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 ( Read more... )
Player made guides are already being pulled and deleted over this. Maybe they'll be posted elsewhere. But having them in one location on the official forums undoubtedly helped people.
This will not stop the trolls. It will stop people from legitimately posting to offer honest help. Especially if they have something to lose by exposing their real name. An employer that frowns on gaming is one scenario. And god knows it's damn difficult to keep a job these days. HR departments are on hair triggers almost LOOKING for excuses to get rid of employees now.
If someone lives an alternate lifestyle (polyamory, lesbian, gay). Do you think they'll post on the slightest chance someone could find that out about them?
You're saying "but just don't POST on the forums!"
It's not that simple. It's a corporate mindset. As I've alluded to above. This has been touted by Activision as a FIRST STEP in a plan to make the game more social/more like Facebook.
How long until realID is an option you have to opt out of in the game rather than opt in to?
Do you know what the World of Warcraft Armory is? It is - among other things, a section of Blizzard's website that keeps track of and displays ALL THE CHARACTERS with all their gear in the game above level 10. What if RealID is linked to that? Even though I'm not active in the game right now, I can still look up my characters. What if my real name becomes attached to that without my permission?
There needs to be as many people canceling their accounts NOW as possible in order to send a the only message that the Corporate execs understand - loss of revenue. I wish I WAS active now so that I could CANCEL now in order to tell them why I was canceling!
As I said - this needs to be STOMPED. HARD. If not, then OTHER MMOs will try to do similar shit because hey - World of Warcraft is doing it!
Think it can't happen? Would YOU take that risk? Would YOU trust this company with your personal information anymore?
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i don't argue with the "it's a corporate mindset" view... i distrust corporations on general principle and they keep proving that's a wise move.
and i'm certainly not advocating doing nothing... raising a fuss does have an effect (as FB keeps proving... albeit imperfectly)
not sure as to other MMO's trying the same shit... some are happy to remain Different than WoW.
yes, i'd agree that RealID is a nefarious plot by evil interests to make as much of the net as possible 'transparent and open' (ie, monitorable and controllable).
as to my personal info, i don't really give a shit one way or another... yes, more annoyances - and there are one or two things about myself that i'd like to keep hidden from members of my family - but in i have faith that alternatives will be found.
all the really smart motherfuckers are on the side of net neutrality and anonymity. most of the really wealthy and big corporations and governmental agencies are on the other side. that's a recipe for a hacker free-for-all.
so by all means, massive cancellation of accounts, public hue and cry, outrage in the streets, burn baby burn!
i merely meant that, (amended)for non-technical issues, there are ways around the forums...
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