Am I the only one here who is thinking that everybody is making such a big deal about this?
It is just your full name, there is no privacy about it. Even if you would go stand at the middle of a market and scream MY NAME IS BOB, that is not invasion of privacy.
You want a real invasion? They can track your IP, which means they can find out your location. That's a lot more privacy then just a name
So really, what is the problem here? What can giving your name do to invade your privacy?
It's supposed to be extracted, but people are making fake accounts.
More reason for me to get a different account when I get SCII...
This is pretty bad, but that's what Blizzard seems to be trying to force on its fanbase lately.
@People who don't think it's a big deal.
The main source of anonymity on the internet is the fact that people can't tie your nickname to your real name. The moment you take that away you're no longer anonymous.
IP address, yes, Blizzard can track it down. More or less... if you use Tor/VPN they will probably not bother. IP addresses do not in fact equate to people, and not all IP address searches will find you. But, most importantly, this is in Blizzard. It's not on a search engine. Just like your name is not supposed to be.
On the other hand, your real name (if it is in fact your real name) can be used to pinpoint you among users if someone knows it. Never mind if the name is pseudo-rare, like mine, there's probably only one of me on the whole battle.net. Even if the name is fairly common, if someone IRL knows it, they can find your internet personality that way, and some people don't want that. I've been pretty successful finding people just by their real names and a few random info, and I never even used anything besides google. I could only imagine what people can find with specialized programs. If someone wants to stalk you, they'll be able to much more easily.
Similarly, if you want to know what a person's real name is, to look up their Facebook account or something, or their records in sports teams, parties, whatever, there are many random places that record names, and you know them as a nickname set, you probably won't have trouble finding their name.
You can pretty much get the same general information with an IP.
And what would people do with this information? Send you spam mail? Go to your house and kill you?
If you made people mad enough to kill you then you suck and should have thought about thinking before doing things.
You are all making this much more then it really is, there is no privacy on the internet to start with,
My name is Richard Garcia born 22 March 1991 in the city of Leeuwarden which is located in the Netherlands: Europe currently in the semi-finals of Soccer 2010. I still live here and nobody here is going to do something with this information because nobody cares.
If you were in the US I could be a dick and figure out ur phone number and keep calling you.
You can pretty much get the same general information with an IP.
If I gave you my current IP address right now you wouldn't be able to find almost anything, even IF you somehow magically managed to find every website visited by it, and every game played on it. Probably because I've only been using it for 2 weeks. IP addresses are not people. IP addresses are not households. You need a chain of the correct addresses to find anything on a person which is tons harder to do, and it's tons harder to find anything using them. Compared to a real name that's just laughable.
And what would people do with this information? Send you spam mail? Go to your house and kill you?
If you made people mad enough to kill you then you suck and should have thought about thinking before doing things.
Please tell me you're kidding. I guess you were never bullied in school, never met people who hated you for no reason, never spoke out or went against the majority (or a system) for personal reasons, never annoyed someone who had a crush on you, never became a target due to something you own or can do? Sounds pretty boring. But, hey, not worried about your privacy, great. Did you mention you lived in Europe? Do you realize some countries are more overheated than others? They have different attitudes towards things and therefore regulation and standards in place, thus privacy is a different issue in different countries? Not everyone is in your exact position (or Bashiok's) and if you don't understand their's it may just mean you're a bit shortsighted?
You are all making this much more then it really is, there is no privacy on the internet to start with,
There's immediate privacy, which is all most people want. There's also no-bother privacy, which occurs from a person being too insignificant from those with power to bother, and those without power, well, have no power. I believe people are much more protected online than they are offline.
Imo only anti-social nerds and geeks are afraid of sharing their name. A normal outgoing social person will tell you your name when you ask him for.
Some of us are introverts. The majority of video game players, especially ones like Diablo, are introverts. So we're in favor of a system that ignores the main audience of Diablo because...?
If you (Blizzard) have something against geeks, nerds, and people who are not outgoing and social (what good do those people do anyway), you're in the wrong market.
[And I'm not even going into how wrong and biased and fucked up and negative that attitude is, I think people like you should be <insert something bad here> just for your disregard of fellow human beings different from yourself.]
Imagine someone actually pretending to be a woman in order to get free stuff from the guild (or something like that), now he would be mad and really afraid because of this.
Imagine someone making a new account and using a fake female name. His name is now displayed and everyone believes he's female, since many people are just like you and think the system is failproof.
So, I was going to try to refute what you guys were saying (Airandius especially, I'm quite ashamed of you, I thought you were awesome up until this point), but I'll just link to the postsEquinox made.
Seriously, you can have me any time you want, you just provided me a new way to win every argument, and do no work at all.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
You do realize that it's not just shy antisocial serial killer pedophile rapists that are afraid of sharing their real names, right?
Hell, I serve as a perfect example of that, I'm none of the above (though the kid across the street gets me hot, but that was only one time), yet I'm not too excited about the prospect of sharing my name with EVERYONE ON THE FORUM.
You're an idiot if you think that nothing can be done with that information, I'm not saying something WILL happen, but it would be naive and stupid to pass it off as "whatever, nothing will happen". You piss off the wrong person, and you can easily be the victim of identity theft.
How, you ask?
Go to google, type in "free people finder". Browse through the many fine websites you see before you.
Majority of them give address, phone number, relatives, and a host of other information.
You do realize you can make friends without being forced to share your name, right?
Fuck, we've done it for years in games.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Quote from "Sixen" »
"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.
I am sure that Blizzard are aiming at making their games a real social networx (like facebook etc.) and that can be a good thing - you can find new friends actually.
Facebook friends are real friends. /sarcasm
I actually found friends on Battle.net. I MET a person from Battle.net. Somehow I needed neither Real ID's nor Facebook to accomplish that.
Btw the point of MMOs is actually this very thing. Being able to socialize with the people in-game will help you beat it (and I am not referring to casual puging I mean the real hard stuff).
I do not like MMO's, and we're on a Diablo forum, discussing something relevant to a Diablo forum, which, last time I checked, was not a MMO.
Do you believe something BAD will happen? 100 % will not! You are not a unique snowflake so you can't be bothered with this change at all.
Let me decide that, not random people at a random game company. And whether am I a unique snowflake or not is none of your knowledge nor any of your business.
You do realize that it's not just shy antisocial serial killer pedophile rapists that are afraid of sharing their real names, right?
Hell, I serve as a perfect example of that, I'm none of the above (though the kid across the street gets me hot, but that was only one time), yet I'm not too excited about the prospect of sharing my name with EVERYONE ON THE FORUM.
You're an idiot if you think that nothing can be done with that information, I'm not saying something WILL happen, but it would be naive and stupid to pass it off as "whatever, nothing will happen". You piss off the wrong person, and you can easily be the victim of identity theft.
How, you ask?
Go to google, type in "free people finder". Browse through the many fine websites you see before you.
Majority of them give address, phone number, relatives, and a host of other information.
You do realize you can make friends without being forced to share your name, right?
Fuck, we've done it for years in games.
"Ryan Smith"
Knock yourselves out. No really, go ahead.
This is getting ridiculous. It's your name. To be displayed on a forum that in no way affects your interaction with any of Blizzard's games.
I'd say what it comes down to, is that it's Blizzard's official forum. It's their turf. If they feel this is what they need to do to make THEIR forums respectable again, all the power to them, and again I say it's long overdue.
This isn't even a case of 'It's their game, play by their rules.' You're not playing anything. They don't owe you the forums, much less the forums how you would like it at their (literal) expense.
What's funny is that...we're all complaining about it on this forum. Obviously this is something beyond optional. We don't just have one or two or 5 choices, there are dozens of Blizzard and Diablo-related forums one might choose from. If one of them were to do this, and it bothered you, you'd just shrug and say 'Oh, weird. Not for me, thanks.', and not give it a second thought.
Many people are here saying 'Oh, I don't go on those forums anyway.' Good for you. No, really, I mean, who cares? You don't, I don't.
I just don't get the melodrama and FUUUUUUUU rage going on. If you're not down with it, stay away from the forums. If posting on Blizzard's forums is that important to you, really sit down and consider of catering to Blizzard's desire for a decent atmosphere on their own forums by something as harmless (yes, it's harmless) as your name.
I'm not even saying this is 100% the best and perfect way for them to do it, but it's certainly not the worst or 'most retarded' (you all sound 12 when you say that, by the way), and I don't feel they've overstepped themselves at all in this.
I know you neither in real life nor online, so I neither have reason nor capacity to search for you.
Someone I actually know in real life, or someone I know online, I'll be able to. I know, I've done it before.
And Jay & Co repeated on regular basis that Diablo will be more player friendly and will aim from co-operative game which leads to making basic connections with someone playing with you in your room...
Jay & Co are selling a product and will therefore say many things, including those that will make absolutely no difference or impact on the game. If you think the changes Blizzard is implementing will make people online more friendly and connected you're very deeply mistaken.
Your pedantism is outstanding (and I bet you are a WoW hater too). I am referring to Blizzard games which will be all joined together thanks to the new Battle.net and they will become a social network thus making Blizzard games social. Sorry but that's the way it is.
Almost correct, I'm a WoW disliker.
Joining games on a network doesn't make them social. It just makes them joined on a network. If a game does not rely on being social, it's not comparable to a MMO, and you can play Diablo and StarCraft in very antisocial ways. Like I did, and will continue doing.
www.myspace.com/mpotatoes for all your Trans Siberian Orchestra listening pleasure
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
Requiring display of real names takes away the ambiguous charm we've all come to know and love in the web, and it takes away a large amount of freedom. Some people don't have awesome names. Seth Harkins? Magistrate, plz. And I am a bit of an introvert. I had to take the Myers-Briggs personality test three times last semester for different classes and got a 100% introvert rating each time
There are far simpler and less intrusive ways of managing their board. This was just a cop out imo.
Requiring display of real names takes away the ambiguous charm we've all come to know and love in the web, and it takes away a large amount of freedom. Some people don't have awesome names. Seth Harkins? Magistrate, plz. And I am a bit of an introvert. I had to take the Myers-Briggs personality test three times last semester for different classes and got a 100% introvert rating each time
There are far simpler and less intrusive ways of managing their board. This was just a cop out imo.
Eh, the only kind of freedom being lost here is the kind we see primarily in John Gabriel's 'Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory'.
I think all this anger is better directed at the idiots that made the forums the cesspool they are today. All the Grimace-posting amoebas are getting exactly what they asked for, and the rest of us get to live with it because of them.
And I'll worry about all the fans Blizzard is allegedly going to lose in 3 weeks when I'm staring at the SC2 servers on launch day. Can you see the look of concern on my face? :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
This is what it can do.
Seriously, read down to where they found out everything about him, and try to tell me again that nothing can be done with "just a name".
This is pretty bad, but that's what Blizzard seems to be trying to force on its fanbase lately.
@People who don't think it's a big deal.
The main source of anonymity on the internet is the fact that people can't tie your nickname to your real name. The moment you take that away you're no longer anonymous.
IP address, yes, Blizzard can track it down. More or less... if you use Tor/VPN they will probably not bother. IP addresses do not in fact equate to people, and not all IP address searches will find you. But, most importantly, this is in Blizzard. It's not on a search engine. Just like your name is not supposed to be.
On the other hand, your real name (if it is in fact your real name) can be used to pinpoint you among users if someone knows it. Never mind if the name is pseudo-rare, like mine, there's probably only one of me on the whole battle.net. Even if the name is fairly common, if someone IRL knows it, they can find your internet personality that way, and some people don't want that. I've been pretty successful finding people just by their real names and a few random info, and I never even used anything besides google. I could only imagine what people can find with specialized programs. If someone wants to stalk you, they'll be able to much more easily.
Similarly, if you want to know what a person's real name is, to look up their Facebook account or something, or their records in sports teams, parties, whatever, there are many random places that record names, and you know them as a nickname set, you probably won't have trouble finding their name.
Please tell me you're kidding. I guess you were never bullied in school, never met people who hated you for no reason, never spoke out or went against the majority (or a system) for personal reasons, never annoyed someone who had a crush on you, never became a target due to something you own or can do? Sounds pretty boring. But, hey, not worried about your privacy, great. Did you mention you lived in Europe? Do you realize some countries are more overheated than others? They have different attitudes towards things and therefore regulation and standards in place, thus privacy is a different issue in different countries? Not everyone is in your exact position (or Bashiok's) and if you don't understand their's it may just mean you're a bit shortsighted?
There's immediate privacy, which is all most people want. There's also no-bother privacy, which occurs from a person being too insignificant from those with power to bother, and those without power, well, have no power. I believe people are much more protected online than they are offline.
Some of us are introverts. The majority of video game players, especially ones like Diablo, are introverts. So we're in favor of a system that ignores the main audience of Diablo because...?
If you (Blizzard) have something against geeks, nerds, and people who are not outgoing and social (what good do those people do anyway), you're in the wrong market.
[And I'm not even going into how wrong and biased and fucked up and negative that attitude is, I think people like you should be <insert something bad here> just for your disregard of fellow human beings different from yourself.]
Imagine someone making a new account and using a fake female name. His name is now displayed and everyone believes he's female, since many people are just like you and think the system is failproof.
Seriously, you can have me any time you want, you just provided me a new way to win every argument, and do no work at all.
Hell, I serve as a perfect example of that, I'm none of the above (though the kid across the street gets me hot, but that was only one time), yet I'm not too excited about the prospect of sharing my name with EVERYONE ON THE FORUM.
You're an idiot if you think that nothing can be done with that information, I'm not saying something WILL happen, but it would be naive and stupid to pass it off as "whatever, nothing will happen". You piss off the wrong person, and you can easily be the victim of identity theft.
How, you ask?
Go to google, type in "free people finder". Browse through the many fine websites you see before you.
Majority of them give address, phone number, relatives, and a host of other information.
You do realize you can make friends without being forced to share your name, right?
Fuck, we've done it for years in games.
I actually found friends on Battle.net. I MET a person from Battle.net. Somehow I needed neither Real ID's nor Facebook to accomplish that.
Serial killers commit 1% of all crimes. I'm worried more about the other 99%.
I do not like MMO's, and we're on a Diablo forum, discussing something relevant to a Diablo forum, which, last time I checked, was not a MMO.
First of all, that's neither your nor Blizzard's business. Second of all, that point is covered above.
Let me decide that, not random people at a random game company. And whether am I a unique snowflake or not is none of your knowledge nor any of your business.
"Ryan Smith"
Knock yourselves out. No really, go ahead.
This is getting ridiculous. It's your name. To be displayed on a forum that in no way affects your interaction with any of Blizzard's games.
I'd say what it comes down to, is that it's Blizzard's official forum. It's their turf. If they feel this is what they need to do to make THEIR forums respectable again, all the power to them, and again I say it's long overdue.
This isn't even a case of 'It's their game, play by their rules.' You're not playing anything. They don't owe you the forums, much less the forums how you would like it at their (literal) expense.
What's funny is that...we're all complaining about it on this forum. Obviously this is something beyond optional. We don't just have one or two or 5 choices, there are dozens of Blizzard and Diablo-related forums one might choose from. If one of them were to do this, and it bothered you, you'd just shrug and say 'Oh, weird. Not for me, thanks.', and not give it a second thought.
Many people are here saying 'Oh, I don't go on those forums anyway.' Good for you. No, really, I mean, who cares? You don't, I don't.
I just don't get the melodrama and FUUUUUUUU rage going on. If you're not down with it, stay away from the forums. If posting on Blizzard's forums is that important to you, really sit down and consider of catering to Blizzard's desire for a decent atmosphere on their own forums by something as harmless (yes, it's harmless) as your name.
I'm not even saying this is 100% the best and perfect way for them to do it, but it's certainly not the worst or 'most retarded' (you all sound 12 when you say that, by the way), and I don't feel they've overstepped themselves at all in this.
Whew. Man. I'm done with this topic. I'm out.
Someone I actually know in real life, or someone I know online, I'll be able to. I know, I've done it before.
Comparing a social game to a hack&slash is a generalization that's not permissible in this context.
Jay & Co are selling a product and will therefore say many things, including those that will make absolutely no difference or impact on the game. If you think the changes Blizzard is implementing will make people online more friendly and connected you're very deeply mistaken.
Joining games on a network doesn't make them social. It just makes them joined on a network. If a game does not rely on being social, it's not comparable to a MMO, and you can play Diablo and StarCraft in very antisocial ways. Like I did, and will continue doing.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7771505/Video-game-fanatic-hunts-down-and-stabs-rival-player-who-killed-character-online.html
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
.......Gooooood.....
Blizzard may lose a large proportion of their fanbase from this.
.......Gooooood.....
Fools.
Or else!!! ̿ ̿̿’̿’\̵͇̿̿\з==(•̪●)==ε/̵͇̿̿/’̿’̿ ̿ ̿̿
There are far simpler and less intrusive ways of managing their board. This was just a cop out imo.
Eh, the only kind of freedom being lost here is the kind we see primarily in John Gabriel's 'Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory'.
I think all this anger is better directed at the idiots that made the forums the cesspool they are today. All the Grimace-posting amoebas are getting exactly what they asked for, and the rest of us get to live with it because of them.
And I'll worry about all the fans Blizzard is allegedly going to lose in 3 weeks when I'm staring at the SC2 servers on launch day. Can you see the look of concern on my face? :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
If you and someone else get pissed off at each other:
You: "You asshole! You stole my SOJ!"
Asshole: "haha eat my fag."
You: "*Looks at blizzard website Forums, locates the asshole* Asshole- aka Dany Quin."
......
You: "Hey asshole! I know who you are, and im going to kill you and your family."
Dany Quin: "Ya sure kid...Im sooo scared.
You: "Im glad you are...Dany Quin."
Dany Quin: "What the Fuck?!!?"
You: "*Went to Dany's house and murdered him and his family*"
Or else!!! ̿ ̿̿’̿’\̵͇̿̿\з==(•̪●)==ε/̵͇̿̿/’̿’̿ ̿ ̿̿
Or...
Dany Quin: "So, you think you're scary because you saw me on the forums and know my name? Lalz."
You: "....QQ"
.................So uh, Kiserai.....Are you in the Blizzard Forums?
*Begins looking for Kiserai's real name.*
Why??? Oh no reason......
*Loads .45*
See you soon
Or else!!! ̿ ̿̿’̿’\̵͇̿̿\з==(•̪●)==ε/̵͇̿̿/’̿’̿ ̿ ̿̿