Blizzard to remove the veil of anonymity

Soooooo the solution is to have MORE players cancel their accounts over fears of invasion of privacy or worse?

Today, and my MMO group represents a very slim majority, three people I know not only canceled their accounts over THIS, but removed the game from their computers. One went so far as to sell all their equipment and give the money away to their guild.

People play MMO's to escape and be someone they are not. Unveiling who they are [Can't believe I'm quoting my brother here] is in effect creating a mini example of the "Civil War." Having an identity to escape behind (in most cases this is a good thing) is something people need.

Then there are those that have used these games as a stepping stones to launch themselves into real, growing, friendships. It may seem odd, but MMO's offer those too timid for real world socialization to actual build social skills which some even try out in the real world. Heck, my guild leader and his now Wife, met playing WoW. Both admitted how shy they were to start. Before I got bored and left, they had left WoW for Real Life. We even threw them a Going Away party. Without the veil of anonimity they might never have taken those initial baby steps.

I've participated in some 20 MMOs over the years starting in Meridian 59 and DAoC.

I have found that most MMO forumites are pretty much the same.

The trolls have varied wildly, however.



-np

In order to prove that they had faith in the system, Blizzard posted the name of one of their GMs. Micah Whipple.

To clarify, they posted the name of someone whose job is to be the messenger that says "We are consciously denying you your hobby into which you've invested hundreds of hours".

In order to prove that they don't have faith in the system, players are posting a vast amount of Micah's personal details. Seem's Micah uses social networking sites. A lot. Enough that pictures of his house are being posted online, who he lives with, his ex's, his phone number...

... you get the idea.

Hey, wanna see where a GM lives?



I post this not because I think it's funny, but because I want to drive home what a terrible and dangerous idea this is.

Oh, I see the point they're making but I wish they wouldn't do it like that.

I don't see what the big deal is. So WoW is gonna be like facebook? Big Whoop.

I can see why they want to do this, but not really sure if it's a good idea. The only thing I can get is that only first and last name will be displayed on the forums. Don't see any mention of the location or personal info of a player being available to other forum users.

www.pipl.com was linked on the WoW boards. Scary stuff. It has my new cell phone number who very few people have, as well as my entire family, and tons of other scary info, all from just my first and last name. Satellite photos of me working in backyard last summer. I'm freaked.

EDIT: Lordy. I hadn't seen you can search by screen name too. Thankfully my screen name is a little more unique, and none of the stuff that did actually connect with me was interesting at least.