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South Korean law may be behind Real ID change on Blizzard Forums

Thursday, July 8, 2010

blizzard

Zeroday, a blog run by Harvard Law student Oliver Day, may have come across the real reason for why Blizzard is making the change to use Real ID on their forums. Day’s theory is that Blizzard is conforming to a South Korean law that requires users who comment on forums, where there are over 100,000 users a day, to use their real name. South Korea was hoping that this law would reduce online defamation, I don’t think they had “piss off American fanboys” top of mind.

Google was the first US company to be hit by this new law with comments on YouTube. However, Google responded by blocking any user with a South Korean IP address from commenting. Eventually, South Korea did make an exemption for YouTube, allowing users to comment without using their real names.

There is no way Blizzard could turn around and do the same in South Korea with how big Starcraft and World of Warcraft are there. It seems that switching to Real ID on the forums, by using real names, was their way around it.

What do you MMOMFG readers think about this? Is this the true reason that Blizzard is making the switch to using Real ID on the forums? South Korea initiated it by requiring real names to reduce internet bullying and Blizzard doesn’t want to lose a strong South Korean Market. Are you buying it?

Here’s an update on the feedback from the WoW forums on the Real ID change. There are now over 42,600 comments over 2,130 pages on the forums. The rate in which the posts are coming in are starting to fall slowly as it is down to 803.8 posts an hour from the 935.2 posts an hour yesterday. Slackers!

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  • FormerWoWplayer

    I think the suggestion might have some to do with the changes, but ultimately Activision wants to tap social network and viral advertising. It’s just sad that we are paying $15 a month, and all they can think of is ways to make more money off our personal information. I’d rather pay a few extra $’s per month than have Warcraft player data pimped out to facebook.

  • Kaal

    If this was the reason, then it would be easy for blizzard to setup a South Korean forum and enforce the rule there. Why create ill-will all around the world for conforming to just 1 country ?

    • http://mmomfg.com/members/justin/ Justin

      Makes sense to me, I was under the impression that they had their own forums anyway? Though maybe it’s all under one umbrella system?

  • Gray, Germany

    That’s nonsense. If Hulu.com, and other online businesses, are able to differentiate between users in different countries, Blizzard can easily do the same. So, there’s no need to make global changes just because of a new law in Korea!

    No, the real reason is that improved profiling of the players, including their friends, contacts, preferrences, purchases, and even online and real world activities would lead to Blizzard being able to raise the rates for the advertisment businesses. Marketing companies love those facebook profiles and would like to see this everywhere in order to get a better focus on their target groups. And they would pay more for such detailed infos. Don’t fall for spin, this is all about money, as usual, and nothing else!

  • http://mmomfg.com/members/jake/ Jake

    @Gray, Germany: That is so true. It’s always about money. I didn’t think of the advertising part before but Blizzard does obviously stand to gain from this in one way or another.

  • http://- Og-

    I can only see negetive stuffs about this real ID, and of course it’s all about the money, Blizzard have already shown us that.

    I sure wont do anything that reveals my name and aftername on the forums because I can promise the gold sellers will take advantage of this too. Getting spammed on my e-mail is enough, ty!

  • http://mmomfg.com/members/jake/ Jake

    @Og-: There won’t be real names on the forums any more. There was an official posting.