Unless you’ve been living with your head in the sand for the past few weeks, if you play World of Warcraft, Starcraft or frequent any gaming news site its likely that you’ve heard at least some of the drama surrounding Blizzard’s new Real ID. Circulating the internet have been a plethora of blog posts, forum threads, even full websites have sprung up dedicated to discussing (or in many cases, flaming) the privacy issues surrounding Blizzard’s latest attempt at enhancing the gaming experience.

Even being on holiday halfway across the world and spending subsequent days battling jet lag I couldn’t escape the uproar; it seems that the blogosphere had virtually erupted into an angry, fiery mess of Blizzard customers concerned for their privacy (some considerably more controversially than others). The bulk of this activity was made in the last few days, following an announcement by Blizzard last week that future forum posts would be using the Real ID feature - an effort by Blizzard to combat trolling, “removing the veil of anonymity” in order to create a more responsible and enjoyable forum environment. Needless to say, this announcement was met with outrage - and over 2,300 pages worth of replies on the Battle.net forums alone, including personal attacks on Blizzard employees.  

Only a few days later, Blizzard announced that they would no longer be implementing this feature, and while the immediate feedback was very much positive, it seems that the controversy is still very much up for discussion. Many are relieved that they will be able to continue using the forums without worrying about their real names being broadcast, others are happy with the state of Real ID as it exists in game; but plenty more say that it’s still not good enough.  

I'd love to hear your opinions in the comments - but before this I’d like to take this opportunity to point out a few observations about Real ID that sometimes seem to get overlooked, or lost in the hype. Unfortunately, a lot of people I’ve spoken to seem all too keen to jump to conclusions about the system based on snippets of opinion rather than actually finding out how it works for themselves, even though the in-game system has been live for a few weeks now.

1. You don’t have to use it

Probably the most significant thing here is that using Real ID is optional. You don’t have to add anyone to your Real ID list if you don’t want to; and thus you may continue to remain as anonymous as you ever have if thats what you would like to do.

2. Someone must know your email in order to add you

That is, the email address you use to log in to your Battle.net account. Nobody can send a cold-call Real ID friend request to you without it - the only exception to this is through a mutual friend. I understand that appearing on mutual friend lists is a problem for many people, but these people should also remember that only your real name is displayed here - no email address, character names or server information is associated with it. The person accessing the list would have to know at least your first name in order to recognise you (unless they were blindly adding anyone and everyone), and even then you still have the control of being able to decline their request.

One common suggestion that would solve many people’s worries about this mutual friends list is to make it an option - a checkbox to allow/disallow appearing to friends of friends. It certainly seems like it could be a simple solution to something that is a cause for concern to a number of people.

3. You are in control

Following on from the above is to always remember that you are in complete control over who is and isn’t on your Real ID list - a lot of complaints seem to be founded in panic that Blizzard is forcing us to display our personal information to others. This is not the case: All friend requests are added to the “Pending” list; and that person is unable to see your online status until you accept them. From this window you have a number of options - you may accept, decline, and even block the person from contacting you in the future. This is the part where you need to exercise your common sense muscles; if you wish to remain anonymous to all but a few, then be vigilant with who you allow to be on your list. Limit it to people you know and trust, and you shouldn’t have a problem with too many unwanted requests. Start adding every man and his dog that joins your hundreds-strong guild, though, and it may be a different story.

4. Real ID is the same as any other social networking tool or website, just boxed differently

Chances are that many of us use Facebook. In fact, the option to integrate your Real ID with Facebook is coming in the future (again, completely optional, and currently only pegged for Starcraft II). A lot of us also probably belong to MySpace, Bebo and/or other social networking sites. Typically on these communities, one can view the friends of a friend simply by visiting their profile - and indeed that is how many of these online connections are made. You check out your friends profile, notice that you know one or two of their friends as well and send a request. Its pretty normal practice for these kind of things - and it’s not only limited to sites like Facebook or MySpace, but other communities such as Flickr also have this same feature. The only real difference here is that Real ID works within a computer game. Battle.net is still an online community, and has been one for a very long time - just one that has, up until now, always interacted from behind pseudonyms.

I know many people are worried about privacy, and a lot of concerns are being voiced about women being targeted for harrassment using the Real ID system. These are real and legitimate issues, but the fact remains that if this is a concern for you, then you need to protect yourself and be especially aware of who you are adding to your list. I have been the subject of harrassment in WoW multiple times - one of which I would go so far as to call a stalker, but all of these people were able to get my real name without the assistance of Real ID, and usually because I gave it to them. A real stalker (as opposed to a simple troll or griefer who will forget about you within an hour) is far more likely to be someone you know - most commonly someone who you have already built some kind of relationship with that for one reason or another turns for the worst. But that, dear readers, is a whole different kettle of fish.

Despite having been the victim of such harrassment, I still love the idea of Real ID. I am not against associating my real name with my online persona at all - in fact, I think it’s a great idea and potentially beneficial in many ways especially if one was looking for a career in the gaming industry. I already mix a selection of my gaming friends with my real life, non-gamer friends on Facebook and have no problems doing so. But still, I will not add anybody I don’t already know and trust to my Real ID list. I’ve already had to decline a few guildies, and while I felt bad, they were at least able to understand my reasons behind doing so. One thing that to remember is that while it is a great idea and a potentially powerful tool, if misused then Real ID could become the facility for a nightmare. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to stay informed on Real ID’s features and limitations as Blizzard implements them and make sure you opt-out of, or turn off any features that you do not wish to partake in, provided you are able to. And remember, choose your Real ID friends wisely!