So... Privacy, no chance of it? (Real ID)

Well, first I would like to say that its nice that you guys finally answered this question, I have been waiting patiently forever. Appreciated for sure, however...

I have read multiple threads several pages long each in their entirety and not once did I see what a core issue is of Real ID. I think people are bit too.... Scared to bring it up. So I'm done, screw it, I'll bring it up.

I'm a closet gay, as such as I have femininely/gay (appropriately mind you) named toons and I enjoy playing them. It feels... Nice to release it in an anonymous manner. However, because I fear the persecution of my peers, friends, possibly family (or at least their condescending attitude) I stay within the closet. Lets face facts, in WoW and Real Life as well, there are still a lot of anti-gay people out there, some even within my own family.

Because of this, I am forced to not use the Real ID at all. My raid leader, WoW Friends, RL Friends, Family etc. All ask me to be their friend through the Real ID for various reasons. And I have to come up with multitudes of lies to preserve my privacy.

Is it really fair for you Blizzard, to put this strain on me? WoW is one of the few places where I can be gay without fear of persecution of people who know me. Of course anonymous strangers may be hateful... But I'm anonymous too, so it doesn't matter. But because you have implemented the Real ID feature, people want to use it and they want me to use it and through this I have to keep a track of a lot of different lies just to make sure I can retain my right to privacy. Because you implemented this system, I am forced to be deceitful. Which goes against my very nature.

Bashiok said this:

05/26/2011 02:59 PMPosted by Bashiok

The second you can turn off your presence is the second everyone does it, and then it's a weird situation where you appear offline but you're secretly looking at everyone else who has themselves as online, but then they find out and start offline snooping.

While that is true, the system currently in place peer pressures people into using it. I get asked all the time: "Dude, wtf why don't use the Real ID feature, its soooo nice and would make things so much easier" "Lol that makes no sense, but whatever."

I mean honestly, it's only a matter of time before they start putting two and two together and figure out that I'm obviously hiding SOMETHING (and there's only so many things you can hide in this game) let alone what it is I'm hiding.

You could say; "Well you should just come out of the closet." Well thats great and all, except parts of my family, friends, real life and in-game life would crumble if I did that. It's not right that that would happen, and certainly I should distance myself from such people. But... That's not always an option and it's not an option I should be forced to make because a Gaming Company refuses to protect my rights.

So Blizzard, I perfectly understand why you have yet to implement an offline system, but then again this is the first time I at least, have ever seen a post about this point of view. I hope that maybe if this post gets enough attention you will perhaps reconsider your stance on the issue, or at least implement something to make it less demanding.

Thank you for your time,
One of Many