Blizzard did not make many friends with its recent decision to force users to post with their real names in its official forums. The response was immediate and deafening, with pages and pages of users complaining bitterly about the new rule. One Blizzard employee posted his own name to prove the system's safety only to have his personal information, including address and phone number, posted on the forum. The company listened to the feedback, and is now reversing course.

"We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums," Mike Morhaime, the CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, wrote. "As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums."

Is anonymity really that important to gamers? We thought it would be enlightening to speak to someone whose name is already well known in gaming circles. Would a loss of anonymity change how he played games? Chris Grant, the Editor in Chief of the popular gaming news site Joystiq, was kind enough to speak with us on the subject.

"To be honest, I've never been bothered by having my name be publicly available on gaming services—in fact, I've argued that both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network have been really derelict in their duty of powering 'social networks' without any real identity," Grant explained. "However, as a publisher of online content with an active community, I'm acutely sensitive to the desire to stay anonymous, especially when dealing with video games. We get emails weekly asking us to delete a years-old comment with someone's name in it, because it's ranking too highly in Google and they're going on a job search. It's actually strange how frequently we get that exact request."

Grant argues that an opt-in service that encourages people to use their real name would have been easier to support, but making the use of real names mandatory in the context of a paid service is a hard sell. "It's actually difficult to imagine how Blizzard got as far as they did without someone internally sounding an alarm," Grant told Ars.

For better or worse, online gaming carries a stigma among some circles, and some folks may not want their thoughts on how the latest patch affects their Paladin to be known to their bosses. A quick Google search is common practice in hiring circles these days, and what if the HR employee with your résumé in his or her hand is Horde and you're Alliance? No one needs that kind of stress in their life.

This is their second, if not third, life

People play online games as a way to escape from their day-to-day existence, and leaving behind their real names, professions, and even some of the consequences from speaking their minds is a large part of that experience. Blizzard would have given them a choice: either attach your words to your real name, or stop participating in the forum community. Neither option was appetizing.

"I think the U-turn is a fascinating development. It is a political event, really, the equivalent of a government policy being overturned because of public outcry," Edward Castronova, author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games told Gamasutra. "It is also surprising that anonymity has been so vociferously defended. Perhaps there is some strength to the view that fantasy lives are important for many people, even those who don't consider themselves role-players and fantasists."

After the loud and overwhelmingly negative response to the idea of using the Real ID system on the official forum, it's going to be a while before other publishers look seriously into the idea of tying the real and virtual identities of their customers closer together.