> If I was posting on a forum about how my basketball team won the local tournament and my photo was in the paper, I’d be glorified. Writing a post about how to properly spec BM-hunter and then (theoritically) won an Arena tournament with my picture in the paper? I’m going to get funny looks.

THIS THIS THIS THIS!

I am reminded of the last time I was at a friend’s house and we decided on a little Company of Heroes session. The whole time from the couch across the room his girlfriend was berating us for being “gay” and “gaying it up.” Because we wanted to play a CoH skirmish and, as Tarantino’s characters would say, kill some Nazis.

What is so wrong with playing a game every now and then? I recently read a post on reddit where the someone being interviewed for a job was forced to listen to how much the interviewer despised gamers. It’s like a new form of prejudice.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am drunk. Viva Tecate!

I like your idea of two separate forums, but surely the reward of the RealID one should be that’s where Ghostcrawler and the devs reply and leave the other one a toxic waste dump. It automatically eliminates the kids whose parents pay their accounts and know to disable RealID. Ah man what I’d give to see the reaction to that rethink.

If I was posting on a forum about how my basketball team won the local tournament and my photo was in the paper, I’d be glorified. Writing a post about how to properly spec BM-hunter and then (theoritically) won an Arena tournament with my picture in the paper? I’m going to get funny looks.

We live on an Internet with the likes of 4Chan, and although people should always try to be careful regardless of the level of anonymity they currently enjoy, said anonymity does at least help to bolster the defences that hold back the inevitable tidal wave of shit and aggravation that builds up behind a person’s online presence.

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Americans-are-bad-at-games/Real-Names-on-the-Official-Forums-New-REAL-ID-function?gr_i_ni

in which CM Bashiok demonstrates how safe it is to give out your real detail on the internet only to have WoW players laugh at him for living with his Mum.

Oh and no point trying his phone number btw. His family have stopped answering the phone.

Maybe it’s an american thing to be really paranoid about stalkers, but it never crosses peoples mind when taking part in a sporting event or a gaming/hobby tournament and winning, your name and photo, name of club or area you’re from is going to end up in local/national newspapers or on event websites etc. Maybe that only happens in Ireland. It’s a poor reflection of the WoW community that people are so suspicious of other players.

In a way it’s a interesting test for any MMO, if it fails then there is something seriously wrong with the values and motivations of the community, but also with the game design that encourages selfish, hateful and cynical behaviour. Like if Lotro introduced this, would there be the same vitriolic comments.

There is clearly some conflict of interest when Blizzard’s own ToCs for the forums (at the time of writing) specifically chose to forbid revealing the real life information of the devs or other players, making it a banable offence, as the link above currently shows. Now, all of sudden, because Blizzard want some of the Facebook Pie (mainly because their next MMO is going to be a for-the-masses Farmville-a-like, at a guess), they decide that slinging real life details on public forums without the willing consent of the participants is ok simply because it’s what they want.

My suggestion: create a separate set of RealID forums where additional perks can be gained through their use (exclusive in-game non-combat mini pet after 1000 posts or 100 posts rated three stars and above, for example), moderate those forums, and abandon the current forums to become the steaming pile of troll dung that they have always teetered on the edge of ever since they first opened.

If I were in charge I would never in a million years green light this, however. Aside from the ethical questions stemming from mult-faceted privacy concerns for my players and customers, I foresee at least one sizeable lawsuit in Blizzard’s future.

If the last couple years of rather shoddy WoW development hasn’t proved Blizzard is losing their magic touch, I think this certainly will be a wake-up call.