Bah, hit the wrong button

Comment is a few pages down:
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/07/breakfast-topic-real-id-or-real-bad-idea/comments/29124007/

Thanks for the clarification Ethena :)

And I agree with you completely. I have nothing against the game, but revealing your personal information is everybody's decision to take for themselves.

Identity thefts and what 4chan might start doing to anyone on the boards are enough to convince me to not ever step foot there again.

And you can bet its gonna keep people who would actually need blizzard employees' help from posting as well.

@Kevin

"Also, they have said the real name display will be opt-in. As in, you can turn it off."

Hmmm...

Blue post: "All posts in the future on the new forum systems will be an opt-in choice and ample warning will be given that you're posting with your real first and last name."

Blue post: " 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."

Sorry, I don't see anywhere in there where it says I can turn it off other than /in the game/. Now why is it optional IN the game, but not on a publicly viewable website?

@037

"I was temp banned from the official forums for pointing out that in China it will soon be mandatory to link your real name to forum posts."

Interesting. Never occurred to me until I just saw your post. It's because they use software to monitor and collate data on their citizens' web activities. Something they would not be able to do in the game (where the opt-out still exists to protect gold sellers apparently) without Blizzard allowing them access to records only GMs have.

Hmmm... I don't think I'm going to be all that shocked if were to soon hear news that the Blizzard's woes with the Chinese goverment are over.

@Deb: I'm sorry, but that's not true. As a European player, our EULA specifically states that disputes are governed by the law in the country of residence of the player.

@Jennifer

"My understanding is that the system will be "opt in" because you can choose not to post on the forums. IF you post on the forums, your full name will be displayed. No ifs, ands or buts."

Yet this is not the case in-game where most trolling (and gold selling/scamming) goes on. Odd, isn't it? Why protect player's privacy IN the game, but not in a public space?

Canadian privacy laws override US laws in regards to Canadian citizens. Unless the the US government wants to deal with a shitstorm from the Canadians.

I never considered that by signing the EULA contract I would make null and void my rights to privacy or whatever. If this is the case then I guess I just have to stop playing the games? That doesn't seem like much of a choice for opting-in or opting-out.
It's not like we get to edit the contract like anyone is supposed to be able to do. This seems totally one sided and if Blizzard does persist in this mentality then may be it would be best to stop playing their games.

Man, the blue who posted in that thread has an awesome avatar.

My guess is that they'd be able to get around this by sticking by the fact that it's optional and that they're not retroactively applying names to previous posts, although it does pose a problem that it's not optional for everyone, it's discriminatory against thoes of certain residents who may very well would have wished to participate but couldn't because doing so would require them to break the law. This in and of itself may not necissarily hold as illegal in a court, but dang, it sure is an aweful business decision. My guess is Irvine didn't do it's homework.

The guys at Team Liquid did a great job in providing this info for us:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252

So it was the slippery slope after all.

With the pets, the horse, etc they were doing free surveys on their playerbase.

Actually they even made money making surveys. Robert A. Kotick is a selfish, greedy, manipulative, if intelligent bastard in charge of a large company. A dangerous combo.

@crschmidt
According to the US Department of Justice, a full name is indeed personally identifiable information.

"Personally Identifiable Information (PII) –
Information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc. OMB Memorandum 07-16, Safeguarding Against and Responding to the Breach of Personally Identifiable Information, dated May 22, 2007. "