Stupid move by Blizzard

I saw this post on Broken Toys about that Blizzard is going to enforce the used of RealID (i.e. your real name) for people who post on their forums.

I am perfectly ok with that people can use their real names if they want to, but it should a choice they make themselves, not something that is pretty much forced on them.

Even when they initially announced the RealID feature they did say that people should not share it with people theey know and trust. And suddenly the WoW forums are going to become a big happy family?

Either someone did not think things through, or they did think a little bit and got $$$ and “world domination” in their minds, thinking about Facebook, LinkedIn and other networking sites and making plans to compete in that area.

I had no plans to pick up WoW again and I am generally not active in most game forums (City of Heroes is a slight exception), so it would not really affect me.

But if the worst things they could think of what people posting nasty things on their forums and that they could “fix” that with mandatory use of RealIDs for forum posters, then they need to think again.

Just the names in themselves are not necessarily bad; but putting names in a certain context and combining with other sources can lead to unwanted connections and associations.

Again, it is perfectly fine if people make a conscious decision to do that; but Blizzard do not seem to provide that type of option.