I’m pretty sure we’ve all done it when we were younger – log into mIRC and bag the bejesus out of someone or leave disparaging comments on some site online, all behind the protection of a nickname or handle.
But being all grown up now, hopefully we don’t do that sort of thing anymore. Aside from the the activity being childish, much of that anonymity is no longer there, with social networking allowing insights into our personals lives on a much larger level than years before.
Which is why this announced change to gaming developer Blizzard’s online forums is so interesting. Basically, users wanting to post on the forums will now have to post under their full names, or Real ID as they put it, rather than posting under the names of their in-game characters or alias.
you have to imagine The Who music playing after you finish reading this
Blizzard, the developers behind series such as Starcraft, Diablo and World of Warcraft, have a sizeable forum community to match. The decision behind the change was to discourage ‘flamers’ or people who post disparaging comments – as they’d be required to reveal their identity – and encourage more mature, in-depth and on-topic discussion.
Many users and gamers – including me – have had mixed reactions with the change. On one hand, I understand the decision; Blizzard forums are known for lots of spammy and flame-type posts (not to mention everyone whinging that their class/race/etc has been nerfed too much OR whinging that the other class/race is too OP).
But, there may be users who have something insightful to add to the discussion but do not want to have to sacrifice their identity in order to participate.
I think that level of anonymity is important to have, especially when dealing with gamers. Or maybe I’m still just stuck in the stereotypical thinking that gamers are sort of anti-social (although I’d consider myself a gamer and not anti-social… hmm).
Or maybe Blizzard are leading a changing trend, to an era of a more mature community online. I guess we’ll see!
P.S. Bring on Starcraft 2! Only around two weeks left, woohoo
