So who do YOU trust with your RealID?

[Bellesta]

Recently, Blizzard announced more info on the RealID feature, which will be related to your Battle.net account. It comes with a host of features, which are outlined here: http://us.battle.net/realid/?rhtml=y

However, there is one part of it that stands out to me:

Friend Once, See All Characters
When you agree to become Real ID friends with another player, both of you will automatically see all the other's characters on your friends list. You'll even see any characters your friend creates in future Blizzard games, carrying your social network forward and helping you stay connected with the people you enjoy playing with most.

This is a feature that I generally don't think much of, but I've heard several people raise an objection to the invasion of privacy. To your RealID friends, you cannot play any blizzard game, anywhere, without them being able to see and contact you. Is this really such a loss? Or is it a veil of privacy that should be maintained?

I'm curious about people's thoughts on this. I'll post mine later.

[Gryphonheart]

I don't really mind that part too much. If you're willing to trust someone with half of your login info (the e-mail associated with your B.net account) as well as your real name, I don't see much of a reason to hide your gaming characters/future games from them. Between busy/afk tags, removal of Real ID friends, and the creation of alternate private B.net accounts, there should be plenty of ways to let people know you don't wish to be bothered or to protect your privacy.

What I'm far more concerned about is that the Real ID friends of your Real ID friends will be able to see your real name. That's a much bigger privacy concern for me, since I like to control how much of my real info I spread around the internet. Unless Blizzard allows an opt-out for this, I'm probably not going to use Real ID.

What information about me will other players see when I use Real ID?
If you are using Real ID, your mutual Real ID friends, as well as their Real ID friends, will be able to see your first and last name (the name registered to the Battle.net account). You will also be able to see the first and last name of your Real ID friends and their Real ID friends. Your Battle.net account name (your email address) is not displayed to other players through the Real ID friends list. In addition, players with Real ID relationships will be able to view each other's online status, Rich Presence information, and Broadcast messages, and will be able to see which character and game their Real ID friends are playing across supported Blizzard games.

[Israia]

Nearly anyone that posts here would get my RealID if they requested it, and some I'll offer just 'cause.

However, I have one bigger issue with it: RealID being associated with your account info, specifically e-mail, seems like a real oversight to me.

For example: I know at least 6 people's e-mail here. While I doubt any one of them would want to block me outright, one probably doesn't plan on putting me on their RealID list because we just don't know each other very well. But someone could make things really uncomfortable if they sent out the RealID offer over that anyway.

[Delion]

How many of you have a Facebook account? Facebook is far shadier and less secure than anything Blizzard does. And you can always unfriend or ignore a RealID friend. Just don't be a dumbass and think about who you give your info to - like with anything else online.

The friends-of-friends seeing my real name is a bit weird, but its just because we're grasping the context of it right now. Anyone in the world can search and see your avatar on Facebook, but no one kicks up much of a fuss over that. And the people I'll be adding to RealID are going to be people I trust with my personal details already.

[Lansiron]

I'm for it, because if I'm reading right, it might actually let you talk cross-faction in WoW. I hope so, anyway.

The only downside I see is the bit about seeing someone's real name when chatting in-game. That could potentially be a bit of a distraction in RP. Hopefully that's something you can toggle off, or at least not see that in /say or in guild/chat channels.

Otherwise, yeah. This seems pretty much exactly like Facebook, but for Blizzard games. I am not bothered by Facebook, though I try to take the time to turn off the info-sharing features that I don't particularly care for in it.

[Delion]

You will be able to speak cross-faction. There will not be 'channels' like ExileOOC or perfidychat, there will be 'conversations' that you can invite up to 5 people at a time. Ingame chat will still be ingame chat, so won't take away from RP. From what I see, it is an additional chat interface for all Blizzard games, but is not meant to take the place of ingame chat channels.

[Aelflaed]

What I'm far more concerned about is that the Real ID friends of your Real ID friends will be able to see your real name. That's a much bigger privacy concern for me, since I like to control how much of my real info I spread around the internet. Unless Blizzard allows an opt-out for this, I'm probably not going to use Real ID.

What information about me will other players see when I use Real ID?
If you are using Real ID, your mutual Real ID friends, as well as their Real ID friends, will be able to see your first and last name (the name registered to the Battle.net account). You will also be able to see the first and last name of your Real ID friends and their Real ID friends. Your Battle.net account name (your email address) is not displayed to other players through the Real ID friends list. In addition, players with Real ID relationships will be able to view each other's online status, Rich Presence information, and Broadcast messages, and will be able to see which character and game their Real ID friends are playing across supported Blizzard games.

I haven't been following this well, but this is the part that worries me most.

As many of you know, my real name isn't Anna. I have a Facebook account under my real name - but it has absolutely no information on it other than my name and the date of my birthday, and I use it to keep in touch with a few assorted family members, and that's it. (And that may go away here shortly, I've been considering completely deleting Facebook for awhile.)

As a "Big fish in a little pond" blogger, I really have no desire for my actual name to be known to the greater internet. People I vaguely know through blogging will want to RealID friend with me - and because of that, I will probably not be using RealID, or I will use it under a fake name (Anna). The other issue, since my account was given to me after my friend's brother was in a 4-wheeler accident and could no longer game, is that my name isn't the one associated with my WoW account at all, though it is associated with my battlenet account. I use a separate, private email for battlenet - and the ONLY thing that email is for is battlenet. So I'm very wary of the whole thing.

Also - 5 people sounds kind of limited, as far as chatting goes.

[Gryphonheart]

...

As many of you know, my real name isn't Anna...

Whaaaaaaat?! You're ruining my immerzhons!

On a more serious note, Blizzard is considering creating a B.net chat client/protocol so you can communicate with people while not gaming. If they do go through with this, I'll likely make a new B.net account with very limited personal details (perhaps initials rather than full names, or a pseudonym if Blizzard allows that) specifically for enabling Real ID to chat with folks, and just run that whenever I normally run my other IM clients. That way I still have some limited communication options with folks without feeling like I have to compromise my privacy for it.

Additionally, I sincerely hope that if they do come out with said chat client/protocol, it doesn't get neutered like the previous protocol did. It used to be that you could use clients like Miranda IM (along with an appropriate B.net communication module) to chat with folks playing on B.net, but due to the proliferation of spambots Blizzard limited such communication options solely to public chat channels (i.e. no private channels, no whispering, etc.).

[Aelflaed]

Yeah - if that happened, I'd make an Anna bnet account, and be much happier with it.

[Beltar]

I'm really not sure I'm down with all this...but then again, I am old, and fear change.

The "real name" aspect of it bugs me a bit. I have no issue with my real name being out there attached to my characters, but a lot of people do, and with legitimate reasons (see Anna). The other part I don't like is Facebook integration. I do have a Facebook account, but hardly ever check it, and only keep it up because a few people (extended family mostly) occasionally put pictures up there that I want to see. I have no trust issues with Blizzard, but Facebook's privacy is so incredibly suspect these days, I don't want b.net touching them even indirectly.