You Got Your Facebook In My Orc Game

Blizzard rolled out a social network yesterday. Really! Here’s the overview:

- Ability to make initial friend connections through exchanging email addresses. This exists entirely independently of WoW; your friend displays online as their real name, and shows what server and character they are on. – Ability to make subsequent friend connections through browsing the friend lists of users on your own friend list and sending requests. – Ability to set your “What am I doing?” status.

That’s it.

Notice anything missing? You should.

The below assumes that this feature will become popular. Which, in fact, I suspect it will. There has been some thought put into the interface and chat features of this system – in fact, far more thought than has been put into World of Warcraft’s own friends list and chat system. And friends and chat are why people play MMOs. So, assuming everyone gloms onto this as the new default standard for friends listings within the community and it doesn’t, say, wither and die like “meeting stones” – consider these points.

- A minor point to most – Blizzard has abdicated from enforcing any sort of cross-team chat protection. There’s nothing protecting you from hopping on an alternate-side alt and doing your bit as a realm spy. Of course realistically, nothing prevented you from doing the same with an IM program. But this is different in that it goes counter to systems that are already in place. Why bother scrambling cross-team chat if you’re going to enable it in a different interface? It sends a mixed message, or more accurately the message that Blizzard forgot they were doing this in the first place.

- With this feature, Blizzard essentially disengages the player from the avatar. Now, World of Warcraft is only very, very peripherally a role-playing game in the sense that your character may or may not be human and may or may not cast spells at mobile bags of improvement called “monsters”. However, to this point, players have had the ability to be anonymous. That is gone. You see, the “RealID” system is keyed automatically – and unchangeably – to the name listed in Blizzard’s billing system as the owner of your account. If I wanted to be known as “Lum the Mad” – which, in every MMO to date, I have had that option to do – to protect myself from people who, just as a random casual aside, may have an unkind word or two to say to the real person behind the author of many of these blog postings – I would either have to change my name in Blizzard’s accounting system (which I’m not even sure is *possible*) or simply shrug and say, oh what the hell, it’s not like there are unstable people out there on the Internet! I mean, it’s not like I’m female or anything.

- There are no opt-outs in this system. There is no privacy protection within this system. There is no option for me to turn off the ability of my friends to browse my friends list. This system, in other words, is even more draconian about its enforced disdain for privacy issues than Facebook’s. When you make Facebook look like a paragon of privacy defense, there may be an issue or two. You can’t even opt out from the system itself. To quote Blizzard’s FAQ on the subject:

To stop using Real ID, simply remove all of your Real ID friends from your friends list, and do not accept any more Real ID friend requests.

That’s right, the opt out is to simply, you know, ignore any request you get! Also, if you’d like to opt out of our marketing list, just don’t read all the marketing we send you.

Why would Blizzard launch a social network with no privacy protection and no opt-out features whatsoever? Because they think people who are concerned about privacy are stupid and worth laughing at. And because in Activision’s august halls, someone looked at World of Warcraft’s millions of subscribers and Facebook’s billions of advertising revenue and said “Hmmm.” And no one thought any of this through.

Whee!

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Peter S.

Redacted, then.

Though I will add, I suspect people will ask for the ability to e-mail their friends from in-game (since “I have their Real-ID”). From a less technical, less paranoid perspective it makes all too much sense.
http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

I brook the usual confidence that a corporation’s respect for your privacy extends as far as they believe they can be held accountable.
After all, strictly-for-profit ventures aren’t exactly known to pull punches here, and if you give a panel of slick businessmen a venture of pure profit whose main drawback is that some people’s feelings might get hurt if they find out about it, they’re likely to take it.
However, I don’t think leveraging a social service into WoW really changes much: if that was their aim, it’s already been done long ago. I’m more concerned with the overall impact to game enjoyment when your alts become common knowledge among everyone on your friends list.
Aufero

Docmdnite: The e-mail is needed to add someone to your real ID but NO WHERE is that e-mail displayed. I say again NO WHERE is that e-mail displayed. So a hacker gets into your account, he can’t look at your real ID friends list and then has a list of logins..

This appears to be the case, (I won’t be trying it to find out) but the name attached to your account IS displayed, and will be displayed to everyone friended by someone on your list. I’d be willing to bet that a large percentage of players use email addresses based on that name, which will make phishing attempts fairly easy. This wasn’t a concern when most WoW accounts were created, so people probably didn’t worry about the security of their account names vis-à-vis their email addresses. After all, why would Blizzard expose information about your account?

I’d be even more willing to bet that a large percentage of players didn’t create their accounts with the idea that the name attached to it would be available to everyone they play with. (See Female Gamer above.)
Mark

“I’d be even more willing to bet that a large percentage of players didn’t create their accounts with the idea that the name attached to it would be available to everyone they play with.”
And it won’t be, because why would you Real ID friend the people you play with? You just friend them within WoW and they know you by your character name. You’re on the same server.
Real ID is nice for people you know on other servers. As Blizzard said, it’s for people you feel comfortable with. I really don’t see much here to get up in arms over. You have to opt-in to use it. I don’t play Facebook games because I refuse to opt-in and let the games scan my friends list. If Real ID makes you uncomfortable, don’t opt-in. If you really want to chat with a friend on another server, you should be doing that already with some kind of IM app.
Pete

@Mark: “it’s for people you feel comfortable with.”

.. and, unrestrictedly, anyone they feel comfortable with. That’s the stupid thing. You are now vulnerable to any idiot in the social circle of anyone you exchange realid with.
Kat

Just a tip for those who (like me) do not want to touch this Real ID mess with a ten-foot polearm:
If you activate “parental controls” on your account, you can disable Real ID for the account. Real ID will no longer be available for the account at all. I am assuming this means no Real ID requests will be able to be received. Having parental controls activated can be an added layer of account security too. You set up the parental controls with a different email from the one used to set up your battle.net account, and you can set it to block access to your account during hours you do not play, or when you are going out of town, etc.

Since it seems people are more likely to experience an account compromise when they are not online, having parental controls set up can prevent a hacker from logging in. Additionally, if your account is compromised while you are playing, you can immediately go to the parental controls page, set allowed playtime to zero hours per day, and minimize damage to your characters.
Mark

“.. and, unrestrictedly, anyone they feel comfortable with. That’s the stupid thing. You are now vulnerable to any idiot in the social circle of anyone you exchange realid with.”
All they see is my name, though. That’s it. I don’t see the harm in that. I’ve used my real name on the internet for the last 15 years.
And, to reiterate the point again, no one has to use it. I just don’t see much cause for any uproar over this.
Female Gamer

@Mark: “All they see is my name, though. That’s it. I don’t see the harm in that. I’ve used my real name on the internet for the last 15 years.”

And I haven’t. I have good reasons to want to keep it that way. Which brings us to:

You have to opt in to use it now. Just like battle.net linkage of your WoW account used to be opt-in. How long until RealID becomes mandatory?

Plus, I trust my close friends. I do not necessarily trust their close friends.
john smith

“I’ve used my real name on the internet for the last 15 years.”
Exactly. Enjoy your cyber stalking. With a name and a few seemingly random key words you can figure out the address and phone number for so many people on the internet. In America, we have a relatively low rate of online releated homocides, mainly due to the inaccessibility of personal information and vast distance between any two people. Now look at asian countries. People have been murdered at their computers.
“to reiterate the point again, no one has to use it.”
But they will. Blizzard is the trend setter, and they can and have gotten away with everything they have ever wanted. Remember the 25 dollar horse? Now lots of games are selling similar things. It’s ridiculous. If blizzard/activision chooses, they can integrate this into all their products and eventually make it into a practically mandatory system. They have the money and the influence to do so. This whole thing makes me glad I don’t actually play wow, this would definitely be a deal breaker.
Someone

To point something out about the opt out of real ID to turn it off you need to enable the parental controls on your account. In other new there is a bug at the mmoment where you can be drawn into RealID conversations with people who you don’t even know allowing them to get you information with you knowing them
Mark

“But they will. Blizzard is the trend setter, and they can and have gotten away with everything they have ever wanted. Remember the 25 dollar horse? Now lots of games are selling similar things. It’s ridiculous. If blizzard/activision chooses, they can integrate this into all their products and eventually make it into a practically mandatory system. They have the money and the influence to do so. This whole thing makes me glad I don’t actually play wow, this would definitely be a deal breaker.”

No one was forced to buy the horsey. And it’s essentially cosmetic.

I just checked. You can change your battlenet login information, so if you want to hide your name in Real ID, you can create a new email account with a fake name and make that email account your battlenet login. Yes, it’s a bit of a pain, but it’s a way of using Real ID if you’re afraid of people seeing your real name.

I think Real ID broke on a slow news day for Broken Toys. There’s not much to be upset about.
Peter S.

Someone:
In other new there is a bug at the mmoment where you can be drawn into RealID conversations with people who you don’t even know allowing them to get you information with you knowing them

This sort of thing was what I was meaning by asking “are you sure?”

…er, not that I mean to come off as snotty by pointing that out, only that it’s not just the obvious or explicit vectors one must worry about.
thedog

But mark, where you are wrong is that people cant take their existing wow subscription (characters) and transfer them to the new battlnet ID.
I tried changing my account name yesterday, and blizzard refuses to let you do it, unless you legally change your name.
Someone

Yes that bug has been confirmed as being present on the Blizzard forums, also changing you “Real Name” attached to the account is:

1) Against Blizzards ToC as it is required for billing purposes
2) Makes it really hard to prove an account is yours if it is ever comprimised as you need to provide photographic ID containing you “Real Name” to prove that you own the account
Mark

“But mark, where you are wrong is that people cant take their existing wow subscription (characters) and transfer them to the new battlnet ID.
I tried changing my account name yesterday, and blizzard refuses to let you do it, unless you legally change your name.”

Ok, my mistake. I was thinking my login and account name were the same thing.

I still think this is a relatively minor issue, but I agree that Blizzard should let you have a Real ID name that isn’t your real name.
Ammy

You don’t have to expose your real name. Just change the name in your contact info and you’re all set. Since most of the people I would bother to add to RealID already know my first name from being on Ventrilo with them, having an incomplete version of my last name works fine. Besides, my real last name is ridiculously long… no one wants to see that in chat, haha!

That said, I would really rather be able to just have a screenname or something instead. This system needs a lot of tweaking and I will not be adding very many people until I get an “invisible” feature so I can play my secret alts in peace.
Axel

To me, this is not a huge issue.

When raiding, I prefer people to call me “Axel”, rather then my ingame name. And this is no different than me asking members in my guild if I could have their phonenumbers incase they are needed for raids. I make sure to let them know that it’s not required, but if they wish to give me their phonenumber, then can be offline when on standby (to watch a movie or something instead of playing an alt or PvPing). So far, there have been no complaints (they also get my number in return of course, incase they get stuck in traffic on their way home to a raid and want to let me know that they won’t make it in time).

Maybe I am not paranoid enough? Maybe others are too paranoid? The thing is, my personal information is out there on the internet anyway and since I have a lot of ingame friends on facebook, having my number or my name doesn’t make it that much easier to hack or harrass me (since it is already on facebook).

If people are scared of giving out their personal information, then don’t. I don’t find breaking the barrier between a game and real life a problem – rather the opposite! Some people will love this feature, others will hate it.

Keep leaving feedback, and I am sure Blizzard will try to costumize it to please the majority.
http://twitter.com/D_0ne D-0ne

Consider that I have put myself in the position to be be stalked on three occasions, and was summarily stalked. Your privacy will matter to you the moment some idiot is calling your cellphone 50 times a day because they had $20 for a throw away Cellphone and $20 for some Internet “find out anything about anyone site.”
Blizzard doesn’t care for now. People’s motivations to stalk vary, but people do stalk. Just wait until the pedophiles start using Blizzard’s WoW to hunt down victims. Then again that already happens on Facebook and Myspace and no one cares…
Someone

Quote:

You don’t have to expose your real name. Just change the name in your contact info and you’re all set. Since most of the people I would bother to add to RealID already know my first name from being on Ventrilo with them, having an incomplete version of my last name works fine.

read this:

Makes it really hard to prove an account is yours if it is ever comprimised as you need to provide photographic ID containing you “Real Name” to prove that you own the account

That means you name on you account MUST be full and real
Mark

“Just wait until the pedophiles start using Blizzard’s WoW to hunt down victims. Then again that already happens on Facebook and Myspace and no one cares…”

You live in a really scary world, don’t you?
JuJutsu

Mark:
“Just wait until the pedophiles start using Blizzard’s WoW to hunt down victims. Then again that already happens on Facebook and Myspace and no one cares…”

You live in a really scary world, don’t you?

We all do.
http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

If the possession of a first and last name of a child triggers an irresistible urge in pedophiles to embark on cross-country treks, we should probably hold off on naming our kids until they’re 21.
Tremayne

geldonyetich:
If the possession of a first and last name of a child triggers an irresistible urge in pedophiles to embark on cross-country treks, we should probably hold off on naming our kids until they’re 21.

I really don’t think that’s enough. I’d be happier if my daughter would stay safely inside the womb until she turns 21 … of course my good lady might not appreciate that plan.
er345ergf

“Keep leaving feedback, and I am sure Blizzard will try to costumize it to please the majority.”
Which is and always has been the problem. The “majority” tends to be either uninformed or uncaring and usually both. You have no problem posting your life story online because you have been taught that it’s perfectly fine. You have integrated things like facebook into your life just like the good little consumer is suppose to. You have no care for privacy because you have been taught that this is the norm when it isn’t. Bad things happen to good people. Not all the time, but it does happen. And it will happen more often when you tempt fate by putting a giant sign up labeled “sucker here” pointing directly at you. But hey, with so many wow players out there, your odds are pretty good for not being that victim!
“No one was forced to buy the horsey. And it’s essentially cosmetic.” Yeah, sure. Keep thinking small. Keep thinking the entire player base are intelligent individuals who don’t easily fall into the herd mentality. Blizzard made millions off a pallet swap and it put all of us just one more step closer to mandatory cash shops in all our games. 10 years ago in UO such things would have been a total failure. But now it’s becoming the norm even in games we already pay boxes and subs. Stop living your life by buff rounds and look at the bigger picture. This draconian and extremely invasive program will become popular, it will become the norm, and you will either have to compromise your account security to protect your identity or expose yourself to millions of strangers online.
“And, to reiterate the point again, no one has to use it.”
This is a fallacy. And an obvious one at that. Your implication is that we have a choice here. That people will be able to completely ignore this system if they so choose without any negative side effects. Blizzard isn’t developing an expensive system just for laughs and giggles. They are going to push it and they will push it hard. They will add features that you can only access from within it. Useful features that will coax people into using it that might not have in the past. Then one day you will find yourself not able to get into any decent group or guild because “well you are that weird guy who won’t tell us your phone number and name and address and social security number, EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT SO IT MUST BE FINE RIGHT!” Yes, I am taking this to it’s logical extreme but I think that’s the best way to paint the clearest picture. As individuals, we think we can work things out rationally and logically. But mmorpgs aren’t about individuals. They are about groups of people, and the more people you get together the dumber the group gets. 13 million people can’t be wrong! Of course they can, but no one ever wants to admit it. They don’t want to be “that guy”.
You can easily come up with hundreds of scenarios, all of them based on negative assumptions, why any competent guild leader wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t use this system. “What do you have to hide?” “Are you a ninja?” “Oh so you are one of those weirdos playing a girl character as a guy, why is that?” “explain yourself!”.

For me, it basically boils down to this: This system is just too easy to abuse, both by the company and by the players. Opting out is not going to be reasonably possible. Sure you -could- opt out. Just like you -could- throw away years of “work” by cancling your account completely, but what self respecting addictive personality with an unhealthy amount of time/money invested player would do that? Very few. And they shouldn’t be forced into that decision. It’s life or death for some people. But that’s what is going to happen and blizzard knows this. Hooray invasive marketing tool! So much more money!
Female Gamer

Hey, I bought the glowy horsie! Yeah, I paid 25 bucks for a decorative mount skin. I like it, ‘k?

As far as stalking goes: We all know there are some really weird people out there. Unfortunately, some of the really weird sort of male people tend to show up in MMOs, and they make can make life highly unpleasant for female people. I have been stalked IRL (not net-related), and to this day I cannot sleep alone without a weapon. Not won’t; can’t. That is an experience I do not want to repeat, and I really, really do not want to repeat it with the other participant being one of the creeps I have met in WoW. Having a drunk guildie (one of the “OMG who invited him???” variety, but a guildie nonetheless) who thinks I’m a guy describing his detailed rape fantasies in guild chat does not make me really comfortable, y’know?

There’s a friend I trust implicitly who plays on a different server now. If he wanted to borrow my car, I’d toss him the keys without a second thought. I’d love to be able to take advantage of cross-server chat with him, but I can’t, because some of his friends are … well, not people I want knowing my real name. That’s the problem. If only your friend knew your name, and if you could use an email address other than the one your account is registered to (easy enough, Blizzard could just add a “contact email” field to your account info, if they wanted), I might use it. But something that gives my private information to anyone my friend is a friend of — or anyone who hacks anyone my friend is a friend of, etc. — is something I’m not comfortable with doing. And since, like the battle.net integration, it will probably become mandatory in the not too distant future, I’m not seeing much of a future for myself in WoW.

I’ll miss my glowy horsie.
Skelanth

Until you have had your privacy invaded by a complete stranger you really have no idea what it’s like. About 8 years ago I adopted a particular name for the mmo I was playing at the time. It turns out some guy in California was already using that name in his particular social activities and wanted it unique on the internet. He went to use the name in that mmo (the one that I was playing) and couldn’t (because I was already using it).
Somehow he managed to find out where I lived and for a month would leave messages complaining that I was using his name. My friend ran a private bbs that we would leave messages for each other and he started posting there as well. Then he just stopped. Ever since that experience I have been very particular about what information I had out on the Internet / online gaming. At the time I had very little out there anyways and so it was puzzling how he managed to track me down.
Like some of those commenting here, I’m not a big fan of this new service from Blizzard. My experience was before social media and the privacy issues of today.
sinij

I had people threatening to “kick my ass IRL” in UO, now 10 years and many more threat later…
You are absolutely insane if you do not control who has access to your personal information.
You, and people performing autopsy on you, will know nothing about some whacko that ambushed you, drove you to the woods, raped and burred your body in a shallow grave over imaginary or real transgression in a virtual world. Police won’t ever be able to track such out-of-state person.

Go through this mental exercise:
If Lum were to drive to your home, murder you in a cold blood and bury you in your own backyard, would anyone close to you know enough about him to provide his *real* name to the police?
Robin Kestrel

If Lum were to drive to your home, murder you in a cold blood and bury you in your own backyard, would anyone close to you know enough about him to provide his *real* name to the police?

There’s a good chance he’d have a heart attack digging the grave. Ground’s pretty rocky, and I’m not a small guy. I buried a groundhog back there a few months ago and it damn near killed me.
http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

Given the general attitude towards crime in America, it’d be an usual situation that anyone close to me (e.g. outside the immediate family) would care enough to even try to find out his real name.
Here Lies Geldonyetich, Permabanned From Life: Better Him Than Me.
Taris

Well I’m pretty glad I never even signed up for a B-net account. The mandatory switchover to B-net accounts was the factor that made me call it quits with WoW. They were already touting new social networking features with B-net and I just said screw it. I’ve already opted out of Facebook because of privacy concerns, I don’t need the same issue with a video game I play for fun.
(The rise of microtransactions in WoW was another strong reason for me to quit as well.)
I know this will probably prove popular and WoW will endure, but it’ll do it without me. I have plenty of other interesting pursuits in my life that don’t open me up to the wide and colorful world of internet psychos and morons knowing me personally.
Ashendarei

Eh, I think they could have done better with privacy tools, but I’m not going to sweat this new system.
VPellen

Closest anybody ever came to “stalking” me in real life was my cousin’s douchebag friends leaving messages on my mobile a few years back. It was more obnoxious than scary, like a 12 year old ringing your doorbell and running behind a tree snickering to himself.

I go by my real name online because I plan to make a virtual world one day, and I know it’s going to be much more interesting if my users can dig up quotes made by me over the past 5 years or so and take them out of context to use against me on forums.
dartwick

Didnt EVE do this like a month ago?
Mark Asher

Stalking is scary. I can understand some people who are worried about that being reluctant to let their real name appear anywhere.

Blizzard isn’t forcing anyone to use Real ID, though, so until they do (and I can’t see them forcing this if they think it might make them lose subscriptions), people can keep their real names hidden.

That may not be the ideal (and Blizzard may add more privacy options too), but it’s no different than the options before Real ID was launched.

I don’t see myself using Real ID (at least in WoW; maybe SC2 and Diablo 3 might change my stance), because I don’t like chat all that much, and the people I want to chat with are people on my server. I’d rather email friends who play on other servers. I’m just a dinosaur that way — I don’t chat, I don’t text, and I don’t tweet. I like the space and luxury of time that email affords.
Michael

The biggest reason to be paranoid (which in my observation is much of what is contained in this comment thread) is when you make poor choices concerning your privacy. It’s fantastic that some of you take privacy matters seriously, but unfortunately, I think it’s the minority that do so, even within this thread.

But here’s what frustrates me the most about a blog post like this. If you really are concerned with the impact of Real ID, then educate your readers on how to be smart instead of just claiming that the sky is falling and predicting a mass increase of cyber-stalking-come-real-life-stalking. Ok sure, paint a picture that gets people’s attention, but by all means, don’t stop there!

You claim there’s no “opt out”, but that’s because it’s an opt in only system. Duh, of course there’s not an opt out. I addressed that in my first comment here. A couple commenters have even predicted that Real ID will become mandatory at some point, like battlenet logins. I highly doubt that, but let’s run with the prediction for a moment. How could it become mandatory? The existing friends list would have to be removed from the game. Additionally, the /who function would have to be removed and/or user contributed mods would have to be removed from the game — otherwise, users would just create their own addon for tracking friends. And finally, to begin with, what about a friends list is even required in the game as it is today? It’s an optional feature of the game’s social component, which most of my characters don’t even use — it’s what I have a guild for. If you really dig deep, a complete overhaul of the chat system and in-game community (how groups/raids are formed, for example) would have to take place for something like Real ID to EVER become “mandatory”. If the game were to change in such a way that it could even possibly be mandatory, chances are you would quit because of those changes before you’d quite because of Real ID. And with Blizzard already having announced only a couple more expansions at most in the future due to limitations of the remaining Warcraft lore and storyline, “mandatory Real ID” is simply not going to be the case.

And come on… in what far-fetched scenario would a guild/raid leader require Real ID? What possible reason would they have? I mean, how many times have you seen “LFM ICC10, must have 5k GS and be on my friends list”? If someone did, then your choice is simple; don’t join that guild/raid. It’s clearly not a group you would feel comfortable within anyway!

What so many of the Chicken Littles here seem to be missing is that the functionality of the old friends list remains unchanged, and Blizzard has shown zero indication that it plans to change it or get rid of it.

As things are today (which a few commenters have already indicated), Real ID can be disabled via Parental Controls. (There’s your opt out! Maybe THAT should have been included in the blog post, but then it might have defeated the purpose of the post (to create unnecessary paranoia).

For those of you writing about actual experiences with stalkers, I definitely don’t envy you! I would expect, however, that it’s people with that kind of history who are extra cautious about how they handle themselves online. Coming to a blog like this and saying “yes, this paranoia is justified!” serves no purpose other than to further the paranoia. Why not take a good look at how to combat the issue, and take the necessary steps to prevent the risk you are perceiving? Is it because it’s more fun to further pointless Blizzard bashing, than it is to help secure the gaming community? I don’t get it.

Let’s take character names and account e-mail for starters. Here again, you can be smart. I have an e-mail account which is my character name @ hotmail.com, with a bogus display name which I got almost 12 years ago when I first played EverQuest — before Facebook existed (I think)! There are plenty of free e-mail services out there — go get one for your character. My hotmail account is where ALL my non-personal and non-financial mail goes to. If you don’t have this scenario, and you’re wanting to use Real ID, and you’re really paranoid about your battlenet e-mail account, take the necessary steps to change it to be more anonymous. I don’t know exactly what steps are required, and it may be a hassle and require a phone call or two to customer support, but I am sure you can change the e-mail for your bnet account. If you’re not willing take those steps (or some other measure of security you think would be necessary), but would rather just write a blog claiming the sky is falling, then you are just whining.

Finally, somewhat off-topic, but it amuses me that so many people post about how they’ve quit and moved on from WoW (partially related to whatever issue the blog author is whining about), yet they still spend so much time reading WoW blogs and endless comments and posting their opinions which are somehow still relevant. I see it on every WoW blog I read, it seems. You may have quit logging into Azeroth, but you clearly haven’t quit WoW!

Sorry for the wall of text. My friend Amikal would be proud. (If only he was on Real ID so I could tell him about it.)
Scott Jennings

…this is a WoW blog?
Xaldin

What you didn’t realize its a WoW blog? Its all about WoW in the end.

So says Michael thus it is truth. *cue shining light from the heavens*
http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

Sure. Nearly everybody wants to make WoW, so that must mean everything MMORPG-related is now WoW-related. Differentiating details are for flip-flopping, commie pinko, liberal scum!
http://tremayneslaw.wordpress.com/ Tremayne

Scott Jennings:
…this is a WoW blog?

Sure it is. I think you once pointed out that, statistically speaking, everyone playing an MMOG in the western world is playing WoW – all of the other games are a rounding error. This is a western blog about MMOGs, therefore it’s about WoW. QED.
Peter S.

I can’t be the only person marveling at the irony of thinking that the best way to handle RealID is to create a fake, disposable identity…

Which isn’t to say the suggestion’s not ultimately a good one, but still.
http://ixobelle.com ixobelle

UMMMM, I SEE LINKS TO “CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK” AND “SIGN IN WITH TWITTER” RIGHT WHERE I LEAVE COMMENTS HERE.
UMMM?
ZOMG!
JuJutsu

Scott Jennings:
…this is a WoW blog?

Of course. And the purpose of your post was to create unnecessary paranoia. Michael saw right through you…
MRR

If you’re worried about people having access to your real name… why give them your e-mail address and encourage them to send you a RealID friend request? Just use the old friend system. RealID is intended to help you communicate with people you already know in the real world – the kind of people who are already your friends on facebook and have all of this info already – and it’s your own damn fault if you willingly give out this information to people who are less than responsible with it. This feature is not mandatory and you won’t get any requests unless you go handing out your e-mail address to everyone you know online. Even then, it’s not hard to ignore and/or decline these friend requests. No more difficult than it is to do on facebook or other social networks.
The unfortunate thing in my mind is that I think there’s potential with the system, but that it needs more privacy controls in order to really make use of that potential. I might like for a few of my WoW guild-mates to be able to track me down when I’m playing Starcraft II or Diablo III in the future, but maybe sometimes I just want to be able to hide from them. And maybe I don’t want any of them to know my real name. There’s nothing forcing me to use the RealID system – contrary to the tone of this article – but there are features of the system that I find appealing. Not appealing enough to be stupid and irresponsible over, though.
http://twitter.com/D_0ne D-0ne

geldonyetich: interface

Dateline “To Catch a Predator” … Like Cockroaches. Things are the way they are. They ran that show for months three nights a week and they still had the scum bags rolling in one after another for weeks after it aired.
Michael

Scott Jennings: …this is a WoW blog?

Good point. Given it’s not just a wow blog, ex-wow players providing comments makes perfect sense. My mistake; I clearly lost track of where I was!

Peter S.: I can’t be the only person marveling at the irony of thinking that the best way to handle RealID is to create a fake, disposable identity…

Yeah, really! At least you’re aware of it (the irony). Unfortunately, most people probably aren’t, which is where the concern comes from. Hopefully with all the bloggers raising a fuss about it, Blizzard will enable some more intuitive privacy features.
sinij

Yes, RealID is mandatory if you are planning to play Blizzard games. While you can still avoid it in WoW, SC2 was crippled-by-design to make it all but impossible to play with friends without using RealID, I don’t expect new Diablo to be any different.
Did you know that SC2 has no chat rooms and no way to add someone to your friends list unless you use RealID? IT has RealID and automatic Facebook integration if your RealID email address matches Facebook address…
If you use RealId you might as well put “I play WoW” on your resume, because that RealID will do. Good luck getting jobs after that.
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