I stand here and occasionally look out into the world, looking for examples of extreme stupidity, which have the potential to propel that person into the years Darwin Awards, well it looks like I have a corporate entity who has leap to the fore, yes Blizzard you can stand up and take a bow.
If you haven’t been keeping up to date with Blizzards Real ID, then you really should, it’s a great idea, no honest it’s real clever, especially if you’re a moron.
When I saw that the real id allowed you to see your online friends real name, I thought mmmm okay but it didn’t really sit comfortably with me. An online friend hasn’t normally been vetted in the same manner as physical friend, where there’s no choice than to use your real name. I know it’s optional, but all characters, can’t I have some privacy?
However when I realised that a friends of friends could see a real name, I was bloody horrified. What form of security was this. I can just about accept my own judgement of another person, but I’m bloody well not going to trust those friends judgement on who to pass that information onto.
But now we move onto another level of corporate stupidity and one which I hope Bioware Mythic (How many name changes?) never seek to emulate. Blizzard have decided to make it mandatory that your real name is posted on any forum posts you make. Now I can understand they want to cut out the crap in the forums and this would hopefully reduce the load, but a hot head is a hot head regardless of age and they will still post crap.
This will provide a whole host of names for potentially unsavory purposes. Well you could give a false name, but not if Blizzard tied it to your credit card name! Once I had your name, there is a whole host of tools that can start narrowing down who and what you are, especially if you have a unique name. Once I have your name and address, I can soon start flooding you with mail order junk and other things that wouldn’t go down well… Fancy a pizza, your 19th of the night. Take a look at this example when someone from Blizzard offered themselves up as the sacrificial lamb.
I grant you Blizzard may well back down, but it shows an amazing lack of judgement on Blizzards part, which has to be a concern. Lets hope they stay with making games and not social networking software. I actually think it’s worse than Apples recent stunt.
This well could be Blizzards darkest hour. At least Mythic can have a laugh at Blizzard, it’ll make a welcome change.
Update: Fixed noob spelling mistakes.
[…] es um die Privatsphäre Gaarawarr beschreibt ebenfalls den Kampf Blizzard gegen die Anonymität Skar hofft das Mythic nicht so verrückt ist und Bootae krönt das ganze mit einer recht eindeutigen […]
Google translate is my friend 🙂