I was a little unsure where to place this.. really I'm just wondering if anyone else has yanked hair out or had their blood boiled by the World of Warcraft and StarCraft II creators' account information tools.

Part of my acclimatisation to a new name (ordered by deed poll and due to arrive.. tomorrow!) has been to update my details on websites with which I have accounts. It's fun being addressed with "Hi, Gemma!", and I feel good about engaging with people online in that name now too. The only place it can't change is PayPal, since that takes whatever information is on my bank cards; I'm leaving Facebook in my old name too until people get used to it down the pub and stuff.

Amazon, eBay and other online retailers have no problem accepting my new account name. Blizzard, however, have sought to create a social networking account in which my 'real', masculine name is broadcast to friends and people I've never met. Far from a simple act of form-filling, I've had to trawl their FAQ and eventually find a form on their 'contact support' page, which asks for a scanned ID and document describing my name change! This, when I'm fairly confident the bank I'd use to pay for these services will require the same documentation and likely no more.

Has anyone else struggled with this or a similarly bizarre display of "show me your papers" for something as simple as a game subscription?

I turned parental controls on to block my name personally. However I've heard of the stories where it takes longer and just as much documentation to change your name thru Blizzard than it takes to change it thru the DMV =/

I've heard they want you to fax them a picture of a state issued ID / DL and share your SSN with them .. blah, I say!

EDIT: BTW, you don't happen to have a character on Aggramar, do ya? lol!

(Thanks for the topic name change, Jenny!)

Oho, I can remove the name with parental controls? That's a nice tip - thanks, Alaina. But hee, naw, I'm not on Aggramar. I've a frozen account of Horde characters on Misha - they're hanging about until we can retake the Echo Isles.

If anyone's curious.. I hope you won't take this link to my blog the wrong way, but I have a screenshot of the necessary form. Suffice it to say, I wrote to the webmaster address given in order to complain, and to ask just why they need that much information from me.

Parental controls disables the ability for addons to use exploits to gather your name from Real ID. It does this by allowing you to disable Real ID altogether. I am just assuming this is why you want to change your name

However if you want Blizzard to address you as Gemma, you will have to go through that whole rigamarole, unfortunately.

Sigh, how's this for a helpful email back? Anyone can misunderstand a customer support request, I suppose - that's not my point. Thing is, I've now been told such verification is needed purely because some unscrupulous gold farmers go about hacking and transferring accounts, or because, mercy me, a parent may wish to bestow their account upon a child.

TL;DR summary: "we've ignored your complaints, but here's a process in which we demand even more ID from you, including the original deed poll document."

QuoteThank you for your email. The reason why the name can't be changed from the account management is because any kind of transfer of account ownership is against the Terms of Use for World of Warcraft. We do understand that there are situations, such as yours, where you need to change this information, and we are happy to assist you on it. Please follow the instructions below to get the name corrected:

Following your recent legal name change by deed poll, we will need you to provide us with the following details and documents to update your account information:
- Your account name (please do NOT send us your password)
- Your full real name
- Your full address including postal or zip code currently registered on the account
- Your full email address (currently registered on the account)
- A valid email address for correspondence if the registered email is invalid
- The standard World of Warcraft authentication key. Please note that we cannot accept Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King authentication keys for account verification.
- Your secret question and answer
- Your payment information (either the last four digits of your Credit Card/Bank Account Number, or a full Prepaid Gamecard code)
- A copy of a piece of government-issued photo identification, such as a passport or driving license
- The original notarised deed poll certificate or a certified copy of it

Once received, we should then be able to update your account details.

If you have any further questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact us again.

Sadness.

some places do require an original copy of the document usually they are governmental bodies drivers licenses and passports but those officially copied documents are frigging expensive like crap are you going to send them to some punk-ass games company. ¬.¬ It's just crappy customer service.

I understand how frustrating this is but Im confused why you cant scan your documents and email it to them?  Then everything would be sorted for you and you could use realID.

I mean no disrespect by this, just seeking understanding. 

So, I was ok with what Blizzard was asking for up until the copy of your drivers license and a notorized copy of your name change documents.  There's absolutely no reason they would need any of that. 

They are trying to prevent fraud and identity theft.  And because they are the largest MMO out there, they have to be very cautious.  Honestly, once you provide them with name, address, email, original license key, and your secret answer, well, that should be enough for them to understand that it's actually you.  Even Sony and Mythic don't even care about anything as long as you have the secret answer.

They don't ask for a birth certificate or social security number when you sign up for an account, why would they ask for something as big as that when you want to change some information?

While it may suck, you may want to just think about creating a new account with your new name.

Depending on the situation that could cost a ton of money. Not only would you have to buy a new copy of WoW (vanilla) but you'd have to buy a copy of BC, WotLK and soon Cataclysm. Depending on where you buy the older games from you could be looking at nearly $80.00 (not including Cataclysm). On top of that, you'd have to spend several weeks leveling up your character, not including losing out on any achievements you might have collected since 2.4 was released (like the 310% drake from "Glory of the Hero").

Might be a pain in the O.O to give them the info they're asking for... but I'd rather do all that then have to redo everything I've obtained since WotLK came out.

Also, you might want to look into just giving cust. serv. a call, being able to talk to someone on the phone might work out a little quicker (specially if they can put you on hold and ask a manager about the issue while you wait).

As for the real ID system I think you're mistaken about how that actually works. There hasn't been anything verified yet that someone can get your real ID information from you through an addon since they did patch 3.3.5a (I'd have to find the blue post that confirms this). The only way someone can see your real name is if you give them your email address attached to your Battle.net account, and you should only do that if you trust the person your giving the address out to.

Blizzard has already said that they're removing some of the planned Real ID uses that they were talking about for the launch of Cataclysm, one that even made it to national news (in the USA) was using real id as your "screen name" for posting on WoW, Starcraft or Blizzard forums. The people cried foul and Blizzard said 'whoa... ok so we wont do that I guess'.

Good luck with the name change though.

Quote from: darkentity on August 21, 2010, 11:44:19 AM
I understand how frustrating this is but Im confused why you cant scan your documents and email it to them?  Then everything would be sorted for you and you could use realID.

I mean no disrespect by this, just seeking understanding. 

Nono, fair enough! But while I'm okay with the deed poll part - practically, but not ideologically - it's the fact they ask for government-issued ID to prove my new name which bugs me. I do not have this, and the only means I could see are to apply for a provisional drivers' license or pay £70-odd for a new passport, neither of which I would ordinarily consider. A provisional's not too bad, but a new passport is something I'd invest in for leaving the country - not to prove myself to a games company.

The problem is they have me over a barrel. I've World of Warcraft characters, a guild (which I run) and my online identity tied to that account, and am being asked to give up either my name or a fair sum of money just to keep them. That and, like LivingInGrey says, it's a game license. I notice that Steam never presents me with this problem... Not the best situation to place your customers in, I would have thought. ^^;

I may prove a point and simply send scans of my male-named passport; fact is, my deed poll acknowledges this name anyway, so that should suffice. In my head. 'Phoning.. yeah, probably a good last resort.

BTW, apologies. Try as I might to not do so, I feel I have begun ranting. >.<