ITT: A monumental failure by Blizzard/Activision

While I don't think they can do much in the way of a lawsuit, I do think it's going to make people very wary about using their official forums.
 
Security hole big enough to drive a tank through? Yeah, I foresee a lot of trouble with this.
 
wow. yet another reason piled on for me to never go back to WoW again. wtf is blizz thinking?
 
LMFAO seems shits already hitting the fan, http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712375882&postId=256237658154&sid=1#88

people are raising hell on WoW forums and some idiot blue thought hed make a point that the REALID is harmless by posting his real name and daring ppl to cause him RL harm with it, within minutes people posted his address, phone number, family members info, his facebook, twitter, and all the goodies, since then he's takin down his facebook and claims that the phone number/address posted were not his. a little late for that tho as that numbers been getting prank calls and false pizza delivery's ever since.

needless to say the original thread was deleted, i wonder if blizz will take this as a learning experience to see how horrible of an idea this is, nvm who am i kidding, of course they wont its blizz.

edit:: whoops double post, sorry.
 
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Like I said, security hole big enough to drive a tank through. There's a damn good reason people use handles online instead of their real names.
 
Like I said, security hole big enough to drive a tank through. There's a damn good reason people use handles online instead of their real names.

Blizzard's point, such as it is, is that one of the reasons that people use handles is so that they can abuse others anonymously.

And they're right.

The remedy for this situation, arguably, would be to create an additional facade of anonymity in front of the RealID. A RealID account is required to register on the forums, but posts are displayed under a screen name of your choosing, and adjustable privacy settings allow you to decide who, if anyone, will see your actual identity.

The problem with forcing everyone to post under their actual names is that the people who will abuse that knowledge will be able to do so off of the Blizzard forums, and with all the anonymity the internet provides.

On the other hand, of course, people can simply refuse to use the official forums. Which is why I doubt that much would come of a lawsuit; it's not like they don't have alternatives.
 
The remedy for this situation, arguably, would be to create an additional facade of anonymity in front of the RealID. A RealID account is required to register on the forums, but posts are displayed under a screen name of your choosing, and adjustable privacy settings allow you to decide who, if anyone, will see your actual identity.

See now THIS is what someone with more the 2 brain cells to rub together would have come up with, WTF is blizz smoking.
 
Blizzard's point, such as it is, is that one of the reasons that people use handles is so that they can abuse others anonymously.

And they're right.

The remedy for this situation, arguably, would be to create an additional facade of anonymity in front of the RealID. A RealID account is required to register on the forums, but posts are displayed under a screen name of your choosing, and adjustable privacy settings allow you to decide who, if anyone, will see your actual identity.

The problem with forcing everyone to post under their actual names is that the people who will abuse that knowledge will be able to do so off of the Blizzard forums, and with all the anonymity the internet provides.

On the other hand, of course, people can simply refuse to use the official forums. Which is why I doubt that much would come of a lawsuit; it's not like they don't have alternatives.

The problem is that Blizzard has an ESRB privacy guarantee right at the bottom of the page. Blizzard doesn't have a right to post our names. Yes, a lawsuit could become a very viable path to take if someone truly felt like seeking that option.
 
The problem is that Blizzard has an ESRB privacy guarantee right at the bottom of the page. Blizzard doesn't have a right to post our names. Yes, a lawsuit could become a very viable path to take if someone truly felt like seeking that option.

Rated P for private?


I'm assuming you meant EULA.
 
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Then again, there's this:
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information as required by law or in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing such information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against you if you are violating the Terms of Service or Use Agreements for a Blizzard site or product, or may be causing injury to or interference (intentionally or unintentionally) with Blizzard's rights or property, other users of a Blizzard site or product, or anyone else who could be harmed by your activities. We also reserve the right to disclose your personal information if we have a good faith belief that it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activities.
 
If this was something against the ESRB it would have already been brought to light through official channels. Seeing how popular of an issue this has turned out to be and has not, should tell you something. Blizzard/Activision also has a crack legal team, they wouldn't let something that simple slide by I'd imagine. Furthermore, they aren't forcing this upon anyone. You don't have to post on the official forums. Hell, not much of anything ever posted is worth a damn and for the things that are, they can be found elsewhere in droves.

That being said, I think it's a stupid idea and anyone who posts on the official forums after this is even more stupid. Sure it may cleanse the forums a bit, -maybe-, but at what point is a bunch of trolls such a problem that you'd put real life security down in order to combat it? As it is Blizzard thinks personal safety is on a level below snuffing out some internet gangsters. I like how they are masking it by saying it will craft more meaningful relationships, what a bunch of poop. I'm not gonna like John Smith anymore than I did before when he was showing up as "Idips0mbawlznurmouff" and I sure as hell wouldn't slander his idiocy any less.

All that being said I stopped payin' them long ago and I've never looked back.

The one thing fluttering around right now that is really, really dirty is the add-on deal. Certain add-ons are causing peoples real names to show up in-game. To note, it isn't even an add-on for this type of information to display. Just something with the code in some add-ons aren't settling to well with the new Bnet configurations. Whether this is intentionally being done by add-on makers I have no idea, but just a warning to those of you who still play.
 
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I don't see the big deal about this.
 
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