14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard Entertainment has changed its mind about displaying the real name of gamers on the official forums after a huge backlash from the community. The move, which didn't give users any option to hide their true identity was strongly criticized for its privacy implications.
Blizzard Entertainment is the video game development company behind some of the most popular games in history – Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo and World of Warcraft (WoW). According to the company, its online gaming network Battle.net, which was also the first of its kind, is the largest such service in the world with over a dozen million active users.
With the highly anticipated Starcraft II game and Cataclysm WoW expansion pack scheduled to be released this year, the developer plans to enhance the Battle.net in-game experience by introducing a new social networking component called Real ID. The system allows players to use their real names in order to keep in touch with family and friends in a variety of ways while playing the games.
However, while this new component will be optional to players, the company announced earlier this week that in order to fight back on flaming and other nasty practices it plans to force everyone to use their real names on the official forums. This decision was strongly criticized by users and privacy advocates, who listed a variety of dangers players would be exposed to if such policy is enforced, such ashacking, identity theft or real-life harassment and stalking.
In order to prove their point, some users set on to show how much information can be found on the Internet about a person starting only from their real name. These efforts concentrated on Blizzard's own employees, who had their names taken from game credits or other listings and had detailed social profiles built around them. They included everything from where they live, what schools they attended, where they used to work, where they shop, to the names and addresses of their family members and friends.
It seems that the backlash was serious enough for Blizzard to listen. "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," Mike Morhaime, Blizzard's own CEO and founder, announced.
You can follow the editor on Twitter @lconstantin