Battle.net Real ID

So while MMO Champion is going crazy on the screenshots and previews of Cataclysm, the tiny message that came in the post before that I had almost missed. And funny enough, I found this one way more interesting since it's actually about to go live and available to players.

You can read the original blue post here.

We’ve just released a new preview of our upcoming Real ID feature, ( http://www.battle.net/realid/ ) a new, optional way to connect with your friends on the revamped Battle.net. When you and a friend agree to become Real ID friends, you’ll have access to a number of options designed to enrich your social gaming experience, including cross-game chat, broadcast messages, the ability to keep in contact with your friends without having to keep track of their different characters across realms or across games, and much more. Check out our new Real ID page here. http://www.battle.net/realid/ 

So I surfed to the site and read up on things. Basically they are trying to create a facebook type thing, but only then for in game. I can see why they're jumping on the bandwagon, facebook type things are hot. I mean, I hate all those things, and I already got tricked into a facebook, linkedin, and hives thingy, and there are many...manymany more out there.

So what are they trying to do?
- Real names for friends
- Cross game chat
- Rich Presence
- Broadcast
- Friend once, see all characters
- Friends of friends

There's however quite a few here that I have problems with and that make me very hesitant to use this feature just yet.

Real names for friends / Rich Presence
Yes, very funky if you really know people. And yes, there are some out there who I would have no problems giving my real name to, but somehow this seems not entirely the right way to go about it. I would like it much more when I could just log in under my own chosen name.

I play games to escape reality sometimes. I want to be the pretty nightelf who can twiddle her hands and heal someone back to full. I like my chosen name; Shy. To go back to my own name...well, that would take some of the magic away now, wouldn't it? This thing automatically uses the name I used for my battlenet account. I would rather choose my own name.

Then there is deciding when someone really is a 'real friend'. I honestly don't have that many people that I would want to know my real information. Some of my guildies, but not even all of them. Few, very few friends outside the guild. And how on earth do you judge when you know someone well enough to give them your information? I mean in game it's all nicely hidden behind a character, but this brings it all out in the open.

Cross game chat
This is the part that I do really like, though for some odd reason I have the sneaking suspicion that my EU account won't be able to communicate with friends playing on USA servers, and since I don't really play other games this doesn't entirely motivate me at the moment to go and get myself all set up. Maybe in the future when I decide to play one of the other Blizzard games....

Broadcast / Friend once, see all characters
Now this is the part where my real problem comes in. I don't WANT to always be seen. Not even by my friends. Sometimes I just want to wander off and do stuff on my own. Once this thing is turned on they can see you...at all times, and the only way to turn it off again is by bumping everybody of your list.

I'm just assuming here that the broadcasting thing is a button you press, but if that goes to all people on your list...wrong. I have people that I do random raiding with, I have my steady 10man, and then I have Pugtastic people. I most likely don't want to send the same message to all of them.

What needs changing. 
- You should be able to just stay under your chosen name. I love some of the features, but I don't want to be forced to give up my full name to use those features.

- You should be able to go 'invisible' mode. People don't always want to be seen. I used to always log into my MSN as offline and checked if there were people I felt like chatting to until I actually changed my status.

- You should be able to group friends, and have a different status for each group. I have times when I do want to be seen by so and so, but not by that other person. And there are times when I want to sent a specific group of people a message, and not others.