Would you stop whining about RealID?

"Good news, everyone! I think I perfected a plague that will destroy all life on Azeroth!"

If you look at my blogroll, you can be sure that no one else but Professor Putricide designed RealID with the only purpose to drive us away. All the bloggers that I regularly read (and the legions I don't but the previous ones linked) cry and whine about this terrible event. Even the otherwise perfectly moderated Elitist Jerks allow whining over it.

News flash: Blizzard does not make mistakes, Blizzard makes billions. They imported this feature from facebook games like Farmville. The point is to force you to play. You wanted to do something fun, like a Starcraft II game or PvP as a mage instead of boosting retards in the Cataclysm equivalent of ICC first wing? No luck pal! They will find you and "ask" you to log instantly because they need one more healer to outheal the void zone!

To make billions they must make the game enjoyable for M&S. This does not mean easy game. Of course the game can't be too difficult, but if it's simply easy, everyone who is not retarded will "complete" it in a week and move on. Also, if the game has "easy" reputation, its rewards (the epics) have no social value. No one brags that he completed a 9 pieces puzzle meant for 2 years old kids.

To make the game enjoyable for M&S the keyword is "boosting". Blizzard creates an environment where you must boost several retards or you either cannot advance at all or only if you do huge organizing overhead. You can collect 9 others to go WSG but you don't get the random BG honor and the arena points. The only way to get them is boosting M&S ganking in midfield. You can collect 4 others to do a 5-man but finding them takes longer than the instance. So you'd better queue up alone and boost some really special snowflakes.

To make the game successful Blizzard needs you to boost the M&S, making them believe that they earned their rewards and they are equal players. RealID is a tool to keep you on the leash. You can completely abandon the game(s) or you must log to your healer/tank and boost them. You can't hide as an unguilded alt. You can't play Starcraft II or Diablo III. And you don't have the guts to just give them the finger and tell them that they suck and don't deserve your help. After Facebook integration you can't even hide outside Blizzard games. They can find you anywhere online and "ask" to help them.

RealID is a really good move and I applaud the guy who figured it out. Your pathetic whining won't change their mind. On the contrary, they will feed on your tears. They are happy to see how helpless you are against them.

As you don't dare to tell some M&S that you won't boost their worthless butt, you also don't stand up against your boss and tell him that it's not his business what you're doing in your free time, or tell the HR guy of a prospecting employer that if he thinks you are a bad employee just because you play a video game instead of watching Oprah with a six-pack then he is unfit for his job and with your qualifications you can find another job in a month (If you don't have a month because you need money now to pay the bills, you are an idiot deserving his fate.)

I don't whine, I act:

1. Log in to Battle.net and find parental controls:
   
2. You get to a page where you are asked if you have set it already up. Choose "No, set it up now". You get this:
   
   "address" of course the e-mail address of your account. You don't need a "parent" address, just copy&paste the same everywhere
3. You get an e-mail to your address. Open it, you get a link there. Don't lose this e-mail, as the link is the key for the setup page. By clicking it, you instantly get to the page
4. On the page, simply unselect RealID and you are done. After some time, the changes take effect and all RealID options disappear from your interface.
   

No more Real ID. Ever. And Blizzard can't do anything about it. They can't remove this option, it would be illegal. The personal data of children cannot be submitted, even if the child agrees. The parent must have control over the data. So the only way for them to make RealID mandatory is to make WoW 18+. And I doubt if they want to lose half of their playerbase.

They won't give up. They will offer cosmetic rewards for using it and restrictions for not using it. You can't post on their forums as first step. Terrible loss! Like you ever posted there since the first and last time when you naively put something there and got 2 pages of "lol its fail".

If I'd have to guess, the next moves will be: you can't log in from mobile/browser to do AH, you can't use public chats (/trade /general...), you can't use RAF, scroll of resurrection and so on. They will do everything to push you to do it. But they can't really force you since they have to keep in mind: kids can't use it since their parents don't let them. If they make the consequences of not using RealID game-breaking, the kids will leave the game after begging to their dad for an hour to "plzplzplz lemme use relaid". And Activision wants the money of the parents of the kids.

Summary: whining is useless. Do something! Or if you really can't do anything, at least don't let them see you cry (whining = crying)!


PS: if people turn Real ID off in masses, Blizzard will see it. If using RealID becomes "n00b" thing, if people with voice and with respect (like top players) refuse to use it, RealID will die.


PS2: many people commented to just say no to anyone who is not your real friend. That sound nice until you think about that "friends of friends" see your real ID information. Trusting one guy is OK. Trusting everyone he trusts is not. Also, you have to give out your Real ID on the forums (that caused the uproar). Blizzard won't stop until every M&S who ever crossed your way can reach you to ask for boost unless you turn it off.