Blizzard Reverses Plan to Require Real Names on Forums
Submitted by Brandi Stocks
Faced with the ire of its online community, Blizzard has withdrawn its plans to require users of Blizzard's forums to post under their real names.
On Tuesday, Blizzard announced that all Real ID users, as well as users of all Blizzard forums, would be required to use their real first and last names.
At the time, a Blizzard representative stated that "removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven't been connected before". Blizzard's hope was that providing real names on their forums would contribute to a "new and different kind of online gaming environment - one that's highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships".
Upon hearing the news, the furious Blizzard community immediately took to Blizzard's still-anonymous forums, quickly producing more than 30,000 messages expressing, primarily, concerns about their privacy. Some users went so far as to post Blizzard staffers' personal information on facebook and blogs.
On Friday, a mere 3 days after the initial announcement, Blizzard reversed its decision - due, it seems, to the overwhelmingly negative response from its users. A Blizzard representative posted: "We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums".
So for the time being, at least, Blizzard forum users continue to be able to post anonymously. Is this attempt to clamp down on anonymity an online trend? An American newspaper, the Buffalo News, recently announced plans to require people leaving comments on its website to use their real names, in an effort to counteract so-called "comment trolls" who leave inflammatory anonymous comments. It remains to be seen how this experiment will work; regardless, Blizzard's experience suggests that people are not quite ready to connect themselves to their online comments.