[Air-L] Blizzard Forums will soon display real name (Update)

Albert Brady Curlew curlewab at yorku.ca
Fri Jul 9 11:50:16 PDT 2010


Update!

The negative discourse has resulted in a reversal of their plans. Blizzard's CEO
announced today, via their WoW forums, that "at this time... real names will NOT
be required for posting on official Blizzard forums."

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1

However, a Real ID option will still be available for in-game communications at
players' discretion, which may enhance future functionalities not yet detailed
(marking a shift to incentivized disclosure?).

-brady

-- 
Albert Brady Curlew, Ph.D Candidate
Joint Graduate Programme in Communication & Culture
York University & Ryerson University, Toronto, ON
TA Social Science 2312: Information & Technology


Quoting Jana Diesner <diesner at cs.cmu.edu>:

> The Wall Street Journal (digits) also had a brief article
> (http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/07/07/real-names-rile-online-warlocks-and-
> wizards/) on this, which triggered plenty of comments there
>
> Regards, Jana
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Pete[r] Landwehr
> Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 4:57 PM
> To: Nick Lalone
> Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Blizzard Forums will soon display real name
>
> Hey all,
>
> This may be old news to some on the list (especially since it was just
> linked this morning at Penny-Arcade) but there is a fairly long
> comment by a female gamer & MetaFilter in the thread on this issue:
> http://is.gd/dlBlj
>
> I'm not really certain that the author reaches any dramatic
> conclusions (trolling won't be discouraged, RL harassment will occur,
> the gaming community has racist & sexist biases that will discourage
> participation by minority and female players), but  do think that it's
> a nice statement of concerns on the issue that, in the coming hours,
> will get quite a few more hits thanks to the aforementioned PA link &
> as such may soon become a more specific talking point.
>
> Best,
>
> pml
>
> On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Nick Lalone <nick.lalone at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The forums for FFXI were kind of strange. Allakhazam was strong early on
> but
> > around the 3rd expansion most discussion had moved on to Blue Gartr or
> other
> > individual linkshell forums or livejournal groups. They moved because
> other
> > websites were doing what Allakhazam were doing better but without forums
> > (FFXIOnline was much more popular than alla for a while). At some point,
> > Square itself created official forums for linkshells through their
> community
> > stuff. Later, the online auction house FFXIAH also had really active
> forums.
> > The same thing was around WoW. Forums like SomethingAwful's:
> > http://grab.by/5lnD are still super active and independent discussion of
> WoW
> > for people interested in the "end game" business would go to blogs to
> > discuss things as well as individual guild forums.
> >
> > So I suppose to me this boils down to the casual WoW folks who find
> > community in the official forums as well as those in the WoW "end game"
> who
> > probably do not (exceptions abound here). I want to see how that will then
> > change as the trophy trolls of trade chat and the official forums will no
> > longer be able to completely hide like they once could. I can also see the
> > Real ID stuff really mattering for competing end game groups on the same
> > servers. But even then, Blizzard has minimized this competition through
> > instancing, cross server looking for group, and other things. So in the
> end,
> > I suppose i do not see real issue with the REAL ID stuff simply because
> > Blizzard has done a lot to mitigate the possibility of internet fury that
> > might fuel e-stalking and harassment.
> >
> > That said, I am also sure that for certain groups, this will be
> problematic.
> > Women playing Tauren who do not talk on ventrillo or men playing women who
> > also do not talk on ventrillo who then seduce other male players for
> maximum
> > profit. Certain aspects of that culture, I am sure, Blizzard will be happy
> > to not deal with again.
> >
> > I have to wonder what new uncomfortable MMO style drama would arise from
> > this change.
> >
> > Nick
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 5:00 PM, Mia Consalvo <consalvo at ohio.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> I haven't read the WoW forums much, since I only played the game briefly,
> >> but the tone of the forums always surprised me for its viciousness (which
> >> also was problematic in terms of racism, homophobia and sexism being
> >> present)- I was a longtime reader of the forums for Final Fantasy 11,
> where
> >> things seemed much more civil. I don't know if it was the game, the type
> of
> >> player attracted, or even perhaps the fact that FF11's forums were *not*
> >> official-- Square had no such official ones, so players started them
> >> elsewhere (I read the ones on Allakhazam). I wonder if enough players are
> >> upset, if there would be greater movement towards 'independent' forums
> like
> >> that.
> >>
> >> Mia
> >>
> >> On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 5:31 PM, live <human.factor.one at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Love what you stated here.
> >> > Very similar to what Bonnie Nardi of UC Irvine stated in a new blog
> post:
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> http://umichpress.typepad.com/university_of_michigan_pr/2010/07/bonnie-nardi
> -is-author-of-my-life-as-a-night-elf-priest-a-new-book-on-the-culture-and-ga
> meplay-in-the-international-bestsell.html
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On Jul 8, 2010, at 8:31 AM, David Jones wrote:
> >> >
> >> >  I've grown more and more concerned about the power of companies like
> >> >> Facebook or Blizzard to dictate what constitutes "identitity" and how
> >> >> people
> >> >> manage their online personas. Mark Zuckerberg has used the rhetoric of
> >> >> "openness" and "integrity" to push Facebook's default stance of making
> >> >> their
> >> >> participants' data public. There are all sorts of scary questions
> about
> >> a
> >> >> company like Facebook deciding it has the right -- even the ethical
> >> >> obligation -- to determine what constitutes an online identity.
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
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> >> >
> >> > Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> >> > http://www.aoir.org/
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Mia Consalvo, Ph.D.
> >> Visiting Associate Professor
> >> Comparative Media Studies
> >> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> >> 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building  14N-226
> >> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
> >> USA
> >> consalvo at mit.edu
> >> 617.324.1868
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
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> >>
> >> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> >> http://www.aoir.org/
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Nick LaLone
> > Texas State University-San Marcos
> > Systems Support / Master's Student
> > www.beforegamedesign.com
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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