Blizzard To Introduce Real Name Posting

The days of Internet anonymity and online rudeness are coming to an end it seems. At least if you want to keep posting over at Blizzard that is. Quoting sometime “in the near future,” all comments made on Blizzard’s Battle.net forums will be posted using players’ Real ID credentials. The catch? Your Blizzard Real ID comprises of your real first and last name, removing the comfort of hiding behind your awesome (and possibly inflammatory) handle as you spit vitriol at people who have a dissimilar opinion than you in a pitiful attempt to compensate for your own crippling, pathetic inadequacies. The announcement regarding the change over on the forum states:

“Anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID — that is, their real-life first and last name — with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm.”

Admitting that the Blizzard forums have become a hotbed “where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild,” Blizzard believe taking away “the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue” will see such nastiness fade away. We’re not entirely convinced but we applaud the move if it reduces the amount of vindictiveness and malcontent associated with online commentary (thankfully not as prevalent on TSA’s awesome and super-friendly forums). If anything, at least people will now be able to accurately call out the real name of your Mom. Mrs. Kovacs will be so pleased.

Source: Battle.net