Blizzard has quickly dropped plans to make its customers use their real names on its online forums.
The World Of Warcraft developer backtracked on the policy - which was announced last week and due to go into effect upon StarCraft II’s launch later this month – following a backlash by its message board community.
Despite being a great location to discuss Blizzard’s games, the official forums have also earned a reputation “as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild”, the company said when it announced the new forum policy. It went on to suggest that the Real ID feature would “contribute to a more positive forum environment" and "promote constructive conversations”, but the move was widely opposed by community members.
“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,” Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said on the Battle.net forum. “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.
“It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as the ability to rate posts up or down, post highlighting based on rating, improved search functionality, and more.
“However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World Of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.
“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.”