Blizzard rescinds their decision to use real names in their forums

Brian Ambrozy 9 Jul, 2010 at 1:17pm ET Article published in Gaming

Moments ago, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime went onto the Battle.net forums to officially rescind their position on forcing the use of real names on their 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. 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.

The backlash to the decision was fierce. A man named Josh Peterson went so far as to create a detailed blog post filled with personal details of Blizzard employees and their families using information found freely on the web, starting with only their first and last names. It was blunt and sent a strong message: people can find out quite a bit about someone from just their name.

Comments

9 Jul 2010 ~ 1:20pm wax yes! I CAN CONTINUE TO TROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!
9 Jul 2010 ~ 1:27pm Koreish I don't understand why they would do such a thing. People have to be held responsible for what they say. Right?
9 Jul 2010 ~ 1:38pm Bandrik GOOOOOOOD. That certainly ups my respect for Blizzard, if only just a tiny shard. I need to repeat why this was an issue, as it's been driven to the ground and beyond by now. So in short: excellent, Smithers... *rubs hands together*
9 Jul 2010 ~ 1:49pm kryyst I love how it took someone to point out the "No sh!t" factor to them.

As a secondary comment Mike Morhaime went on to say that instead of people using their vary obvious Real Names we will instead adopt a policy of using your Social Insurance Number instead. That way people can still feel free to hide behind some seemingly random numbers.
9 Jul 2010 ~ 1:52pm MAGIC

Didn't see that coming...
9 Jul 2010 ~ 2:57pm Annes I wonder if all those who canceled their SC2 pre-orders are now re-buying.

This pleases me.
10 Jul 2010 ~ 8:00am Shorty Common sense prevailed.

Whats interesting is that blogger who did some internet delving on blizzard employees and their history/families. That's just creepy.
11 Jul 2010 ~ 8:44am Vicar Unfortunately Commonsense is not very common and being CEO of an organization does not make one immune from it.

Personal and corporate delusion abound in plenty. It was a very bad call at least he has found a way to wriggle out of a very naive decision.
11 Jul 2010 ~ 4:50pm Shorty So very true. I have worked for a couple of excellent CEOs and two very bad ones!
11 Jul 2010 ~ 5:22pm Vicar I guess they sailed too close to the edge of the sun and got burnt.

Hopefully others have got the message and will take note.