RealID

Real ID is the absolute niftiest idea and the absolute worst idea all rolled into one. RealID connects your battle.net account to your real name, or at least the name you used to sign up for your WoW account in the past.

The Nifty:

The best part of RealID is that is connects you to friends across all Battle.net games. I can chat with my buddy who plays on another server and is the other faction. Once Starcraft 2 comes out, I can talk to him playing SC2 while I raid Grim Batol. It connects players like never before.

The Not-So-Nifty:

As cool as that may seem, it has a downside. First off, it connects the accounts, not the characters. So regardless of which character you are on, your RealID friends can see you. It seems odd to say I want to play a very social game with my friends, but I also want to be able to hide from them. There are just some days when you are frustrated, annoyed, or just plain want a change of pace, so you log on to a low level alt on another server and goof around enjoying your escape.

In my guild, most of us know each other in real life, and even have each other’s phone numbers. If someone is signed up for a raid and doesn’t log on by 15 til raid, they are likely to get a text or even a call from one of the other raid members to check on them. So RealID is a bit superfluous for us. But if I don’t feel like playing with people, I want to be able to just play.

The Abysmal:

So up to this point RealID was totally opt in. You could play the game and not participate in RealID with no change. If you didn’t like it, it was completely plausible for you to ignore it and ignore any requests. But now, it will be automatically forced on anyone who posts on the WoW Forums. That means if you post anything on the WoW Forums it will post with your real name, as opposed to your character’s name. In fact it may show your character as well as your real name. The thing is, if you want to use the forums, you cannot opt out.

I get the idea they are going with. Real names means no hiding behind level 1 alts. It will cut down a great deal on the cowardly trolls. But it will also cut down on the number of legitimate posters. Legit players who ask questions and respond to questions. I don’t want my real name plastered all over the WoW forums. So now there is no more posting on the WoW forums for me.

The Solution:

All of this could be avoided and added to a level of anonymity if Battle.net simply allowed a player to chose an Alias. Use you real name, use your common screen name, whatever. Tie it to your Bnet, charge to change it, and voila. No more hiding behind level 1 alts, but also the hidden layer many of us internet users prefer.