Goodbye World of Warcraft
And I mean forever.
(EDIT: UPDATE -
WHEW!!!
Looks like Blizz backed down (for now). Looks like the massive amounts of account cancellations and a thread on the official forums that apparently went over FIFTY-THOUSAND Negative posts got their attention!
I'm cautiously optimistic. And (for now) I'll re-consider my plans to play the game again.
But no reason not to keep the swords sharp. I bet this isn't the end of it.
Still - PARTY!
(I'll leave the original post below, though.) )
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On Tuesday, Blizzard announced that it will begin forcing participants in its game discussion forums-where players go to gab about World of Warcraft and other games-to post comments using their real first and last names. The change will go into effect mid-July on forums for Starcraft II, an upcoming online game, and follow after that for World of Warcraft discussion forums.
In a post on its discussion forums, Blizzard said its forums have “earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild.” (A “troll” is Internet slang for a discussion group provocateur who likes to rile up other chatters with nasty or off-topic posts.) That’s largely because Blizzard has allowed its discussion forum participants to identify themselves by their in-game character names.
When asked if there was any way to opt out of this 'service', players were told, "Don't post on the forums."
In Blizzard’s discussion forums, game players said the policy would lead to everything from identity theft to spam to stalking by “Internet crazies.” One poster said he was worried that a new girlfriend will could discover his “closet-gamer habit” by Googling his real name.
And all of these people are being told, in effect, if you don't feel comfortable posting on our spiffy new troll-free forums, then... go away.
So let me get this straight -
If I want to play your game, that means that AUTOMATICALLY my user info will be shared with facebook? My REAL name? Potentially my address? Where I work?
FUCK. YOU. NO!!!
This all may seem alarmist, but... when one of the Customer Service reps posted HIS name, within 5 minutes the results were in. Someone with his name, living in the same state, had their FULL information posted, their Facebook page slammed, their phone ringing off the hook. A player posted their name as a demonstration, and within 20 minutes, another player unknown to them was calling their work telephone and reciting facts about their house, their car, their pet, and their recent vacation.
What about people who are in actual DANGER if their personal information gets out? Like women? How about LGBT?:
I’ll just put in my two cents as one of many of the 15 million (according to CBC article) players worldwide. As a member of the LGBTIS community posting my real name ona forum with a reputation like World of Warcraft’s is a very real personal danger for people like us. If you don’t believe that, just use Google to search for “Transexual hate crime” and see what comes up.
Another commenter said:
As a female player who’s been harassed several times, I can say that this is going to be a horrible change. I absolutely refuse to post on the forums under these conditions. If I have a tech problem I’ll just have to use the in-game feature to report it now, rather than going to the forums. This may mean a longer wait, but why would I want 11+ million other people to view my name? I did research and only 5 other people have my first and last name in the U.S. There needs to be stronger laws against this.
Another commenter says:
After 5 years with Blizzard, ACTI stock, 14 accounts including my own, wife, children, and other family member accounts, as well as every game they’ve ever published I’m finally pulling the plug and calling it quits with this company. Enough is enough and I refuse to spend another dollar on a game that i’m paying for only to have my real name plastered all over the internet due to this idea of “social gaming”. Now you’ll be able to log-in to play a game but leave that game with real life people looking up your information or possibly even stalking you just because you play?
I didn’t sign up for Facebook due to privacy issues and had I known that the Activision/Blizzard merger would lead to this I would have never invested my money, time, or personal information to this company. It’s a sad day when you see a company that used to love it’s customers start to love the money more to the point that it will be it’s downfall.
And:
Rule one on the internet has always been to keep one’s personal information private. There are employers who may reject applicants who are found posting on World of Warcraft boards. There are people who play WoW who have ex-spouses or ex-lovers who might do them harm. There are people who play WoW who are in professions and jobs that discourage having their real names on the internet. At a minimum, this will put women and people with non-white sounding names off of the forums, since there’s a very high probability that their posts will be met with ridicule and harassment.
Why is Activision/Blizzard pushing for this?
Why do you think? They think they can make more money.
Activision has entered into a partnership with Facebook to "cross-pollinate" the social media site with data culled from the players. When they accomplish something, it'll get posted. When they get some nice gear, it'll be posted. When they level up, it'll be posted. All in a gambit to get the person's friends to try the game out. At least that's their theory. I think the whole thing is going to be short-circuited by people making completely false identities in order to play. To say nothing of the people who are just going to quit outright in justified anger.
I haven't even played the game in over 9 months. I have less than 50 forum posts to my (in-game) name. But now I'm going to be calling their customer service to make DAMN certain that every scrap of private information that they might have had on me is GONE and I'm going to be telling them in no-uncertain terms why I will never be coming back.
Congratulations Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision Blizzard)! You finally found a way to kill the goose with the golden eggs!
I always wondered what it might take to carve away the massive share of the market that WoW represented. I sure wouldn't have called this, though!
This makes me unutterably sad as well as angry. I loved the Warcraft world. Loved the lore (even as inconsistent and changeable as it could get.) Loved the concepts and the art. Loved the races (I played mostly alliance, but Horde stuff was still awesome.)
I am sad that I will never be able to visit that world again. But this is the end.