iGame Radio

Earlier this week, Blizzard introduced their new RealID feature. This optional feature allows players of World of Warcraft, Starcraft II (and presumably Diablo III when it comes out) to link their real names to their character names, then list each other on their friends lists. It is meant to provide more depth and engagement for players of Blizzard games, and allow real life friends who game together to see each other in-game.

Okay, so nice idea.

Then Blizzard decided that in order to post on their forums from now on, you would have to use your RealID, i.e. your real first and last name, to do so. And the entire Blizzard universe blew up.

Many, many people have already posted about why this is an absurdly bad idea on many fronts. Peter Cohen and I also talked about it at length on the latest iGame Radio podcast as well. It’s a bad idea for female gamers, for minorities, for parents, for people who want to keep their jobs. It’s a bad idea for gamers who simply want their game life and their real life separate.

Well, over 15,000 European and 50,000 American posts later, and Blizzard has finally realized it’s error. They have rescinded their decision (in record time).

“We’ve been constantly monitoring the feedback you’ve given us,” stated a Blizzard spokesperson in the forums, “as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we’ve decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.”

One can speculate over many different reasons for the decision to change this. But the bottom line is that any company, when they try something new, will not really know what the response of their customers is going to be until they actually hear back from their customers. This is precisely the way a game company should operate. Blizzard tried something new. They got an immediate and overwhelming negative reaction to it. They chose to accept their customer’s response as a good indication that the decision was a bad one and withdrew it.

Case closed.

 

Episode 72 is posted. Cory Tamas and I rap about Mac game news of the past couple of weeks. Check out some of the topics below!

We talk about the iPhone OS 3.0 preview, and what kind of an effect this will have on iPhone gaming.

Two new services have been created for gamers, Deathswitch and Slightly Morbid, so that if you die, your guild will know.

What’s with Amazon and deciding not to include Mac support with their casual game service download??

Braid is coming to the Mac! Thanks to Hothead Games!

What kind of games will you see in 2020 on the Mac?

 

I’ve posted Episode 69, in which Corey and I chat about DRM, the used games industry, and piracy rates. Oh, and benchmarks for the Macbook and Macbook Pro. Corey does a review for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, and I do a review of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Not World at War, as I called it once during the show…that’s what happens when you have the two versions available in the marketplace at once).

Oh, and I’m very sorry about the mess-up with Episode 68…that being that I accidentally swapped the URL for Episode 67 into the RSS feed item for Episode 68. That’s all been fixed now.

BTW, I’m playing around with a podcasting plugin. My eventual intention is to post all of my podcasts using WordPress hosted through MacRadio, but for now I’m running some tests. So I’m actually posting my podcast link to Episode 69 below, complete with player, to see how it looks.

Freeverse has released their unique casino game, Burning Monkey Casino, for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can play stylish versions of Video Poker, Blackjack, or Slots with an their updated interface that takes advantage of the swipe and tilt that you can only find on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Alas, there are no monkey’s to burn. You can pick it up at the App Store for a mere $0.99.

Also, The Wrath of the Lich King has been unleashed upon the WoW masses. According to this Gamespot article, the sales were so strong that the GameStop credit card network was reportedly overloaded, and they had to go to manual swipe machines.

Got a burning question you’ve been wanting to ask someone from Blizzard, but can’t attend BlizzCon? Well, you’ll get a chance to get your questions answered. Slashdot is hosting an “Ask Blizzard Employees About Things That Matter” event, in which all you have to do is post your question, and the Slashdot folks who are attending BlizzCon will ask them. They have a sit-down scheduled with Chris Sigaty, lead producer on StarCraft II; Jeffrey Kaplan (aka Tigole), game director for World of Warcraft; Leonard Boyarsky, lead world designer on Diablo III; and Paul Sams, Blizzard COO. Your questions regarding Diablo III art will go the way of the dead horse, so don’t bother. Otherwise, post away!