Yup. Revealing your first and last name is now mandatory because this will keep people from harassing each other. But displaying your "main character" will be optional. This will be so you can't harass people in the game or make fun of their crappy stats.

Can't make this stuff up. Tell me when people start filing lawsuits.

This is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard.

CraicBaby: Well, it'll get rid of the forum trolls and stupid drama.

Because nobody can make a new Battle.net account and use a pseudonym.

Bad idea is bad.

benlonghair: I'm pretty sure it's linked to your credit card, which won't go through unless you're using the correct name.

Don't care for World of Warcraft. As is, you don't need your real name to play Starcraft II. And if they decide credit card info is mandatory at some point for the very purpose you expressed? I'll just stop playing their game. That's my official breaking point.

Thank goodness they publicized this prior to their next expansion pack's release.

I won't be reactivating my account for the upcoming expansion pack and I certainly won't be buying it. I suggest you do the same.

I think losing a few million subscribers is the only thing that will make Blizzvision dump this creepy information-grabbing stuff.

Oh, man. I'm just imagining the ensuing laughter when people realize that "elf girl" looks more like Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

benlonghair: The account you play WoW on IS the same account you will play SCII on. You will be required (afaik) to submit a CC to verify your real name. You will also only be able to have a single copy of SCII attached to your account.

I don't play World of Warcraft at all. You don't need a valid credit card number to play Starcraft II. That's all I'm saying. If this becomes "you need a credit card to play all our games", well...I've developed a surprising sense of restraint when it comes to product purchases.

Are you Samuel "Chinkslapper42" Donaldson? And did you say, and I quote: "Go fark yourself with your mom's dick, you smegma gargling taintbuster. I would pwn you so hard, your ass would fall out and I'd give it to my dog for a chew toy and by my dog I mean your mom."?

Yeah Sam, we have to have a talk.

What about those people who legally have their names changed to sutff like "Glarnth Torchquencher?" Blizzard's going to assume these poor misguided nerds are logging in under assumed names and ban their accounts.

benlonghair: I'm not saying you need one to play. I'm saying you need one to set up a battlenet account.

No you don't. The account I use for the Starcraft II beta is used for that and nothing else. No credit card info, fake address, fake name, fake everything. Unless this is something consistent with all Blizzard retail products that I haven't heard of?

benlonghair: Mike_LowELL: No you don't. The account I use for the Starcraft II beta is used for that and nothing else. No credit card info, fake address, fake name, fake everything. Unless this is something consistent with all Blizzard retail products that I haven't heard of?

Maybe I'm wrong. But what's the point of doing this if there isn't a way to verify names? It seems like a whole lot of coding if you can just use whatever random name you want.

Yup. The company has set the internet ablaze again. All in the name of a system that doesn't even work unless you can tie credit card info to the account. Ain't it special?

Was going to submit this as "Blizzard announces change to ensure no woman ever posts on their forums again". Leaving satisfied.

Pfactor: Thank goodness they publicized this prior to their next expansion pack's release.

I won't be reactivating my account for the upcoming expansion pack and I certainly won't be buying it. I suggest you do the same.

I think losing a few million subscribers is the only thing that will make Blizzvision dump this creepy information-grabbing stuff.



You do realize they'll have all that information already on your account right? They are only now making it show up when you post on the forums to help prevent the mindless flame and trolls they are infested with. Expect more and more the of the internet to follow suit in years to come. Sorry, but the internet isn't always going to be the place you can anonymously be an asshole.

CraicBaby: Mike_LowELL: CraicBaby: Well, it'll get rid of the forum trolls and stupid drama.

Because nobody can make a new Battle.net account and use a pseudonym.

They'll probably have it so you have to have, say, a non-trial WoW account attached to your Battle.net account in order to post. Otherwise, it'd be easy for spammers to make fake accounts.


You can't post on the Wow forums now without having a paid subscription to world of warcraft.

Oh, crap. What about all the celebrities who play WoW? Think they want to be on the forums with their real names?

I don't play WoW, so all I'm seeing is potentials for hilarity. But I can also see Blizzard crumbling, which would also be hilarious.

Bunnyhat: Pfactor: Thank goodness they publicized this prior to their next expansion pack's release.

I won't be reactivating my account for the upcoming expansion pack and I certainly won't be buying it. I suggest you do the same.

I think losing a few million subscribers is the only thing that will make Blizzvision dump this creepy information-grabbing stuff.

You do realize they'll have all that information already on your account right? They are only now making it show up when you post on the forums to help prevent the mindless flame and trolls they are infested with. Expect more and more the of the internet to follow suit in years to come. Sorry, but the internet isn't always going to be the place you can anonymously be an asshole.

I don't want 11 million other WoW subscribers to know my real name and I definitely don't want prospective employers to know that I play (or played) WoW. That's creepy to me.

No biggie - I just stop patronizing companies when they pull this stuff. If Fark did it I promise I'd stop subscribing in an instant.

IrateShadow: This is an awesome way of minimizing discontent on the forums.

Trolling is gone from any Blizzard forum where you need to supply credit card info? Fine. You lost any quality posts with it. Anyone smart enough to realize the pratfalls of posting on an online gaming board with their real name is going to stay 100 miles away from the thing. The discrepancy between the Starcraft II General Discussion Forums and TeamLiquid.net is already bad enough.

CraicBaby: Yes, and that's my point. They'll keep it that way when they switch it so no one can just make a new Battle.net account in order to keep trolling the forums.

You need a valid CD-Key to post on the forum of your choice. If it's Starcraft II, you need a Starcraft II key. So spam will be gone for a couple of years until all the unused accounts get hijacked and start tearing into the Blizzard forums and Battle.net 2.0.

CraicBaby: You know, it's possible to play without ever visiting the forums. The forums have no impact whatsoever on the game. No one is forcing you to go there.

In order to get any true functionality out of your chat client, you need to use RealID in-game as well. I used to be able to message everyone on my friends list (regardless of game) with the "/f m" command. I now have the option of "broadcasting" messages to every person who I've signed up as a RealID friend on my friends list. Elsewise? I can't message them cross-game in any capacity at all, nor can I "broadcast" to non-RealID users. So I'm losing something I had on the original Battle.net in favor of a privacy-intrusive function. And now this shiatstorm pops up.

This seems like a very appropriate time to shill my wares.

YouTube - Battle.net 2.0: Where Everybody Knows Your Name.

I'll yell more about it when I get home.

CraicBaby: Pfactor: Bunnyhat: Pfactor: Thank goodness they publicized this prior to their next expansion pack's release.

I won't be reactivating my account for the upcoming expansion pack and I certainly won't be buying it. I suggest you do the same.

I think losing a few million subscribers is the only thing that will make Blizzvision dump this creepy information-grabbing stuff.

You do realize they'll have all that information already on your account right? They are only now making it show up when you post on the forums to help prevent the mindless flame and trolls they are infested with. Expect more and more the of the internet to follow suit in years to come. Sorry, but the internet isn't always going to be the place you can anonymously be an asshole.

I don't want 11 million other WoW subscribers to know my real name and I definitely don't want prospective employers to know that I play (or played) WoW. That's creepy to me.

No biggie - I just stop patronizing companies when they pull this stuff. If Fark did it I promise I'd stop subscribing in an instant.

You know, it's possible to play without ever visiting the forums. The forums have no impact whatsoever on the game. No one is forcing you to go there.

For now, you are correct. I wonder how much time I'd have invested in the game before they decide that /who should return your real name to prevent people from trolling the trade channel. Yes that's the old fallacious slippery slope argument but given the possible upside vs downside (e.g. less clogged trade channel vs me being outed as a dirty stinky WoW player) I choose to err on the side of practically nutso caution.

IrateShadow: True enough, but Blizzard is now going to have to understand that they are going to get a lot less community feedback about bugs and other problems with their games.

Maybe this was the idea all along? Less bug complaints = less hours fixing bugs.

IrateShadow: CraicBaby: You know, it's possible to play without ever visiting the forums. The forums have no impact whatsoever on the game. No one is forcing you to go there.

True enough, but Blizzard is now going to have to understand that they are going to get a lot less community feedback about bugs and other problems with their games.

I doubt it'll affect the constructive feeback element, it'll just filter out more of the stupidity.

Back when I played WoW, I and other players asked for a feature where posting on a character will display other characters you post as, to keep alt-trolling and other stupidity at a minimum. We kept getting back from Blizzard over and over that they refused because it was a privacy concern. Not sure quite how someone posting on a public forum behind an avatar is suffering a privacy violation by having their posting characters known.

Fast forward a couple years and they're doing THIS without qualm? Are you kidding me?

I really don't post over there anyway. Luckily my real name is extremely common. I also just confirmed there's no easy way to change the name fields on a battle.net account.

dillenger69: I really don't post over there anyway. Luckily my real name is extremely common. I also just confirmed there's no easy way to change the name fields on a battle.net account.

What if someone gets married? Oh, right. They play WoW.
/sorry. Obvious joke.

CraicBaby: It might be more of an Activision decision than a Blizzard decision.

Well, with any luck, Activision will go under. That would be nice. The "Guitar Hero" series might get picked up by someone who gives a damn. The "Tony Hawk" series will peter out like it should have years ago. Id software might return to releasing quality product. And Blizzard will be free from corporate meddling again.

Yeah. And maybe I'm a Chinese jet pilot.

But I can dream.