Poll: Yeah But Do You Still Like Real ID?
By maryvarn on July 16th, 2010Posted In: NPC Blog,Polls,Video Games,World of Warcraft
I was going to do a big post about the results from last week’s poll, but thanks to Blizzard’s fast action on behalf of the outcries about Real ID forum names, there’s not much need. The vocal majority did not want real names in the official forums, and the poll here was no exception. I closed the poll, and you can check out the results yourself here.
But it got me wondering about Real ID in general. Sure, it won’t be required to post in the forums anymore, but it still exists. I have yet to friend anyone with it. If I do, I think I’m gonna limit it to my family. (I always like to remind you that my Mom, Dad, and brother play WoW. 
) Have you guys been using Real ID to keep in touch with WoW friends? Do you like it? Does it ruin the immersion? Feel free to use the comments to talk about it, whether it’s touched on in the following poll or not.
Haven’t used it and won’t use it. Keep your nasty RL out of my MMO please.
Ditto.
I like the ability to chat cross realm/faction with friends, but I would much prefer if it used a screen name. I would be far more willing to allow others access to chat with me if it did use a screen name, as it is I have only invited people that already knew my real name.
I voted “other.” I added spurious parental controls to my account. The default then is RealID disabled, effectively opting out of RealID. I imagine many people who did not wish to cancel their accounts did likewise, thus sending a more subtle message to Blizzavision. If I wanna talk to my friends while escaping RL, I use Skype.
I like its in-game functionality a lot – I really enjoy being able to chat cross faction/server but… does it -have- to be my full real name? A nickname (or even just first name and last initial) would be better. I probably wouldn’t use it any more/less if it was a nickname/partial name because the people I don’t mind seeing -all- of my characters are people I don’t mind knowing my full name. But in general it’d be better.
Yeah I enjoy being able to talk to my old WoW friends who have moved away from me and my faction =P haha.
I agree that you should be able to use a screen name or nickname as mine is currently set to my brother’s name and yeah.. I’m a girl lol.
Overall, enjoying it.
Real ID is possibly the worst and best idea blizzard has ever had. The ability to talk cross realm (and game with SCII) and be known under one name on the forums is great, but having it be your real name is a invitation to abuse.
Real ID would be perfect if it only involved a nickname asociated with your battle.net account and not names, email adresses and friends of friends.
I posted other. I use it, but would love certain refinements.
I use it because the ability to talk with certain people cross-server is too good to pass up. However, I’d like the ability to be hidden at times. I’d love it *more* if using my real name was optional and I could have a universal handle of some sort for other people.
After the LFG implementation I guess I’ve come to expect stellar improvements in game.
I voted on “I havent tried it yet” but i dont like the idea of adding social networking in an mmo like wow, i mean u have other sites like facebook and twitter which do that, and if you really like to play with someone and have become friends then you can add them on facebook, if you dont feel secure aout adding them on facebook or orkut, etc. then maybe you should ask yourself that if adding a stranger as a real id friend in wow is a right move…
it just opens up more problems like stalking and people who u dont know irritating you
or maybe im just shy and insecure when telling people on wow any of my details
I have good and bad feelings about this. Yeah all my friends know my real name, I have no issue with that, but it be nice to have an option to have a real name, OR a display name of your choosing. They very well COULD have used it on the forums, if they gave people that one simple option, allow them to chose a display name to be used instead of their real name.
Aside that, I do LOVE realID. I can now play on other realms and still be able to talk to friends. Be able to chat to friends horde side, is very nice. I’ve had a few such friends that I’ve had even though we never been able to clearly TALK, cross faction, but the fact they always hugged, joked, never PURPOSELY killed me when I flagged (oopsies do happen) and being around a whole raid and being the only alliance they wont directly attack? Love me rezing fools for them to kill? (Okay you can say I’m a traitor, so what xD) Real ID, now I’m able to really TALK with them. Have more fun, They now joined alli side to play with me and I still get to play as their little spy when they do city raids for the fun of it (and they do the same for me)
Being able to talk cross realm is also very nice. I can play on my horde realm and still keep in touch with friends if they want to run something.
Another thing I DO wish for, is the ability to put yourself on ‘Invisible’ where no online status is ever shown. Give you some privacy while you play if you don’t wana be bugged. One of my friends keeps poking me even when I set my brodcast to that I busy and no wana be bugged. >.>; means well, but still
That is my two cents. Or is that five?
I like it so far. I’ve only added a bunch of people, mostly RL friends and a couple of WoW friends I also met in RL. I think it’s great for keeping in touch – I get to level my priest on a different realm and can still talk to my boyfriend or ask a guildie to poke me when raid invites start on my main. I’ve gotten back in touch with old friends who play on other servers. Yeah, it could be better, but I won’t mind if it stays like this.
There is a very good reason why Blizzard recommends that you only use RealID with trusted real life friends. The system is inherently weak when it comes to security, and you’d be taking a major risk using it with people that you don’t trust 100%.
And yet in the same breath as recommending that, they tempt us to trust the “friends” of friends. (Hmm. How’s about a Warcraft version of the Kevin Bacon game? Add someone well known to you friends list in under steps…)
RL fact – if you throw a party in your parents’ place while they’re away – or your kids do, if you’re my generation – whether it stays pleasant or spins out of control into the Battle of the Somme is pretty much down to whether or not “friends of friends” get in. Friends’ friends are not yours. They don’t know you from Adam;. They have no skin in whether or not the place gets utterly trashed, and by consequence it often does. Frankly, it’s my observation that the same goes for the internet in spades – if something *can* be abused by people, it will (and Blizzard are idiots if they don’t recognise that).
I picked “other” for my vote because I don’t feel that a simple yes or no would tell the whole story. I have… 4 people on my RealID (i think). These are people I would trust implicitly, and for them, being able to speak to them regardless of server/faction, yes I think it’s amazing and quite useful. Aside from that, I can see many people’s concerns (even in it’s current form) and applaud the community’s proactivity in telling Blizzard just how much they REFUSE to be forced to put their real information out there. Bravo, fellow WoW’ers… Bravo.
I don’t mind it, mainly because this massive argument over it is so overrated. People know my real name, oh no! It’s a matter of time before my guild mates find out my real name, and a fair few of them call me by it anyway. More I had added on facebook. Even then, to get your real name from someone I don’t know would take a few days worth of hanging together.
All this lark about “keep RL out of MMO” is nonsense. If you haven’t noticed, MMO IS STILL RL. It’s not an alternate reality that you “plug” into. It’s just on a computer, where you play like every other game, whether it be on a PC, PS3 or phone. And with people on the forums threatening CMs, grow up people. I’m with TB on this one – you can find the names of every single person working at Blizz by looking at this magical device known as the manual.
If some moron wants to troll me on the forums where RealID was implemented then it’s obviously something wrong with the troll. If they have nothing better to do with their time than continue to troll then I’m, and everyone else is, already better than them.
I love the RealID for keeping in touch with my friends that play as we aren’t always on the same server or playing in the same factions at any given point. I won’t be befriending my exclusively WoW friends anytime soon.
I like it, but I don’t like the “see your friends’ friends” aspect. Mostly because it’s something other people worry about, and might not friend me because of it.
At the same time, those names are unconnected to characters, so it’s not that big a deal, one hopes.
Ultimately, the ability to chat with my friends cross-server or without having to friend all of their characters is worth the downside of always being visible if I’m online.
I like the cross-server/faction chat, but I’m not sure I like the fact that it’s real names only and that you can see friends of friends. Steam worked this out, why can’t they?
One of the reasons I was against it on the Forums is because the only connections I want for me playing WoW and my real name are when I want people to know, and the friends of friends thing turns me off. I wouldn’t mind so much if I could use a user name rather than my real name, but there seems to be this push to turn Real ID/B.net 2.0 into a Facebook-esque “Social Medium” that I’m not comfortable with.
Like a lot of the others, I like Real ID, but would have preferred it had it allowed me to use a screen name. Aside from that though, I kinda feel bad for Blizzard because I do feel like they were moving in the right direction with Real ID. Now, before you stone me to death, listen to what I have to say. I understand that the internet is about anonymity, but its really beginning to fill up with useless trolls. Real ID on forums, was aimed at destabilizing them, in order to provide an online experience that we could actually use to obtain help or talk about the game (referring to the forums). Even now, when there is a community backlash, the forum users make up such a small percentage, and yet they are the voice for us players as a whole. The rest of the community is stuck with these trolls as their representatives to the developer, because they create a hostile environment where we’re branded as noobs and eventually scared off from the forums, unable to voice our concerns. Blizzard, when taking the comments on the forums, understands this, and wanted to create a better gateway for its players to communicate with them. I hope they try to work something out.
Its not a bad system. but might want to keep a eye out for a request from a Jeremy Brunnell, he seems to be asking alot of random ppl to be friends. after a extended city trade chat discussion on my server, it seems nobody knew this guy.
Don’t have real ID, don’t plan on ever using it. Things may change (as change is the only constant). LOVE your strip, BTW. Am/was a die-hard WOW addict, unfortunately RL things have gotten in the way so I haven’t played recently.
I like it as a limited use thing. I have a couple of RL friends who play almost exclusively on other servers, but I still like to talk to them. In this capacity, RealID works great, because it means I don’t have to make a special trip to another server after a long raid or whenever else just to have a conversation with people I like to talk to. If something is pissing me off in the middle of raid, or a heroic, I can grouch about it on the spot.
But that’s about it. My RealID list is currently at 3 people, and I don’t see it getting any bigger. I’ve allowed those three because there’s rarely a time that I’m on that I don’t want to be bothered with them, and they’re also people that aren’t really going to take advantage of the fact that they have constant access to me when I’m online. Everyone else can either wait, or if they’re really lucky, send me a text or an email if they need me faster.
I honestly love Real ID. I am able to connect with some of my friends that I haven’t seen in a while, and they play on different servers. In that sense it’s a very awesome thing.
For those who think giving out your name is “no big deal” take a look at the comments so far – I see a few first names, but mostly Internet nicknames. Seems that if you have a choice you’re choosing not to identify yourself, doesn’t it?
I added Parental Controls to my account to protect it from exploits
I picked other… I’ve tried it because I have a long-time friend on another server and being able to see that they are on-line so we can chat cross-server is great. I strongly dislike that the RealID uses our billing names, rather than a single account alias. I also dislike that you cannot opt out of the whole “friend-of-friend” part. It just so happens that I don’t particularly like some of my friend’s in-game friends. I certainly don’t want them having my name.
My best friend and I play WoW but sometimes we’re on different servers doing different things. Using RealID, We can annoy one another or scream for help without having to YIM or AIM on.
I have no problem with people knowing my “real name” *gasps* – I mean, that’s the name I’m known by everyone else in this crazy world. (I guess it’s becuase I run my own business – the more people who know my name, the better.) I’m more annoyed about it being linked to my email addy more than anything else. Why couldn’t we have “realID usenames”? That way, we could opt in if we wanted to and just give out that username?
I’m curious – did any of you have a change of heart about the in-game Real ID after the forum fiasco?
I for one thought it would be wonderful. Then the whole forum news came down, and even though Blizzard relented, Real ID seems to have been…tainted. I found out about the friends-of-friends always being visible, and am now worried that Blizzard is going the Facebook route of forcing “a more open and connected world” upon us, throwing privacy concerns to the wind.
I like being able chat across servers with my RL friends – yeah, I know, there’s instant messengers for that, but I use WoW a lot more often than I use instant messengers. :p And it’s cool being able to see people in Starcraft 2 as well – I can play wow until there are enough friends online for a match.
Friend of friend isn’t so bad, because it meant my husband could just send requests to everyone on my list instead of typing everything in. It sucks that you can’t opt out of it or create filters or anything though.
I like being able to chat cross server and faction with my rl friends. They’re the only people I use it for. It works cause some of my friends can’t run im while they’re playing and others don’t even use IM. I actually got to talk to one of my friends for the first time in years cause of it. But because it’s my real name, only people I know IRL or that i”m comfortable enough with to give my facebook to will get it.
It’s a good idea but it is flawed, we should be allowed to have a username then I would have no problem adding friends. I’ve only used it with a few people and have to say it’s pretty cool chatting across realm, but it makes me a lil uneasy that my real name is being displayed and that their friends can see it too.. not too cool Blizz. Especially not when there are so many cases of identity theft and such, I would think a huge company like Blizzard would have recognized the need for privacy and protecting it.
I set it up and gave the connection to my guild leader so that she could contact me if I were alting or on another server.
I disabled it when the RealID flap hit. That took some doing, I may add.
I’m glad that Blizzard backed down from the real names on the forums thing, and it got me to un-cancel my subscription, but when I hear them talk about Facebook integration and “exciting new functionality”…no, I think I’m staying out.
I liked it for a while, and then people from my guild kept whispering me when I was on another a server leveling a random toon. “Why are you on another server? Are you sick of the guild?!” “Hey, wanna heal a 5 man??” “Hey, what’s going on? How are you!!”
I absolutely love my guild to death, but when I’m on another server, it’s because I just want some peace and quiet.
Now, 1. People don’t know that that’s why I’m on another server, 2. People don’t even look to see what server I’m on, they just see that my first and last name is online, so even if they knew #1, they wouldn’t even think about it.
So I disabled it, but it was only for my own personal/anti-social issues with it =P For other people in my guild, they love it because they can keep in touch with friends who have moved to other servers, or have gone to horde side, or have stopped playing wow but are picking up SCII.
My “other” comment – I like being able to talk to people on other servers, but I want the ability to change their names (give them nicknames, for instance) or hide my full name from them. I have real life friends who play, so I don’t mind them having my name, but still talking to them with their whole name is annoying because it takes up so much room on the chat window (I have a friend named Christopher – 11 letters, he has a middle name – 8 letters, and a last name – 10 letters. Plus 2 spaces, so 31 characters every time he sends me a message or I send one to him).
I have transferred servers more than once as well and would like to maintain friendships on the previous servers. But I don’t know that Sirstabsalot is Charles Johnson nor do I really need them to have my full name.
I would like RealID unreservedly if…
* the identifier used was NOT an element of the account login
* we could choose a ‘handle’ instead of using the name associated with the account (and credit card, for instance). Requiring the handle NOT be the same as the account login info would be a plus for security.
* we could choose to disallow “friend of friend”
* we could opt to turn off the ‘ding’ when a RealID friend logs in. Particularly if they log in within 60 seconds of when they last logged out. Alt mail hopping is annoying…
I would still only have people I trusted implicitly have that access, even with those qualifiers. Less than one hand’s worth of people. I’m just not very social.
Maybe it’s just a facebook sort of thing, or an emo-blog thing, but I don’t see great deal of use for the “broadcast to all realID friends” feature. But hey, if other people want it, I can simply not use it.
The RealID thing is pretty cool. The only problem I have with it is that you can view the friends of friends. It’s not that big of a deal, but people whom you have never even spoken to in game can see your name. Just seems like too much of a Facebook thing of friend suggestions for people who are friends of friends.
Before you get too far down “it’s no big deal” lane, I’ve read of an actual case of RealID stalking via Friend of Friend. Someone wasn’t too discriminating about who they /realfriend-ed. The anecdote’s victim was apparently the only woman on the guy’s realID friends list. With just a few more details apparently picked up from idle chatter during a Daily Random, this kid finds the phone number for where she works and calls her during work to harass her (in the petty ways a bored teen will do).
It’s not an “OMG RealMurder!” case or anything, but I know I for one would prefer not to get calls like that.
I haven’t tried Real ID yet, and frankly I’m on the “keep RL out of my MMO” side of the debate, especially when it comes to using real names. Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but I don’t play WoW to make new friends that I’ll go catch a movie with later. That’s what facebook and such are for. Those are meant to be social-networking sites. WoW isn’t, at least not entirely.
Also, it’s called a RPG for a reason, whether you chose to roleplay or not. When I log on, I am taking on a different persona, and using my real name just taints that. Call me a freak, but I also participate in some form of larping, and I treat WoW the same way as I do that. When I am there, that is who I am. When I’m at work or school, I’m myself. The two should be kept separate.
I’m using it but it’s pretty useless so far, since Blizz basically have one game. When D3 + SC2 come out it might be useful. I kinda wish it’d been included from launch, because there are folks on other servers I’ve lost touch with. It’d be awesome if they work out Steam interoperability, I like (ok, love/worship) Blizzard games but they aren’t my whole world.
My RealID friends include one IRL friend and 5 wow friends I’ve been playing with from 2-4 years. I’d happily get on a plane and visit any of them so sharing my name is nothing. Besides, I’m a guy and I try not to lose my temper too often. I figure there’s just as much chance some psycho will figure I’m the perfect clue to send to the police as one of these friends goes nuts.
FoaF is just a list of names, there’s nothing for a stalker to get attached to or a psycho troll to get incensed about. Forums are obviously different.
I do wish you could choose handles. Mostly for convenience, everyone already knows me as Elly. I honestly don’t understand why Blizz thought taunting the identity bear was a good idea. It seems completely irrelevant to their business.
I think the concept of a global persona is neat, just like on XBox Live and such, but I dislike that they extended it to a) be based on my real name b) show me to people once removed from my approved friends.
FoaF being “just” a list of names is either useless to anyone and can be cut, or someone WILL recognize a name when it wasn’t desired, so should be cut.
I haven’t used Real ID in Wow since I haven’t played it for months, but I’ve seen it in the SC2 beta. Currently the only friends I have that I have full names for are people who already know my first and last name. I have one friend that I only know online, and I just have his battle.net handle on my list and vice versa. If WoW’s friend list is similar to that, then I’d be fine with it. I like being able to choose to have my real name showing to my real friends across factions/games, and having only the character names of those who I met online who I’ve only known a short time.
Haven’t tried it (which is what I voted for) and won’t. I might if it used a screen name, but I avoid using my real name online unless I have to (e.g. to pay for something, or posting something job-related).
I recently activated Parental Controls on my account so that RealID is fully deactivated and will stay that way.
I’ve only friended people who already have my first and last name. But I love it. I have toons on several servers and this way I can chat with my friends even if we’re playing on different servers.
Personally, i wouldn’t use it except maybe for my RL friends/close friends, those who already know all the alts i’d go to to hide on anyways…
I get that Blizzard is a company and they want to cash in on the “social networking” scene. I’m fine with that. But all these attempts to mask their real intent with ridiculous reasons, treating us like idiots, made me lose my respect for them. They’re trying to market it as some newfangled special thing, but it’s not. Other companies have done it successfully, guess what, real names weren’t needed. If they had been forthcoming about their plans instead of pulling all these stunts, I might’ve stayed a loyal customer, but now, I’ve canceled my SCII preorder and my WoW account has been inactive since the whole forum fiasco. I’ve lost my trust in them keeping their promise to keep RealID completely optional, and their PR reply “we’ve decided it’s not a good idea at this time” didn’ t help restore it.
The thing that saddens me is I see a whole generation of gamers who don’t value privacy and don’t seem to understand the dangers of giving it up. I fear that Blizzard will get away with it, and other companies will soon follow suit. It’ll be just another step towards a centralized internet, but that’s a good thing right? After all, Big Brother knows best.
I’m finding it extremely useful already. I have characters spread across three realms due to one being for family one with alliance guild and one with horde guild. It’s nice to see when my close friends and family come on even if I’m not on the same server with them. Plus my husband is a huge starcraft fan and I’m not so much. So when starcraft comes out it will be nice that I can still chat with him and our friends that will be going to starcraft as well.
considering I currently play WoW on a free server… the point is moot. I plan to go back to retail probably within the next couple months, but I’m not even sure who I would use the feature with. I play Diablo II here and there on USWEST, so I suppose if I were also active on retail WoW it’d be vaguely useful…
…I guess. That, or it’s another avenue to get guilt tripped into raiding when I really don’t want to.
Honestly, after the Real ID / forum real name disaster, I don’t trust Blizz to not do something in the future that’s going to make me real mad, like integrating with facebook or google or something.
So, I only imagine that I will turn it on for chatting with my brother in law or my co-worker and his wife. These are the only people IRL that I know of who play the game. No one in my main guild has said anything about connecting with Real ID. My guild is filled with a bunch of closely connected friends and relatives (not me), and they either live in the same house or chat on vent.
I chose other,
the whole system is cool and does make the game more social etc etc. but the lose of privacy sucks, how about this blizz.
1) let us use an alias, just like a real name, except its not!
2) give us some improved privacy options, like appearing offline/invisible
3) a web/stand-alone application so i can talk to my friends while i’m not in game.
“stand alone app” – you might post that to the WoW suggestions forum as more likely to be seen.
I don’t know about the Real Id. I do know that I am not happy that you are required to use your email address again. Which also means you are showing everyone your login name. I still think this is a security breach. I may be biased because my account was hacked the week after we were forced to use our email address to login. Anyway, I don’t give out that particular email address to anyone mostly because of it is my login. I know that most of my online friends would not hack my account but I also know that there are some unscrupulous people out there that will spend time befriending you and then rob you blind. And considering all of the phishing, fraud and gold selling going on I would not count on that one guy in my guild actually using his real name on his WoW account.
Again, I may just be paranoid.
Still won’t use it until they allow me to chose when I’m visible, or at least which toons are visible to whom.
While I understand that Blizzard’s trying to create a social gaming network within their games, I for one don’t participate in social networking – they’re evil in that members are peer-pressured into revealing too much about their real lives on the web, and what happens on the Internet stays on the Internet.
So, while I’ve not gone and done the parental controls “workaround” to disable Real ID, features like Friends-of-Friends and the lack of invisible mode means I simply haven’t opted in to the service by adding any friends in-game. As long as participation in the feature remains optional and its features are social-networking-like, it’ll stay that way.
Real ID? Haven’t tried it, and almost certainly never will until at minimum I have a lot more control over who can see me and when. I value the privacy of being on line without the world and his wife automatically knowing.
I’ve used it, but don’t like it much. I wouldn’t have, except for peer pressure from friends. There are times I just want to log in and not be social, just do a daily or level an alt. Now I’m signing in less, because I don’t want to get dragged into an instance.
Maybe I’m just to introverted to play a MMO.
While I plan to keep realID use for RL friends only I have enjoyed using it. It has allowed me to chat in game with a good friend of mine (who I rarely get to see in RL as we live on opposite sides of the state) without us needing to play on the same sever. I might also be persuaded to add other members of my guild’s officer team (we are all friends on facebook so they already have access to my name, e-mail, etc.) but at the same time its nice to be able to completely hide on an unknown alt from time to time.
I chose other.. I think it’s great, but would prefer a handle and a ‘hide’ button. If I’m on another server to get away from my guild, why would i want them to know I’m on?
REAL ID needs a feature where you can present yourself as “offline” for privacy or at least for those times when you just don’t want people bugging you to switch games.