.
While there may be several hundret or thousand "John Doe"s, there would only be one "ID 198H435A974IO234".

And with being bound to this ID without having the possibility to change it ever again, sins of your youth or your angry ex-girlfriend could ruin your online-existence for the rest of your life.

I just can repeat it - freedom of thought and speech, freedom from oppression, intimidation and self-censorship are MUCH much higher goods than having neat and tidy online-forums or not being annoyed by some vacuum-headed trolls.
But it´s probably like it always is - people have to feel the outcomes of their failures to realize they made a mistake.
Like assigning universal personal IDs just for the sake of tidyness and non-annoyance.
Let´s hope it won´t already be to late then.



@eisprinzessin, regarding Bielefeld:

Yeah, I know, there is no Bielefeld. I mean, I really KNOW.
For I once searched for it. And when I finally found the site where Bielefeld was supposed to spread, I found...
No, I can´t tell, it´s to gruesome to describe.
The glimpse I captured was enough to torment me in my dreams for the rest of my days.
I now know that THEY are here, among us, plotting and scheming, playing people and governments like instruments in their infernal orchestra.

(Did you know that Lovecraft used to be a fluffy romanticist until he happened to stumble across the piece of unearth called "Bielefeld"?)

Perhaps there should be a Bielefeld in GD? Would be perfectly fitting.


;-)

[eisprinzessin]

netIDs, the 2nd: It will get worse, if you netID is stolen and somebody uses it and discredits you.

Others who ruined their reputation themselves, will claim it was stolen and request a fresh netID, so that they can continue trolling. :mad:

[space-time mogul]

Exactly. That´s what I meant with the angry ex-girlfriend who´s mad at you.

Besides, the infrastructure (most importantly in software) that would be required to establish such a system would most probably be immense.