 |
|
|
| |
Blizzard: 'We're Definitely Listening To Player Feedback' On Real ID
by Chris Remo [PC, Console/PC, Exclusive]
|
|
| |
|
July 7, 2010
|
| |
Since World Of Warcraft and StarCraft II creator Blizzard announced that its official forums would phase in mandatory use of its newly announced "Real ID" system, which marks posts with their writers' real-life names, there has been a deluge of heated discussion about the decision, and Blizzard says it is "definitely listening to player feedback."
"[We] will be carefully monitoring how people are using the service," a Blizzard representative told Gamasutra this week. "Real ID is a new and different concept for Blizzard gamers -- and for us as well -- and our goal is to create a social gaming service that players want to use."
The Real ID system remains optional within Blizzard's current games like World of Warcraft and StarCraft II. Players can take advantage of it by adding friends by their Battle.net-associated email account, rather than their public user name.
The system is only planned as a requirement on the Battle.net community forums. StarCraft II's forum will begin using Real ID later this month, and World of Warcraft's will begin as the Cataclysm expansion pack's release approaches.
"It's important to note that both enabling Real ID in game and posting on the official Blizzard forums are completely optional," the Blizzard rep said. "Players can continue to read the forums anonymously regardless of whether they choose to post in them, and their gameplay experiences will not change if they choose not to use the Real ID communication features in game."
He also says players can enable parental controls to keep their children from using the Real ID system, or to disable their forum posting capabilities.
Players can actually register any name they wish when signing up for their Real ID -- but an account for a given game must be tied to a unique CD key for that game, and Blizzard says it plans to attempt to enforce the use of legitimate names.
"We have multiple teams here who will be monitoring the forums and looking for inappropriate names," the rep explained. "When the situation does arise, our community and customer service representatives will investigate and determine if any action is needed.
"In addition, our Terms of Use agreement requires that players provide us with accurate information, as certain aspects of the customer service we provide (for example, addressing forgotten-password issues) rely on identity verification -- if a player uses a fake name, it would ultimately impact our ability to provide him or her with timely service."
|
| |
|
|
If Blizzard CEO singed off on this then he clearly does not have kids nor does he care about security.
Chinese Gold farmer/hacker please take my name and give to Yu Yang and impersonate me please.
My real ID will be :BenderOver SlammerHarder
has any other company EVER done anything like this?
I don't really see how this gives Blizzard data mining capabilities they did not already have. Maybe it makes cross-game mining a bit easier (though I can't imagine it would be hard for them to do this now, it would just involve a few more table cross-references), but cross-game identity is generally viewed as a feature by players.
Well, you are posting on your name right now, so...
Your a rocket scientist.
Sure I have Facebook but so does 1 other of these people. Unless you have a really really unique name it wont be a problem and if you still doesn't want to show the name you carry do not post. Even people with a foreign nationality has a hard time having a unique name these days.
I say go for it!
Dude. Please. If you're in favor of the service, I'm sure you can find better arguments. Like, how solid a business opportunity it is to create stickiness beyond games you release, as a company, because you have created ties than transcend "I raid with Boortaghax because he is well geared". Or said "RL" community will buy your games together and enjoy a better early experience, etc.
But the point of the discussion going on, as I understand it, is : Real ID make forums less of a safe place to post your thoughts. And I don't think anybody in their right mind can not see that.
Having said that, there will always be people who don't care about privacy - good for them, people who rage for nothing - not so good for them, and people who just plain don't care and will stop using the Blizzard forums if they ever used them.
One last thing I hear a lot: they should hire a bunch of moderators!!!1!1oneone. From a player, I can hear that. From an industry professional, this is, sorry to say it bluntly, quite short-sighted. Moderators are resources you dedicate to providing a free service (generating 0 cash) with marginal value (there are dozens of very viable alternatives to wow/other games forums, like MMO champ, EJ, Judgehype etc.). Typically, as your game scales in size, you go from one dude who was in charge of community, communication, etc... to a battery of staff costing 6, sometimes 7 figures... Point being...
It IS a big deal to hire a crap load of moderators to keep your forums clean. I think Blizzard has already done that, and now sees their Real ID feature (again, developed for stickiness purposes, not to prevent forum trolls) as an opportunity to cut some costs on the moderation issue. It is not necessarily the most romantic solution, and again, I agree with the whole privacy rant, but it is by no means a situation that can "easily" be remedied with "go hire mods, problem solved".
I do not care even if I was the only one, I do not have anything to hide or be afraid over by showing my name, if I did I wouldn't comment here or any other forum that I use.
Lets see... opening google... search parameter "Matthieu Poujade" oh... facebook, linkedin, twitter etc etc! See why would blizzards forum make any difference? It would be different guys all of them of course, but that goes with WoW's forum as well.
I wouldn't hire people for moderating the forums, the should ask members of the community that have been there a long time doing a good job in helping and that are nice to both pro and newbs :] free and good
Luckily she agrees with me when it gets to the point that Real ID is Mandatory in-game. Once we are forced to show our Real Life names in this Role Play environment she's out, and Blizzard will miss out on at least two long-term paying customers.
@Tim: I'm not sure what your point is. Genuinely. :) What's the link between Real ID on forums and a security breach server-side? If you could elaborate, pretty plz. :)
whether this is true my concern is not only for the headache people may have to go through, changing their phone numbers and such, but what if this isn't the guy's number? people aren't detectives and now some other person is being plagued by thousands of harassing phone calls for no reason.
the thread of complaints is over 1000 pages long today. this policy change would like to assert that posters are more responsible for their words. but it seems that it will simply silence the vast majority of people. is the cure worse than the disease?
I don't think the creapiness factor can be understated on this.
It doesn't take much profiling to get useful information on someone, and someone WILL abuse this. I think the abuse potential far outweighs any pro's.
My name right now is on the top of my comment, I have a website with my resume and lots of personal information. Whether you got that name from a video game forum or a forum about video games is really pretty irrelevant, it's the resume and website that are the real issues.
And if you are in need of high security, then you probably don't have your personal information spread across the web, in which case retrieving just a name is pretty useless, as it does not directly link to a person without all the other more detailed and personal information you've already given out.
This is a professional site, hence why I use my real name.
I played wow for a few years, in the last guild I was in we had quite a few girls, they came on ventrilo especially during raids. I feel, if they lacked the anonymity factor, less of them might have.
Thru the extended play time of WoW people build relationships. Those relationships can develop into something that was not intended as is, why add an extra layer of danger to it?
It is precisely because things like linkln and myspace that I'm MORE concerned about the name release. Most stalker situations don't develop because someone goes 'I want to stalk a girl in Calla Springs Nevada today!' But this gives a situation where someone decides they don't like/like too much someone and then use those same networks you cited to aquire information about a specific target.
'Evesta the night elf' is a random person, or maybe a guildie' Miley Hilton is a specific person, and some stalker might easily figure out what town she's in... and he's gonna meet up with her because he KNOWS she loves him right?
Keep in mind even on those networks you named, overshare is a problem, a town had a kidnapping/murder incident based on myspace. A year later a police officer conducted an impromptu test and found no one had learned their lesson.
Likely no one on here will have a reason to go after me, but couple it with a situation like WoW where emotions DO run high- maybe I'm a top arena guy in my battlegroup, maybe some dude thinks I'm messing with his girlfriend, maybe a fellow guildie doesn't like that I rolled 100 on a drop... at the very least I might end up with my car tires slashed, at the worst I might end up beaten with a ball bat. We've already had incidents like this, why make it easier?
My account was hacked a few days ago- I haven't played in about 2 years... does make you wonder doesn't it?
I'm okay with staying out of flame wars and being polite on the forum. I don't want there to be any tie to my online persona - unless SPECIFICALLY dictated by me. This means I need 2 separate friends list: real life friends and casual friends.
No amount of "I accept" checkboxes can make this legal. They are using the information provided ina way I never accepted, or else their Terms of Use were too vague to be legal - "We can disclose any information we want if we decide to later..." They should allow you to enter a universal handle, or at the very least re-establish your RealID when the system goes into place.
You are acting like WoW has some inordinate amount of creeps and criminals. And that you should act with a greater amount of disrespect than other interactions. Outside of the internet you use your own personal identity to interact, and I would generally assume do not fear for your life and property at every turn. Do you get angry when your name is placed in the credits of something you've made, because someone could see it and stalk you?
I get into heated debates with people and do not worry for life and property. I don't see why I should. The fact that it's on the internet instead of phone or in person really doesn't make the person on the other end any different. It's still another person I am debating. Generally the internet can be seen as more hateful and malicious than in person interaction, however I would probably credit that towards anonymity if anything. When you talk to SuperDeathMage44 you don't care about his feelings or respect his views. When you talk to Daniel Balmert you see him as someone else, who despite disagreements I can still respect that he sees differently. Because he is not anonymous and a faceless moniker, but a person.
I can't recall the name of the study, but there was one in the 60s that had students acting as anonymous wardens and inmates in a fake prison that helped demonstrate the dangers and actions that anonymity can bring, and I don't think it's fair to judge a persons actions when anonymous to their actions when recognized as a living breathing individual.
The problem is not the name being given out, but rather that you personally chose to link that name to all your other personal information. Don't blame Video Game forums, blame Myspace and LinkedIn. Because it's not hard to get a name from someone(back when I played WoW, I think I had the names of every single guildie (about 140) and I never asked or used them, as well as being able to cross link a photo bucket ID to facebook pictures if someone ever wants to post a picture on a forum).
That's great that YOU don't worry... and as for myself I generally wouldn't... but I do care about the women in my life and that guides my thoughts on this. People get angry in wow over completely 'legit' interactions. Its not that WoW players are especially unbalanced, but there are people at large who are. Would you drive home if you inadvertantly cut off a speeding car and it started following you? Would you stop and give him pleasentries? *
Hell look at the freakout videos of kids destroying their keyboards and ask yourself if you want him knowing where you live?
Let me make this clear- I don't give much care to gankers and trash mouthed forum posters or what have you. But as others have stated, policing would be far more effective than this.
In any case- the legal question has been brought up, and by and large the opinion is either 'don't care' or against it... but little FOR it. There is no opt out (other than complete quitting) and it seems like an unneccessary change to a lot of people. That alone should be enough to kill it.
'Dangerous internet people' is often overstated I admit... but I still think the negatives on this outweigh the positive.
*Where a damned helmet... jeez I kissed the pavement and was glad I had it on.
But at least the players CHOSE to do so, I like choice. They chose to give them to you because they had a level of trust with you. Admittedly trust can always be betrayed but that would be between the betrayer and betrayed.
Just to note, although I wouldn't say WoW has an inordinate amount of creeps and criminals, I'd assume it has a normal amount per capita, and at an ~12 million subscriber base, that's a greater population than New York City by far (for example) and rivals the most populous cities in the world. So basically, if you assume that your name is ok being shown to everyone in the entirety of New York, assume it's ok being shown to everyone in the entirety of WoW. If only 1% of WoW's subscribers are potential creeps or criminals, that's around 120,000 people. Just a bit of perspective on how a normal number of creeps can be quite a large number when shown as a percentage of an overall population.
Overall I'd err with the side of anonymity, without being pearl-clutching or alarmist about it.
And for Meredith,
I really don't have a problem with that. My name is right above my post and is available to anyone with a network connection. Gamasutra is a public forum. Facebook is also public and I can be tracked through my friends. You information online is really not private, and a WoW forum is filled with people, people who are no more statistically likely to be crazy than anywhere else. Anywhere else being where they go to get more than just your name.
Try googling your name. You are not the only entrant, and likely not the only one who could potentially play a video game. They don't track you just by your name, they use your resume, and your facebook pictures, and your blog where you may talk about playing WoW, and your LinkedIn where you are friends with someone they know on their server. And if you happen to have all those, then you've got no real reason to complain about privacy as your name on a public forum is the least of your concerns.
Plus, Blizzard is doing something that Amazon.com implemented years back with their 'Real Name' system. In fact, they actually went another step further and will post under reviews whether someone actually bought the product they are reviewing. Transparency in identity only makes everything more civilized and infinitely more credible.
And, heck, if I'm going to be snarky, I'm not going to hide who I am. What do I care?
Which I don't have, it's true! Nor do I play WoW. So the google results for me turn up other people, and nobody on the WoW forums would be googling me anyway. But the thing is, you're right. People will triangulate using what knowledge they have to remove false results and figure out the information for certain people.
And the thing is, the more of this is out there -- the more connections are there for people to make, like your example of blogs about playing WoW -- then the easier it is to track someone down. So if someone *doesn't want* their real name on a major location with a greater subscription base than the entire population of New York City, and which has the risk of providing those connecting details -- then why should they be forced to? How is that not a privacy concern?
By saying that if you've got some information somewhere, you might as well have more out since people can find you anyway is a fairly misleading argument. Even if I had Facebook and LinkedIn, there's a big step from the risks of that to the risks of showing your name to twelve million people, any of whom could then look for that information. You know?
Hell, for trans people, for example, if they're forced to use a legal name then they may have to be forced to associate with other people's gender assumptions, etc, during their "play time", just because they want to talk on forums. Just one example that immediately comes to mind.
Allowing people the right to privacy during games can allow for a separation of fan/fun/escapist 'persona' and the situations that people have to deal with every day of their life; it reduces the risk of targeted harassment, and so on.
Some people have no reason to care if people know their legal name and everything associated with it. Other people do, and for good reasons.
I will concede that the more out there the worse it is. But at the same time the RealID concern is only a concern because of every other companies privacy breaches. People want to share their information with the world, but then gets upset when the world uses that information.
As soon as you opt out of the other major privacy breaches the RealID becomes a non-issue. And that does not work the other way around(people can still facebook track you without you having a WoW account). That causes me to want to mark the issue as being an issue with social networking and not with real names on forums.
Again, I don't use Facebook myself, so I can't speak authoritatively, but I believe that you can set privacy levels and comment in friended private facebooks and so on and still interact with others, rather than a completely public forum? Though do tell me if I'm wrong about this. Either way, yeah, it wouldn't be a concern if the info wasn't already out there, but the more it's out there, in the more places, it's still more of a problem. I'd argue that tying your "fun and games" into your social network is more risky than NOT doing so -- especially when they're suggesting the RealIDs are as a measure to counter trolling, since they know how prevalent trolling IS on the forums.