StarCraft II.

[Archangel]

People who are up in arms about it, basically got something to hide. or they are young kids whos parents haven't really bothered finding out what they are up too and are now more responsible for them.

Agreed. That's the case with most privacy oriented protests I guess.

So very very wrong. I don't really want to start the debate here (as on some forums it's raged into hundreds to thousands of pages) but just keep this in mind.

A) WoW is full of people. Lots of those people aren't nice. They're immature little idiots who will harass you forever if they get your real info just because they can. Do you really want the dude you accidentally pissed off in a random dungeon calling you over and over and over at 3 in the morning?

B) Due to the immature little idiots, females would almost assuredly not be able to post on the WoW forums. Have you seen how stupid people get over female characters, much less people they can verify as being female? Creepy stalkers would love this.

Yes, not posting on the WoW forums would prevent your name from being out there, but is that really the solution? For Blizzard to say "You can post here, but we'll be putting you at the mercy of every teenage kid with too much time on their hands"? Personally, I think not. Reducing anonymity is great, but doing so at the cost of alienating huge chunks of your userbase is not.

[tubs]

The real name requirement for posting on the forums was a terrible idea. From my perspective, it would have alienated people from the forums who play wow but don't want that information revealed to their professional life. Believe it or not, wow has an incredibly diverse community that is not all dropouts, shut ins and addicts (although you do meet a lot of those sorts there!)

I never played the original Starcraft. Is the new one any good? I'll probably pick up a copy later this year when I have some time to play.

[owly]

i might try StarCraft II or WoW later on this year........

Let me know if your hubby and stepson find it fun so i can make my decision.........

[Nagash]

People who are up in arms about it, basically got something to hide. or they are young kids whos parents haven't really bothered finding out what they are up too and are now more responsible for them.

Agreed. That's the case with most privacy oriented protests I guess.

So very very wrong. I don't really want to start the debate here (as on some forums it's raged into hundreds to thousands of pages) but just keep this in mind.

A) WoW is full of people. Lots of those people aren't nice. They're immature little idiots who will harass you forever if they get your real info just because they can. Do you really want the dude you accidentally pissed off in a random dungeon calling you over and over and over at 3 in the morning?

B) Due to the immature little idiots, females would almost assuredly not be able to post on the WoW forums. Have you seen how stupid people get over female characters, much less people they can verify as being female? Creepy stalkers would love this.

Yes, not posting on the WoW forums would prevent your name from being out there, but is that really the solution? For Blizzard to say "You can post here, but we'll be putting you at the mercy of every teenage kid with too much time on their hands"? Personally, I think not. Reducing anonymity is great, but doing so at the cost of alienating huge chunks of your userbase is not.

I don't understand the need to be secretive about one's name. Knowing someone's name is something vastly different from knowing where to find someone. As for the teenage kids you mention: you'd know who they are, so you'd know what to do about it.

[Connor]

I don't understand the need to be secretive about one's name. Knowing someone's name is something vastly different from knowing where to find someone. As for the teenage kids you mention: you'd know who they are, so you'd know what to do about it.

To the best of my knowledge, I am the only person with my name on the intarwebs. Knowing my real name will reasonably easily get you my entire work history and a lot of information about my career. It will also find my facebook account.

If you know someone's real name, age and rough geographic location - unless their name is Robert Jones or something - you can usually find them fairly easily. The information available to collections companies from a real name, approximate age and rough geographic location is astonishing. You don't even want to know what services most private investigators have access too.

The stalking thing is easily the scariest part of the wow realID proposal. What would any pervert do if he was targeting kids through online gaming and knew their real name? It's a short hop from real name/age/state of residence to facebook and real life stalking. Law enforcement education groups beg parents to teach their kids not to disclose real names to strangers on the internet for this very reason.

Also - if like me you hate kids and don't care about what happens to them - a lot of employers have unspoken policies (and a few have clearly spoken policies, ungh) not to employ gamers. Sick of your staff not showing up because they were raiding until 3 am again or spending all day goofing off reading about sick DK builds? A quick google to see if they've ever posted on the WoW forums can tell you which resume's to discard out of hand during a new position interviewing stage. I can't say how regularly that sort of thing happens in the US - but in Aus, I know recruiters will trawl facebook/linkedin for applicant names and in a lot of cases screen for keywords that imply gaming activity and discard on that basis. It's crazy and I don't agree with it - but in the current economy - it's not hurting most recruiters ability to find new hires.

[tubs]

I don't understand the need to be secretive about one's name. Knowing someone's name is something vastly different from knowing where to find someone. As for the teenage kids you mention: you'd know who they are, so you'd know what to do about it.

Actually, it's often not difficult to track down someone from their real name using just the internet. Even if you take care about the information you publish about yourself, you can be tracked through your contacts and associations. It's very difficult to do anything on the internet without leaving a trail that will be around forever. Privacy issues on the internet should never be taken lightly.

They didn't really think the idea through anyway. Teenage kids would likely have been tied with their parents name if the parents paid for the account. There was also nothing stopping people registering with a fake name except that it would make it difficult to recover the account if someone hacked it.

[Lady Maven]

Couldn't you just give them a fake name?

[Teanos]

Maven - don't think so. It has to match your billing information.
Although you can use a fake name and buy game cards, I know several people who do that.

Arch - Yeah, its ran several thousand pages, but most of that is a bunch of idiots who don't really know what they are arguing.

Tubs - Correct in knowing even a small amount of data can get you just bout anything on the internet. There are sites out there who specalize in that, and who most companies subscribe to already and the searches are unlimited if you pay for the subscription.

Connor - to your point I'm not sure what the international laws are on stalking and harassment. But the US is starting to take it seriously. Look at the girl who killed herself cuz she got embarassed on Facebook, that spawned a law in Texas and a few other states I believe.

As someone who has run a site for several years and had to deal with the 'anonymous' part of the internet and how bold and idiotic it makes people - all I can say is I must be one of the few who thinks Blizzard is going in the right direction. If you don't want to be a fucking idiot on the internet and have the stupid people after you - then don't act like one.

If I could of made everyone use their personal information in Braggarts Hall all those years ago, half of the big egos would never of existed, and most of the problem children would of never been problems. Unfortunatley the anonymous ability to be whoever you want made all of that headache possible.

[Lilim Savanant]

Best give this a kick before it turns into a thread that needs moving forum. Putting aside the whole debate on Blizzard real ID system as it were.

Yes it can be useful, yes it can have upsides and downsides. But in for instance Maven's case where its a nephew being set-up on blizznet for the first time its probably best to avoid the Real ID system and stick to the basic Blizznet account system (which as I checked earlier is a little buggy at the moment and I'm putting down to the traffic from the release of starcraft 2).

If you wanna have a good look at the battlenet/real ID system so you can get it to work as intended that's fine, but first time users should probably play it safe.

[Teanos]

Nah, the debate is fine. Anything for posts

[Lilim Savanant]

Awww, but we might be forced to move forum. I like this one.

[Teanos]

My thread, I decide where it stays ;>

[Lilim Savanant]

I suggest you decide to send us 5 years into the past and freak out younger versions of ourselves.

[Nagash]

The stalking thing is easily the scariest part of the wow realID proposal. What would any pervert do if he was targeting kids through online gaming and knew their real name? It's a short hop from real name/age/state of residence to facebook and real life stalking. Law enforcement education groups beg parents to teach their kids not to disclose real names to strangers on the internet for this very reason.

Good point, to a certain extent. Many of the kids who are being (sexually) harassed or blackmailed are simply too gullible and give out their names anyway. E.g. the 14 year old girls who show their tits so a totla stranger and then are told they are either to periodically have sex with said person, or the footage will hit youtube and the schools.

The only way you can protect them is by having alert parents who teach them common sense and what the dangers of internet are (or can be).

That's why I tend much more towards the Teanos.

Tubs - Correct in knowing even a small amount of data can get you just bout anything on the internet. There are sites out there who specalize in that, and who most companies subscribe to already and the searches are unlimited if you pay for the subscription.

Connor - to your point I'm not sure what the international laws are on stalking and harassment. But the US is starting to take it seriously. Look at the girl who killed herself cuz she got embarassed on Facebook, that spawned a law in Texas and a few other states I believe.

As someone who has run a site for several years and had to deal with the 'anonymous' part of the internet and how bold and idiotic it makes people - all I can say is I must be one of the few who thinks Blizzard is going in the right direction. If you don't want to be a fucking idiot on the internet and have the stupid people after you - then don't act like one.

If I could of made everyone use their personal information in Braggarts Hall all those years ago, half of the big egos would never of existed, and most of the problem children would of never been problems. Unfortunatley the anonymous ability to be whoever you want made all of that headache possible.

Says it all.

[Teanos]

I don't see how the kid issue is even a possibility.

You have to be an adult to have an account, it requires a credit card. At most, you have to buy game cards every month from Game Stop, in which case you can put in whatever information you desire.

If you, as a parent, let your kid have a credit card and don't monitor WTF they are using it for, then you are pretty much the biggest idiot I've ever met.

It all comes back to parents.

[Lady Maven]

I totally agree. Parents are repsonsible the internet was not created by children or for children. Bugger if I plan to watch what *I* say and do.

And I won't give my stepson the key to the bloody gym much less my credit card.

But for those wigged out about the name thing, you can buy debit cards or game cards and put down a fake name. It isn't like any of us are using our REAL names here after all. Or what, did ya'll think I was really a lady?

[Lilim Savanant]

Or what, did ya'll think I was really a lady?

Wait..... is that a trick question?

[Lady Maven]

Yes. Answer it, I dare ya <WEG>

[Teanos]

So I played my first 3 vs AI game tonight with a coworker and his brother.
Other then screwing up the first game, I've decided I freaking love protoss.

[Lady Maven]

Awesome, and my stepson Gabriel says to say thank you guys because he can now get his game on, lol.

(BTW, yes it is the same kid with leukemia, he is in maintenance now and doing a LOT better)