Post soundtrack: “Mean to Me” by Doris Day
The official forum thread has passed 1500 pages, so the public outcry by players hasn’t died away, at least not quite yet… (Colour me cynical, this morning – three hours of sleep does not make a happy blogger) My money’s on the majority of complaints fading by Monday – at least until we get whatever is the next step in the Real ID implementation. (Seriously, did you think this was the end? Wow, I love my shiny new tin-foil hat!)
Anyway. More blogs have chimed in on RealID.
What You Did There; I See It. – RealID Changes; The Very Real Ease of Stalking In The Internet Age (This is a must-read)
Druid Main – Blizzard + Real ID + Forums = WTF?
Restokin – Privacy matters for constructive posters, not trolls
Dreambound – Security Shot in the Back
Slow Wolf – Blizzard = Mark Zuckerberg?
QQ Pwn More. – Real ID – A Blessing and a Curse
OutDPS.com – RealID Coming to Forums!
Falling Leaves and Wings – What If I Don’t Want To Be First?
Planet of the Hats – My perspective on RealID
Totemz – Battle Net Changes to Hit Forums
Letters From Birdfall – Real ID Forums, or “Safe to Say 99% of Players Are Against It?”
Achtung Panzercow – RealIDiocy
Mysterious Buttons – Obligatory Real ID post
Kiss My Alas – Tugging Threads
Pink Pigtail Inn – And now what?
Through the Eyes of a Tree – Loooooong Time!
A High Latency Life – Papers Please!
Kurn’s Corner – Real ID and the Official WoW Forums
Lume the Mad – Are you serious? (and Let’s Send Them a Message About Real ID)
Murloc Parliament – Altered Deals: Yet another RealID Essay
Light’s Fury – Real ID – Really?
The Wayward Initiative – Opinion Bandwagon: Real ID + Forums
Troll Racials are Overpowered – Trolling in the other direction
backseatdev – Thumbs down for Real ID
quaunaut.com – RealID, Anonymity, and the Internet
The Stoppable Force – Weighing in on the forum Real ID issue
Dechion’s Place – WTF are they smoking?
Hello Tauren! – Rabble. Rabble. Rabble.
Diabolical Minds – Blizzard, Real ID Plans, and Battle.net
Leader of the Pack – A thought on RealID
Pugnacious Priest – I can Facilitate My Own Meaningful Relationships
Random Ravings of Warcraft – Blizzard forums – RealID (with some extra informative links at the end of the post)
Some mainstream news sites have also started noticing that WoW players aren’t completely happy.
Santa Fe Examiner, World of Warcraft Players WoWed by Blizzard’s REALID announcement.
The BBC, World of Warcraft maker to end anonymous forum logins.
AP News Service, Bye-bye trolls? Blizzard forums to use real names.
And there have been some opinion pieces:
Filefront on Why Blizzard’s ‘Real ID’ is a Really Bad Idea.
Crunchgear seems to be in favour of it, Don’t like Blizzard’s new anti-anonymous commenting policy? Tough luck.
Massively with Real ID – Do we finally have our WoW killer?
Mary’s Antivirus Software Blog on About.com, WoW Real ID: A Really Bad Idea
Rock, Paper Shotgun with Broken Armour: Blizzard’s Forum Folly
Unfortunately I don’t think there will be much momentum behind this – people who are going to quit over this will quit, and those who are upset but aren’t willing to take that step, won’t. But the large number of players who either don’t see the problem or feel that they won’t be affected by the changes will shrug and log on to another alt. But it’s okay, we have the bread-and-circuses of the Cataclysm beta to distract our attention. (Look! Shiny!)
So things will most likely return to normal - at least until something else comes to light, such as a further expansion of Real ID. The Starcraft 2 forums will be going live before the launch of the game on the 27th, so I guess we’ll have a chance to see how the new system runs before the WoW version goes live. I for one will be sure to have some popcorn on hand, just in case it proves as… entertaining as I suspect it will.
And people who’re staying might want to bear in mind the metaphor of the boiling frog.
/wave
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