I'm sure most already know about the Battle.Net Real ID - effectively, if you wish to use the new cross-realm and cross-game messaging functions provided by Battle.Net for World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2, you have to use a "Real ID" - your real first and last name, as stored in the Blizzard billing system. For in-game chat, this means that anyone you accept as Real ID friend will see your real name and, interestingly, they will see all your Real ID friends and their real names. Blizzard deflected any criticism by stressing that this is completely optional - if you do not allow any Real ID friends, nobody will see your real name.
Except that a little detail surfaced - you are automatically a "Real ID friend" of yourself, meaning that your client knows your real name and it is exposed to WoW addons without limitations - even if you don't use the Real ID communication system yourself. In short, any addon could have a piece of code that figures out your Real ID and then transmits that to anyone else in game. Cue complaints about this being a very bad 21d2thing for online privacy.
However, Blizzard just ignored all this and went "all in" with their latest announcement... Real ID would be mandatory for posting in the new official Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft forums, scheduled to replace current forums. Suddenly Real ID isn't quite so optional any more.
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. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm.
The only way to opt out is to refrain from posting on the official forums. Oh, and if you are a minor, expect not to be able to post at all. Naturally, if you expect that Blizzard will stop here - well, I have some swampland to sell you.
As you can probably imagine, this bombshell went over with the playerbase very well, with suitably colorful reaction. The official comment thread is currently 898 pages long , with almost 18000 posts, growing at such a rate that I don't think a single person can possibly read all the posts in that thread - new ones appear faster than you can read them. Forums are also filled with other threads on the subject that are sprouting up faster than Blizzard can lock them. Our take? Read on...
Unintended ConsequencesWhile I can see the arguments for this change - it would definitely cut down forum trolling, for instance - it has many troubling implications. The most obvious one was demonstrated as soon as Bashiok, one of Blizzard's representatives tried to quell the torches & pitchforks crowd by stating his real name on the forums, demonstrating that it isn't a big deal. Well, you can probably guess what happened next... The forum crowd quickly dug up a ton of information on the poor guy and posted it all over the forums - only to see Blizzard delete it all. Lots of interesting bits and photos were also dug up from his Facebook page - which was then promptly hidden from public view. Reportedly many posters have also received bans from the official forums over the episode. If the intention was to imply that there was no harm in revealing real names online, I think it backfired rather nicely.
As to why Blizzard is suddenly doing this? My guess is that Blizzard (or, if you prefer, Activision-Blizzard) sees big dollar signs in social networking sites like Facebook. They realize that they are effectively running one huge social networking site with Battle.Net and by pushing the whole Real ID concept through, they can instantly have a massive competitor to Facebook, with millions of users - add in a few web-based features and they are instantly "Gamer's Facebook" and a big player in the market. If they can survive the customer backlash, that is.
Unfortunately, I think nothing that is posted online or on the official forums will matter one bit - the only way to voice your disapproval of Blizzard's plans is to stop paying a subscription fee and stop buying their products. As this has clearly been planned for a long time, only the bottom line matters. That 1000 page forum thread doesn't matter but a sudden 10% drop in subscriber numbers would be another story. Me? I'll grab some popcorn and watch this drama unfold. Heck, I expect someone to be filing a lawsuit by the end of the week...
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