For quite a long time I have been a supporter of Blizzard Entertainment, both from the perspective of thoroughly enjoying the games that were developed in and of themselves and due to their support of Mac gaming before the platform gained any other major supporters. I’ve logged more hours in Blizzard games than most other developers (Bioware is about the only other company I can think of whose games I logged more hours in off the top of my head). My support of Blizzard ends, utterly and completely, if the current ideas revolving Real ID (and guesses as to what is in store regarding the “new Battle.net” project may entail) are implemented.

First, for those who may not have noticed the news (feel free to read the same info at wow.com here):

Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature <http://eu.battle.net/realid/>, a new way to stay connected with your friends on the new Battle.net. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about our plans for Real ID on our official forums, discuss the design philosophy behind the changes we’re making, and give you a first look at some of the new features we’re adding to the forums to help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID — that is, their real-life first and last name — with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.

The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players — however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.

We also plan to add a number of other features designed to make reading the forums more enjoyable and to empower players with tools to improve the quality of forum discussions. Players will have the ability to rate up or rate down posts so that great topics and replies stand out from the not-so-great; low-rated posts will appear dimmer to show that the community feels that they don’t contribute effectively to the conversation, and Blizzard’s community team will be able to quickly and easily locate highly rated posts to participate in or to highlight discussions that players find worthwhile.

In addition, individual topics will be threaded by context, meaning replies to specific posts will be grouped together, making it easier for players to keep track of multiple conversations within a thread. We’re also adding a way for Blizzard posters to “broadcast” important messages forums-wide , to help communicate breaking news to the community in a clear and timely fashion. Beyond that, we’re improving our forum search function to make locating interesting topics easier and help lower the number of redundant threads, and we have more planned as well.

With the launch of the new Battle.net, it’s important to us to create a new and different kind of online gaming environment — one that’s highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. All of our design decisions surrounding Real ID — including these forum changes — have been made with this goal in mind.

We’ve given a great deal of consideration to the design of Real ID as a company, as gamers, and as enthusiastic users of the various online-gaming, communication, and social-networking services that have become available in recent years. As these services have become more and more popular, gamers have become part of an increasingly connected and intimate global community – friendships are much more easily forged across long distances, and at events like DreamHack, GamesCom or our own BlizzCon, we’ve seen first-hand how gamers who may have never actually met in person have formed meaningful real-life relationships across borders and oceans. As the way gamers interact with one another continues to evolve, our goal is to ensure Battle.net is equipped to handle the ever-changing social-gaming experience for years to come.

For more info on Real ID, check out our Real ID page and FAQ located at http://eu.battle.net/realid/. We look forward to answering your questions about these upcoming forum changes in the thread below.

 

Now, I’m not opposed to the concept of the Real ID system in general. I actually think it is a great tool for good friends to use while playing any of Blizzard’s games that support the feature. I am, however, strongly opposed to not being able to control who has access to my Real ID. With this change if I wanted to post a question on, say, the Tech Support forum, every single person who can view that forum suddenly has access to my Real ID. Period. Care to guess how many ways that could be used maliciously to disrupt my gameplay? Or even worse, the potential to use that simple piece of information maliciously to find and harass me in the “real world?”

I’m not one to normally be overly concerned with privacy issues. After all, I choose to share information about myself online. However, that is the sticking point: I consciously make the choice and control what I share.

The counter to this concern thus far has been: the forums are optional, just do not post.

I ask you, then, what do you say when the next step is made instead? Will Blizzard decide to implement Real ID as mandatory in-game at some point in the future in an effort to compliment the “new forum design?” What if they choose to add more than just your name, which is already a privacy concern in the first place, to the Real ID system on the forums? Obviously more things are planned for Battle.net, what if browsing to join multiplayer games (such as Starcraft 2 matches) is solely done via Real ID?

It’s pretty damn simple when you get down to it: either I have the ability to control sharing my name with the world or I don’t, and any medium that removes that control from me is not something I will support. It’s a shame, really. I was looking forward to Diablo 3, but I guess now I’ll just have to wait for The Old Republic and place Blizzard on my personal boycott list.

I didn’t really hit on all, or even most to be honest, of the things I thought of reading this announcement, and really I’m just too tired of my personal disdain for the direction Blizzard has been moving in since merging with Activision to continue to bother. My account has been cancelled for a little while (and the time runs out soon), and with these types of decisions being made I do not see myself renewing, or ever purchasing another Blizzard game title, any time in the forseeable future. I’ll be watching closely to try to avoid any and all titles Activision is associated with as well, though that will certainly prove more difficult.

It’s a good thing I moved away from a “WoW-centric” blog already…