Real ID is Awesome

I'm here to play devil's advocate.  Tons of bloggers I respect have been complaining about Real ID for the last few days.  Blizzard is making a change to their Battle.net system and creating the ability to link with real life friends through Real ID.  They're also making it so that if you post on the forums then your Real ID will be the name you post under.  I think the changes are great.

First of all, it's entirely optional.  You don't have to use it.  If you have a problem with it... then don't use it.  What's so hard about that?  Seriously.

Secondly, forum posters are the minority.  The majority of players will never post on a game forum - most won't even look at them - but the vocal minority that does is up in arms.  Blizzard knows this.  They know that all the people who are whining have a huge internet presence but only represent a (very) small portion of their players.  They aren't going to listen to you.  Blizzard has made up their mind and they're sticking to it.

Third, if you don't want your name displayed in the forums then don't participate.  It doesn't detract from actually playing the game in the least.  Hopefully it will actually improve the forums by making it so that trolls can't get in and start a flame war with a level one character and then disappear into the ether.  Even if your name is displayed it still doesn't give out your social security number and all your passwords.  They aren't throwing all of your information out into the wild, it's just your name, you've had it your whole life, deal with it.

Fourth, I've used it and I like the ability to add facebook friends.  StarCraft 2 beta has had Real ID integrated for over 2 months now and it's great.  I use my in-game name to add friends I don't know in real life and I use my Real ID tag to add my real life friends.  This way only my real life friends have my real name, which is something they knew anyway.  I think this is how most people are going to use the system.  It's also nice to reconnect with people who are my friends on facebook who also play StarCraft 2.  There are people I would have never suspected who play StarCraft 2 that I wouldn't have found if I didn't have the facebook friend connect option.

I guess my main point here is that you don't have to use the Real ID system.  If you have a problem with it, don't use it.  But, if you're willing to give parts of it a try then you might just find some more gaming buddies via facebook.

If you are totally against it then here is how to opt-out.