Reflections

…or in this case, more like a shitstorm. Blizzard’s intention of rolling out their Real ID system made its way around the internet in a surprisingly swift manner. And the general feedback is negative, even after taking into account the vocal minority phenomenon. Not surprising.

Recent advancements in areas such as social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) has gradually chipped away at the notion of anonymity over the web. People are taking to the idea of revealing more of themselves to others using such tools. This is by no means a bad thing; the internet has shifted towards being a more interactive, real-time medium. The way we disseminate news and other information has changed drastically.

Blizzard’s reason for rolling out the system was to foster a better community, one that was devoid of spammers and trolls. They’re likely the only gaming company that has the clout to do so, with millions of subscribers on their flagship game. Of course, being that World of Warcraft is subscription-based, they already have the information needed for Real ID (i.e. first/last name). That’s scary. (Of course, one wonders how many kids have their parent’s name on record instead. )

Will it stop trolling on the forums? Perhaps. It will also turn off a lot of people who are genuinely interested in distancing their online personality from their offline one. One of the reasons why content creation on the internet is so popular is that people do not necessarily have to attribute the content to themselves. This allows for more truthful communication; words do not necessarily have to be sugar-coated to please a certain group of members. If I recall correctly, 4chan was based on this principle, having unfiltered and often heated discussions between people. Would people be willing to talk about sensitive issues such as gay marriage, wars, etc. if their real-life reputation was on the line? My guess is that for most, no.

One major reason that I dislike the idea of Real ID is that gamers do not require that kind of intimacy. Hell, even in my extremely close-knit gaming circle, pretty much everyone calls me by one of my nicknames. In some cases we actually want to distance ourselves from our true identity; what’s the point of playing RPGs if we’re not actually role-playing the characters? Besides, games are sometimes used as a way to escape into a virtual world.

Anyway, let’s be honest. Blizzard really wants to use such a system so that it can align itself with social media. If it can tap into Facebook’s social graph where people reveal all sorts of things about themselves, it can tailor new features to such demographics. Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing (read: better products) but it does suggest other ulterior motives. I personally don’t need a web where my own information can be easily used against me (and I’m saying this while being currently enrolled in a marketing class! ).

Here’s a few more articles/blogs/sites/whatever of interest:

• WoW Official Forums – Upcoming Changes: Possibly one of the biggest threads in the history of threads.
• Stylish Corpse – Fail of the Century: Ysharros rants about the issues in letting online strangers know your identity. She’s clearly not very happy.
• Christopher “moot” Poole’s TED Talk: The creator of 4chan talks about why anonymity is so important in regards to the internet.
• Kotaku – Is It That Bad Using Your Real Name On The Internet?: Luke Plunkett takes an opposing view and talks about the benefits of Real ID. He makes some good points, although as bloggers we already have a diminished sense of privacy.

On another note, the StarCraft 2 beta is back out again. I’m just going to wait for the game to be released, but it’s still interesting to watch my friends pounce on it and rip it apart once again. Must…feed…SC…addiction, yes?