BattleTag

The BattleTag is a player-created name that serves as your Battle.net title. It is used in all Blizzard games, as well as on their forums and community websites. Players create a name of up to 12 characters, and this becomes their official title on Battle.net. Your BattleTag is what other players see on your Diablo III characters, and what appears on their Friends List.

• See the official Battle Tag FAQ for additional details.

BattleTags Introduced

The BattleTag was introduced in December 2011.[1]

A BattleTag is a unified, player-chosen nickname that will identify you across all of Battle.net -- in Blizzard Entertainment games, on our official websites, and in our community forums. Similar to the Real ID system, BattleTags will ultimately give players on Battle.net a new way to manage public profiles, find and chat with friends they've met while playing, form groups, and stay connected across multiple Blizzard games.

The BattleTag system is an evolution from the Real ID system Blizzard attempted to introduce in early 2011, until massive fan outcry over the privacy issues forced Blizzard to rework it.

Adding Friands

The BattleTag FAQ answers this question neatly enough.

To add a friend via their BattleTag manually in the Diablo III beta client, simply type their BattleTag and code (e.g. DemonStomper#1537) into the Add a Friend field in the Add Friend interface. This will send the player a BattleTag friend request; if the other player accepts your request, your BattleTags will appear on each other’s friends lists.

BattleTag Name Limitations

Since the BattleTag system debuted during the Diablo 3 Beta, D3 beta testers were among the first people to use the system. Most fans liked the design and concept, but quite a few ran into problems[2] when trying to create their BattleTag, due to the strict naming policy. It's very easy to hit upon a name that's not allowed, and as there is no explanation offered, players just have to keep trying different names until they fine one that's permitted.

Blizzard's support page can be seen here; it lists the dozens of categories of names that are not permitted, which include many vague umbrella terms, including the following:

• Have any racial/ethnic connotations.
• Are inappropriate references to human anatomy or bodily functions.
• Insultingly refer to other characters, players, Blizzard employees, or groups of people, be they in the game or external.
• The names of any customer support representative or employee of Blizzard Entertainment (Both real names and aliases.)
• Are mildly inappropriate references to human anatomy or bodily functions.
• Are references to illegal drugs or activities.
• Have neutral or positive racial/ethnic/national connotations.
• Are otherwise considered inappropriate for the game world.
• Are trademarked/licensed by a company or an individual.

Blizzard obviously had to stake out a vast area of forbidden names, to give them wiggle room in the future. That said, the banned terms are so extensive and vague that potentially anything could be disallowed. After all, no one could possibly know the real names and aliases of every single Blizzard employee, much less every obscene slang word in every language on Earth, or every trademarked company name.

Fans can only hope that Blizzard employs some discretion in assembling their banned name list, and that there's some built in mechanism to automatically switch friends over to a new name, should one in use be deemed inappropriate.