Can you imagine being a girl and having your real name exposed via Real ID?

Can you imagine being a girl and having your real name exposed on battle.net forums?

Hungry men out there could search for girls via Real ID and battle.net could turn into a huge dating network.

Find out what a World of Warcraft girl wrote...

[TheLeprachaun]

No different to being a guy. At all....

[toaster]

I normally don't care if a gamer is male or female but this RealID thing is way out of line. People should have a right to anonymity.

[HolyOrangeCows]

People get raped and killed for beating people in games like Counter-Strike. You make it that much easier for people to find out your identity....oh crap! You're just a Facebook search away from an pathetic deranged psychopathy murdering you.

And yes, as a female, dorks are likely to facebook search you, see your pretty facebook pictures, and set out to pull you by the hair to their social-retardant cave to have their way.

Oh well. I don't play World of Dorkcraft. I'd rather not waste $15 a month on ONE game.

[BeaArthur]

It's totally different. You must be aware of how women get treated in this industry. Not to mention all of the WoW weirdos that could potentially stock them if they found out they were a girl. Nobody probably wants their real name out there, but it's probably even worse for a girl.

[wages of sin]

"Probably worse for a girl"?

Females aren't the only ones who get stalked. It wasn't that long ago here on the front page there was the story about the man who got stabbed; missing his heart by and inch. He killed a guy online who then tracked him down for seven months.

"You must be aware of how women get treated in this industry". And what does that mean exactly? If that were the case, there would be stories of sexual harrassment or unequal treatment almost daily. If you're referring to how they are treated online by their fellow gamers, that's not the industry, those are the gamers and that's why RealID would be good. However I've never heard of this happening, at least not to the point that it's some kind of "epidemic".

I'm not saying I agree with RealID. I do like the fact that you can't just say whatever you want and not be held responsible, that part is good. However, I refuse to believe that females should be anymore "afraid" then a male. It works both ways.

@cgoodno,
Tell that to gay gamers, gamers who get racially harassed, gamers who are kids..., it goes on and on. No one is an exception and just because that person is female doesn't mean that she should be considered special in this situation.

We're supposed to be equal. It's long time we started acting like it instead of constantly reverting back to "special" considerations and priveleages.

[iforgotmylogin]

See what she forgets to realize is that she probably has a Facebook
and all these other social accounts so her name was already on the internet
any stalker worth his salt can find some1. with the smallest details.

[BeaArthur]

A female is far more likely to be harassed (sexually and otherwise) than a male. If you don't realize that you need to start paying more attention. You are correct though, I meant community more so than industry.

[Christopher]

***just because that person is female doesn't mean that she should be considered special in this situation. ***

It's not about being special, but it's another example of how this decision can reflect badly upon individuals.

How is a guild that is comprised of mostly middle-eastern persons going to be treated by some, now possible to know based on their true names? How are Asian gamers going to be treated? How are female gamers going to be treated?

The anonymity of online handles doesn't open these doors to the real issues of bigotry in the world. With this change, it now becomes an issue that will invade the community.

People aren't all nice, and they take it out on a wide array of individuals. Revealing true identities helps those type of people. Can you imagine being found out as an ethnicity on the site and getting PMs blaming you for the death of a family member in a war? Getting constant PMs from men who have nothing better to do than hit on a woman?

I wasn't just speaking as if women were the only ones here affected, but it was a specific element of this I hadn't thought of until now.

But, to be honest, I have to say that women are 'special' in this regard considering the huge difference between the number of men who harass women versus women who harass men in real life. In many states there's a law that requires businesses to lock woman's bathrooms and provide a key for access so as to prevent the chance of a sexual assault. Why? Because almost every single sexual assault made is by a man against a woman.

[sorceror171]

@iforgotmylogin: Uh, dude - some people keep their forum identity different from their Facebook identity. Go take a look here, they actually address it: http://www.metafilter.com/9...

@wages of sin: Policies should be neutral, sure. But if they have a disproportionate effect on some people, then that's should be taken into account when the policy is evaluated. If you don't think women *do* get treated differently (note: *do*, has nothing to do with *should*), set up a female alt on some forums and run an experiment...

[Christopher]

@sorceror171: Excellent find for a write up on why this is wrong. Thanks for the link. +bubs.

[ruiner4482]

This is the internet it is inherently anonymous. If you don't like that aspect of it, then you should probably leave the internet. I'm not sure how realid works but I'd imagine they tie your in-game name to the name on your credit card?? Or how do they get your "real" name? Easy way around it is just get a prepaid debit card and put it in someone elses name.

No retard on the internet will get my real name unless I want to give it to them.

[Christopher]

Not at all the same.

That's a side I haven't thought about, though, is the result this will have on women gamers who rely on anonymity in order to protect themselves from those who would harass them online. I know many women gamers who even play only male characters to further hide their gender. I think this will likely reduce the chances of seeing more female posters, or at least reduce it to only posts that are needed (technical support and the such).

[R2D2]

is Ugene Edward the Third : )

[moe84]

Both men and women get harassed, but women tend to take the bulk of the crap.

[spandexxking]

the only reason why people are complaining is because you used mummy and daddy's credit card.

[pixelsword]

HONESTLY, who uses their real names online? People who want their identities stolen, that's who.

[Spenok]

Especially if you think about how crazy people can get. Stabbing someone over a CS game. Sad indeed. The way i see it? Just don't post on there forums lol

[synce]

A little bit of rape never hurt anyone

[Lombax]

Tell that to Kobe.

[Brugs]

You are right in that, but the story covers about the dating approach and here the girls could be the primary target :)

[TheLeprachaun]

Unfortunately I couldn't read the story, as the link is broken.

[Brugs]

Fixed :)

[Tsuru]

Personally people are going crazy for nothing, just dont post on the forums if you dont want it revealed. People seem to care more about the forums then they do about the real game.

[Christopher]

That's the issue. Blizzard is implementing a rule that pretty much encourages people to not be a part of a community because it forces certain things out in the open that can greatly affect how they are treated and seen (true identity, ethnicity, gender).

[Ares84PS3]

...can be pretty hard. For the few occasions I visited Home on Playstation whenever I've seen a girl avatar about 20 guys was around her asking here where is she from what she likes and all kinds of crap.

I wouldn't wanna be a girl in the video gaming world.

[Lombax]

Me and a friend were trying to figure out how to fly the planes in the Red Bull space when Home first launched. We tried asking a bunch of people what we were supposed to do to be able to fly 'em, but no one would say anything. Then my friend was like, "Watch this" and chainged to a female avatar and BOOM! Suddenly everyone wanted to help.

[BabyTownFrolics]

online anonymity

http://sc.tri-bit.com/Image...

it should be one person one voice and that voice should abide by the norms of basic human decency.

If it means less people on the forums and comment sections saying stupid shit then I'm all for it.

Women are not frightened kittens that need to be protected, they can take care of themselves, and if they cant thats more of a Darwin issue than an intrinsically female issue.

Give the ladies a little more credit.

[pixelsword]

Darwin's theories exist nowhere in the human world at all. There's not one human society that is known that doesn't have rules or jails. For Darwin to apply, everyone would get to do what they want to anyone else outside of their own group with impunity.

[BabyTownFrolics]

Darwins theories exist I can read them and think about them, they exist in the human world. You are describing anarchy, not natural selection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

the reason I used Darwin in my previous statement was just a shorthand way of saying a smart woman could take care of herself and unfortunately both women and men sometimes make decisions that needlessly put themselves in harms way. If someone loses their life through stupidity it is common to bring up Darwin as a way of saying that the human race has been spared one stupid person from breeding. Its a joke, like the Darwin Awards.

http://www.darwinawards.com...

Within This Website Lurks 836 Enterprising Demises.
In honor of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by (accidentally) removing themselves from it. The Award is generally bestowed posthumously.

[Darkfiber]

Oh my god a girl!

Seriously, this is so retarded. No one is going to do anything. If these horny losers wouldn't just go next door or down the street and break in to a random house and rape some chick, what makes you think they'd fly halfway around the world to do it just because the chick plays a game?

[Ares84PS3]

There was an article not too long ago about a German man and a British couple.

The German dude meet the woman form the couple and they played some kind of games together and the German fell in love with the girl so he flew from Germany to England and murdered the guy.

You can look it up.

[Darkfiber]

Yeah, and what I've said happens just as often if not more. Wow, one time out of the millions of people who play video games, as opposed to people getting raped and murdered on a daily basis anywhere else in the world over matters having absolutely nothing to do with video games.

Thinking not using Real ID is going to prevent crime or harassment is ignorant. It's going to happen regardless of where you are or what you do.

[ElementX]

I think people say and do too many stupid things under anonymity.

[zatrox]

...And that's what makes the internet so entertaining.

[toaster]

lol For real. Just look at 4chan. Reddit, but to a lesser extent since you have a username.

[ElementX]

Look at the KKK, they're anonymous under their garments, do you think that's right? I'm all for freedom of speech but when it's used to insult, degrade, or cause anxiety in others, then I have to draw a line. There is so much hate taking place in online games, people yelling f@g, n!gger, and a whole lot of other slurs.

[zatrox]

...And that's entertaining, admit it, you laugh at it too.
Let's be honest here, it's funny, and it represents what some people have in mind.

[ElementX]

No, I'm sorry but I don't believe slurs are funny or entertaining at all!

[pixelsword]

Element, just so you know, the kkk falls under The Patriot Act's definition for a terrorist; so if you see one, you could probably take a 2x4 and go nuts on 'em an be doing your civic duty.

[Colonel-Killzone]

Both men and females can get stalked the same honestly. Its just you got more thirsty ass dudes in the gaming world then females. Which is sad tbh.

[duplissi]

yeah i totally want some fucked up crazy chick stalking me, feeding me viagra and a date rape drug.....

[moe84]

One problem I see are the names of parents with strong ethnic background. If a parent lets their son/daughter play a game of Blizzards', then the account(especially WoW) should be in the parents name. So if your a teen or child with a basic name.. but your parent has a name pertaining to the mother-land or w/e. You could end up getting harassed because mom and dad are proud enough to not change their name.

Hell, perfect example. My little brother, if he were to play WoW our mom would want the account in her name for parental control reasons. Her name however, isn't a typical name. It's Hawaiian. Those unaware of the language would have a hard time pronouncing it, let alone spelling it(hell most people can't pronounce Hawai'i correctly). With that in mind, if my brother were to go out and seek help or w/e in a forum of Blizzards, he could catch hell because of the Real ID. True, Blizz will "take action" against people who break their ToS.. but that's an action that shouldn't need to be taken.

There are other ways to clean up the forums. Blizzard just needs to stop being lazy, and put forth the effort to do so.

[il-mouzer]

can't say I acknowledge RealID (I tend to value my privacy), however neither do I condone it (less amount of trolls on the forums)

the fact that by just googling you name people can know everything about your personal life is just irritating. I had my facebook account done because my wife wanted me to have one, hence I did and never used it, few weeks later I started received email notifications of me being tagged in photos (some were decades old), friends requests by people I hadn't seen for years etc... I do hope that there will be an option of having my Bnet account hidden if you have never posted on the forums.

[moe84]

That's one of the reasons I don't like the social networking website. That whole people from your past trying to be cool with you and all. Yeah, we were friends, but if your friendship mattered to me at all I'd have kept in touch.

Take my brother for example, his wife hates it when anyone(especially females) from his past end up on his MySpace or w/e. So, to remedy this, she deleted his account and made one for the "family". Which she controls every aspect of. Including telling the exes to screw off. My sister in-law is a little odd at times >.<

[il-mouzer]

kind of extreme but I do see her point

[peeps]

yeh but isn't the point that then if guys were pestering girls on the game, the guys that are pestering would have their names on show too...

[Gun_Senshi]

kthxbai

[troll]

If I was a girl I'd be too preoccupied prancing around my home wearing a tank top and no pants to even remotely care.

Oh, this was supposed to be something about using real names and being a girl online. Frankly, I don't give a toss.

[George Sears]

Personally, I'd be too busy looking at mah boobies.

[Schobeleth]

They probably had it in there with the new patch but everyone was way too eager to play so they did what everyone does: skip the entire new statement and click "Agree" so you can play again. I'm sure Blizzard covered themselves with this new real ID thing but this doesn't prevent possible lawsuits from happening, still with their money, power and knowing that they've (probably) covered their base with the TOS, I doubt there's any liability. Easy solution: don't post on the forums.

[primesuspect]

They just changed their minds

http://gaming.icrontic.com/...

[ShadowJetX]

I'm a man;

[ATi_Elite]

RealID is nothing more than the implementation of some NWO (New World Order) crap to track everyone at all times of the day just like Myspace and Facebook are tools to input people's faces into facial recognition software.

This is crap! This needs to be stopped now! People should be allowed to play Wow and talk in forums without giving up personnel information. It worked in the past very well without it so really Blizzard what's with the change all of a sudden?

[kesvalk]

you guys says it's not a big deal, until someone is harassed in-game because it's a girl, or because it's black or asian, humans are very dumb on this department...

[SuperStrokey1123]

Hot chicks dont play games so it would be ugly fat chicks and really no one likes ugly fat chicks so its not a big deal ;)