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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Daily Quest: A little too real for me
by Anne Stickney 
Jun 23rd 2010 at 9:00PM
Patch 3.3.5 is here, and with it comes the introduction of the RealID system, and many, many opinions about the use of it. While I thought the feature was interesting and well worth playing with on the test realms, I do enjoy my privacy -- and until Blizzard introduces an "invisible" setting for the RealID system, I won't be using it. Here's a collection of thoughts by others around the Warcraft blogging community regarding RealID:
- World of Matticus discusses why RealID isn't for him.
- The Stoppable Force has some information about RealID, and suggests that people stop with the righteous indignation.
- Too Many Annas shares some thoughts on privacy, RealIDs and roleplay.
- Miss Medicina talks about the Patch 3.3.5 patch notes, as well as the RealID system.
Filed under: The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
Sleutel Jun 24th 2010 8:33AM
@SINisterWyvern:
With some things--like email accounts--it's unavoidable. For everything else, it can and should be avoided. The more pieces of information and items required to access your account you have control over, the more secure it is.
Let's say your front door has two locks: one in the knob and a deadbolt. Would you leave the key for the knob hanging next to the door just 'cause there's still the deadbolt to worry about?
Your nonchalance about account security makes me either suspect that you've never had access to anything particularly worthwhile or cringe on behalf of whoever else has an interest in whatever confidential information you've potentially made easier to get access to.
Atomicrat2552 Jun 23rd 2010 9:57PM
You guys do know that you can set yourself as "offline" in the friends/social window, and you are essentially "invisible", correct?
Atomicrat2552 Jun 23rd 2010 9:59PM
My apologies, after posting that, I logged in and double checked, and realized that there actually isn't an offline setting. My apologies.
Anne Stickney Jun 23rd 2010 10:02PM
It'd be great if there were, though!
Atomicrat2552 Jun 23rd 2010 10:04PM
Agreed, and to be honest I see no reason why it isn't there, but TBH, I personally don't mind. I'm only adding my RL friends, and if I really don't want to be bugged by them, I'll tell them as much. Not really as much of a nuisance as people are making it out to be =/
Mr. Tastix Jun 23rd 2010 10:11PM
After using Real ID, I kind of like it. I'll like it even more when StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 are released (and I hope they implement the feature into WC3). I only have about 4 people on my Real ID list, at the moment, these people would know if I'm online with or without the ID anyway.
Two of them are apart of my guild, this is helpful, especially since I plan on buying Diablo 3 and as I'm forgetful, don't particularly want to miss out on raids whilst cleaving somethings face off on D3.
However, there is one problem I have with Real ID: Some guilds have decided it's a "do or die" feature. You either use it, or you get kicked from the guild (Facebook has also been used in the same manner). Now, *I* don't mind doing that, but I should not be obligated to give you my email address and name (the former being an ENTIRELY different email address, just for Battle.net) to join, stay or raid with a guild.
Linnia Jun 23rd 2010 10:17PM
Turns out, if you've ever put parental controls on your own account to help you manage your play time and you have parental controls on another account to manage your child's account, you can't use Real ID because you can't access the Battlenet parental controls for your own account to toggle it on. Unless someone else knows a secret I don't know.
Gizmo Jun 24th 2010 10:39PM
my post at http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25552355664&sid=1&pageNo=4 (post #61, littlegizmo) is how I fixed it for me. Later in that thread people were saying it didn't work for them. It might help.
Bezo Jun 23rd 2010 10:26PM
I like RealID. I have some real life friends on different servers that I never get to talk to because I'm focused on my main server. It allows me to chat with them whoever and wherever I am.
I can understand why a lot of people are leery about the service, but I will only be using it for people I know in real life, which is how I believe it was intended to be used.
Lilkitten Jun 23rd 2010 10:29PM
Here is the main problem with Real ID. It's a partnership with Facebook. I'm sorry, if you do not know how horrible Facebook's reputation is with privacy concerns, then you should Google "Facebook privacy issues" before defending the real name issue.But aside from this, we have always been told by Blizz NEVER to give out any part of our login information including username, which is what the battlenet email address is.
Also, go to the Terms of Service on the World of Warcraft site. Read paragraph 9, section B, subsection V. It states;
"When engaging in Chat, you may not:...Communicate or post any user's personal information in the Game, or on websites or forums related to the Game, except that a user may communicate his or her own personal information in a private message directed to a single user"
The friends list is part of the chat system. The point of Real ID is to CHAT cross realm, cross faction (which by the way is also a violation of subsection VIII), and across games. They try to claim that this system if for people you only know well. But the Friends of Friends system DESTROYS that argument. I may love my friends and family dearly, but sometimes their choice in friends may leave me shaking my head.
There has already been a post on the WoW's General forums about a 16 year old girl, who one of the friends of one her friends looked up her name on a web site and posted her address and cell phone number in trade chat and has been recieving harrassing calls. I won't repeat the URL of this site but it has been said in several of the Real ID threads on those forums and some people defending the real name thing changed their mind once they went there and entered in their own name and were stunned to see what all information was revealed.
The thing is this system would work just as well with aliases. Or, they could remove the Friend of Fiend system entirely. Honestly, I can see no need of Friend of Friend. If I am a friend of one of my friends friends, then odds are I am already going to add them. Ever since this was announced people have been politely asking for changes. No one I have seen objects to the system, just in the 2 things about the email address and the real names. Blizz could allow us to attach a secondary email address to our accounts, one that is not our account login, that could be used for this if someone wanted. I mean, if they have been warning us for years NOT to share even that with people because of security concerns, what has been solved to erase those concerns that it's now ok to do it?
SINisterWyvern Jun 24th 2010 12:45AM
Okay so where were her phone number and address at out on the internets for someone to search for? They looked up her name on "a website" and this website came up with the 100% correct person? There's no one else in the world with her name? Is that what you're getting at?
1) The chances of actually getting the correct persons address/phone number w/o more information that just name are slim to none
2) what is this "website" that magically looked up this information? Information that already has to be out there in the world.
3) made up stories much?
SINisterWyvern Jun 24th 2010 12:53AM
Also how about a link to this post on the forums that doesn't exist
Zuckerdachs Jun 24th 2010 1:28AM
There are several sites that can do that, actually. Spokeo can do it.
Lilkitten Jun 24th 2010 2:19AM
@ Sinister Wyvern
All that the person had to do was ask the mutual friend what state she was from. I doubt the mutual friend would have hestitated to give it since he was a friend of his and probably didn't think this would be done.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25578347936&sid=1&pageNo=1
I couldn't find the original post, the thread is over 40 pages, but found a post that quoted it. Here it is
"It's a nightmare that blizzard even thought this was acceptable on any level...
The parental settings are almost nill.
I decided it would be okay if my oldest son (16) was able to decided who he added for himself.
He added his guild leader and I saw no problem in this matter.
He added his older sister (24) and added me.
My daughter is now in the process of opening a ticket (8 day wait minimum) while trade chat runs rampant with her home address (Thankfully not correct as she put it...), phone number, and real name.
How did this happen?
The guild leader decided it would be fun to tell people her name because she was a female.
From Monica xxxxxxxx and a quick Facebook and or Google search they pulled up her life story and spammed it across trade.
Not 24 hours after it's release and my mistake to allow a 16 year old to add his sister and guild leader on Real ID *Really bull*%!#* already she's getting death threats and "pick up lines" on her cell phone (Partly her own fault for having it on facebook...)
Whitebooks (phone info) Google Skype and Facebook. All you need is a name and a potential region to start looking and this happens.
Goodbye subscription to WoW hello Old Republic 2"
Sorry but the thing is there is no good reason for real names. If real names are taken it it won't affect you using the service so why are you obbjecting to people with privacy concerns?
ahac Jun 24th 2010 8:31AM
At the moment Starcraft 2 only pulls your friend list from Facebook and compares it to battle.net accounts. Facebook doesn't need to get (and most likely doesn't) any data from Blizzard.
RJ Jun 24th 2010 12:26PM
In the real world, I work as a private investigator. By trade (for which we are screened and licensed in my state), we have access to an unbelievable amount of information on people. Most of this, the general public does not have access to. However, if a name is unique, and/or you know the state and approximate age (or even the names of a person's friends) you can often find out an unbelievable amount of information. This is DANGEROUS. It may be very very rare that someone is able to track down another person. I think it will be rare. But one time is too many folks. And it will happen - at least once - no doubt about it.
To everyone - do not post your personal informaion on facebook/myspace etc. That is a start - but it is not enough to keep your identity/location safe. I am VERY surprised that Blizzard would allow this - and that they have not seriously considered the risks. Perhaps they are just not aware. It seems there are a lot of people who are unaware, judging from the posts I have seen.
Amazing...
kazeko.fuuga Jun 23rd 2010 10:31PM
I think it's quite convenient for my real life friends actually. I know loads of friends who are going to be into starcraft 2 and diablo 2 but probably won't ever touch WoW. And also friends who are on different servers. I'm really satisfied with this feature when they work the bugs out. I don't particularly support the whole friend of friends feature, but I don't think it breaks the system in my eyes.
About privacy, I'm thinking that the people you add probably have you characters on their friends list already, even your alts. WoW never really had an offline feature beforehand, so I don't see the big deal, even when you ignored someone, they could see you were online anyway. I mean, it is advancing like an IM system (and this covers a much broader scope than the friend list before) which commonly has that, but I kind of like the honesty about it. It also gives incentive to only add the friends you really do trust to give you space if you say you're busy, or you're comfortable talking with whenever.
I approve.
kazeko.fuuga Jun 23rd 2010 10:39PM
After reading the post above me, I agree that the friend of friend feature could be harmful since it uses one's real name. I think it'd be better to remove it.
Sleutel Jun 24th 2010 12:54AM
"WoW never really had an offline feature beforehand, so I don't see the big deal, even when you ignored someone, they could see you were online anyway."
They could see when you were online... on the character(s) they knew about. With RealID, someone on that friends list can see when you are online in ANY connected game. On ANY character. Even the ones you've never told them about.
ahac Jun 24th 2010 8:51AM
@Sleutel:
And that is good.
I really don't want to have to tell all my RL friends about each character I make. I don't want to ask each of them if they bought SC2 or Diablo 3.
I want them to see ME online because I'm the person they chat with and the person they know (not Stuped, the orc).
But I agree with those who say there should be an "invisible" option.
I'm not sure what friends of friends see (still waiting for the patch in Europe).
Obviously they shouldn't see your online presence (game, character, ...) but seeing a list of names will be useful. Lets say I play with Mike and he adds John to his friend list. Now I see that John, who is also my friend, has a battle.net account and I can add him too.