Why did Blizzard's forum plans for Real ID fail?

Posted Jul 12th 2010 8:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Culture, MMO, RPG, RTS, Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, Diablo III

Last week's biggest news story was Blizzard's sudden announcement that the developer planned to transition using its Real ID system, where players of their games like StarCraft II can choose to display their real first and last names, as a requirement to post on the company's forums. The massive outcry against such a move by the company's fans caused Blizzard to quickly back track on these plans just a few days later.

So exactly why were members of Blizzard's community upset about the prospect of having their real names displayed in the forums, especially since real names are used in hugely popular social networking sites such as Facebook? Gamasutra chatted with Edward Castronova, an associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University. He believes that posting on Blizzard's forums are something of a sub-game for the company's fans. He states, "It's like a community that's somewhat tied to your in-game play; it's a place that's been part of the gameplay." Having real names displayed on the forums could have destroyed that roleplaying experience for many of Blizzard's community members.

Tags: Blizzard, Blizzard-Entertainment, diablo-3, diablo-iii, real-id, starcraft-2, starcraft-2-beta, starcraft-ii, starcraft-ii-beta, World-of-Warcraft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Saying that Blizzard backed off of its plans to make you post under your real name on their forums is kind of like saying that Ebola is bad because you can't see it. Sure, you can't see it, but it also KILLS PEOPLE.

In this vein, posting under your real first and last name is a bad idea for the obvious. It will lead to someone being stalked and harassed. Sure, people put their real names on Facebook. However, Facebook has privacy controls, something Blizzards forums do not, nor are they planning on implementing any time soon. Posted at 12:04AM on Jul 13th 2010 by Shannon

Mr Edward is completely off his rocker on this one. The 'subgame' of posting on the forums was not the greatest concern for the community. It was the blatant disregard for the user that Blizzard was courting with their RealID fiasco in the fact that posting 'real names' would cause a wash of personal identification to be loosed upon the internet when users themselves DID NOT WANT that information made public.

Research the issues a little more carefully next time you post an article that was such a hot button issue, Mr Callaharn. Its quite clear you did not understand the issues raised by players with regards to RealIDPosted at 12:22AM on Jul 13th 2010 by Dabrae

Exactly, online gaming has some of the most volatile, unstable, insane players this side of consciousness.

A Counterstrike player (lets call him A), hunted down player B, after B killed him in a match. Not only that, but A hunted him down for 6 months, using only the B's character name. He then stabbed him when he found B.

A German WoW player hunted down another WoW player, beat the crap out of him, then got his guild to send death threats to the victims family. Again, using just the character name.

Now imagine the sick sh** people could do with your actual name. The only reason Activision (its just activision to me now) temporarily took back their feature, was because WoW is currently a Risk property, and with 50k+ dissenting posts in one thread, not to mention the widespread media coverage, it was the only way Kotick could keep milking WoW's shriveled teet.Posted at 1:12AM on Jul 13th 2010 by devilsei

My main concern, and apparently the concern of the majority, was of security. We don't want to have our names released to the public. That is private information which we should be given the option to give *only* to people we choose, not everyone in existence in one go without an option to opt-out. And "not posting" is not an option; I should be able to post on their forums without having to worry about stalkers.Posted at 10:20AM on Jul 13th 2010 by InvisibleMan

Wow, that was about the most self-serving bit of mindless drivel I've ever read.

In the mega-thread about RealID someone said it was the most "white male" thing they could imagine. While that's a tad harsh, and I'm sure there are plenty of white males who are as against RealID as anyone, there also is more than a little to it.

As a female gamer I've seen what happens when you let people know you're a woman -- let alone give them your name -- in-game. While a lot of guys handle it just fine, a depressing number don't. I've learned over the years to be very careful of who I even let know my sex, let alone my name, and I sure the hell don't want Blizzard deciding that for me.

I see no upside to RealID, none at all -- the excuse that it was to cut down on trolling is insulting in it's transparency -- and plenty of downside -- none of which has jack squat to do with any forum meta-game fantasies.Posted at 11:35AM on Jul 13th 2010 by Myria

@Myria
Better be careful there, even if you are using a fake name.

@Dabare
I dont think the Callaham is wrong here, or that he did not do adequate work. He presented someone else's opinion, but he never claims that he shares the same opinion. He took what was presented, and reposted in this website. While you may disagree on the validity of Castronova's original opinion, Callaham is free to report an any information he deems relevent, regardless of whether he agrees or disagrees with the info himself.Posted at 2:04PM on Jul 13th 2010 by Unknown

This blog post was written by John Callaham. If he has an opinion or if he is just reporting news... he is not afraid to sign it with his name.
I'm sure many gaming blogs have women who write for them. I know WoW.com does.
Yet, none of them has been attacked by a crazy stalker!

I you don't want to sign your post with your name... then even you don't value your opinion enough. Why should someone else?

Blizzard doesn't want their forums to be a place where people argue over stupid stuff. They are not in the forums business. They are not 4chan. They are in the game business and they want to use the forums to be used for serious feedback / game information.
If you don't have anything intelligent to write... then don't write it. But if you do... then you are probably not ashamed of it or afraid of some crazy stalker.

But I guess people really want to keep trolling anonymously. Posted at 5:43AM on Jul 14th 2010 by ahac

@ahac

Funny, I don't see your real name attached to that post. I guess you don't value your opinion enough, either.

But who cares what genuine female gamers are telling you about their real stalking experiences; you're SURE that there are many gaming blogs with women using their real names! None of them could possibly be using pseudonyms or actually are being harassed but are handling it privately because bringing attention to them MAKES IT WORSE.

Keep on truckin' with that privileged white male viewpoint and don't bother to actually, y'know, look at facts, tough guy. And keep doing it anonymously, too. That'll really prove your point.Posted at 4:16PM on Jul 14th 2010 by Zyrin

Zyrin, he's going on the basis of "it hasn't happened to me therefore it doesn't happen to anyone."

The people who think this had anything to do with keeping trolls down are mistaken. This was a marketing move, plain and simple. They have a deal with Facebook. They already sold the user database to them. That's why they want Facebook integration into future titles. They released a press statement announcing their deal, so it isn't secret and it isn't heresay. They also didn't say they WEREN'T going to use real people's names. They said "at this time", which means they will eventually use real people's names.Posted at 12:11AM on Jul 18th 2010 by Drakkenfyre