Current mood:

Catty

Privacy: not for gamers!
This just in: Blizzard Entertainment, owner of popular game franchises Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft (as in, World of Warcraft) have decided to add more to their new Real ID system (designed to help players connect with friends across the entire Blizzard franchise, so for instance being able to talk to a friend playing Starcraft 2 while you are playing WoW). What is this new development?

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, 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.

Bolding mine. The mmo-champion entry rockets up from 17 comments to (at the time of writing) 508 in <40 minutes. Including!

The people whining about this are typically trolls hiding behind some anonymous name. I for one am for this.

Your name is not unique. You are not a special snowflake.

It will be pretty intresting to see the profiles on facebook/myspace of some of the "top raiders" Maybe pull up some DMV records and see what kind of mount they have IRL

All from just the first page! It's going to be a fun few days in WoW, folks. \o/

Edit: why are Blizzard doing this? Well...

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.

A New Edit: thanks to risha: there was a security flaw that exposed your real life name whenever you used addons all along.

The Edit Strikes Back: A Blizz representative speaks! Alas, it is foot in mouth disorder striking again:

We put a lot of thought into this change and have a long-term vision for the Real ID service and wanted to make sure that we communicated ahead of time and very clearly as to what will be changing and how. Keep in mind that posting is optional, and we recognize that some players will choose not to utilize the Real ID feature in game or post on the forums and support everyone's individual choice on using or not using it.

(in other words, stfu and deal with it).

The Return of the Edit: Someone on the WoW official forums gives his name and dares posters to find him. Someone does. Burn.