True, although there are two objective reasons, I think, to be in favor of moving the WoW forums to battletags:
A, Every other Blizzard game forum already uses BattleTags, so it would probably allow them to simplify on the back end (unification usually does).
B, Currently, each character is, to my understanding, considered an entirely separate forum account. This means that one player with a sufficient number of alts can mass-report by themselves, and as we know, Blizzard defaults to a “impose a default punishment first and let the target deal with CS to have it rolled back if it’s wrong” system for mass reports.
At the least, this seems to justify the “move to battletags” suggestion because if you’re going to have mass reporting work that way, it’s logical to at least impose a proper “one person, one vote” system. Currently, it can be one person, fifty votes (and while from what I understand that can be actioned against the person abusing that, again: meanwhile, the damage has been done, as the target is already on a forum vacation that they have to fart around with CS to get reversed - which a lot of people I imagine never even get to do, because either the suspension ends before they can get through to CS, or they give up because in so many occasions your first couple tickets get fobbed off with the automated response and if you send enough to actually get it looked at, you’re already being threatened with the “stop bugging customer care or we’ll cut off your access to it” messages). That, at least, is objectively broken.
I’ve seen plenty of posts in the CS forums of that exact thing happening. The difference is that posting on another character on the forums is allowed unless you are doing it to target someone specifically in your reply. That’s harassment.
The problem here is the definition of harassment. Say you don’t like me and put me on Ignore. If I post a reply to you on a different character that might make you upset, but just replying to you is not harassment. People can post and reply to any thread or person they want within the rules.
Now, if it is directed comments to name call, insult, troll, etc and it is an ongoing harassment campaign that is different and Blizzard will act on it.
Like I always say, “Jerks think the safest place is behind the computer screen.” They can troll all they want and feel there is no consequences on the internet.
In a way you have more privacy on Btags. It does not allow someone to contact you without your permission in game or add you and track you.
What it has is a level of “permanence”. So while completely anonymous and made up, the made up name does not easily change hence a forum account has an “identity” that is somewhat stable.
That does not make it less anonymous though. Not unless someone uses their real life info in their Battletag, in which case they should use the Free name change to fix that.
Btag is less anonymous in the sense that each person only gets one under most circumstances, so one can’t hide if they use multiple characters for multiple functions (for example, having a character for serious posts, another one to backup said opinion, and another for trolling).
That’s when people pick on you for not having AoTC and not being a multi gladiator etc they tell you you can’t have an opinion if you aren’t top one percent no lifer wow player
Some people will pick on you regardless, you can’t let them get to you.
But if they are bullying someone, then they will receive appropriate social punishment for it. That’s much better than having people troll without repercussions because they can just post on a separate character and most people would never know they were the troll.
All other Blizzard forums use battletag instead of character names, and they have significantly less bullying and epeen measurement contests than the WoW forums.
Occasionally you’ll find Diablo players using their paragon as a measurement of experience, but almost exclusively in the context of group EXP farming.
Occasionally, you’ll find HotS, SC2, or OW players using rank to put others down; but it’s not remotely as common as here, where it happens every other thread.
Misinformed idiots (or let’s be real, dishonest trolling, exactly what we’re trying to cut down on) is a pretty bad excuse to not take the more beneficial action. May as well have said we shouldn’t have had mask mandates because some people claimed they “couldn’t breathe” in them.
Less trolling, less nonsense, zero consequence free throwaway posting toons, the list goes on. Pretty clear and obvious gain.
It will absolutely save them hours, as the change very clearly eliminates and deters certain trolling behaviors. Money is hard to say without specifics, though I would lean towards yes based on the obvious hours being saved.