Activision-Blizzard today announced that in the future, all posts made to the official forums will be made under your real name as it appears on your account info.

http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/official-f...displayed/

Furthermore we've learned that there is already a hole in Real ID allowing a malicious mod to reveal the account info to a third party.

http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/security-f...mes-witho/

I've never seen the WoW community so united in its opposition to an idea. There have been controversial decisions announced in the past, but there was always a healthy minority who either gave Blizzard the benefit of the doubt or saw things differently.

Not this time. This is the official, consolidated thread on the issue. It currently has over 9000 replies and 52,000 views - and likely rising as you read this. Literally 99% of posters seem to be against it, even the Community Managers and MVP's (the green posters) are on record as being unhappy with this!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread...4700&sid=1

Blizzard has removed the post cap of 300 pages, they're letting this thing run on: a hopeful sign. So by all means, leave your 2 cents on this issue on that thread. Some have even gone so far as to formally register a complaint with the ESRB as well. You could also contact Blizzard in the following way (this is from their ESRB button):

If you have any questions or wish to file a complaint, please feel free to e-mail us at privacy@blizzard.com, call us at (949) 955-1382, or send a letter addressed to Blizzard Entertainment Privacy Policy, Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, at 16215 Alton Pkwy. Irvine CA 92618-3616.

An update: as one of the posters noted -

"Post #1, by Neth: 09:10:17 AM PDT

Post # 10200, by Zanity: 05:10:12 PM PDT

That's 8 hours. That's 480 minutes. That's more than one post every 3 seconds.

One [post] every [post] three [post] seconds [post]."

When this takes the next step of mandatory Real I.D., I'll be canceling my account.

I've seen tons of folks defending Activision over the last 2 years, saying "Oh, no, they're totally leaving Blizzard alone to do their own thing. "  B.S., this is a move straight out from some non-gaming executive's wet dream.  Kotick is looking to make Activision-Blizzard the next E.A. and flushing all the goodwill of his golden goose down the toilet in the process.

Ed: Not to mention I've found bits from some Euro posters who, versed in their privacy laws, believe it violates the policies of many countries over there.  How's it gel with those of you in the 51st state?

This post was last modified: 07-06-2010 07:33 PM by Merusk.

What happenned to the privacy issue? I smell a law suit coming to Blizz lol

The Canadian Privacy Commissioner played a big role in calling Facebook to account in regards to their weak privacy:

http://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2009/nr-c_090827_e.cfm

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/...ioner.html

And may do so - provided people put in complaints, apparently many already have - with Activision-Blizzard. The Real Bad IDea may be in violation of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act on several counts:

http://www.priv.gc.ca/information/guide_e.cfm

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is an Officer of Parliament itself (just like, say, the Sergeant-at-Arms in the Senate) and not part of the gov't of the day, so it retains a certain amount of independence of action. They're well-respected as an organization (esp after the Facebook fiasco) and frequently other governments take their lead from it.

The blogsphere and gaming press is starting to pick it up, next step is the mainstream media:

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/06/15/g...9s-real-id

http://news.bigdownload.com/2010/07/06/b...-official/

http://news.bigdownload.com/2010/07/06/b...-official/

http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/110/1104456p1.html

It sounds like Blizzard doesn't care what its players think by the sounds of this post from Netheara they've put "a lot of thought" into it:

source: http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/blizzards-...situation/

Nethaera
Just to respond to those that don't think we read through all of these responses and threads, we do and have been. We will continue monitoring feedback as well.

We put a lot of thought into this change and have a long-term vision for the Real ID service and wanted to make sure that we communicated ahead of time and very clearly as to what will be changing and how. Keep in mind that posting is optional, and we recognize that some players will choose not to utilize the Real ID feature in game or post on the forums and support everyone's individual choice on using or not using it.

This is obviously new ground for us and for you as well, but we want to make sure we're creating a great social-gaming service that people will want to use. We just want to make sure that if people are sharing feedback, that they keep it constructive, and yes, as I said, we are reading.

graymatter.blogspot.com/2010/07/realid-and-wow-forums.html

It isn't anonymity that empowers trolls, it's the lack of consequences.

And so it begins. It's hit the wires now (Associated Press), and since most MSM journalists simply copy and paste off the wires and poach from other sites (much easier than actually finding out for yourself you see), it quickly snowballs:

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10543100.stm

ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wire...d=11108240

MTV: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/07/0...al-forums/

Most of the mainstream gaming sites also have articles on it, like PC Gamer:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/07/why-bl...epic-fail/

Hope Blizzard's Media Relations Dept. is fully staffed.