Back in 2010, Blizzard came up with an idea that almost no one thought was acceptable, and the company quickly scrapped it.
Trolling was also common in World of Warcraft. In multiplayer titles, including MMOs, it essentially became part of the gameplay. Blizzard tried to prevent this by requiring everyone to post under their real name (they managed to do this in China, but that’s another story), but it caused such a negative backlash that Blizzard backed down within days…
On July 6, 2010, a new message from then-Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime appeared on the Blizzard forums. The flaming, insults, and threats were rampant at the time, but Blizzard would have stopped it by requiring everyone to post with their real name (Real ID). According to a quote in The Guardian, this would “contribute to a more positive forum environment, encourage constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community like never before”. But basically no one liked the idea…
Blizzard has lost it. "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."
byu/billtimbob ingaming
They would have done it in phases. The first would have been StarCraft II, which would have gotten a new site with the release of the game, followed by World of Warcraft before the Cataclysm expansion, then Diablo II and Warcraft III, which would have gotten new forums. It’s hard to argue with the comment on Reddit: “Anyone who actually cares about discussing the game will do what people have done before, which is find third-party sites to post on. They’ll end up on new class-related websites and forums that will take over the role of the ‘official’ forums. The only people posting [on the official forums] will be new players looking for advice. The forums will die.”
This was supposed to be a harassment enhancer, but because the reaction was so negative, Blizzard dropped the Real ID concept three (!) days after the announcement. Morhaime responded: “We have been constantly monitoring the feedback you have given us and have internally discussed your concerns regarding the use of real names on our forums. As a result of these discussions, we have decided that real names will not be required to post on the official Blizzard forums.”
So this idea quickly went into the trash…
Source: The Guardian
