Shame on you, Blizzard.
A lot of my WoW friends are freaking out about this "Real ID" fiasco, and I don't blame them. I have let my account lapse until I decide what I want to do.
For those of you that play WoW, YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY ENROLLED IN REAL ID UNLESS YOU HAVE PARENTAL CONTROLS ENABLED.
To quote from the nicely rational Robin Torres:
To be clear, everyone who does not have a parentally controlled account has in fact opted into Real ID, due to a security flaw. Addons have access to the name on your account right now. So you need to be very careful about what addons you download -- make sure they are reputable. In order to actually opt out, you need to set up parental controls on your account. This is not an easy task. Previous to the Battle.net merge, you could just go to a page and set them up. Done. Now, you must set up an account as one that is under parental control. Once your account is that of a child's (a several-step process), your settings default to Real ID-disabled. Any Real ID friends you have will no longer be friends. In order to enable it, you need to check the Enable Real ID box.
How do you do that? Go HERE, as Robin's done a great walk-through of how to get it set up.
Don't get me started on how this is a horrible idea on Blizzard's part. I know. I do not want to debate that here. Having been stalked by someone online, when I WAS using a handle, and the fact they managed to get some of my RL info, despite me being a paranoid and close-mouthed person, was seriously freaky.
Oh yeah, I was barely eighteen, and it was someone in fandom. It's also the reason I dropped off the internet for years, and there's people in my guild, people I have considered friends since 2003 and Star Wars: Galaxies, THAT DO NOT KNOW MY REAL NAME. It's not that I don't trust my friends, it's that I've been horribly traumatized, and I no longer trust myself. And it's not just that one instance.
I was harassed in EQ for being female "irl." I have had to deal with boys at conventions asking me to be their "velvet wrapped muse, oh mistress of the night," which was more funny than annoying, but there have been other instances, too.
The fact that Blizzard does not Get It upsets me. It disturbs me. It makes me think about how different gaming, television, and literary online fandoms are, because we already had this discussion about how uncool it was to out people. And apparently Blizzard did not get that memo.
...I think I'm just going to wait on renewing my account. Save the money, play some Guild Wars for my MMORPG-fix, and await Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic. I was at the point where I was just playing WoW until Diablo III came out, to be honest, but now, I don't think I want to give Blizzard any more of my money until they can admit wrong and fix it.
And if they don't? Well, I'm sure I can find a new hobby. I'll miss my Druid, my Pyro, and my Hunter, but there's other games out there that will be happy to take my time. Worst case scenario, I let my inner megalomaniac out and play some Civilization III. I WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD.
So, in summary: Instead of thinking Real Names will shame trolls into behaving, Blizzard should actually, oh, police their own forums. They already have everyone's information, including our freakin' IP addresses, so it's not THAT hard to perma-ban someone. You have to have an account to post on the forums anyway! But there's no excuse for RL information to be used in game. This is an MMORPG -- a ROLE PLAYING GAME -- not Facebook. If I wanted a Facebook, I would have a Facebook, but I don't so I do not. But because Blizzard is a) Lazy and b) desperately wanting to be hip, they've made the decision for me, hoping that having RL information out there means that people will police each other, rather than Blizzard needing to dedicate the manpower required to clean up their forums.
Personally, I'd rather not feed the trolls under the bridge.
For those of you that play WoW, YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY ENROLLED IN REAL ID UNLESS YOU HAVE PARENTAL CONTROLS ENABLED.
To quote from the nicely rational Robin Torres:
To be clear, everyone who does not have a parentally controlled account has in fact opted into Real ID, due to a security flaw. Addons have access to the name on your account right now. So you need to be very careful about what addons you download -- make sure they are reputable. In order to actually opt out, you need to set up parental controls on your account. This is not an easy task. Previous to the Battle.net merge, you could just go to a page and set them up. Done. Now, you must set up an account as one that is under parental control. Once your account is that of a child's (a several-step process), your settings default to Real ID-disabled. Any Real ID friends you have will no longer be friends. In order to enable it, you need to check the Enable Real ID box.
How do you do that? Go HERE, as Robin's done a great walk-through of how to get it set up.
Don't get me started on how this is a horrible idea on Blizzard's part. I know. I do not want to debate that here. Having been stalked by someone online, when I WAS using a handle, and the fact they managed to get some of my RL info, despite me being a paranoid and close-mouthed person, was seriously freaky.
Oh yeah, I was barely eighteen, and it was someone in fandom. It's also the reason I dropped off the internet for years, and there's people in my guild, people I have considered friends since 2003 and Star Wars: Galaxies, THAT DO NOT KNOW MY REAL NAME. It's not that I don't trust my friends, it's that I've been horribly traumatized, and I no longer trust myself. And it's not just that one instance.
I was harassed in EQ for being female "irl." I have had to deal with boys at conventions asking me to be their "velvet wrapped muse, oh mistress of the night," which was more funny than annoying, but there have been other instances, too.
The fact that Blizzard does not Get It upsets me. It disturbs me. It makes me think about how different gaming, television, and literary online fandoms are, because we already had this discussion about how uncool it was to out people. And apparently Blizzard did not get that memo.
...I think I'm just going to wait on renewing my account. Save the money, play some Guild Wars for my MMORPG-fix, and await Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic. I was at the point where I was just playing WoW until Diablo III came out, to be honest, but now, I don't think I want to give Blizzard any more of my money until they can admit wrong and fix it.
And if they don't? Well, I'm sure I can find a new hobby. I'll miss my Druid, my Pyro, and my Hunter, but there's other games out there that will be happy to take my time. Worst case scenario, I let my inner megalomaniac out and play some Civilization III. I WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD.
So, in summary: Instead of thinking Real Names will shame trolls into behaving, Blizzard should actually, oh, police their own forums. They already have everyone's information, including our freakin' IP addresses, so it's not THAT hard to perma-ban someone. You have to have an account to post on the forums anyway! But there's no excuse for RL information to be used in game. This is an MMORPG -- a ROLE PLAYING GAME -- not Facebook. If I wanted a Facebook, I would have a Facebook, but I don't so I do not. But because Blizzard is a) Lazy and b) desperately wanting to be hip, they've made the decision for me, hoping that having RL information out there means that people will police each other, rather than Blizzard needing to dedicate the manpower required to clean up their forums.
Personally, I'd rather not feed the trolls under the bridge.