Disaster averted ? I really hope so, I will say that so far I'm not that impressed with the communication Blizzard have given in announcing this change in direction. I'll be the first to admit that it could be my anger clouding my reading ability, but the statement put out does not say they are sorry, it does not rule out them doing it in the future, it reads to me like someone who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, but they are not sorry for stealing, just sorry they got caught.

Blizzard seemed eager and all set to expose their customers names to the world, they admitted having worked on this for a long time and I simply cannot believe that someone at Blizzard did not realise the implications on privacy, the only conclussion I can draw as that they were prepared to put potential increased profits ahead of their own customers privacy and that just does not sit well with me, neither does the corporate mission statement of 'Every voice counts' when they are going around telling people in the forums 'Don't like it, well don't post!'.

If a few good things have come out of this, it is that I'm sure many other companies will have been watching with fascination and I'm sure they will have taken onboard the outcome. Where Blizzard will be able to recover due to their sheer size, for other companies it could have literally spelt the end for them, I'm sure that is not lost on them and means they are hopefully much less likely to try something similar themselves. Even the mighty Blizzard will themselves now be more likely to approach this issue in a more sensative way.

Finally, it has taught me that I had allowed myself to become too comforted by the illusion of internet anonymity. I had allowed myself to be drawn into online discussions about quite sensitive issues, and that even though I'm not a troll, it has taught me that it is propably better to not take part in these discussions, or to allow game avatars to be able to be identified as belonging to real world minorities.