Post soundtrack: “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head” by ELO
Thought I’d take a break from my SW:G dalliance, and comment on the latest rant-worthy news from Blizz.
They have finally posted some updated RealID information on the forums, and three items from it caught my attention.
Q: Will the new StarCraft II forum posting name format (character name + character code) carry over into the forum communities of other Blizzard games?
A: Following our recent decision to no longer use real first and last names on Blizzard forums, we’re still evaluating how we’ll move forward with our other forums. Our ultimate goal is still to promote constructive conversations and improve the overall forum experience for our players, and we think increasing accountability is an important part of achieving that. StarCraft II already uses a character name and character code combo in-game, which serves as a unique player identifier and fits well with our goal for the forums. World of Warcraft handles player identification differently, so we still need to determine whether adding a character code system like in StarCraft II is the best solution. Ultimately, we want to come up with a system that makes sense for each community and fits our long-term vision for the forums.
This is promising, but I’m wary of getting my hopes up at this stage. An account-specific alias is pretty much what I wanted before I’d post on the forums under the new system, but we’ll have to wait and see if they can allow us to create an alias that we’re happy to use to identify ourselves on the forums or if they’ll insist on making us use a non-player-created ID – I can see them trying to sneak in a last-name-plus-character-code system, to be quite honest.
Needless to say, after the privacy train-wreck that was the initial plan for their RID implementation, I have no confidence that they can come up with something that players will actually want to use, as opposed to something that insists on trying to re-shape player habits (and wishes regarding privacy) in keeping with their grand “social gaming network” vision.
Seriously, this just doesn’t feel like it’s coming from the same developers who brought WoW to us – it feels like a design specification thrown together by the clueless brother-in-law of a marketing executive’s family member (“Everyone’s on Facebook – let’s copy them!”). Blizzard is known for taking an idea someone else came up with, sanding off the rough edges and polishing it until it shines. While that philosophy can work apparent miracles, in this case it feels like they are trying to build a feature out of a visionary mission statement written by another corporation’s public relations department.
Q: Do you have any plans to allow players to not show their real name to friends of friends while using the Real ID system?
A: As with any new feature we add to our games, we've been evaluating how Real ID has been used since its release to identify new functionality that would help improve our players’ experience. The in-game Real ID “friends of friends” list is designed to give players a convenient way to populate their Real ID friends list with other players they know and trust in real life, allowing them to quickly and easily send Real ID friend requests to these people without having to enter their Battle.net® account names. However, we recognize that some players would prefer not to be displayed on friends lists in this fashion, so we plan to include an option that will allow players to opt out of appearing on their Real ID friends’ “friends of friends” lists. We're anticipating this feature to be available for StarCraft II shortly after release of the game, and World of Warcraft at around the same time -- we’ll have more information for you in the coming weeks.
Jolly good, nice to see they’ve picked up on that little flaw in their vision. Sadly it’s rendered irrelevant by the next gem. (Also, opt-in is better than opt-out, but at least they’re including it as an option…)
Q: Are there any plans to change the in-game Real ID system so that players will have the option to display an assigned user name instead of their real names?
A: The Real ID system is designed to help real-life friends and family who decide to use it keep in touch with each other across Blizzard games, and our goal in using real names is to ensure that players will be able to maintain long-term, meaningful relationships on the service for years to come. One way it helps make that happen is by eliminating the need to remember who, for example, "Thrall123" really is when you see him or her pop up on your friends list again after months -- or years -- of being offline. Ultimately, we think this is the best way to ensure players who use Real ID are able stay connected with the people they enjoy playing with most in the long-term, and we don’t currently have any plans to change the system so it can be used with character names or alternate handles instead. That said, Battle.net is a living, breathing service that we will continue to evolve over time as we evaluate how players are using it and identify new ways to improve the experience.
Well, for a company who have had so much experience with MMO gamers, they seem to be remarkably… let’s just say, “Bull-headed.” The problem with one-size-fits-all solutions (“Real names make everything better!”) is that they rarely fit anyone very well. Especially not gamers who may have been using a single alias since discovering the world of online gaming.
But let’s see what they’re really saying: “The Real ID system is designed to help real-life friends and family who decide to use it keep in touch with each other across Blizzard games, and our goal in using real names is to ensure that players will be able to maintain long-term, meaningful relationships on the service for years to come.” Fine and dandy. Except RL friends and family are already in touch with each other. Seriously, they use instant messengers, email, facebook – any number of out-of-game systems. (Also, “real-life friends and family”? – just how large is this section of the player base around whose social interactions they’re shaping the features that are applying to everyone else who plays the game?)
And “maintain long-term, meaningful relationships”? That might have some validity if the service was available to players who aren’t currently subscribers. Once they stop paying to play, they have to fall back on, oh, instant messengers, email, facebook. Their definition of “long-term” would appear to consist of “while you are a paying customer”.
“One way it helps make that happen is by eliminating the need to remember who, for example, "Thrall123" really is when you see him or her pop up on your friends list again after months -- or years -- of being offline.” Of my online friends, the names I know them by, and by extension, the names I recognise them by in-game, are not their real names. I know the real names of a couple of ex-guild-mates, but they’re very much the exception. That’s the greatest failure of RealID with it’s focus on “real names for real players”: real players use real aliases.* (Plus “months – or years – of being offline” kind of requires that they’ve already signed up for RID. Players who aren’t currently playing need not apply.)
Well, colour me unimpressed. Needless to say, I (still) won’t be using RID in-game, with the real-name requirement. But it’d be nice to have the choice of posting on the forums under my identity of choice – if I’m still a subscriber, at least.
/wave
* – All broad sweeping statements are false. Including this one.
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