A heated debate has been going on in the Blizzard community lately over a new concept called Real ID. Blizzard understandably annoyed with the sheer volume of trolling and flaming going on in their forums, originally decided to require real names with forum posts. After a community uproar, they have resolved to postpone the use of real names. I clearly am proof of using your real name online will not prevent someone from spewing vitriol and being an internet troll (just read any post I've written about Nintendo).

Instead of enacting an instant update Blizzard will still be phasing in its use of the RealID system, just not until Starcraft II and subsequently World of Warcraft: Cataclysm crawl out of our dreams and into our local game retailer's shelves. You can read their official forum statement regarding the implementation of RealID here.

Blizzard have always been on the forefront of not only online gaming with their introduction of Battle.net way back in the good ol' Diablo and Starcraft days, but they have always been leading the pack in terms of online community. It really seems to me they are trying to incorporate Facebook elements into their community with the use of real names and making our profiles more unique to us as people rather than gamers. Is this a good or a bad thing? Will it prevent the 12 year old kids spewing racial epithets or will it lead to brutal gamer murders over newbs getting pwned and hacked? Probably both but I'm really interested to see how it pans out in the next six months.