Blizzard was recently mulling a requirement for use of real names on gaming forums. Now, they’ve done a complete about-face from their original plans and will not make the Real ID mandatory for posting on official Blizzard forums
I’d like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games, wrote Mike Morhaime, CEO & Cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. 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.
I want to make sure it’s clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II, he continued. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you’ll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.
In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard’s success from the beginning,” concluded Morhaime.
Source: forums.worldofwarcraft.com
