It's Wednesday, which means that it's time to allow my wild side out. That's right ladies and gents, I'm talking about my gamer side. I know, I know... Unleashing one's inner gamer can be a dangerous thing, but never fear! I am what some might refer to as an expert in this particular practice. Today I'm going to delve a little bit into the world of social gaming and where it seems to be headed.
Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft, have recently developed a sort of online social network called RealID. RealID is essentially Blizzard's way of taking their games, all three of which either have or will have a large online user base, and connecting the three communities together in such a way that I am able to communicate with just about any RL friend, or online friend that's willing to surrender their e-mail to me, regardless of what game they are playing. It's a really neat concept actually, I can attest that the system does do wonders for keeping communication. I am able to chat with my RL friend online, while playing WoW even though he is on a different server and makes continuous jumps between all of his different alts. (Alt = Alternate character) It's really much better than logging onto his server and making a brand new character and leveling it all in the hopes that my friend will be on at some point during my adventures. So... it's been something that I've been looking forward to for a while now. However, unfortunately Blizzard has decided to up the ante a bit.
Yesterday, there was an announcement that posting on the forums after they are updated would reveal your real name through the RealID association. In other words, after the forums are updated, if I were to make a post it would not say that Roo of the server Icecrown says, instead it would replace that information with my first and last name. Now then, Blizzard's reasoning behind this change, if I understand correctly, is to remove internet anonymity in order the make the forums a more helpful resource for the community. Now, I can once again attest to the rather atrociousness of the current forum state. People dish out a plethora of flames, racial slurs, etc. all for the sake of being able to say such things or because they are upset or because a "noob" asked for some help or for any other number of reasons. The thing is, online anonymity changes people. The rules are different when suddenly what you say is not attached to you, your reputation, or even what people are able to think of you. When you hear a train of racial slurs from someone on a forum all you can really say is "whoever is on the other side of that toon is a real dick." So the idea is that when people lose the ability to have a random character to say whatever they want, then people will hopefully once again follow the rules of the social norm and the community forums will be 90% helpful things with 10% bashing instead of the other way around.
Now then, not everyone is happy about this pending change, in fact a good number of people have poked their heads in to throw in their 2 cents about the post. Just take a look at this thread here with over 31,000 posts already. For the most part these people have legitimate concerns. There are essentially three people that have the most to fear as it were from this change and who are impacted the most by it: people with unique names, women, and gays/transsexuals. There is a great deal of concern behind how easily one might decided that so and so is cute and check online to find out more information. Now so and so has a new stalker.
Regardless of the potential dangers, Blizzard is either oblivious, ignorant, or more than likely willing to sacrifice the few for the better enjoyment of all. I am reminded of a certain city suddenly. There have been statements that this will be the death of the forums. Maybe it will be, maybe it won't. All I know is that for the time being I remain unaffected as I do not participate in the forums save for the occasional peek when there is an error of some sort and I am looking for a solution. However I do wonder, how long will it be before the fallout does eventually reach me? Will it bother me? I've no reason to oppose it, however that does not mean that the change should not be opposed. I think it will be interesting to see how this whole situation plays out and whether or not this will be the future of online gaming.
Now, in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit, might I suggest a game that in a way sacrifices a few for the enjoyment of many. Hopefully you'll have a bit of fun trying to escape reality. However, if for whatever reason that game is still a bit too dreary for you, than I'd suggest you check out a different game that has a little more pizazz to it. Enjoy!
-Ken
[EDIT]: Blizzard has since retracted their decision to require your real name when posting on the forums. I'm glad to hear that they really do pay attention to their player base.
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