Real ID Forums

I think most of us know by now that Blizzard intends to launch their new Real ID system on the official Warcraft forums. This involves that you will post with your REAL First and Last name. You can read the basics of what this means here:

"Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature - www.battle.net/realid/ , a new way to stay connected with your friends on the new Battle.net. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about our plans for Real ID on our official forums, discuss the design philosophy behind the changes we’re making, and give you a first look at some of the new features we’re adding to the forums to help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged."

 Basically what I said, this is what will happen. Why it happens is explained in the next section.

"The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well."

 They want to remove the anonymity that we have to reduce the amount of trolling and flaming. Since a lot of you who reads this probably know, most users actually do put on their "jerk" act just because they are covered by this anonymity. Thus I agree that this is a most needed change. I wouldn't mind posting on the forums by my real first and last name. There are probably a couple hundreds who share my name. Heck, even facebook got my name, who cares? Yes, you won't be able to piss off a random guy and get away with it in the same way as you used to, though that is exactly the goal Blizzard is trying to achieve!

As a conclusion. I think this system is a step in the right direction. People who want to discuss things on an official forum should have the gut to do so by their real name. The internet is getting big folks' time to let of our usernames and start using the real thing.

Please comment.

It's been a long time

Lately, I haven't been writing a single post here on the blog. Why? Because I haven't fel like doing it and thus I haven't. Though, now, I feel the need of expressing myself once again, and when is a better time than now? With the Cataclysm beta knocking at our doors and the NDA has been lifted I can now start expressing my opinions about the oncoming World of Warcraft expansion.

So, what's new? If you don't know a single thing about the expansion yet, I suggest you should visit both the official Cataclysm website: http://catalcysm.wow-europe.com (or worldofwarcraft.com if you're american) and also visit the frontpage on http://mmo-champion.com.

Today I woke up when my girlfriend arrived at my place and wondered why I still slept, which is a legit question really since I had already slept through twelve hours. After my waking was sorted she told me she wanted to watch a trailer for a swedish movie (which looks awesome by the way) and after that I told her I just wanted to check the MMO-C news. SMACK, BANG in the middle of my face: "Cataclysm Closed Beta - NDA Lift". Expressing how I feel when I'm given this amount of delicious information is hard, but it's something along the lines of an angels choir decending and singing to me the most awesome song in the world. (No I'm not religious). Well, I started devouring all the information that was thrown at me and I felt the sudden urge to start blogging again, so I did!

Regarding the changes, the one that I'm the most interested in is all the new world maps. These are a good way of giving you an overview of zone changes and what it could mean to the game itself. Such things as lore, quest progression etc.
As I inspected the "Burning Steppes" map I noticed a path stretching east of the one going to Redridge, which appeared to be a path stretching all the way from Burning Steppes, through Redridge and into the alliance part of the remade Swamps of Sorrows. Interestingly enough this has been done to several other zones, easying travelling and making more exciting paths through the game. Though mostly low level players since most level 80+ will probably just mount their epic flying mount and fly above all these magnificent changes. I, myself, will probably fly low to check out all of these new exciting pathways and shortcuts through the "old" world.

Another change I would like to discuss is also a part of the change world maps. You can notice in some of the starter zones (I looked at Mulgore) you can see that Deathwing has made an impression. I really enjoy watching how blizzard are integrating the updated storyline into the game already at earlier levels. If you're concerned about this in any way, don't be. This is blizzard taking a step in the right direction. It brings new people more into the storyline and makes the low level experience more involving.

That's about it for now, I might put up another post tomorrow regarding the other changes. Also the beta hasn't arrived in europe yet, so I'm still hoping for a key!

Have a nice day!