It is bad enough that they implement this sort of change (Real ID on the forums for those that have been under a rock) that is so full of fail and certain to drive thousands of mature and thoughtful potential posters away… but I think the worst part for me is the lies. Seriously do they expect us to believe this is an anti troll plan? That is the reason they gave. Total garbage. Anyone with half a brain knows that it will not keep rudeness away. And anyone with 3/4 of a brain will connect this change to their partnering up with Facebook.
But do they come out and tell us what their plans to manipulate our ‘social gaming’ are? No. They just make vague hints about a larger plan and then claim reasons for this change that are clearly nonsense.
Blizzard is burning through their store of player trust in a terrible hurry.
Personally I want the executive who thought this up fired and I want his resume on a pike.
I couldn’t agree more (as you’ll see in my blog post today). This is clearly a money-making method and could promote even more trollish behavior on the forums. Now they’ll get to be famous in real life!
/sigh
Yeah. It is very obvious there is a bigger agenda and that the reasons we were given were at BEST only a part of the reason and at worst were complete garbage to cover a planned merger with Facebook or something similarly dumb.
Clearly it is a move toward the (incredibly successful) trend of social networking sites to create a usable member community that represents value.
The case that it’s in all ways BAD is what I’m not clear about.
Isn’t it inevitable that playing an MMO-type game on the computer will be associated with some type of social/community network? Companies like Blizzard with millions of subscribers and a near-monopoly on a quality MMO cannot afford not to attempt something like this.
The Facebook database is worth BILLIONS. Much of it potential earnings, much like the early dot com years of creating nearly useless websites and selling them for millions. Most of us wondered what all that was about, too.
It seems to me that a social network functionality would obviously improve player organization, allow fansites for players, help police idiotism, in short, do some of the things Blizzard has been criticized for not doing.
Not to say that Blizzard is doing it right way, at the right time, or that there isn’t significant risk in pissing many of us off.
But it certainly seems inevitable.
Your reply provoked enough response that I will do it as a seperate post.