It's not really that nigh is it?

Although, granted, it is an incredibly bold move to make, I still fail to understand the hesitation from people to give away their name.

There are billions and billions of people living on our planet, and I'd be willing to bet that everyone has the same name as someone else. What could really happen if a handful of people see your real name on a forum, amidst a sea of other real names? All they have is your name. They have no contact details, physical or virtual, they have no real way of getting hold of you, and even if they did, what would they want and why? Even your WoW account and credit card details are safe as they have none of the other information... nor would they know where to begin. IF they picked you out in particular in the first place.

I've never been adverse to giving out my real name (Steve Torpey) online, as although there are dangers to revealing certain information in certain areas of the internet, there is absolutely nothing that can happen as a result of this. You can find my Facebook profile with my name... great! Then if you're worried, make it private (mine's not, give me a shout!)

However, I do think it is a massively ballsy move by Blizzard - with people's mentalities the way they are about personal information and Blizzard's clampdown on security and privacy recently, I would not have expected it. But I do think it does have a lot of merit - namely the decrease of trolling (nothing can abolish it, short of killing the internet) and the greater quality of posts on the forum.

Please don't just downrate this out of anger at Blizzard - I'd be really interested in hearing people's responses to my views, agreeable or otherwise.