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So, we wiped on him for an hour or two last week, and mashed him on the 4th attempt this week. I’ll do a proper post later on tanking P2 (shadow) which is … a challenge.

The Home Sec has just announced in Parliament.

About bloody time

Firstly an interesting article which might give some insight into one of the drivers for this change
http://watchingthewatchers.org/indepth/1365085/korean-law-driving-policy-blizzard

Now, here is the news

BBC News – World of Warcraft maker to end anonymous forum logins
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10543100.stm

USA Today – ‘WoW’ studio Blizzard to require real names on forums
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2010/07/wow-studio-blizzard-to-require-real-names-on-forums/1

Thanks to Matticus for shoving this on the radar, though given the noise it’s creating (118 pages on EU and 882 on US the last time I checked).

So firstly what are they doing and what are they not doing.

• New forums will be opened for Starcraft II & Cataclysm
• The new forums will be using Real ID, and will be showing your real name on the posts
• The old forums will not be changed
• The old forums will be closed once the new ones are open
• There is an explicit opt-in on the new forums making it clear that your name will be made public
• The parental controls have been updated so minors can be blocked from the forums

So, where’s the problem, surely having your name on the net has happened a lot of times already.

True but I’ve controlled, as far as possible what my name is associated with on the net, having come online around 15 years ago when the mantra was “never give out your real name”, usenet was a brutal place and keeping some security and privacy was a critical lesson to learn and learn quickly.  As was having to deal with the trolls.

What Blizz appear to have forgotten is that data should only be released where there is a clear benefit, and where it cannot be achieved through other means.  In this case a fixed alias for each battlenet account would do the same trick of cleaning up the forums, it stops the creation of level 1 alts, it allows a mapping of one account -> one identifier (not necessarily one person though) and without having to release additional information and the associated meta information, think of all the players who if they want to use the forums will expose their gender, their ethnic origin etc etc.  There are plenty of morons out there who will latch onto that information, some in the antipication of trolling and others (white knights) in the vain hope they might get laid.

What about the players in gay friendly (or gay only) guilds, if they have decided to keep their sexuality private outside of WoW then can no longer post to the forums.

As things stand (and we need more information) there is also the breaking of the namespace.  At the moment we know that each ‘name’ is unique as it’s <alt name>+<realm>+<region>, we know that has to be unique because of the way the system is built.  How is that going to be managed when there are 200 John Smith’s posting to the forum.  There is no realm tie in, so there is scope for trolling on a grand scale with confusion over who is responding to who.

Security

Releasing more meta information is bad where it’s not needed, at the moment there are a few people who know my real name within WoW, I think it’s about 13 people, with another 10 who might be able to make the right connections.   Pushing my identity out into the wider world in connection to WoW gives a scammer another hook to try and catch me, why not guess at the email address I use normally?  Scammers aren’t afraid of spamming the world in the hop of a 0.01% return rate, this would allow better targetting of their attempts.

Follow the Money

The change isn’t happening in isolation to clean up the forums, there’s a bigger game afoot, social networking and the piles of money corporate execs see in it.  So Blizzard/Activision are teaming with Facebook, that highly respected paragon of good data security and practice.

Is this the final act?

Not a hope in hell, I personally believe these are opening moves, what was once optional (realid in game) has become “optional but we’re going to freeze you out of part of the service” and I’m sure will become “optional, unless you want to log into the game“.  One thought which has surfaced already would be embedding realID information into tooltips / in-game nameplates etc etc.

I’m not sure where they’re going to go, but as I said above look for the money trails, look for where they can make the extra cash off their database.  This is what the world is about at the moment, all the large companies are looking to do something with their databases, the suits see them as money in potentia and want to convert it into big piles of the folding stuff as quickly as possible before the current bubble bursts.

The last word

I’ll leave the last word on this to Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Link Farm

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl1WP1YCiw0]

From the “wtf” files we have this special delivery into the team.  That’s right, a tiny little box in a much larger box with lots of packing.  Guys, can I introduce you to the concept of the “Jiffy Bag”?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_G_dub8-Vo]

Wrath dates (Wowwiki)

Beta opt-in : 03/July/2008
Beta opens : 17/July/2008
Code goes ‘gold’: 10/Oct/2008
Release: 13/Nov/2008

Where does that leave us with Cataclysm?  I reckon in pretty much the same place, the closed beta is over and the NDA has been lifted overnight and while there are no beta keys out yet it’s been announced that they’re selecting players.

I reckon we’re pretty much on the same timeline, with the beta getting into full swing in the next week or so and a release in November.  Guess I know what I’m getting SWMBO for her birthday again.

Well things are in full swing and MPs are bitching about having to claim expenses and justify what they’re claiming for, like the rest of us.  I particularly love this one.

“Labour’s Nick Brown asked for examples of other jobs where people had to “spend their own money up front to carry out their job. What’s the comparator?” he asked.”

Ok, let’s see.

• I travel to a customer site in the UK, I pay for the fuel and have to claim it back at the government set rate for my size of car.
• I travel internationally, I have to cover everything out of my pocket except the flight (unless I’m pressured into taking the likes of EasyJet which can’t be booked through the central system in which case that goes on the card as well), I then have to claim it all back, with receipts and in the case of meals within the limit set for each type of meal.

This is not atypical, it’s normal within industry.

If someone in my company had tried to do what MPs did with their expenses and got caught they would be facing gross misconduct and a sacking, no chance to pay back and let it lie there, no chance to announce retirement and pick up the resettlement payment many MPs have taken.  Out, no notice period, and possible legal action.

So before whining and bitching about how this is unfair remember what brought it about.

The discussion I had with a party worker in the run up the election summed things up when I asked about the horseshit he claimed on expenses for his garden.  Apparently the system was ripe for abuse and everyone was doing it, he didn’t have a comeback when I pointed out that surely this meant it was a test of character for MPs and his candidate had therefore failed.

BBC report