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==Battle.net and Facebook Integration==
The first real news about Real ID came in May 2010, when Blizzard announced a Facebook / Battle.net integration. [<ref> {{cite web | url = http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/activision-blizzard-announces-battle.net-and-facebook-integration/] | title = Battle.net / Facebook Integration}}</ref> Even at that point most community feedback was strongly negative, as fans saw far more drawbacks than benefits to having their real name attached to their gaming habits.
::IRVINE, Calif., May 05, 2010 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that its Battle.net gaming service will integrate with Facebook, linking the world's premier online gaming platform with the world's most popular social platform. The first step in the integration will enable StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty players to quickly add Blizzard gamers who are friends on Facebook to their Battle.net friend lists, facilitating their social gaming experience on the service.
::The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID—that is, their real-life first and last name—with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. The classic Battle.net forums, including those for Diablo II and Warcraft III, will be moving to a new legacy forum section with the release of the StarCraft II community site and at that time will also transition to using Real ID for posting.
Though cheerfully-worded, the full announcement was perhaps the single least popular thing ever said by Blizzard Entertainment. It precipitated a deluge of nearly unanimous criticism. The biggest single outpouring was in the official announcement thread on the US WoW forums[<ref> {{cite web | url = http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700]| title = Real ID official forum thread deluged by criticism.}}</ref>, where more than 10,000 fans posted in less than a day, the vast majority of them strongly against the proposed forum change. (The thread ultimately grew to more than 2500 pages, at ten posts a page.)
Leading Diablo community site Diii.net made two posts collecting editorials from around the Internet, almost all of which were strongly opposed to Real ID, as were the commenters on the site.
* [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/real-id-on-b.net-follow-ups/ Lots more gamers argue] against Real ID.
An anonymous vote in the Diablo community also revealed strong opposition to Real ID, showing that it wasn't just a vocal minority who opposed the system.[<ref> {{cite web | url = http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/vote-real-id-on-the-b.net-forums/]| title = Communtiy vote goes against Real Names}}</ref>
