Blizzard Cancels the Use of Real Names in Online Gaming

After introducing the idea for everyone to use their real names in the online Blizzard gaming, the community cries out in protest.

The program was to be called "Real ID" and would have the Blizzard Community (ei, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, etc) use their real identities in the online gaming community. The original intent was to help make connecting with friends and family in the world of gaming easier, but issues pointed out by the community itself has caused one of the largest companies of entertainment in the world to rethink their plans. The main issue at hand was the concern for privacy. Online gaming allows one self to separate themselves from reality in healthy doses and emerse themselves into a universe that lets them communicate with people around the world. The "Real ID" program removes that privacy. To show how safe the program would be, an employee at Blizzard, Micah Whipple, released his full name. Within two hours bloggers revealed and released Whipple's address, phone number, age and more personal information. In a further attempt to prove how unsafe the program is, bloggers went the distance and discovered the personal information of Bobby Kotick's (the Head of Blizzard-Acitivision) wife, Nina Kotick. After many outcries from bloggers and gamers alike, Blizzard has decided to listen to the community this time and not go through with the program.