No more anonymous forum trolls?

[Shaila]

*plays drums on stormtrooper heads*

[Yva]

I went to nap and came back to OMG WE WON THIS ONE. That was awesome. I'm wondering if I go nap again if my boobs will grow bigger, I'll lose 30 pounds, and there will be world peace.

[Bricu]

Tarquin has been stalking me for 5 years. He even moved to my city.

I should have arrested him when I had the chance.

[Tiforis]

And now I feel great about not freaking out.

[Yva]

You know, if people hadn't freaked the fuck out, you'd have nothing to feel great about.

[Galedorin]

Awesome. Now I can get back on track with Space Ba-Job Quest 2: The Search for More Money.

Clearly, the Internet Dragons have smiled upon us this day, and dropped epic+ loot.

[Lansiron]

I'm wondering if I go nap again if my boobs will grow bigger, I'll lose 30 pounds, and there will be world peace.

DO IT O_O

[Beltar]

And now I feel great about not freaking out.

Eh, I dunno. I think it was the people who "freaked out" that got this done. I know that a few thousand cancellations out of 11.5 million is a drop in the bucket, but think about it--people post stuff like "ZOMG BLIZZ IMMA CANCELLIN MAH ACCOUNT" all the time. This time, they did it. A couple thousand in the Megathread alone. Over 13,000 unique posters in that thread, running 95% against the change.

Think about the folks just here that were planning to do it. Shad, Mac, Buu, Gryph, Anna, more but let's just go with those five. Hordeside, we had one leave last night and three of our core Anvil raiders (including Skulley) had, or were going to, pull the trigger. Pill and Gharr cancelled second accounts. Pill and Bricu cancelled SC2 pre-orders. That's 11 accounts and 2 $50+ SC2 preorders, just from two extended raid groups/friend circles, on one of a few hundred servers. It adds up.

The combination of a massive outcry on the forums, bad press in the tech media, and actual tangible cancellations that would've dented their bottom line, IMO, is what pulled this off. Individually, each might not've been enough. Together, they've at least caused Blizzavision to back off a little. We've still got to watch them like a hawk, and nothing they said today will prevent them from pushing RealID on us in the future.

There's power in freaking out. In large groups and with a purpose, anyway.

[Lansiron]

It is true; though there was a lot of hysteria in that thread, a certain amount of freaking out here was completely justified, because whatever good could, in the "perfect world" example, come of this, the risk was just still too great to ignore. If even only one nasty incident happened because of real names all going public, it'd be one incident too many. Thus, it's a damn good thing that the angry forum mobs (aka the "vocal minority") pretty much banded together unanimously for this one.

[Threnn]

Hey, guys, pretty much what Yva and Lin said. If you weren't worried about Real ID and weren't thinking of cancelling, that's wonderful -- not everyone was as concerned about having their names out there, and that's fine. However, some of us were, to the point that we were seriously contemplating cancelling our accounts -- or actually HAD. That's not easy in the slightest, having to choose walking away from one of our social circles or letting Blizzard walk all over what we see as our rights to privacy.

We're going to do a happydance and some rejoicing that our voices were heard, in the forms of forum posts, emails, and cancellations. Please try to remember that telling us there was never anything to worry about belittles what we've been pointing our energies towards all week. If no one had spoken up, if there hadn't been a thread filled with nearly 50,000 posts and a hojillion blog posts that garnered media attention, there would have been no change. And that would have meant tumbleweeds blowing through Stormwind for a lot of us.

Happydance with us, that we're all sticking around. Have some pie. But please don't tell us that we were overreacting, or that it was all always going to be okay.