Realid – MMO Fallout

“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.”
–Nethaera, Blizzard Forums

I imagine by “discussion,” Blizzard is referring to the thought of an impending mass exodus of players. Good news, WoW’ers! As you may have guessed from the above quote, Blizzard has retracted their planned update that would place real names in plain view on the Blizzard forums. The other parts of the update, including rating posts and comment threading, are still scheduled to debut on the Starcraft II forums, but you will no longer have to worry about your name being available for all to see.

The real question in all of this is: Who at Blizzard was thick enough to think this would tide over well with players, or that this would somehow stop trolling?

To call the Blizzard forums a veritable hell-spawn of trolls where intelligence and reason go to die would be an insult to the resting grounds where intelligence and reason truly go to die, and hopefully that will change when the troll’s names start appearing on the forums. In an upcoming update, Blizzard will incorporate the Realid system into their forums, meaning that instead of:

[username]
[character]

You will see:

[Real Name]
[Username]
[Character]

But why, you ask? I’ll let Blizzard’s own Nethaera explain:

“The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players — however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. 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. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.”

Thanks Blizzard. Now instead of having my thread flamed by some nameless 4chan loser, I can have my thread flamed by some named 4chan loser who then proceeds to spam my facebook account, order me some delicious pizzas, harass my friends, and leave threatening phone calls on my voicemail, or to have the sociopath I beat in a duel stalk me home from work because he wants to show me his real life dagger skill level.

I hope all of you who play World of Warcraft, or any of Blizzard’s other games will be posting under an assumed name. I think we’re going to find that World of Warcraft is played by a lot of Ben Dovers.