I had posted here information someone else dug up after Micah Whipple, Blizzard Employee, posted his real name in the epic-length RealID announcement thread on the WoW Forums.
Apparently that information was not the correct Micah Whipple, but I'll leave this message here instead.
Say you piss off some psycho on SC2 and they decide to pay you a visit. They're dumb enough to stalk someone because of a game of starcraft, you think they care if they've killed the right Micah Whipple's dog?
Well I can tell you that in the thread he quoted me to correct that the Micah we originally was not him "how can I live in Northern Cali and work in Irvine?" was deleted after I got a 7 day ban. I have copy & paste of my "apology" thread I started and my ban reasoning (have a screen shot) was "I'll forgive you."
ReplyDeleteThe correct address was found later though.
ReplyDeleteIt's been deleted off every forum it's been posted on but it's findable in google's cache still.
Try this one...it's the one most likely to be him.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spokeo.com/search?q=micah%20whipple#:1046547177
Remember how the Terminator went about killing Sarah Connor? That's right, he just went down every Sarah Connor in the phonebook and killed all of them.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be accurate:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.awakeningofchaos.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=513:battlenet-update-2&catid=44:latest#comments
http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=micah+Whipple+irvine+address
ReplyDeleteMicah Whipple 2552 Kelvin Ave, Apt 131. Irvine, California 92614
Google cached the forum post and uses it as a summary when you search for Whipple.
If sociopaths kills other people or dogs over an online game, it's time to teach everybody in school that IT'S JUST A GAME!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I hope the people who published the wrong guy's address will get sued for harassment. Oh wait, it won't work as they're anonymous trolls.
Micah is just an ordinary person doing his job the best he can. Please leave him alone. Please take down the page, especially the stuff on the families. They are getting harassed by the crazies and that's not fair. Blizzard moved very quickly to reverse itself after announcing the original policy. Give it a break. Everyone makes mistakes, even Blizzard. Please stop hurting the innocent just to make a point.
ReplyDeleteLoL. Blizzard gave me a perma ban from the forums for linking this the other day. They deleted every post I ever have made on any forum.
ReplyDelete"Micah is just an ordinary person doing his job the best he can"
ReplyDeleteMicah thinks the whole thing is a joke. He has even joked about saying, "Do I still get Pizza?" on the offical forums, the posts were were since deleted - probably by someone else in Blizzard who realised that the image he presents is someone who just thinks this whole situation is a funny joke.
i am regular visitor of your site and you are writing very nice so keep posting university admission
ReplyDeleteThis is a serious debate and this page is linked on www.leatrix.com. Blizzard may have backed down on the forums idea, but they are still going ahead with Real ID in game.
ReplyDeleteWhats more, they refuse to state that Real ID will not be compulsory at some point in the future. What they have said is that Real ID is optional at this time while community concerns exist. This implies that when those community concerns are no longer considered an issue, Real ID will be made compulsory. I've put this point to Blizzard many times, they refuse to rule out compulsory use of Real ID in the future.
Real ID in game is dangerous. On social network websites it works because that's what people sign up for and on such sites you have full control over exactly how much information you share. You can also use a fake name on such sites if you wish to share your views but remain anonymous.
Battle.net ToU expressly forbids you from using a fake name when signing up. If you ever get hacked or there's a dispute over account ownership, you won't get your account back if you can't prove your identity (typically this is done by sending a copy of your birth certificate and Government ID to Blizzard).
And if you give in and use Real ID in game, you're giving your real name to people who you may not know. You may consider these people as friends at the time, but Wow relationships can very easily turn very hostile and when that happens you don't want the knowledge that your enemies have your real life details.
Micah can try and cover up his true feelings as much as he wants, but the facts speak for themselves - he deleted his Facebook profile and upped the privacy settings on his Twitter account. The actions of a man unphased by Real ID? I don't think so.
We can't feel sorry for Micah while Blizzard are trying to do this exact same thing on the players. As it stands now, Blizzard have won. Originally, they had to say that Real ID will be used by Blizzard staff as well as the players.
All they've done now is said that the staff will no longer use it, but the players have no choice. So they admit it's a privacy and security violation (since they refuse to use it themselves) but they don't share those concerns when the players are involved.
Finally, Real ID as it stands is a very effective tool for harassment.
(continued from above)
ReplyDeleteIf you get someone's Real ID, you can lock their account instantly by trying to login as them a few times. This will force them to go through the process of changing their account password and getting their account unlocked.
They probably won't realise what's happened so as soon as they unlock it you can probably lock it again and again until they change their Real ID email address. They won't have a clue who is locking their account (since they probably gave their Real ID to a few people and they don't even know if it's you who is causing the locks).
They'll probably put in a petition to a GM for help, but the GM won't know that Real ID is causing the problem either.
Real ID is just a complete fiasco from start to finish. What players have always wanted in game is accountability - ensuring that idiots can't relog to low levels and harass or spam the forums. They never wanted real identities to be used for this, a Game ID would have been much more effective and wouldn't have violated individual security and privacy. A Game ID gives everyone a unique name which they can share with others. Game ID would have made the game more socially responsible and helped to create lots of friendships across realms. These friendships will prosper more so than with Real ID as people will feel safe and secure, but will also not be able to hide behind low level alts to do whatever they want.
With a Game ID, things that you do in pulic are tied to the characters you play as your mains and that's what brings about true social responsibility in a virtual world. The real world doesn't exist in Wow, so trying to use real identities isn't going to work. All it's going to do is cause real life problems as in-game battles bleed out into real life.
Sadly, Blizzard have specifically ruled out Game IDs as they don't generate revenue, all they do is please the community and that's not worth the effort. Facebook have just had their 500 millionth member but Battle.net only has around 12 million members. Blizzard wants to tap into the social networking arena to try and get some of those 500m people to play Wow.
The way they'll do that is by integrating with Facebook, which we can already see happening through the Armory app and the Friend Finder feature. This encourages people to talk about Wow on their Facebook profiles, and the more people that talk about it, the more likely people are to sign up to Wow. How many times have you done something on Facebook because others have done it?
That's what Real ID is actually about. Blizzard are a business, it's not a game for them. They're always looking for ways to increase their revenue and they see Facebook as an ocean of opportunity just waiting to be tapped. However, Facebook uses real identities so the first hurdle to overcome in this integration is to start using real identities in Battle.net too.
This is what you're seeing happening now, and this is just the beginning.
"This is what you're seeing happening now, and this is just the beginning."
ReplyDeleteThis is close to the bone of truth my friend. We are entering a new age of communication. Its not wrong but its not right. There is gonna be problems regardless. I am about to go change my Facebook name to something else now. My dad said Facebook will be bought over at somepoint. I dont remember who he said bidded but even if they fail its gonna happen at somepoint as this is just good business right? Anyone in their right mind can see FB will be bought at some point and if you cant then your in denial of how business works. Just look at Vivendi. They own Blizzards biggest assets AND Sierra. Does that not worry some people. Do they own activision as well? I didnt dare look that far. If they dont how long till they or another huge company does... just good business right?
You remember all those movies you see where the world is owned by By and Large etc... you know, the ones where a lone hero gets the girl and restores the freedoms of a population by fighting against the big bad company that has no moral compass and whos business practices are "just good business"...?
As the Anonymous above me said...
"This is what you're seeing happening now, and this is just the beginning."
AnaLoGMunKy