Was Blizzard's real name decision nothing more than a PR stunt?

Comments

  • edited July 2010
    Very nice piece.
  • Gate28Gate28 Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    Blizzard doesn't exist anymore. It's just Activision now, sometimes taking the guise of a friendly clown everyone likes to make the bad things they do look better.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    The Real ID was an opt in program. You have to say yes & sign-up under the forums to actually have your name displayed. The big thing that is crazy is that Blizzard like Facebook allows you to see friends of friends which already has lead me to deny access to my where abouts while gaming.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    As someone that is totally non biased on the subject (I know, hard to believe)... But I just don't give a darn about WOW, never played it, likely never will...

    I think its just one of those times where someone at corporate shows up and says, hey, I have this big idea, and it will help this dept, it will improve workflow, so on so forth, but, we are not sure how our customers are going to feel about it.

    So, what do you do, you flip the switch and see if they throw a big enough fit, and if they do, you just say, hey customers, we value and love you so much we realize the error in our ways and that this was fundamentally a bad idea. We just thought the pros for us outweighed the cons for you, but obviously not the case, carry on like we were never here.... As long as the customer still gets what they want, its not like a bad idea ever killed anybody. I really don't think its going to mar Blizzard's PR to a point where WOW addicts are going to stop playing their favorite title.

    I really think its as simple as that. We have situations like that where I work sometimes. We have a set of customers and authorized representatives, and sometimes you decide you really need to change something in your business practice thats going to upset the apple cart a bit in their eyes. Do you ask permission or prior input? Not if you actually want to pull it off. You just say, hey, we are doing this, or, you go one step further and actually do it, then see what the reaction is. In some cases we get what we want, streamline a process internally while doing it, in other cases the customers freak out and we say, sorry, we love you guys, we really do, so here is what were gonna do...

    I think its as simple as that.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    I don't think a company with the single largest grossing game of all time, and the requisite shareholders that go along with that, can just have something as simple as "flip a switch and see how they react". In fact, I believe there may be legal repercussions about doing that very thing.

    They can't flip switches without changing their subscriber agreements, etc.

    And this isn't just about WoW - this is about Battle.net and everything that's going to be on it (Starcraft II, Diablo III, etc.)

    You're painting a picture of "Silly WoW addicts and their silly games" but it's much more complicated than that.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    Now, now Prime, I never called anyone silly. Quite contrary, I'm just saying because I have nothing vested in the game, I have an outsiders view of the situation. That does not make my view any more or less valid, it just means I'm not biased for a change.

    As I understand it, Blizzard has been generally considered a class act amongst developers. WOW is arguably the most successful gaming product ever. I'm not defending them, I'm not even saying that what they were thinking about doing was technically legal, but from their viewpoint, you could see the potential benefits for them, and in some ways the community. From a consumer standpoint, I can understand why I might not want it. I can see both sides here.

    I'm just saying from a business stand point how you solve problems and innovate when you know there is going to be opposition, especially from your customers. Sometimes you push, and you get pushed back. They withdrew the lousy idea, case closed for now.

    Perhaps in the future they will change the subscriber agreements as you suggested, and people will have a choice as to if they do or do not want to continue to support that product, but for now, Blizzard had an idea, they knew it was not going to be popular with some of their customers, they pushed, measured the outrage, decided the outrage was not worth the benefits that the change might yield (or potential legal battles), they say hey customers, we love you, sorry about that, forget we mentioned it.

    You know me, I'm as anti corporate / pro consumer as anyone that posts here. In this case I'm pretty sure Blizzard's loyal fans are going to forgive them for this since they set it right so quickly.
  • KoreishKoreish I'm a penguin, deal with it. KCMO Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    Gate28 wrote:
    Blizzard doesn't exist anymore. It's just Activision now, sometimes taking the guise of a friendly clown everyone likes to make the bad things they do look better.

    QFT
  • CyrixInsteadCyrixInstead Stoke-on-Trent, England Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    It was an expensive PR stunt for the Blizzard employee who used their RealID and had people track down where he lived!

    ~Cyrix
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited July 2010
    Over a yer ago, I was banned off the WoW forums for some quite mild comments about the Blizzcon ticket buying process. They have not reinstated me.

    But I'll show them. When Starcraft 2 comes out next week, I'll make a whole new Battle.net account and be able to post again! HA-hahahahahahaaaaaaaa! :)

    They won't keep ME away! And I may make a seperate accout for Cataclysm!
  • edited August 2010
    Funny enough, I was in the camp of not having even thought about WoW in a good while, except during the Mr. T commercials. I had no idea Catalyst was on the horizon.

    Now suddenly, after seeing a link to the controversy on Penny Arcade, I've found myself reading up on the upcoming changes and new content and trying to fight the itch to fire up the account again.

    So if it was just a great big "Hey! I'm still here! Don't forget about me!" ploy, it was certainly effective at getting their name back out there, if nothing else, and I'm sure I'm not the only one it worked on.
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