Out the racists, trolls and bigots, I say—follow Blizzard’s lead and make people use real names to post comments in the forums. What are you afraid of?
Out the racists, trolls and bigots, I say—follow Blizzard’s lead and make people use real names to post comments in the forums. What are you afraid of?
Thought you disappeared on us for a while there.
Glad to see they reneged on this absolutely horrible idea. Something tells me the brain dead old fart that pushed for the idea is will be filing his unemployment paperwork this week.
Just a small move across town is all. No Internet yet!
I think it’s fine. I think human names will become as inconsequential as internet names.
David, the problem with the idea (actually, just one of many here) is that some people tend to take their hobbies too far. They seek revenge on the guy that just slaughtered their avatar and giving these people full access to a persons name is just a stalking case or two (read: dozens) away from a media nightmare.
Determined folks, one in the same as those who would do as you describe, Jim, could probably use tools to do that with anonymous screen names too, no?
And to further disagree, this is like someone saying they aren’t going to fly ever again because they just read about a plane crash.
While the most determined of them will still find a way, why make it easy for even those with partial determination?
Further still, look at the corporate problems some people are getting into because of their online actions. I’ve read plenty of stories of people being denied a job on the grounds they play WoW alone.
Simply put, Blizzard would open a can of worms that would eventually feast on their own corpse if they went through with that new ID policy.
So how do you feel about us posting on GamesIndustry.biz? That entire site’s commenting platform is based on the fact that the people who post there are somewhat verified industry pros (although they also opened it up to “regular” folks too, which I kind of didn’t like–so snobby!).
As for the corporate problem, it’s my opinion that people have become “used to” bad habits, much as they’ve become used to getting free access to news sites and magazines online. Thing is, people SHOULD pay these companies for content, but it’s the companies fault that they treated online as a red-headed stepchild and a secondary revenue source all those years. The opposite is true for the anonymity issue: It’s the people who didn’t respect the system, who got lazy, and now when a company comes along and tries to make everyone accountable for their actions, it backfires because the people are “used to” things being like a virtual Wild West. Sorry, the West went away, progress won, and I see that happening here too. Eventually.
Also, businesses have every right to not hire someone who plays WoW. It’s not something I personally agree with (and I happen to hate WoW!), but it’s a business! It’s their right to hire people they think will positively contribute to the bottom line.
Jack, I think GI.biz being industry centric works well with open names because it gives us context to go along with the comment. Which I think is more relevant for GI.biz than it is for keeping the peace.
On Blizzards boards, that kind of context is irrelevant.
I tend to use SNs out of old habit (herogear is such a lousy one at that), but I’ve never seen the appeal or rightness in using the veil of anonymity to be so terrible to people.
Then again, I was raised like that. Kinda “old school” with the yes, please, thank yous and such.
Now this was interesting:
“, it backfires because the people are “used to” things being like a virtual Wild West. Sorry, the West went away, progress won, and I see that happening here too. Eventually.”
I don’t like how when things are unregulated, chaotic, and altogether bad someone conjures up “The Wild West.” I’ve read a few books that said the west wasn’t nearly as wild as some would imagine…folks carrying firearms and no foreknowledge of such kept folks in line that way…so it’s not like we couldn’t apply the same ideology here.
I think that’s what Blizzard’s idea was – to make all folks accountable…to make em all gun-carriers (in a way). Although I don’t know how that would pan out. I’ve read about real life murders, stalkings, harassment, et al come about from people having their private matters tossed out into public. I suppose its not as frequent as any ‘wild west’ but gives me pause.
Sorry, Kevin, my “Wild West” was in reference to the violent, romanticized version portrayed in the movies :-)
That is quite the awesome version!