Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature - http://www.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 conventions like PAX 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://www.battle.net/realid/ . We look forward to answering your questions about these upcoming forum changes in the thread below.
I'm not sure what you guys think about it this, but it really seems like blizzard is going way to far to be something they're not. It's unfortunate how this is going.. I think you'll see the forums use much less in the general community as there are plenty of people who don't want their name on google associated with WoW / SCII / bnet forum posts.
I personally have told all my friends that real ID is a shit system and I refuse to use it. It's too bad blizzard is going down this path I have to wonder when it will stop.
OH BOY NOW PEOPLE CANT TROLL EACH OTHER, BUT THEY CAN STALK EACH OTHER
WHAT A FUCKING IMPROVEMENT ACTIBLIZZARD
SOMEBODY GIVE THESE GUYS A MEDAL OR SOMETHING
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So basically if you gank someone ingame they can find out your real address now if you post on the forums?
Well done Blizzard.
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This will kill realm forums, class/role forums, and support forums. The community will not survive the year.
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Anybody who's seen the fiascos with Facebook would realize how fucking stupid, irresponsible, and dangerous this move is.
But then hey they're a business. Businesses can do no wrong, right? RIGHT?
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Bashiok/Micah Whipple just posted:
I should point out that showing a real first and last name doesn't provide any one the right to then seek out additional information on that name and post it here. That has been and will continue to be a violation of the forum code of conduct, and so bans and what have you are incoming. Fair warning.
That's just a blanket rule that applies to everyone.""
So he calls people's bluff and throws his name up for everyone to see, then when people try to show him what happens, he reaches for the banhammer.
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What I simply can't grasp is the reason for doing this, regardless of whether you think it's a good or bad idea. It can't be just to "tame" the jungle the official forums have become. If it were just that, blizzard could simply do some harsher moderating. After all, EJ manages to keep a clean forum despite thousands and thousands of users posting on a daily basis, and they certainly don't have blizzard's means: they achieve this through very, very harsh moderating. Blizzard could obviously afford a few extra moderators to keep the forums cleaner.
So what on earth could be worth such trouble? In under 24hours since they posted the announcement, there have been 170+ pages of heated complaints - heated as in "the president has announced Christmas has been canceled", both from players and MVPs alike, and MVPs don't often outright bash a new initiative. This is one of the worst responses I've ever seen on the forums, and for good reason: people value their privacy much more than any in-game mechanic. I just don't understand Blizzard's motivations here.
EJ doesnt even need mods anymore, pretty much anyone who cares about being able to do anything on that forum knows to not be a troll or post stupid shit
As a benefactor on ej I now pronounce it the new wow forums. Blizzard has lost it and they certainly won't go through with this unless they want to alienate what remains of their userbase
I don't like the "Sky is falling" argument for the forums is a appropriate way to go at this. If anything I think it will clean up the place but time will tell on that aspect. Personally I like the change.
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