If this is the case, why have we been told to "post the problem on the forums"?

Yeah, I know, crappy tech support and the 'any answer to get them off the phone' but, seriously, it's not an isolated response from Blizzard.

Interesting. Multiple people today have tried calling in and gotten an automated message which told them to post in the forum, then hung up on them.

Maybe the world's changed since you last needed support.

I, too share a name with a semi-celebrity who actually died years ago. Fortunately for me, there are still several pages devoted to his life story. Unfortunately for another person who lives in the same town as I do and also shares my name, he owns a large real-estate company and his name appears in google just a few links down on the search results page. As bad as I would feel if someone came after me because they didn't like the way I played a video game or something I said in the O-forums for that matter, I would feel a million times worse if someone ELSE were hurt simply because we have the same name and live in the same town.

I have Googled my name, and sadly..... I can't find myself :(

OP - Don't feel so hardened, after it is a video game. Continue to play :) Its a fun game! Don't worry so much! :) Is all I was trying to say.

One of my friends may well commit suicide over this, because this was his/her only outlet where he/she didn't need to deal with gender dysphoria. He/she just got moved from a scheduled appointment to start on gender-related therapy to a "waiting list" and was desperately trying to find ways to stay distracted long enough to survive until that could turn back into progress. An online game where you could be anyone you wanted was just the ticket... Until Blizzard came out and said "but if you ever need to use the forums, people are going to see your current legal name that you hate so much that even seeing it written sometimes makes you cry".

Yeah, that's fun.

Nope, sorry. It's not fun anymore. It can't be fun. The magic went out of it. It's no longer an escapist fantasy alternative, it's now just another aspect of the exact set of things I play RPGs to get away from.

Had trust. Trust was betrayed. It's no longer fun. It just got real.

you're changing the subject, and that's weird. O.o Above has nothing to do with the new policy, because you're friend has personal issues that need to be taken care of in a professional manner.

I have Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia, in addition to having a Medication Phobia (aka Pharmacophobia), and I won't be worried one bit about the game changes, because you should always take games into moderation.

Someone who needs to play wow in order to feel normal, have something wrong with them, no offense. :O

Come on, folks! Lets keep this discussion civil. The tirades on the O-forums are getting close to being out of hand, and I'd prefer for all of us to be able to come here for a more rational discussion of the issues at hand. Lets work to preserve our small island of sanity in the vast ocean of...

I'm so tired I can't even finish the thought I just had...:o

I'm being nice! I'm being rational, by stating that i have mental issues as well! I think everyone does! :P But they don't become dependent upon a video game, is my ... point?

:) /smile

This was posted on the epic thread at the forums just a little bit ago.

Battle.net(R) and Facebook Integration Announced

Old news my friend. Look at the date on it:

Old news, yes, but it's the first I've seen it. I knew they had their app for Facebook but I didn't realize things were going to be as integrated as this makes it sound. If this all comes to pass in the worst case scenario I have in my head, then I will probably quit playing all together.

[Drama]I don't trust Facebook and my trust in Blizzard has been severely compromised by this RealID fiasco. I use Facebook only because it is somewhat required by work I do for a client. My account there is locked down and contains only the bare minimum of information required to open an account. I don't want my Blizzard information anywhere near Facebook's lack of concern for its users privacy.[/Drama]

I'm really not trying to sound like an overly paranoid drama queen here with it. My job requires that I be overly protective of data and beyond overly protective when it comes to security. This whole thing just rubs me the wrong way and puts up too many red flags.

this is a monumentally stupid idea and they have to know it.

i would sign the petition somebody posted a while back, but it ironically asks for my name and email address so i passed.

picking the name "real id" is just asking for privacy evangelists to get upset given that was the name of the fed gov'ts proposed national id system.

Yes, he/she does.

And signed up for the initial evaluation, and got an appointment set, and then got bumped onto a "waiting list" due to insurance hangups. Which means that he/she is now in the middle of waiting anywhere from a few weeks to a few months in order to start on the very long and expensive process (which may at any point turn out not to be covered by health care) of trying to get that treatment.

In the mean time, there's nothing to do but try to hang on and not think too much about where the knives are.

Well, no **** sherlock. That was my entire point, you know? My friend is mentally ill. Mentally ill enough that he/she is at a pretty high risk of committing suicide without treatment for which there is an unknown waiting period, anywhere from weeks to months. And the one thing he/she could do was get into a fantasy universe, get engrossed in that world, and get a bit of a reprieve from hating him/herself, while waiting for that professional treatment to come along.

That's all there is to it. Must kill time until the waiting list turns into an appointment, then kill more time until the appointment happens. It'll be months of being cripplingly, suicidally, depressed. And that one last safety line just got yanked away.

Lucky you, your issues are less severe than my friend's are. I guess that means my friend is unimportant.

Easy guys .... step back, breathe, count to 10.

Eh, I'm gonna go sleep for a little bit. Got someone else keeping an eye on my friend for a few hours.

Sleep is good. :)

Sign at everything seebs said, his friend included.

I'm playing WoW as something to relax into a fantasy. Part of the fantasy just went poof. I really hope they will keep the ingame part of the fantasy but I'm sceptical now.

And I don't care about trolls. No problem to ignore them.

You are certainly right about the facebook connection. This Blizz decision is shurely money oriented. The community has to make shure they shoot themselves into the foot with this (if that is understandable in english). The same goes for facebook as their official policy is "anti-privacy".

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=128252

Now this is really disgusting

For the same reason Comcast, Microsoft, and all other major companies tell you over the phone something like "for faster service, press one for automated troubleshooting". They get busy and overwhelmed with calls. The forums are merely an offer for a secondary choice for support.

Let's not make this something that it's not. Phone tech support isn't going to answer the phone and say, or have a message telling you, that they no longer take phone calls and to go to the forums. Phone techs have to answer the phone. The forums techs do not have to answer posts.

Back on topic.... I certainly will not be posting on the forums anymore unless this new change is reverted.