This is probably the most ridiculous change ever made by a gaming company. The negative stigma associated with being a gamer and even more so being a wow player is a terrible thing to have when looking for a professional job.
The negative stigma associated with being a company that thinks poorly of gamers and even more so of wow players is a terrible thing to have when looking for a professional employee.
=)
This company is hurting their user base in an effort to not have to do what every other forum on the internet does: Police the trolls.
I'd thought about buying one of their games this Summer (Starcraft II) to play with some friends, but I'd be hesitant to get the "brand" myself after this change
I have been making my real name accessible on a lot of websites and I have never had a problem with people harassing me. In fact, I think it increases the quality of my interactions on average.
No. I have no desire for people to know my real name or real identity.
This is one of the best things they can do. Have you ever browsed the WoW forums? They are horrible. A new player can get destroyed. Their innocence ruined.
Their is only so much policing and banning that can go on.
The key part to their announcement is this: > All posts in the future on the new forum systems will be an opt-in choice and ample warning will be given that you're posting with your real first and last name.
Old posts won't change. This will only occur on the new forums.
I don't play WoW anymore, and I admit I got involved in my share of epic flame wars. I never hid who I was in real life, but still, this is fine. And no, you can't be associated as being a WoW player unless you opt-in.
So no, this is a good thing that solves a real problem.
This is a big loss for people who go to the tech support forums, bug requests, and do guild recruitment. None of those need real names, and I've almost never seen any flaming going in most of those threads. This is also quite retarded for realm forums where the context of your character is more important than your real name, so what now? Now you get to associate your toons with your real name, and well shit it keeps snowballing from there.
No, this is not a good thing because it doesn't solve the problem at all.
Well, if it silences people like you, I think it will do something. Saying it won't do ANYTHING is pretty black and white.
> There will still be plenty of people with fake Real Names and the Real Names of the people being billed (read: not the actual people playing the game, i.e. in the case of minors) trolling, except now they get to do it elsewhere with other players' real names.
You can't change your name in your account. Also, not having your real name will affect your ability to recover your account. Finally, your account name doesn't have to match the billing name. And, unless I'm mistaken, the account owner needs to have their real name their anyways, according to the TOS.
> This is a big loss for people who go to the tech support forums, bug requests, and do guild recruitment.
That's a valid argument, but one easily solved. Bug reports can have a different mechanism to be reported then forums. Tech Support already has an official mechanism for support outside the forums.
Guild Recruitment is another issue entirely, but again, this is something that can be solved outside the forums in a controlled manner, via something like the Armory. Whether they do any of this is another matter entirely, but these are valid issues.
> This is also quite retarded for realm forums where the context of your character is more important than your real name, so what now?
The problem is, you'd have people still getting quite aggressive and less than polite, throwing around insults and calling things 'retarded' and not keeping a civil tongue.
I like this part:
> Now you get to associate your toons with your real name, and well shit it keeps snowballing from there.
Like your entire post, you don't actually present why this is a problem.
> No, this is not a good thing because it doesn't solve the problem at all.
I think it will help with the problem. Even perceived anonymity turns otherwise rational people into raving lunatics.
Do you really have conversations with people and call things retarded, shit and yell at them, Jane?