Blizzard to remove the veil of anonymity

I'm not looking at it as a matter of security though, simply one of accountability. Honestly, if someone is determined and/or sociopathic enough to get at your real world information then exchanging a forum avatar for a real name isn't going to deter them a great deal in the long run, I feel.

Doesn't have to be sociopathic.

There's an entire multimillion dollar industry dedicated to harvesting info on MMO players to either try and sell them stuff or hack their accounts.

They are as tenacious as any sociopath and have a LOT of resources behind their efforts.

And even if they don't get you, anyone with your name they can find an e-mail for is going to get flooded with advertisements that are as likely to be viruses in disguise.

I can see far too many negatives in using real names to justify an act designed to just cull a few forum trolls.


-np

Except that goldsellers/account thieves aren't so much 'determined' to steal your info specifically, as they're just omnipresent.

Having real names to start with, knowing you play an MMO, probably your gender, ethnicity, and that you're active in one forum and as such are probably active on the internet a fair amount, that makes their job that much easier.

And I reiterate the increased general mail spam this will generate.

A global handle instead of a real name will accomplish everything intended without opening up that extra amount of security issues.



-np

I pointed out that it's astonishingly easy to bluff your way through situations like calling a bank teller or customer service rep to access an account, if you seem to have a ton of the account holder's personal info.

For a specific example, former governer Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account was hacked this way, the hackers just scrounged up enough 'personal info', via just normal Googling around, to bluff their way past Customer Service.

Do people need to secure their info better, in general? Yes.

However, that job isn't being made any easier by Blizzard forcibly requiring real names.

The contention is that Blizzard is making things worse.

Even the security aspect aside, folks should be able to just say they don't want their real names exposed, if nothing else for personal privacy.

Global Handles would accomplish the anti-trolling effects without compromising the other stuff.



-np

The forum thread has now cracked 1100 pages.

Most of the posts are negative.

Also, while the original reason given was to 'take away the pro-troll environment', this has been exposed as a smokescreen.

The real reason? Apparently Vivendi has inked a deal with Facebook to "cross-pollinate" Battle.net with FB, supposedly to attract new subscribers by exposing player accomplishments and armory drops.

So this is essentially a money grab. Players have been reduced to marketing data, to be sold to whoever wants to pay.

I can't live with that, so I cancelled my WoW account this morning. Cata may as well be vaporware for me unless they rethink this decision.

Hey everyone... did you miss me?

Some of us just don't like our real names. I could care less if you know my real name is Matthew Merlo or that I live in Michigan. I just like my screen name more... it's kinda like a call sign in various militaries... Everyone know you're Sargent Butters, they'll still call you by your call sign because it is generally more representative of you and/or your group than your regular name and it's easier to communicate to or about the specific person.

It's especially helpful in large groups where multiple people share the same name... I hated HS classes when someone would say "Matt" because 3-5 guys would turn and look in near every class.

Seem to me the entire "lifting of the veil" is more harmful to the emerssiveness of WoW especially since it is known that famous people and business execs play the game. You likely create a problem in some area where some people just stop playing because they don't want to be hounded and some guild/groups might fall apart when the dynamic they once had falls apart because it's suddenly revealed that the guild leader is some nobody who works for a low level ****** in the group that noone really likes bu puts up with all the while some famous person in the group suddenly gets bombarded with PMs and such and is listened to more than the guild leader.

Sounds unlikely but with the number of people in WoW and it's known draw of people I am pretty sure things like that will happen...and it will likely cost blizzard a number of those people who are not addicted.

No, but a real name is a first step in finding out other stuff about you.

A Global Handle would accomplish the anti-troll efforts without compromising this.

Also, spotted this gem on their boards:

"The US Department of Justice: Office on Violence Against Women advise women to choose gender neutral forum handles and never post their real names on message boards in order to protect themselves from being targeted by cyber-stalkers.

Maybe they know something Blizzard does not? "



-np

Which handily supports my point: namely that seeing someone's random name on a forum is not going to destroy lives or lead to the loss of identity, unless you've already compromised your security through other means. I simply do not understand the level of scaremongering that goes on, I simply don't.