I think it is about time Blizzard introduces BattleTags for the WoW Forums. Honestly, the current list of problems with the forums are the reasoning to why the forums need BattleTags.
So what are BTags?
A BattleTag™ is a player-chosen nickname that identifies your Battle.net account in our games, websites, community forums, and more. Only one BattleTag can be associated with a Battle.net account.
BattleTags do not need to be unique. You can use any name you want, as long as it follows our Naming Policy. Each BattleTag is assigned a numeric ID to create a unique identifier (for example, FallenSlayer#3592).
Why does the forum need BTags?
As mentioned earlier, there is so many problems with the current system that well, enables trolling and harassment within the community. Take for example:
- People can continue to switch between alts to mass like there own or someones post over and over, or mass flag the same post over and over.
- People can switch alts to bypass the forum ignore.
- People can switch between alts to troll the forums to act like multiple different people.
- People can switch between alts to even name and impersonate as someone.
These are just a few examples, but these are what does tend to happen on the forums. Understandably though, these do break the Code of Conduct and not everything can just be “reported”, although Blizzard moderation does tend to pick up on somethings that players can’t.
Where with BTags, it stops from switching between alts do stuff like:
- Bypassing the forum ignore of another user
- Stops from mass liking or mass flagging the same post.
- Limits people from trolling (If they are being ignored, there is less bites for them, which might decrease it over time.)
- Can even stop people from impersonating others.
For full details on what is wrong and what BTags will solve, here is a list from Mirasol.
So, basically, the idea is to allow people to still post from there characters, but have the total post count, the likes, flags, and every other forum feature bound to the Battle.NET account. Something like similar to this image
So basically, some fun threads like “Rate the Transmog” still can exist, but it can eliminate somethings which are easily abused and takes a while to be dealt with.
Blizzard tried this before, it didn’t work within the community.
Blizzard tried this with RealID, and the community backlashed against this. If anyone doesn’t know what RealID is, I recommend reading this Blizzard artical.
Enabling BTags on the forums will increase harassment and stalking.
Technically, this is entirely false. In order to send a message first through the BattleTag, you must actually be friends with them, and it is easier to decline a friends request than counting to 10. And you can not actually stalk anyone at all with BTags. Let me put it this way, lets say I was in Stormwind, people on my friends list, will see the server I’m on, the character, and Stormwind. That is it. You can be anywhere in the world, inside a Bank in Stormwind, it will still say Stormwind. Plus, with the system today, You’d highly unlikely will bump into a friend or someone you know in the world, not unless your in the same shard as them or in a party.
If you want to see where BTags doesn’t increase or enable harassment and stalking, just look at the other Blizzard forums. They all use BattleTags.
What if people set there real names to there BTag?
Honestly, this should’ve been the first thing people should’ve thought off before chosing there BattleTag. It isn’t recommended to set your real name to your BTag. But the solution is simple. Just offer people another free BTag change if they don’t want to pay the $10 AUD for the BTag change.
People will just send random BattleTags request from the forums…
Maybe, maybe not. I can’t not say for the behaviour of individuals. However, if you don’t like BTag request, Baridorielor created this thread with a nice guide on how to avoid unwanted BNet request.
