I’m overjoyed to read this announcement from Blizzard, saying they have decided that, actually, it might not be such a great idea after all to use real names on the forums, and they have decided not to go ahead with this plan. Can I get A WHOOP-WHOOP?
This is freaking awesome news, and a massive victory for the online community. It has been massively inspiring to see so many people band together to fight against this, so I want to say massive thank you to all the gamers, tweeters, bloggers, forumites and everyone who helped protect our online privacy. This is your victory and you deserve cookies and cake all round!
As a word of caution, I would like to point out we are not totally out of the woods when it comes to the threat posed by RealID. Blizzard have simply decided against the use of Real ID on the forums, but their other plans, many of which they have not yet disclosed, still remain. It partially restores some of my lost faith in Blizzard that they actually listened to us on this issue, but the fact that they had the idea in the first place, and that we had to fight so hard to put a roadbump in their plan means that I will never again view them with the same compassion that I once did. It is OUR responsibility now to continue being vigilant against encroachments upon our online privacy. Hopefully this has taught a lot of us some lessons about how much information is out there on the internet and how we can take steps to prevent this being misused.
But for now…. success! Now lets go kill some internet dragons!
OMG! What a GORGEOUS picture
And yay on the change of plans…..
I’ve called Blizzard the ‘Last Paladin Standing’ in the past because they seemed like the last game company that actually cared about the gamers. That’s part of the reason I (and many others, I believe) felt so betrayed by the realID decision: because it looked like the last holdout of the good guys in the videogame industry had turned to the dark side.
But this announcment proves that our Last Paladin Standing hasn’t fallen yet. That there is still some spark of good left in Blizz Vader.
Just knowing that they’re listening to us tells me that there are still some good guys there at Blizzard fighting against the insidious encroachment of Activision corporate.
And that makes me a -very happy- angry viking.
Here, here!
Exactly as you put it. “…but the fact that they had the idea in the first place” left a real sour taste in my mouth.
@nappa – There is a chance that their idea wasn’t purely put forward out of greed, but also because the company has started losing touch with the playerbase: http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/developer-drift/
I’m really glad that they decided not to go through with it, but like you I’m still a little hesitant or perhaps worried about the future. It does sometimes make you wonder what other things they might come up with in the future.
I personally prefer my WoW as a game, not a social facebook-ish thing.
It really was a bad idea in the first place, one of the guys i raid with managed to use my real ID to find out where someone lives via several internet sites, he even managed to get a picture of the house!
He just used it to prove a point but i really was quite freaked out by it, I don’t think that it was ever a good idea forcing you to put a name out, also i thought this was quite funny.
http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20100707