followup thanks and updates

Thanks to all the commenters, angry gamers, Blizzard employees, and friends who read my first post! I am glad I could add a little bit of evidence to the argument against RealID. Since the post, it has been surmised that Blizzard was handed this change as a mandate, and that its staff is just as angry as everyone else. I can't corroborate that, but I thought I'd share the short response I got from Blizzard Customer Support, regarding a short e-mail I sent them with a link to my post:

Greetings

You wont get much of a response here sadly, id suggest posting that link on our forums, its very insightful and well written. Good work :)

Best Wishes,

[redacted]

(removing the name in the off-chance that this even slight-endorsement could get someone in trouble).

To be perfectly honest, it does seem out of character that Blizzard would spearhead such a change, as they have long held that they go out of their way not to associate real-life identities with the in-game characters. This fact has been used to bolster Blizzard's stance that the WoW Armory is not invasive: no one should know about your character unless you tell them about it. Obviously, these RealID changes contradict that philosophy in every way. I have trouble believing that the same company who kept players' personal information private for years, going so far as to write such privacy into the TOU of the game, would make an announcement like the one we just saw. I would love to believe that it's coming from somewhere beyond Blizzard itself.

Further evidence that Blizzard is bound by at least some sort of PR-patrol on this issue is that we've seen very, very few blue comments on the issue. Normally the blue posters are all over the forums, reassuring users and engaging in discourse and debate. The fact that the largest thread in the history of the WoW forums has had a pitifully small blue-to-white ratio means that someone, somewhere, is holding back. I'm not suggesting some conspiracy or anything, I'm just observing that there's less blue out there right now than one would think.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really matter who said what... all that matters is that this change is apparently going ahead come hell or high water. Here's the latest thread where you can go complain.

:-(