[url=http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/07/07/blizzard-cracks-down-on-anonymity-in-official-forums/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+MultiplayerBlog+(Multiplayer+Blog)]Link[/url] I don't exactly see what the problem is here as every online forum allows the use of nicknames. I suppose if we all have to use our real names it might cut down on the trolling and you can probably forget the average 4chan user giving up the freedom of anonymity.

Optimistic response: Makes sense. Less trolling if you know someone's real name.
Realistic response: And this makes it one step closer to integrating with Facebook for Social Networking. Activision/Blizzard aren't stupid. They know where the money is.
Either way: This won't affect gameplay at all. You can still be PotSmoker420 in Starcraft 2 without your mommy finding out. You just can't be LargePenis99 on the Blizzard forums :p

Kind of overkill.
Blizzard actually makes amazingly fun singleplayer games (and people seem to like the multiplayer :p). I never got into the MP side, but Starcraft was spectacular. And even though it was a blatant ripoff of Warhammer 40k, it did it better than anyone GW gave the license to until Relic (Chaos Gate was arguable, and I forget where it falls in the timeline).
I fully intend to buy SC2. In a few years, when I can get all three episodes in a bundle. Or are we not supposed to call them "episodes" out of fear of another Half-Life 2 debacle? :p

Not for me. The last of their games I played was Starcraft in its first week of release (I had a friend who absolutely loved it). It bored me to tears and I have never bothered buying any of their games since. That's certainly not going to change now.
This forcing of real names, along with the fuss a few years ago with the way they allegedly scan your whole harddrive looking for "suspect" files. Is just something I'm not going to support. They obviously have no real respect for privacy and I shudder to think what they will come up with next if left unchecked. I'm just going to steer clear of it all.

I don't really see what's supposed to be so interesting about Blizzard, to be honest.

Glad I'm not the only one. I mean diablo 1 & 2 were fun as a bit of a hackfest but everything else I've played of theirs seemed to be an incredibly polished exercise in tedium

For many WoW gamers especially those under 18 this will be the end the first thing we pound into kids minds is "don't use your real name on the internet" I can see alot of parents yanking their kids access when they find out this is happening to all blizz's forums

Exactly. In fact, Diablo 2 was the opposite of the Blizzard norm. It looked like shit. Very low res, crappy recoloured monsters and loot. It had the most fucking awfully tedious environments in any game since ET. The quests were cliché, the plot was non-existent. The combat was mediocre. Especially for a game that relied on it almost entirely.
Yet it was a very addictive game to play. I don't know why, but there it is.

hehe. Really liked Warcraft 1, just liked W2, and got bored with W3...
never played starcraft
and liked diablo 1 and hated diablo 2 (first area was fun. second one was copypaste of the first level. I fought the same goddamn skeletons but they had slightly different name... what's the point then? :) )
never got the hype of blizzard...
anyhow
Hah. Funny move from blizzard. Good thing they are not asking for your address.

The real overkill is putting real names. I could care less about Facebook and social networking. I prefer to have anonymity. Why the hell should someone know my real name anyway? The only people that should know my real name are people I interact with in person. Wouldn't be surpised if people attack posters in real life knowing the person's real name.
Total Fail.

Another 'meh' for Blizzard. I applaud them for not releasing their games until they're finished, but their creativity failed them ages ago. They're rich, complacent, and boring.
As for their hopes of civilizing their forums, if they think there's anything they can do to keep bratty children from shoving each other on the playground, they're mistaken.

I must be the only Blizzard fanboy around here. :D

I don't really care much, as I never use Blizzard's forums.
It sucks for (somewhat) famous people who want to use the forums and stay anonymous in WoW though. I imagine they'll be getting a lot more friend requests / harassment.

Amazon has a "real name" attribute which seems pointless to me. It will be interesting to see if Blizzard offers a pen name . . . =)
I enjoyed Diablo and Startcraft , they were both addictive in their day. Never wanted to play on-line although we loved the LAN play of both. I won't be buying SCII or DIII, too many reasons not to purchase.