Privacy; Blizzard; and being the only one in costume…
Lucious the Luscious; Sabrina the Sorceress; Paul Philbaum, Crombie, PA, acct.; Rena Tsolitias, adm. asst to Mr. Philbaum; Larry Goldberg, CPA; Crombie, PA. (All names totally fictional, for the purposes of illustration)
Maybe your teammates figure out that you’re an accountant, too. After all, if your friends all go by their real name and you’re simply “Grandmaster G”; you go from part of a club to “that guy”. No one wants to be “that guy”. We want to be “that group”.
If you opt out when all else are “opting in”, you go from being cool to being an insider trying to be an outsider. More after the jump…
Photo courtesy of Flickr; http://www.flickr.com/photos/katclay/4449231084/, Creative Commons, attribution required.
An outstandingly thought-out article about Blizzard’s plan to use RealID for Starcraft MMO. (From Networkworld)
Another incisive guess (or discovery) from a Harvard law student’s blog about WHY this Blizzard game makes RealID necessary. (Korea?)
A gamer’s blog with a decidedly even-handed description of why RealID is a bad idea. (Epic Slant) My absolute favorite quote, “The internet is full of cowards. These cowards delight in forums and message boards because they can say terrible things with little to no consequence”
A gaming blog’s listing of reasons why it is a good idea, from MMOsite.com, Celkie’s blog. (Total disagreement; but the logic is impeccable, that’s why it’s included)
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Other blogs giving their opinion on the debate, (including an incident with the de-privatization of an executive’s identity, and an about-face by Blizzard[perhaps] on this being a firm rule). These presented without comment.
http://www.gamingunion.net/news/blizzards-community-manager-the-first-victim-of-real-id–2141.html
http://www.digitalsociety.org/2010/07/is-world-of-warcraft-headed-into-privacy-troubles/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8806623.stm
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2010/07/blizzard-backs-down-from-real-name-requirement-on-its-forums/1
http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/8551/battlenet-removes-veil-of-anonymity-on-forums-real-names-used
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Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.
Tags: Blizzard, identity, MMOs, privacy, RealID, Starcraft II
