I'm placing this topic under game design because I think that the ramifications of Blizzards decision to use their RealID system on the official forums is a massive change that will set a precedent industry wide.
Let's start off with a few assumptions. There are two ways an individual can engage content on the Internet, Anonymous and Named. Facebook is a Named service. Everyone logs in with their real name and is identified as such when using the service. Twitter is Pseudo-anonymous in that it's a little bit of both types as the service employs aliases but those aliases are easily connected to their named identities. Internet based games, have always been the province of anonymity. Everyone that plays an online game picks an alias and uses that alias for everything they do while engaged with the service. Xbox Live, Steam, casual game portals, Blizzard's Battle-net and more all use aliases to identify community members.
For Blizzard's Battle-net and the games played through the service, this is all about to change starting with the release of Starcraft 2. I believe that this will do more damage to the community than it will help even though Blizzard's intentions are noble and good. Blizzard claims that this change will reduce the amount of trolling and flame wars on the forums and using your real name will most certainly do just that. My problem is with the side effects this will have; all in the name of snuffing out trolls and flame wars. For instance:
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