Blizzard to remove the veil of anonymity
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2010-07-06 10:48 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
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Thanks. I was a bit volatile about this when I posted my response. I've had some sleep since then.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Actually, I'm making the stronger statement that I don't think it needs to be proven necessary. We don't sit around trying to logically prove beyond all shadow of a doubt that free speech is necessary. Contrawise, even if you could prove free speech had a statistically negative impact on the death rate in America, that wouldn't be enough to revoke it. Some things we accept as the price for living in a free society.
I dare say that even if you were to discover a totalitarian society on earth where violence against women was five percent what it was in America, you wouldn't be tempted to emulate it. Well, I'm assuming anyway. The "grotesqueness" of Venture's world to me isn't that he considers the loss of anonymity to have statistically insignificant consequences, but rather that Venture seems to be suggesting that I should base my disclosure decisions on what I can statistically prove. That would be like asking me to base my preference for not being mugged on the street on the ability to prove society isn't better off allowing muggers to attack me rather than potentially be forced to commit other crimes. If I were a Blizzard customer affected by this decision (at the moment, I'm not) and if my personal information was disclosed without my permission (which I cannot say with certainty it would be under this policy) whether I feel violated by that decision has nothing to do with the statistical likelihood of someone misusing that information. That that probability is non-zero is a separate, general fact worthy of social discourse. But it doesn't inform my personal feelings on the matter. It should really be enough that I decide to keep something private, and someone else decides to violate that decision. In fact, you could argue that in a world where privacy is increasingly becoming a technological impossibility, its really values that have to pick up the slack. Increasingly, our privacy is based less on what we can personally enforce, and more on what others elect to grant to us. From that perspective, someone that decides that privacy is meaningless and those who desire it deluded simply because it can be technologically revoked is actually something of a sociopath. |
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There have been several people in this thread already who have returned to CoH and cancelled their WoW accounts. If even 1% of the "I'm cancelling" posts on their official boards are true, it's a noticeable start. It is kind of hard to predict what this will do to those who don't read the forums (much) though. I think this will impact WoW, certainly. It, by and of itself will not be the "WoW killer" but it could well be the start of what kills WoW. For me, it was more of a SC2 killer.
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Originally Posted by KaliMagdalene
... they lost me as a customer.
I personally know several other people who have canceled their accounts. I know this is anecdotal, but you said any customers. |
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Then this is irrelevant, because an MMORPG could never be real Star Wars.|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
No, real Star Wars are the 6 movies - anything else is just fake Star Wars - books, games, cartoons - they're not really part of the saga.
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I'll just say that the first KOTOR game was very good about giving you the sense of being in a Star Wars film, and felt fairly authentic to the movies, and that's all that really should matter.
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Not saying this will or won't kill WoW, but 'what if...'.
I wonder how Kotick would feel about being remembered as the guy who caused/presided over killing what may be one of the most profitable games created to date.
I'm sure that would go over really well with the Board of Directors and on his resumé.
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TG, you've had an epic run in this thread and I just wanted to thank you for collecting all these links and placing them in context.|
Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
There's a definite blindspot at work in Blizzard's thought process. Their upper-level development team is all male, in contrast to their competitors in the gaming industy and the MMO genre. And given Blizzard's lack of past experience with MMORPGs, to say nothing of Activision's, it's worthwhile to ask if it really is part of the MMO community.
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*thumbsup*
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and me.|
Originally Posted by KaliMagdalene
... they lost me as a customer.
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I thought the new expansion sounded pretty cool and was gonna re-up my account to poke around and sightsee, but now they can eat it.
As can any game of theirs that incorporate this privacy shredding tech.
Bummer, cause I was looking forward to Starcraft.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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And I was thinking it might be fun to click my mouse a few thousand times in Diablo 3.|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
and me.
I thought the new expansion sounded pretty cool and was gonna re-up my account to poke around and sightsee, but now they can eat it. As can any game of theirs that incorporate this privacy shredding tech. Bummer, cause I was looking forward to Starcraft. |
Not anymore.
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I can't agree. How many "I'm cancelling posts" have their been? Let's take a insanely high number and say that there have been 100,000.|
Originally Posted by Gaderath
There have been several people in this thread already who have returned to CoH and cancelled their WoW accounts. If even 1% of the "I'm cancelling" posts on their official boards are true, it's a noticeable start. It is kind of hard to predict what this will do to those who don't read the forums (much) though. I think this will impact WoW, certainly. It, by and of itself will not be the "WoW killer" but it could well be the start of what kills WoW. For me, it was more of a SC2 killer.
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1% of that is 1,000.
CoX -might- notice that loss. No way WoW will.
SC2 might feel a bit more impact, also presumably D3 down the line, but I don't have a feel for how active the forum communities for those were likely to be.
Now where they might actually feel an impact is if the rumors of Blizzard employee discontent are true and -those- folks walk out. But unless there's an en-masse thing led by the founders, I don't see that happening.
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You know, I had this reflex Pavlovian thing about 'must have D3', but the more I see trailers and such for it... it doesn't seem that exciting. It seems like D2 with better graphics, and I'm wondering, haven't they figured out anything inovative to do in ten years?
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Originally Posted by Smersh
And I was thinking it might be fun to click my mouse a few thousand times in Diablo 3.
Not anymore. |
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You misunderstand what I meant by "its a start". People leave, upset over this, and before they go, they tell their friends and guildmates and so on why. Then those people, who probably don't read the forums, and don't know about this, know, and they see a rational friend of theirs being upset over it, and they start to look into why and whats going on too. And you don't even need the original person to actually quit for this to spread. Say most of them stay, now at least their aware and have really been hearing these disconcerting things. A few months down the line, their push their agenda further, make it more pervasive, more invasive, less optional. Now they're even more likely to leave with this push. I really don't expect Activision to stop this, or the mindset behind it, and its that mindset that is the real danger to their business.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
I can't agree. How many "I'm cancelling posts" have their been? Let's take a insanely high number and say that there have been 100,000.
1% of that is 1,000. CoX -might- notice that loss. No way WoW will. SC2 might feel a bit more impact, also presumably D3 down the line, but I don't have a feel for how active the forum communities for those were likely to be. Now where they might actually feel an impact is if the rumors of Blizzard employee discontent are true and -those- folks walk out. But unless there's an en-masse thing led by the founders, I don't see that happening. |
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That's what I believe. Someone posted a video on the WoW forums discussing RealID and he brought up the topic of active forum players canceling their accts. He brought up the point that forum players only represent a small fraction of the actual player customer base. Even if every forum poster did cancel their WoW accts it really wouldn't put a dent in Activision's pocket.|
Originally Posted by Brillig
I can't agree. How many "I'm cancelling posts" have their been? Let's take a insanely high number and say that there have been 100,000.
1% of that is 1,000. CoX -might- notice that loss. No way WoW will. SC2 might feel a bit more impact, also presumably D3 down the line, but I don't have a feel for how active the forum communities for those were likely to be. |
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Now where they might actually feel an impact is if the rumors of Blizzard employee discontent are true and -those- folks walk out. But unless there's an en-masse thing led by the founders, I don't see that happening. |
Paragon Unleashed Forums
Twitter: @Alpha_Ryvius
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I'm sure they have some turnover in the development ranks, what I meant was that if the founders left together, they could almost trivially raise capital to start a new company. Now, granted, to put together a competing MMO would take years, but other games could come up more quickly.|
Originally Posted by Unknown_User
I doubt that, Activision can just fill the positions easily and from what I've heard some of the veteran devs of WoW have already left the game some time ago. |
"Founders of Blizzard" is still a powerful phrase in the geek-space, WoW-hate notwithstanding
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I was looking forward to rushing some Zerglings again. Now, I think not. I'll take my "kekekeke" somewhere else.
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Originally Posted by Smersh
And I was thinking it might be fun to click my mouse a few thousand times in Diablo 3.
Not anymore. |
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"Bubble up for safety!"
Here's another datapoint on the timeline for the ongoing affair of the Read ID Forums: Blizzard Entertainment's Online Privacy Policy, updated on June 30, 2010. It seems there was a warning before the announcement on the forums earlier this week:
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The policy also outlines the nuclear option:| Blizzard sites may also have message boards, forums, and/or chat areas, where users can exchange ideas and communicate with one another. When posting to a message board, forum, or chat area, please be aware that the information is being made publicly available on-line and the user does so at his or her own risk. For certain forums, anyone posting or replying to a post will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their full first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character. |
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If for any reason you are concerned with the way we are using your personal information, or would like to correct or request that we delete such personal information, please contact Blizzard Entertainment Privacy Policy, Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, at 16215 Alton Pkwy. Irvine CA 92618-3616. You can also contact us by e-mailing us at privacy@blizzard.com. Please note that the deletion of your data will lead to the termination of your account and applicable services. |
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Wow, so their nuclear option is for you to send an email explaining that you want your account completely deleted?|
Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
The policy also outlines the nuclear option...
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"Of course... there's always my way..." ~The Haunted Mansion.
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Nah, it just means he has experience. From what I've seen it's very rare for a highly placed executive of a company to screw up so badly he actually has to retire. Even if they are fired they normally manage to find someone else to hire them.
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Originally Posted by JKedan
Not saying this will or won't kill WoW, but 'what if...'.
I wonder how Kotick would feel about being remembered as the guy who caused/presided over killing what may be one of the most profitable games created to date. I'm sure that would go over really well with the Board of Directors and on his resumé. |
just wondering since I haven't read through all 25 pages, has anybody brought up the Korean Law that might be behind this move?
http://kotaku.com/5582040/is-korean-...al-name-policy
I think that has been brought up, although there's no reason to structure the whole world around it. Starcraft II's pretty strictly divided into regions with no ability to cross over.
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It definitely gives me pause to whether I'll continue playing or not. From both do I even want to support a company willing do this sort of thing for the future of gaming could be scarred if this somehow BECOMES A STANDARD. I don't ever want to see that day. Sure I might have paper thin veil atm, but I'm not willing run thru the lions cages with meat covering me just yet.|
Originally Posted by KaliMagdalene
... they lost me as a customer.
I personally know several other people who have canceled their accounts. I know this is anecdotal, but you said any customers. |
And stand point what might happen next to me personally. I've been scammed out of 1000s of dollars online before. I don't need another nightmare like that as I finnally recovered completely from the damage of debt and my credit score. I'd rather done a million different things with that money than let some scum bag have it. Who knows where this rabbit hole of stupidty might go, as it might be safer to just sidestep this all and bail before anything blows up in my face.
It's a shame as I was having fun and was thinking of focusing on WoW for awhile. This dampers my interest in that and future products. I'm going ultimately wait and see the moment.
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Originally Posted by JKedan
Not saying this will or won't kill WoW, but 'what if...'.
I wonder how Kotick would feel about being remembered as the guy who caused/presided over killing what may be one of the most profitable games created to date. I'm sure that would go over really well with the Board of Directors and on his resumé. |
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Originally Posted by je_saist
just wondering since I haven't read through all 25 pages, has anybody brought up the Korean Law that might be behind this move?
http://kotaku.com/5582040/is-korean-...al-name-policy |
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Originally Posted by KaliMagdalene
I think that has been brought up, although there's no reason to structure the whole world around it. Starcraft II's pretty strictly divided into regions with no ability to cross over.
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"Inovation" does not necessarily mean "better".
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Originally Posted by Brillig
You know, I had this reflex Pavlovian thing about 'must have D3', but the more I see trailers and such for it... it doesn't seem that exciting. It seems like D2 with better graphics, and I'm wondering, haven't they figured out anything inovative to do in ten years?
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Yeah, I think when people talk about innovation, it sounds like they're going off in some random direction. You know, doing something different to be different, and not necessarily better.
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Originally Posted by LiquidX
"Inovation" does not necessarily mean "better".
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Actually they possibly didn't. One of the links provided to another site where it was being reviewed had someone step forward to claim the post. Said that the account was perma-banned from the boards for "releasing sensitive information".|
Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
This was posted earlier today in the voluminous Real ID thread - now over 2,100 pages - and the CMs on the forum have let it alone. Make of that what you will.
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*Puts on some Mellencamp*
When the walls come tumblin' down;
When the walls come crumblin', crumblin';
When the walls come tumblin', tumblin' down.
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OK, I'm late to the discussion. Been sort of away from these forums for a while, guess where I been? Let's just say they may also loose me as a costumer.
Anyways, I have posted this somewhere else and will post it here too:
I find many things wrong with this. The simplest one is the idea of "it's opt in, as you can just not post in the forums." I recently had my wow account hacked and the first thing they require you do is go to the forums and start a thread so a mod can look at your account and remove the authenticator the hacker likely added to your account. There are many other forms of support that require this line of action for you to get resolution.
That aside, we all know that most players post in forums in their "idle time" at work. I work in IT, and I know what companies, specially large ones, tend to do. We make constant searches online for employee names, find Facebook pages and try to associate obvious online activity to our employees records. There are many things that can get employees in trouble, from harassment of other employees, open company demoralization and, the simplest of all, too much work-unrelated activity during work hours.
I can see many people's jobs being threatened by this. I have not read deep enough, but I pray they don't dare do the change retroactive to all posts that have been made in the past. Many won't have any way to escape online life snooping from their employees, and huge disciplinary actions should they find hundreds of posts in a gaming forum during work hours. I'm actually glad I only posted in WoW forums that one time I needed help with my account and that post was done a Sunday.
I can tell you I'd be fired in a heartbeat if NCSoft did this to us due to the amount of posts I have made during work hours, even if this was during honest to god idle time.
In the end, you can be sure the reason Activision is doing this has nothing to do with trolling or anonymity. If that was even an issue they would had turned off the ability to swap handles on the fly a long time ago and force players to pick one permanent handle.
No, Activision has bigger plans in mind, they are likely attempting to turn Battlenet into a social networking service for gamers, and plan to enter full force by opting in all their players to inflate a day one market share.
At this point I have been two days without logging into WoW, been giving a RL friend of mine the excuse that I'm burned out of the game but truth is this has me annoyed to a point where I don't want anything to do with the company. I would not be shocked if the next announcement is that they will add RealID to the armory and not just keep the RSS of achievements but also of logins and logouts for the world to see when I was there and when I left. That's another thing that could get me in heavy trouble with my employers right now.
You CAN opt out RealID, via the magic of PARENTAL CONTROLS! Simply by setting up the PCs you automatically opt out. Dunno how it will work with the forums, but this will protect you in game.
*cue angelic singing, heavenly light*
TL
I personally know several other people who have canceled their accounts.
I know this is anecdotal, but you said any customers.
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