Blizzard Casts Level 80 Backstab on Your Aura of Anonymity

But everyone flipped out. So they changed their minds.

Blizzard recently announced in their July 6 update on upcoming changes to the forums that they were implementing their Real ID system on the user forums for WOW, Diablo, and Starcraft II. This would have meant all users exposing their full real names in their posts. Wow indeed. To quote the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Eva Galperin, “Blizzard appears to have subscribed to the colorful Greater Internet F***wad Theory“. Their rationale was that this change would help rectify the “unpleasantness” happening in the forums.

Three days later they posted this July 9 change of heart update. Marshall Field’s department stores told us “the customer is always right”. My own dear mother frequently reminded me “you don’t get if you don’t ask”. I applaud Blizzard for adhering to the “every voice matters” language in their mission statement. And I applaud their users for speaking their minds, voices muffled by the very Cloak of Shadows they so vehemently sought to protect.