Post soundtrack: “Close The Windows” by Subroc from the Flatout Soundtrack
Real ID has been turned on in the 3.3.5 PTR, and I’m beginning to wonder if Blizzard really likes things in binary – all or nothing seems to be a common theme in WotLK.
Consider previous examples: raid size for a start. You could have it easy (10-man with at least some 25-man gear from running both versions, which leaves you over-geared for the instance) or hard (25-man, where you’re at the correct gear level for the difficulty level at which the content is tuned). Raid difficulty: normal modes (easy, once you’ve acquired gear from that tier) vs hard modes (aka the raidwide-who-stands-in-fire detector).
Just don’t get me started on the lack of a ‘medium’ difficulty setting for WotLK raids. But I digress.
Continuing this philosophy with Real ID, you either share everything, including your real name from your account, or you don’t use it. (Yes, I know it’s opt-in – shhhh, you’re ruining my rant.)
Now, I’d love to be able to allow ex-guildies to keep in touch this way, but I don’t use my real name in-game. Ever. (Even with online friends outside of WoW, only a couple of people know my RL name, so it’s not something specific to the game for me) And regardless of the (substantial!) appeal of things like cross-realm and cross-faction chat, the price just isn’t acceptable.
I have a single identity I use with WoW (KiwiRed, the name I write this blog under), and if I was able to use that instead of my name from my account, I’d be fine with Real ID. But until that is offered as an option, it’s just not a service I’m willing to use.
/wave
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