At the time, the forums had many hostile conversations. They generally weren't a fun place to be. Pardo believed - based on limited anecdotal evidence in his personal life and virtually no expertise in online dynamics - that attaching real names to accounts would promote civility (2/x)
The public response was so negative, Mike Morhaime (then-president of Blizzard) had to cancel his honeymoon, come home early, and put out the fires. It was all because of one stupid & mediocre techbro who couldn't pull his head out of his ass for three seconds (7/x)
Still, Pardo pressed on, partly because he's an overprivileged & oblivious fathead who dealt (and may still deal) with criticism poorly.
When the change was announced publicly, the playerbase rioted. Basically no one liked it, many hated it, and more than a few felt scared (5/x)
Nearly 20 years ago, Rob Pardo - the Chief Creative Officer of Blizzard Entertainment, which was at its peak with World of Warcraft - proposed similar guidelines for the game's forums (1/x)
The folks who were scared weren't, like, infamous trolls. They were regular everyday folks doing their thing, only they had the unfortunate attention of stalkers via WoW (6/x)
Before the change launched, it was met with massive criticism internally. I know this because I worked at Blizzard at the time, and because I delivered some of this criticism myself. Much of the criticism came from Blizzard's support team, which had extensive experience with player behavior (3/x)
Red_Hot_Chili_Peppers_-_Funky_Monks.mp3
To wit, support had to deal with real life threats and ongoing harassment. If two players didn't have a pre-existing relationship outside the game, knowledge of a player's full name and other details would increase hostility and promote threats, up to and including credible death threats (4/x)
All this is to say: before proposing sweeping changes to anything involving an internet platform or service, do your homework. See if folks have tried similar ideas, then carefully consider the results. You might be surprised, and at minimum you'll be better educated (9/9)