We understand that is the intent. We are just extremely disappointed with the current limitations.

My WoW login is not the email that my family / friends have and even if it was, it is still against Blizzard's own EULA to give it out. Sometimes you still want to just hang out by yourself and not broadcast your every move to people regardless of how close you are. Etc...

The biggest thing though is that this could be a amazing system for everybody with a few changes. Instead it is being aimed at a very small portion of the playerbase. I have dozens of friends (RL and Game only) I'd add gladly with a few changes like removing my real name and allowing me to still have a alt or two that was hidden. As it is, I'll never touch it instead.

And I am sure all the kids who play WoW are going to be that responsible. Get real.

Expect some wonderful story with a crying kid who was kidnapped saying s/he didn't know it was bad to give out their email address and didn't realize it was going to show their full name.

And what if I wanted to connect with my cousin, but not all of the friends my cousin chooses to connect with? What if my cousin, or one of the many friends they choose to befriend gets hacked? Now the hacker has not only my battle.net login e-mail, but also my real first and last name.

What's the point or benefit to forcing us to reveal the real name on the billing account? Makes you wonder ..

Exactly Grim, it wouldn't take much to fix the system. Most people would be happy would be happy if the system didn't use your real name, didn't use your login and gave you some control over what information was shared with people you didn't know (i.e. friends of friends). Basically if the system wasn't dangerous to your accounts security or your personal safety.

I have 3 e-mail addresses I give my friends. NONE of those e-mails is my battle.net account info. In addition, there are "friends" that I have in-game that I would love to be able to do cross-server communication with who I am NOT close enough with to give my RL info. So, I either have to say "sorry, I won't be your friend because I don't trust you", or I have to give out my RL account info to people I haven't met in real life. People you haven't met will have access to your Real ID info just from being friends of your friends, and the system really gives you zero control over the security of your personal info.

As a blogger who has gone through GREAT lengths to not reveal my personal identity to my readers, this "feature" is going to cause me really big problems in the long run, because it's designed to only be used for RL friends, but it WON'T only be used for that purpose, and it's really short-sighted of Blizzard to force us to use real names without any other option.

Right, but I presume it will NEED to be your battlenet e-mail, since it is a battlenet feature. Consequently, if you have been careful not to give your friends your battlenet email, now you are going to have to. As a blogger trying to keep your identity safe you should be concerned.

Erm... sorry. I read the last bit now. I'm too quick to react sometimes, and too slow to read.

/blush

As others have said, people get the point of it: just not the implementation.

Just one scenario off the top of my head that could be actively dangerous. A woman has RealID and she had a bad relationship split up about a year ago. She 'friends' someone she trusts through RealID, but she doesn't know is that the friend she trusts has just also friended the person with whom she had a bad relationship. That man (or woman!) now knows he has a friend that knows his ex. I can think of a hundred and one ways that information may be exploited ("Hey, I see you know Sally. Where's she living now?").

Bad, and actively dangerous, idea.

Secondly, again as others have pointed out, it may be *promoted* for use with people you know IRL, but that cannot possibly be the point of it. If that was the point, there would be no need for the "feature" as real-life friends can use Vent, IM clients, Facebook or even that marvellous invention, the telephone. All of which are vastly superior to in-game chat, and most of which have all the appropriate privacy features in place (as in, "I want to appear off-line. I know! I want log in"). So with so many other ways of keeping in touch with friends, why does this feature exist?