World of Warcraft: Azeroth Unites Against Real ID

World of Warcraft: Azeroth Unites Against Real ID

Activision Blizzard's recent controversial announcement that all players posting on the official Battle.net and World of Warcraft forums will be forcibly opted-in to display their real-life billing first and last names in all forum posts has set off an unprecedented firestorm of player protests that seems to be uniting players of all stripes, casual and hardcore, PvPers, PvEers and Role Players alike.

Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to Forums (full post on Battle.net)

Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature - http://www.battle.net/realid/ , a new way to stay connected with your friends on the new Battle.net. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about our plans for Real ID on our official forums, discuss the design philosophy behind the changes we’re making, and give you a first look at some of the new features we’re adding to the forums to help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.

The 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 record-breaking response thread on the official forum is heading towards 30,000 replies in it's second day. The majority of replies offer well thought out reasons why this policy change would have an adverse effect on previously die-hard, loyal Blizzard fans. A few of the most often cited concerns include:

• Job hunting/Employment: Employers may not look kindly on the resumes of prospective employees whose names are publicly associated with gaming. Additionally, many workplaces may strictly forbid employees to publicly participate in such online activities, although the previously private, anonymous participation was acceptable.
  
  
• Fear of in-game and community harassment based on gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and other personal attributes. Most players would expect these private aspects of their life to be irrelevant to gameplay, but Blizzard's Real ID policy would force these aspects of many player's lives to be associated with their online gaming identity for better or for worse.
  
  
• For the same reasons, many players worry about increased problems with online harassment and stalking following players from the game community offline and becoming a real world threat to their personal and family safety and security. The loss of privacy would remove any barriers for disgruntled and disturbed players to carry an online grudge into the real world.
  
  
• Another worry expressed is the potential of identity theft. The association of a player's real-life identity with their gaming persona, just opens another vector of attack that could also lead to increased scam, fraud and spam against players across all avenues of public contact as opposed to previously being limited to the anonymous game character name.

One of the most appalling and bewildering aspects of this new policy is that it seems to violate Blizzard's own Terms of Use and forum Code of Conduct for players prior to the June 30, 2010 update.

The official Blizzard Terms of Use Code of Conduct reads:

9. Code of Conduct.

B. Rules Related to "Chat" and Interaction With Other Users. Communicating in-game with other Users and Blizzard representatives, whether by text, voice or any other method, is an integral part of the Game and the Service and is referred to here as "Chat." When engaging in Chat, you may not:

(v) Communicate or post any user's personal information in the Game, or on websites or forums related to the Game, except that a user may communicate his or her own personal information in a private message directed to a single user;

The official World of Warcraft Forum Code of Conduct reads:

Distribution of Real-Life Personal Information

This category includes:

• Releasing any real-life information about other players or Blizzard Entertainment employees

If a player is found to have participated in such actions, he/she will:

• Be permanently banned from the World of Warcraft forums

As of June 30, 2010, the Blizzard Online Privacy Policy has been updated to read:

Blizzard sites may also have message boards, forums, and/or chat areas, where users can exchange ideas and communicate with one another. When posting to a message board, forum, or chat area, please be aware that the information is being made publicly available on-line and the user does so at his or her own risk. For certain forums, anyone posting or replying to a post will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their full first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character.

These glaring contradictions have yet to be addressed with an official response.

Understandably, many players report that they have already canceled their accounts or are considering canceling their subscriptions to preserve the privacy and anonymity they have enjoyed over the past 5 years of playing World of Warcraft.

As of this writing, the official Activision Blizzard response is that despite the community outcry and although they are monitoring and considering player feedback, they still intend to go through with their plans to implement this policy as originally stated.

Blizzard: 'We're Definitely Listening To Player Feedback' On Real ID on Gamasutra:

"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."