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)
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)
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)
Of course, the change was nixed, and Pardo was eventually shuffled out of Blizzard. His ignorant incompetence with a devastating blast radius wasn't enough to fire him outright, unfortunately, but he lost a ton of cachet for his crusade and no one really trusted him anymore (8/x)