Just a few days after Blizzard Entertainment announced it was going to make users of its StarCraft II forums use their Real ID name (i.e. their real first and last name) to author posts, the developer has backed off on those plans after a massive amount of protests from its community members

In a statement on the StarCraft II forums credited to Blizzard's CEO Mike Morhaime he said, "We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums." While he added that Blizzard is still "committed to improving our forums" with new features he said, "when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name."

Gallery: StarCraft 2 Screenshots