Blizzard representative Nethaera tackled some community questions and concerns surrounding the proposed changes to Battle.net and the Real ID system. Questions range from the disclosure of players’ real names to people in their extended network, along with possible Facebook integration for other games in the Blizzard universe (StarCraft II will be the first game to include this feature).
In addition to Nethaera’s comments in regards to Blizzards intent on making Battle.net more of a social media platform for gamers, concerns about the future of the Battle.net forums are also addressed. In light of Blizz’s decision to not include players’ real names on the forums (a wise reconsideration indeed…), it leaves unanswered questions as to what other plans Blizzard has in store for improved moderation.
See answers to these questions and more in the official post…
The TL;DR version of the Q&A:
Q: Will players be allowed to control whether their names are displayed to “friends of friends” on Real ID?
A: Yes, there will be an option for that.Q: Plans for Facebook integration..?
A: Short term… A way to find friends on Facebook who have Battle.net accounts. Long term… ways to share in-game stuff (e.g, what you’re doing) with friends on Facebook and other optional interactive features.Q: How does the friend finder in StarCraft II work? What’s sent to Facebook?
A: Real ID will show a list of Facebook friends who also have Battle.net accounts. Their Battle.net and Facebook e-mail addresses must match in order for this to work. No personal info is shared with Facebook, only the Battle.net account verification.Q: How to prevent WoW addons from accessing Real ID info?
A: Get them from a trusted source and don’t d/l addons that request Real ID info. Blizzard is also working on ways to prevent such access from 3rd party addons.Q: Is Blizzard secretly trying to build a new social gaming platform?
A: Yes, but it’s no secret.Q: If my account was hacked, what information about my friends would the hacker be able to access?
A: Only first and last names. That’s it.Q: What’s a StarCraft 2 “Character Code”?
A: It’s a unique 3 digit character code that’s added to the StarCraft 2 character name. This allows players to use any name they want in game, yet still have a unique ID in the Battle.net forums.Q: Will the StarCraft 2 posting name (character name + character code) be carrying over to other Blizz game forums?
A: This is unknown.Q: Will players be allowed to change their real name in Real ID to an assigned user name?
A: As of now, that’s not the plan. Real names stay.Q: Now that real names won’t be used on the forums, what plans are there to improve moderation?
A: The post rating system will be in place to highlight quality discussion and to encourage blue posting. The StarCraft 2 character codes should also help to add some accountability.
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