I'm curious about how you other WoW-playing Lusternians feel about this topic.

An announcement was made today (well, yesterday technically) stating that come Cataclysm, your real first and last name will be what you post under on the WoW forums, because RealID will be required to post. The philosophy behind this is that it will end the pointless trolling and mean-spiritedness that is associated with the anonymity of the forums (because as it is, players can just switch to a level 1 alt and troll people with little to no consequence). It should also be noted that the forums aren't included in your $15 a month for WoW. You can play WoW and get the support you need without ever having to visit the forums.

I personally don't see this as a huge deal. Everyone already puts themselves out there on Facebook and stuff. As well, there's no obligation whatsoever to post on the forums. However, a lot of players are absolutely up in arms about the change (moreso than I was when I found out my Tree of Life form was being removed from the game and that's saying something). They're all so worried about their identities being stolen and such, which could be done about as easily, if not more easily, through things like, as mentioned earlier, Facebook.

So what do you all think? If the Lusternia forums suddenly required your real first and last name to post, would you stop? Then again, we're such a small community that trolling isn't nearly as much of an issue with us as it is with WoW. Will you all stop posting on the WoW forums (if you do now)? Will you quit playing WoW over something so, in the grand scheme of things, insignificant?

I'm not sure how much I should really say on this given our no-politics forum stance, so I'll keep it short and to the point.

BAD. SOCIAL DISASTER INC. (P.S don't assume that just because our community is both better and more insular than WoW's giving up anonymity is a good idea.)

I wouldn't mind posting here in my real name, because anyone who steals my identity deserves the bad credit I already have.

I post here with my real name anyway.

Disaster incoming of a truly epic proportion.

Hee, Allyson!

I'd post here under my real name. Or my SCA name, which I've been using for a lot of things short of legal documents these days. Of course, I don't care much for my privacy; all of my proteges, for example, have my contact info up to and including cell phone number for any emergency Lusternian issues that might crop up.

Woops, didn't think it would be a political issue. :x I was just curious what other people thought. Sorry Shiri.

Though I will point out I never said it was a GOOD idea to give up anonymity, just that a lot of people have already done it on other sites, so I don't know why they're suddenly so upset over WoW.

I would agree to it based on the website.

For WoW (Which I do not play), I would allow it.

For Lusternia, there is no way in the Nine Hells of Chili Night.

If employers are firing people for Facebook things, just imagine how fast the majority of Magnagora would be fired based on the Quotes topic alone. Because employers often can't understand people roleplaying murdering a baby might not actually support this social service in real life.

The thing with other sites is that you decide if you sign up for those yes or no, and have control about what goes public, and cane take it down whenever you want. Forum RealID basically gets forced upon you together with whatever you ever posted. I bet some people are going to have a great time deleting years of forum trolling if this goes through.

Personally, this change makes me -very- uncomfortable. Granted, all of RealID did. At first, I told myself I was being silly. After all, it's opt-in, you don't have to be RealID friends with people you don't want to be RealID friends with. I don't post on the World of Warcraft forums, but the whole thing unnerves me. I'm not currently playing but, if I were, this would prompt me to cancel my account. It's inspired me not to resubscribe, though. If IRE tried to implement something like this, I certainly would stop posting here. You know, not that I post much in the first place.

It's hard for me to convey why I'm so unsettled by the implication that my real name is going to be used to keep me in line under the thin veil of accountability. You can achieve accountability in so many ways that wouldn't make anyone so uncomfortable - the name of your most played toon, a static forum alias, even an ID number. The way they're going about it feels almost like a quiet threat. "You'd better watch what you say now that your real name's out there, who knows who you might offend?" It sounds like some kind of Facebook partnership is what prompted all this. At least, that's what I'm hearing - I don't know how true it is.



The change will thankfully not be retroactive, so old posts retain some level of anonymity.

Me too!

I won't be posting on them mostly because I'm a private person. I only have my real name on websites that I have to pay for because it's my card. Otherwise I have a shortened version of my name that stays separate. My facebook is completely private to anyone not my friend, and I don't add people unless I really know them. I'd like to stay under the radar because I'd rather my employers not know I RP being a shadowy fairy or tank raids as an Orc Warrior (In WoW's case) after I'm done with work. Then again I've always been the cautious sort. So no I won't be posting on the forums there to help people if they need help, and if I need help I'll join a different forums and ask for help.

My RealID is my full name, which I don't mind, but my boyfriend uses only his initials so it's definitely possible to get around. Just an opinion.

Don't worry, it doesn't have to be a political issue. But ultimately it could be, very much, a political thing so I'ma have to try not to drag it in that direction.



You don't know why there's a difference between posting your identity on an insular community of maybe a thousand people max where you're almost guaranteed to know someone who knows any other player in the base run by a small team of admin who also, between them, know most of the people in the playerbase, and an expansive community 12M+ large with no real social controls or anything of the sort?

Sylphas, it's cool that your close friends have your phone number. You know who doesn't have your phone number? Thoros. Or Garwl. (examples) I'd like it to stay that way. This has the potential to get way out of hand. It's not exactly hard to track people down but the limited amount of effort it takes is more than most people are willing to put in to be a in most cases and we benefit enormously from that when in communities like WoW.

I never used the WoW forum much, but I'm definitely never touching them if this goes through. There's a reason that a common forum rule is that you don't give out other people's personal information, like their full name, and it's a bannable offense on Blizzard's own forums. =/

Also it's not going to accomplish any of the goals they hope it will accomplish.

I don't know, it's certainly making a large quantity of reasonable, decent people reconsider ever posting, so one would hope it's at least also going to cut down on trolling that now may be more threatening to your RL health or similar.

Of course, given the former, I don't know if it'll cut down on the RATIO of bad to good posts...

I have to say, of the Lusternians that know my phone number, I think every single one of them knows on a very visceral level that the first time they call me for any time-sensitive game issue, like the bastards in Magnagora broke yet another treaty and are destroying every org loyal, or fifteen people who know each other OOC but have never played a MUD before all joined my guild at once, or some major event that was going to get one of my favorite alt's org deleted unless we kill 20,000 mobs before midnight GMT, anything like that...the first time they call me for that is the last time I answer their call.

People calling folks about a raid take raiding a lot more seriously than I can even pretend to fathom.

I used to play WoW a lot... and like everyone else there, I'd troll a lot, as well. It's part of the internet. It's fun, typically not very mean-spirited unless you're super immature. I can tell you that if trolling was such a big deal, they probably could've come up with something different to solve this problem, like not letting anyone below level 70 post.

Facebook's idea about having everyone use their real name and real identity is flawed in the sense that you can create an account with a fake name and fake information, and it'll never really be tied to you as a person (credit cards, bank accounts, social security numbers, etc). For World of Warcraft, most everyone who is playing is already hooked in by the fact that they already have their information up and cannot change it. The significance of that, realistically speaking, is if 11 million people are using their real names and information, what's gonna happen with identity fraud? I mean, all it really takes is a name, right? This doesn't seem like it'd end well.

Another aspect of Facebook that is quite a bit dissimilar from this idea that Blizz has, is that Facebook is really only about social interactions with people you've met IRL, or know someone who does, IRL. It's not like I go onto Facebook and play one of their games and start interacting, on a daily basis, with one of their 400 million users straight outta the blue. I mean, that can happen, but isn't Farmville and what-not about sharing with your friends only? Do you ever see anyone else's name that isn't indirectly related to you by blood or friendship?

At first, I thought Blizz had the right idea here, being able to talk cross-realms and all, but after more contemplation, it's really not a very good idea. I don't know if they expect the player-base to be mature enough to support this system or what, but I can tell you that promoting maturity on the internet is fairly near-sighted, and also bound to fail, whether or not the anonymity is there.

If Lusternia required me to use my real name, I probably wouldn't be responsive in a non-dissimilar manner. I'd be pretty irritated to say the least. I like my privacy and my anonymity.

I dunno if I'd quit playing WoW over it, I mean, have you actually taken the time to think about what WoW is like now, and what it'd be like with people using their real names? Think about all the people trolling other people for their names: "YOUR NAME IS CONNY MCSLOPPYPLOPS YOUR SO GAY!!!111oneleven" That's how I see it going down. Let's be real here, WoW players aren't mature, and neither are we.

Also, I don't think this is very insignificant. Consider the rise in identity theft over the years, the amount of bots/spammers (which this may eliminate) that can just tap into your IRL information and take it with still being anonymous (create a new account -> use gift card for purchase -> use game card for subscription -> steal your information without putting theirs out there).

tl;dr: Keep our anonymity on the internet ffs.

P.S. This is perhaps one of the greatest and most hilarious trolls on the WoW forums to date. Not because a lot of people bit the bait, but because it was so wittily contrived.

EDITED because I don't make sense