World of Warcraft gaming forum introduces Real ID feature

http://us.battle.net/realid/?rhtml=y

Real ID

A New Way to Connect With Your Friends on Battle.net
One of our goals for the new Battle.net is to create the framework for an online gaming experience that is even more accessible, more engaging, and more entertaining than the previous Battle.net. Our new Real ID feature is an integral part of this effort, providing you with advanced ways for forming and maintaining meaningful relationships with your friends on the service.

Real ID is a completely voluntary and optional level of identity that keeps players connected across all of Battle.net. When you and a friend mutually agree to become Real ID friends, you'll have access to a number of additional features that will enrich your social gaming experience in new and exciting ways.

Read the Real ID FAQ for additional details.

Real Names for Friends Your Real ID friends will appear under their real-life names on your friends list, alongside whatever characters they're playing. Gone are the days of having to remember which of your friends is which. You'll also see your friends' real names when chatting, communicating in-game, or viewing their character's profile.

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http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041

Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Forums

Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature - http://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. The classic Battle.net forums, including those for Diablo II and Warcraft III, will be moving to a new legacy forum section with the release of the StarCraft II community site and at that time will also transition to using Real ID for posting.

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.

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It's a sad hobby.

why?

with nothing to do but kill things. The only fun I ever got out of the game was by manipulating the auction house prices on alchemal herbs, but I lost interest in even that when I found that there was nothing to spend money on.

I don't mean to denigrate anybody here--I myself have spent some time in WOW. But ultimately, I felt ripped off by the experience--like I was leveling so that I could eventually have fun--and that "eventually" never materialized--way more than my early days with MUDs and even EQ.

Caution, she says the F-Bomb around 350 times I think....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUOI7BTmmk0

and I'm pleasantly surprised how much less "grindy" it is

I know what you mean by "leveling so that I could eventually have fun"

It has it's nice features (I don't post on the forums, so that doesn't irk me), but, you not only see your real id for friends, if the are online, you can see their friends. "We" have decided to just keep in in the family, me, my wife, my step daughter and her boyfriend.

Makes me wonder with all the hacking of accounts that have been going on (Thanks Blizz, real bone head idea changing log ins from account name to email addy. :mad: ) if there will be an uptick of identity theft traced back to it. :shrug: