Blizzard Going Too Far With Real ID?

07 Jul 2010 at 15:34:23 by Paul Younger

Earlier this week Blizzard announced they would be implementing a mandatory Real ID system onto their forums. The new system which will launch with StarCraft 2 will open up user's identities and remove any anonynimity for Blizzard gamers, utilising its forums.

The thread announcing the changes asking for feedback has received over 1000 pages of responses from Blizzard gamers upset by the new system it plans to implement. Blizzard has stated that the introduction of Real ID will help eliminate what it describe as 'forum trolling' and keep the official Blizzard forums cleaner of spam and abusive posts.

Blizzard announced a partnership with Facebook back in May, with its chief operating officer, Paul Sams stating the company was “pleased to be working with Facebook to integrate their platform with Battle.net to enhance the social-entertainment experience for our players.

 "This new functionality will make it easier than ever to connect with friends on Battle.net and play StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games together," said Sams

Since the announcement Blizzard has been working hard on integrating the Real ID system into not only the new Battle.Net matchmaking system, but now into its community forums. It was thought would not have any impact on forums, but that appears to have changed; much to the dismay of the Blizzard gaming community.

But what about gamers who do not care about Facebook? I know that I would not waste my time messing about on a personal Facebook page to have 1000 so called 'friends' look at what I was doing. Gamers are internet savvy; they know how to keep the people they care about close without having to open up their personal life to the world. Blizzard has stated the introduction of Facebook will entice more casual gamers to its games so there is money to be made, but at what expense to the already massive fanbase Blizzard enjoys?

It has become clear the Blizzard community is very concerned about Real ID being implemented on public forums and it may well force some users to cancel their accounts with Blizzard and move onto other games. The Blizzard forum community not only allows players to share ideas and help each other but is also a sounding board for Blizzard products, meaning in the long run that Blizzard could well lose the voice of its most important core audience and some very loyal fans.

Although the system is initially being rolled out for the launch of StarCraft 2 on 27 July, Blizzard is planning to have its World of Warcraft forums also changed by the time the Cataclysm expansion launches later this year, and this may have an impact on the game’s growth.

With the exponential rise of Facebook in the past year, it looks like  social networking is now becoming a major part of gaming life whether gamers like it or not. However this could be the first step in taking things too far. Facebook should never be in a position to dictate how a gaming community interacts, nor should it have any influence on a development front (unless it’s being specifically designed for that purpose), and as soon as this starts to happen it’s apparent that Facebook has just become a little too big for its own good. Blizzard should not then be forcing Real ID upon its player base in their public forums, but we have to remember the Blizzard of today is very different from the Blizzard many fans followed before the release of World of Warcraft. The company has changed and some may argue not for the best.

There could be a lesson to be learned from the on-going Real ID episode and developers should take note for the future.  Leave social networking to people who want to use it, but do not force it on your communities or you may find your community simply moving on.

The Real ID and Blizzard debate will continue run on over the coming days and it will be interesting to see if Blizzard listen to its paying customers or plough ahead.

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