How Blizzard slipped the noose around their own neck

I'm going to attempt to be as rational as possible in this post; however, as the topic is incredibly sensitive and infuriating, I assure you right now it will not be subjective.

This morning, Blizzard announced here that, in order to reduce trolling of the realm forums for all of its games, it will be implementing the use of real names, first and last, next to your Avatar every time you use the forums. As of right now, you will have the ability to disable this feature; however, it means that you may not be able to post on the forums at all. It will not be retroactive; all posts created before this goes live will still be by toon, but all posts after will be by readID username linked to your Battle.net account.

I admit, I tend to jump the gun and have a nice little freak out before I step back, cool off, and think things through rationally. But this time, the more I step away, the more disturbed I become. Blizzard did not think this through all the way, and the implications of their actions are going to be incredibly severe. There have been thousands of response posts on this both on the official forums and WoW related websites, so I will try to sum up the major concerns raised so that those of you who read this do not have to wade through the mire of the internet to find the good stuff.

How it would theoretically reduce trolling: If people are known by their real names and don't have the ability to roll level ones continuously, then they can be linked to the abusive/rude/derogatory things they say and will be shunned by the gaming community.

Obviously, Blizzard does not understand the nature of a troll.

A troll does not just do things because they are anonymous; they do things because they can get away with it, AND BLIZZARD LETS THEM. We can all name horrid trolls on our forums and our realms, and despite the fact that they have been banned time and time again, they never go away. Yea, a temporary three day ban comes in, but after that they're back, spouting off comments that would make a sailor blush. Blizzard allows them to come back because the company is so hellbent on making a profit that they'd rather give the appearance of dealing with inappropriate behavior than actually take a stand to eliminate the harassment from the gaming environment. And the trolls know this; the fact that they are continuously allowed access simply reinforces the fact that there are no major consequences for their actions, and thus fuels their fires.

So, if they haven't felt the banhammer before, when Blizaard already knows their real names, why should they be afraid now? Fellow players won't be able to take more action against them than they used to; in fact, now attempting to speak up against a troll will allow the troll to access the personal information of people who stand in their way. If a troll is well versed enough in the ways of datamining (or knows of a service that will datamine inforamtion for cheap - talk about lack of business ethics - and many do exist), then said troll can now not only harass those who were brave enough to take a stand on the Blizzard forums, but through facebook, e-mail, phone calls/text, physical mail, and possibly even stalking. It has happened before: worldwide, people who were not careful enough with their information online have been tracked down and beaten/stabbed/murdered over this video game. And that was when it took effort to find a player's information. Now it's being handed to people on a platter.

They say it's optional, and that turning it off will keep your information private.

I'm calling bullshit on that one, for several reasons:

1) Hacks are already so prevalent and intrusive, even with authenticators. For some reason, one of the biggest gaming entertainment companies in the world does not have the resources to protect our accounts as it is (even after making a killing off of the Celestial Steeds, which probably cost them nothing to make since they just had a dev do it during work hours... I won't go into copyright on that); why should we trust them to have our information hidden with only a simple click of a button? Hackers have already compromised so much of WoW that this is like giving them a FastPass to identity theft.

2) realID has already been compromised. Several addons are "glitching" (read: hacked before you download and install) so that they cause a player's entire friend's list to show as their true identity, even if the player has not approved of realID or even enabled it in the user settings. If they can't make that secure, when only the people who play their games can see it, how are they going to make something that ANYONE WITH INTERNET HAS ACCESS TO secure?

3) Battle.net was optional. For a long time. Authenticators are still optional, though even Blizzard says that if you don't have one you're an idiot. realID is optional.... except that it's only the starting point for this massive social networking idea they have for their online games, so I doubt it will be optional for long. See this quote from the post linked above:

"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."

It's not going to stop anytime soon, unless there's some massive hit to the company. And it seems like even the cried on thousands of gamers (over 500 pages on a single blue post, and there are several) are making a dent - another blue post (will add sourse later, I've lost it for now) basically gave the response "QQ moar" (for you non-gamers, that translates to "I don't care what you say, whine all you want we're going to do whatever we please.")

Here is my biggest concern: the stalking of female players. Now before you freak out on me touting reverse sexism, let me explain.

As much as I wish that I could say that the gaming community is as open to female players as it is to male, I can't. I have been incredibly lucky over the years to find groups to play with that accept females as equal to men, but even my experience has been frought with the occasional male who can't think of women in terms of anything other than objects. I cannot count the number of times I have had people find out that I am female and then request lewd acts... simply because I have girl bits.

And my experience has been tame. I have had several in-game stalkers of a very low degree, and my current guild has dealt with men who do not have respect for women or their boundaries. Yet many female players have had to put up with harassment beyond anything I have ever imagined in my worst nightmares. This harassment ranges from a player creating characters over and over (even buying a new account) to continually message a person, to having to go to the police, completely erase any recollection of your online presence, and start your life over because somehow that internet stalker got ahold of your information (aka datamined) and has found you IRL. Yes, we all laughed at The Guild and how an obsessive but harmless crush turned into a funny story, but unfortunately 9/10 times random people stalking you does not end that nicely.

As internet stalking is a new-ish phenomenon, it's not always taken seriously. Many times, even the authorities brush it off and move onto more "pressing" matters, giving the stalked person a few tips to keep their privacy safe online. This is like giving someone a fire extinguisher after the flames have completely and utterly destroyed their home: the response is not adequate to the situation.

And Blizzard? They barely give more attention to threats of stalking/harassment than they give to forum trolls. If the number of people who have been reported for harassment had actually been banned from the game, many of the incidents that have occured would never have reached the level that they are at now. You haven't heard of these incidents, you say? That's what a PR department is for; ask around in the right places (WoW_Ladies, for one) and you will see that the number of people that these issues affect is much larger than Blizzard would lead you to believe.

If you've ever pissed anyone off in game, and you happen to post on the forums after this goes live? Well hello there Google search . . .

If you're applying for a new job, and your employer happens to have a bias against video games? There goes that opportunity, despite the fact that you're perfectly qualified, ahve glowing references, and have managed to keep your personal and online life separate for years.

Minors play under their parents'/guardians' account names . . . and they'll feel the repurcussions of their child's actions, and we all know how stupid 16-year-old boys (well, 16-year-olds in general) can be at times.

There are many, many other reasons that this is Not. A. Good. Idea.

If you want to see the rage and fear that this has inspired amongst one of the most talented, respected, and mature WoW communities on the internet, just go here.

And even if you don't feel threatened by the upcoming changes, if you cannot feel for those who are incredibly compromised by this, then truly you have no heart.