On Tuesday, Blizzard announced a big change to their existing official forums. With the launch of Starcraft II, Blizzard will be forcing players to use their Real ID name – as in their legal first and last name – in order to post or reply on the forums. This new system has been met with a huge outrage on the forums, with the original announcement post on the World of Warcraft forums stretching to 1926 pages at the time of this writing. Since the backlash, Blizzard wanted to assure fans that it was listening to player feedback on the matter.
"[We] will be carefully monitoring how people are using the service," a Blizzard representative told Gamasutra. "Real ID is a new and different concept for Blizzard gamers -- and for us as well -- and our goal is to create a social gaming service that players want to use."
Real ID allows players to add friends and see those friends’ current actions in both World of Warcraft and Starcraft II, with Diablo III following in the future. The Real ID system remains optional within Blizzard games themselves, but detractors fear that the new system could extend further into their gameplay.
"It's important to note that both enabling Real ID in game and posting on the official Blizzard forums are completely optional," the rep said. "Players can continue to read the forums anonymously regardless of whether they choose to post in them, and their gameplay experiences will not change if they choose not to use the Real ID communication features in game.”
Currently, the only way to completely opt-out of the system is through parental controls that are set up to keep children from participating in the Real ID system or posting on the forums. Some players are hoping to use an alias for their Battle.net accounts, but Blizzard frowns on this tactic and prefers to enforce legal names.
"We have multiple teams here who will be monitoring the forums and looking for inappropriate names. When the situation does arise, our community and customer service representatives will investigate and determine if any action is needed,” the representative said.
"In addition, our Terms of Use agreement requires that players provide us with accurate information, as certain aspects of the customer service we provide (for example, addressing forgotten-password issues) rely on identity verification -- if a player uses a fake name, it would ultimately impact our ability to provide him or her with timely service."
