World Of Warcraft, WoW Hand Armor

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Real ID- Friend or Foe?

Yeah, I know. RealID has been around for a bit. I have only recently got into using RealID (around a month now) and have seen a few issues. 





With this platform, there are good and bad things that are happening....From what I have seen, the bad is outweighing the good, but I am wondering how it affects ya'll on your servers. Don't get me wrong, there are some great things about it for friends across different servers (or those that play SC as apposed to WoW), but it's absolute death for some of my fellow readers that are AH'ers....

Here's the situations that alot of folks fall into:

"My guild made me set up RealID due to me being an officer."

"My friends on my server had me set it up, so we can chat easier, we are in different guilds"

"As a part of being in my guild, one requirement is RealID'ing everyone of the officers"

Drag. The bitch about using RealID is tenfold, but the main issue is you can no longer "hide" when selling goods in the AH. No alts to sell your stuffs. Everyone knows your toons. Big, big drag. We don't want this. If you are competing against your guildies in the AH, it's one thing. It's worse when you can't even "hide" in game (not that I recommend that anyways, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, right?).

On the other hand, this can be a positive thing, for the same reasons listed above. I really don't have to say it again, do I? Didn't think so....re-read the paragraph if you aren't seeing my point.

Does this bother your AH sales? Have you even looked? Is there any way to get out of it (RealID) without looking like a hater? For the guild folks, is having RealID affect you? What are you doing to work around it?

On the flipside, how does this affect you without knowing? 

21 comments:

Torgal said... Reply To This Comment

Whenever I'm being asked about my Real-ID I give each and everyone the exact same answer:
I don't use it so please respect my privacy.

This puts each and everyone into the defensive stance because if they are still asking about it THEY are doing something wrong, not you.

Your identity is your greatest good on the internet, protect it!

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

Torgal,

You put it better than I could. Thanks for the input! I know there are quite a few folks that just go with the flow and don't think about the consequences when using this.

Adam Paul said... Reply To This Comment

The thing with RealID is that it is 100% optional. The people who see you are only able to because you have allowed them to physically add you. If you are trying to "hide" then its only your fault for adding them to RealID. The simple fact that you must personally accept every person on RealID tells me there is no downside to it.

As far as guilds go if you dont agree with their policy of friending all officers then you are not a fit for that guild. I don't try to join a guild that raids 7 nights a week because im not willing to follow their schedule. I dont join a PVP guild because I dont do PVP. If a guild requires you to use RealID and you're against it then thats it you wont work out there. If a you're guild adopted that rule and you dont agree with it you no longer fit with that guild either. GUilds adapt all the time and this is just another thing that you need to either accept or find a place that fits in for you're needs. Guilds are a collective group of people working together--not individuals.

Every negative situation that comes from using RealID comes only becuase the person has put themselves in that very position by accepting their competition onto their friends list. Every negative scenario can be prevented by the player.

Bottom Line is if you dont want to use RealID, DONT USE IT, no one is twisting your arm.

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

Adam,

My point is that it can affect AH'ers if they are linked to RealID in their sales.

Although it is 100% optional, it is being mandated by some guilds, and that is what I was pointing my finger at. I see your point, but some folks will basically do anything to get into a high end guild, and they might not realize that it will affect their sales.

Although commenting is 100% optional, thanks for tossing in your opinion! =)

Adam Paul said... Reply To This Comment

My point stays the same. If you are doing "anything it takes" to get into a top guild. Then you've still made that choice for yourself. If you make gold AND raid and feel you have to be in a guild that mandates REALID then you've to make a concience decision which matters more. For every guild that mandates it, there is another guild that doesn't. Gotta go where you fit in and if you are against realID you are forcing yourself into a situation.

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

Forcing yourself into a "situation"? That just confirms my thoughts about you being a floater...smush, smush...

BTW, I have nothing against those with "pride". I am glad you found your way outta the closet, you have been cooped up long enough. I wish the best for you and your "life partner"!

I think your caps button is sticking here and there too, you might wanna get it checked. =)

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

To the botter that just left the comment. Next time, I am more than happy to let your views fly on my site, but I will not promote the botting game. Sorry.

Anonymous said... Reply To This Comment

No way I would be a part of a guild that required me to use RealID, either as an Officer or a member (and I'm the GL for a large guild).

Anonymous said... Reply To This Comment

wow, this is how you talk to the people reading your blog? "life partner"? I think you might in fact be the worst wow blogger, like the title says.

Gear said... Reply To This Comment

My concern with a guild mandating officers to use realid is that this game allows me to have multiple toons in multiple guilds. I don't want to be heckled by a member of guild 'A' if I'm logged on a toon in guild 'B'.

Gear

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

I don't make it an effort to talk to my readers like this, Adam is a RL bud of mine, it's all in good fun. No hate going on, it's just conversation. =)

Did I mention he gives me a hard time for being a viewer of Jersey Shore? Hence the playing around with his use of "situation".

If it offends you, then by all means, you might not want to read comments, or read my blog, because at times, there is some ugly trolling that happens....

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

Gear,

Great point, I didn't even think about that...

Vince said... Reply To This Comment

RealID isn't much of an issue for me, as the only people who know mine are RL friends, and they know not to compete with me since I'll usually buy them anything anyway. But I can see how it would be an issue, albeit for a very limited number of people. I'm assuming the number of goblins who are officers in guilds who require them to use RealID with all other officers, some of whom are also goblins, is quite small.

Geste said... Reply To This Comment

RealID isn't a big issue for me, because, like Vince above, I only have my family as a RealID friend.
On another note, I have been worried lately that, even though gear I make is posted on my bank alt, a guildie will see that it was crafted by my toon in the guild. No one has confronted me about it yet, but I am not sure how I would respond to someone in my guild if they confront me about it.

Anonymous said... Reply To This Comment

I have two people on my realid. That is it. One is my son and the other is a longtime gamer I have played mmo's with for many years. No one else so far.

I really would have trouble with everyone knowing what and who I sell on. Those in my guild know a couple of my toons but most would not know all.

I wouldnt join a guild that insisted on it. If I want to disapper to an alt....then so be it. Use the comments section or use the rank to identify the in guild characters. Only thing that is needed.

Anonymous said... Reply To This Comment

The only folks I have on RealID are my family and a couple people I've known/gamed with for more than 5 years. One of them also posts pretty heavy on the AH. We are friends enough that if we undercut each other - more by accident than by intent - then its no biggie. We each make our money and we ain't in any hurry to become the richest folks on the server - just interested in financing our toons and pleasures ingame. We end up giving each other more stuff in value than we ever make by besting the other inadvertently on the AH.

Torgal said... Reply To This Comment

Thx Alto ;-)

The reason why I follow my strict policy is that I'm working in IT and have seen horrible mistakes concerning data security. People are giving away intel about themselves for free on the internet and are wondering why thy are bombarded with spam f.e.

I have been in my guild since vanilla and realy love the guys there. But I would never ever make myself trackable and give away my real name. They are my "Internet-friends" and if I want to contact one of them or even want to meet, I'd rather do that outside of WoW.

The intention of implementing that system was clearly bringing friends together, and it is OK that it's only optional. !Real!-buddies, relatives, friends are definitely glad to have a way to stay in contact. But Blizzard should make people more aware of the downsides of Real-ID as there is definately a lack of knowledge out there. I can't understand Guilds that name real-ID as a precondition for membership.

Real-ID goes far beyond hiding from your AH-competition, it creates consequences that are far more important than any video game.

So, enough ranting. Must have watched too many of TB's shows ;-)

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

Torgal,

Thats true. I only have a few folks on there (other bloggers mostly) and I only just added them, as I never used it.

You have a great point about that and the security side of things. Here I was worried about losing AH gold with it, not realizing the whole account security and spams...

Azz said... Reply To This Comment

Good post and it got the comments flying. I do not have any issues with RealID, as I am in a similar situation as Vince & Geste. My RealID contacts are RL friends, or WOW friends in my guild, none of which compete in the AH. As for our guild, all the officers swapped cell phone #'s to text/call if the need arises. However, this is completely optional and does not make or break someone from being an officer. IMO, RealID is always optional, it may be that your guild makes it mandatory, which you then have to decide if that is the right guild for you.

Indy said... Reply To This Comment

I turned off RealID as soon as Blizzard gave us the option to do so.

Keldar Hawke said... Reply To This Comment

You don't add competition your Real ID, no matter what. I don't care that they are my officers or my fellow officers. Only RL friends (or really old gaming friends) get an "Accepted" from my RealID. If they ask you to give it to them (lets say your in a guild with some of them), then tell them to respect your privacy.

And as for AH + RealID - Come on, smartasses - If you don't let them see you (ie, accept them as RealID Friends), it doesn't matter. Just cause you have it SETUP, doesn't mean they SEE you. Unless you ACCEPT / ADD them.

This discussion has been beaten to death so many times it's getting old.

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