So it appears that the new mass hysteria on the blogosphear is Blizzard's RealID. I admit to not knowing much about what RealID's potential is and how it works, but for me it's just a way for me to trim my friends list down, cause instead of having every toon a friend has made, I just have their name and I know what server and character they are on.
So apparently a person's real name will be somehow shown when they post on the official WoW forums, boo freakin' hoo.Don't like it, don't post on the forums. Think RealID is bad, then don't use it in game, simple as that.
It gets pretty annoying when one blog starts to complain, so every other blog feels they need to jump on the band wagon and add their complaints. Heck, now I'm complaining about the complainers!
I am going to make it my mission to find the truth behind RealID from the source, cause if I was to believe the blogosphear then it would seem the world is going to come to an end, or that WoW is going to suddenly loose all their subs from this.
****UPDATE****
It's probably best to never write a knee jerk post right before bed!
For those who like me are looking for well written articles about the problems RealID could cause, I suggest starting with a post by Stabs. For me it was an eye opener about the real problems that players could face with the implementation of RealID.
The only RealID's that I have on my friends list in WoW are people that I have know for years. I know where they live, work, even their real names. But I am not sure that I want RealID to extent past that and it sounds like Blizzard does.
Thanks Stabs for the insightful post.
8 comments:
Here's my take:
http://stabbedup.blogspot.com/2010/07/wow-realid.html
It would appear that my knee jerk reaction to the knee jerk reactions of those against RealID may have been a little premature.
I guess I hadn't considered the problems that RealID could cause players outside of the game.
Oh my. That's one heck of a U-turn there, J. I hope the cops weren't watching. :)
Great post either way.
I'm glad that Stabs brought his post to my attention, it really opened my eyes.
I like the idea of players being accountable for what they say on the message boards, unfortunately having a persons real name associated with a forum name is not the answer.
And I don't like the idea of Blizzard possibly using my name for some marketing stuff.
I too often post things that need to be modified when I wake up in the morning :-)
My major problem with the whole thing is that it's a thinly veiled attempt to put us in a position where we are Ok with Blizzard monetizing our account information. If they gave the first crap about whether gamers are civil on their forums, they would have taken action on it long before now. The WoW forums have been a cesspit since year one.
I was looking forward to Cataclysm, but if they don't back off of this there's no way I'm giving them any more of my money. Which would suck because they make great games.
Enjoyed Stabs post on this, glad you linked it. Another I really found to be very insightful:
http://habitatchronicles.com/2010/07/realid-and-wow-forums-classic-identity-design-mistake/
Thanks for the link, a very good read! The more I read about this RealID, the more worried I get.
Thanks for the kind words Jaye.
To be honest I think the kind of serious consequences I mention will happen to one in a thousand or fewer people. But it's one too many as far as I'm concerned.
I think a /ignore for the forums would solve most the issues.
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