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Your real name will be displayed on the official forums now. You'd better think twice before you troll a bunch of angry ... trolls.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/25712374700/battle-net-update-upcoming-changes-to-forums/

Nice, I like it. Also, too bad for those male players out there who have tried to convince their guildies that they are female =D

I am 110% against this.

It is a significant blow to privacy. I know women that have had to rename toons, create new characters, or get new accounts due to cyber-stalking WoW weirdos. This just removes another place they can participate.

Take someone like Feydrex, that threatened to find me and kill me. A quick search of my name in the VA area could easily show that.  Now that I am overly concerned for my safety, but I am concerned for others.

Want to stop trolls? Have the posts link to the gamer's profile with all of their toons.

Finally, this really irks me since Chuck has a toon linked to a RealID account with my name. This highlights the failure in the system.

Well it does say it's an opt-in thing.  I'm assuming that doesn't mean that you can opt to show everyone's name, rather opt to "post" your real name. 

All posts here on the current World of Warcraft forums, or any of our classic Battle.net forums, will remain as-is. They won't (and can't) automatically switch to showing a real first and last name.
All posts in the future on the new forum systems will be an opt-in choice and ample warning will be given that you're posting with your real first and last name.

As usual, I agree with Pat. But, I would also assume this would be opt-in. Frankly, Blizzard can't possibly be that stupid as to think this is a feature even a minority of its consumers would get excited about. And if it's something they're serious about, I'm sure enough tears will flood the forum to change their minds.

Privacy over the intartubez has been a huge issue as far back pay-per-minute dialup and BBS. Very old issue with a strong 'common sense' rule already in place regarding privacy. They wouldn't dare mess with it.

Also, even I (as a guy) have had to use tactical evasion on WoW to avoid a girl.

Back then, you did this -
1.) Delete your toon.  (erased the numerical character ID)
2.) Restore your toon via GM (they USED be to restored with different/fresh character ID's so other people's friends lists would show the toon as still being deleted)
3.) Rename the toon before ever logging in the 'fresh ID' for the first time.

... they nerfed that. Now you have to character transfer to another server and back to reset the character ID number. Privacy is expensive!

Quote from: James on Tue, 2010-07-06 : 14:35
Also, even I (as a guy) have had to use tactical evasion on WoW to avoid a girl.

Mom is still looking for you, selfish bastard!!

Quote from: Capuloclavo on Tue, 2010-07-06 : 14:46

Quote from: James on Tue, 2010-07-06 : 14:35
Also, even I (as a guy) have had to use tactical evasion on WoW to avoid a girl.

Mom is still looking for you, selfish bastard!!

Dammit! See what I mean??

The opt-in is merely to cover their asses when it comes to the liability when some psycho stalks another player. You are opting-in to participate in the forums, which is additional legalese on top of the regular acceptance of the TOU.

QuoteThe 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.

The display of your real name is not an opt-in feature but a fundamental part of this new system. Again, I believe the simple solution is click-through to the full profile, or even better, for people to learn enough social competence to deal with trolls.

Basically, adults with a need of privacy will just stop using the WoW forums.  I expect the established fan run forums to get over-run because of this (Wowhead, MMO-Champion, etc).

Quote from: wildcard on Tue, 2010-07-06 : 15:31
Basically, adults with a need of privacy will just stop using the WoW forums.

True. Even one step further - some of us just like our privacy. I can see how that would especially apply to the womenfolk. Not because we're/they're looking for or expecting trouble, it's just that you never know. By the time you do know you have a stalker or other privacy related problem, they'll already have all the information written down.

In the last 10 or so years there has been a massive campaign by awareness organizations (mostly backed by for-profit credit-protection services and such) to push people to hide their identities online. Not to mention a gazillion stories in the news fueled by fear mongering to scare the hibbidy jibbity out of everyone about just loading google.com (fear = advertising revenue!). Most people who have been paying attention will feel the sentiment I stated - I don't expect trouble, but you never really know.

They're not going to want their names up there, but they will still want to participate in game-related discussion. This change won't make it live.

I understand some of the reasoning in the blue post, but I am against this as well.  Forcibly making people give up privacy is a bad move.

Yeeeah... I've been stalked, and I can only imagine how far it would have gone if they'd been able to find my real name. With a character name and the state I was living in it was already enough of a nightmare.

There's no way I will ever post on those forums if/when this goes live. The one instance taught me thoroughly to keep who might have my private info in check.

On another note: I'd like some of the mind-altering substances Blizzard's legal team must be imbibing these days.

Quote from: Jarelynn on Wed, 2010-07-07 : 11:07
On another note: I'd like some of the mind-altering substances Blizzard's legal team must be imbibing these days.

It's most likely mandates from Activision to turn BattleNet more "Facebook like".

Quote from: wildcard on Wed, 2010-07-07 : 11:57
It's most likely mandates from Activision to turn BattleNet more "Facebook like".

Yuck... I barely touch my FB page. Now they want to give me a second one?  :-\

Quote from: Jarelynn on Wed, 2010-07-07 : 14:00

Quote from: wildcard on Wed, 2010-07-07 : 11:57
It's most likely mandates from Activision to turn BattleNet more "Facebook like".

Yuck... I barely touch my FB page. Now they want to give me a second one?  :-\

It's a direction a lot of gaming companies are taking with their online community presence.