World of Warcraft Creator Blizzard Caves on Real-Name Plan

After feeling the wrath of World of Warcraft gamers for days, Blizzard Entertainment says it’s abandoning a plan that would have exposed the real identities of people who play its popular online games on the company’s discussion forums.

Real Names Rile Online Warlocks and Wizards

Players of online fantasy games like World of Warcraft love to anonymously inhabit shamans, mages and other characters. But they’d rather not reveal their real identities, as evidenced by an uproar this week over a plan by Blizzard Entertainment, the creator of World of Warcraft.

Booyah CEO Keith Lee Talks About Social Gaming, Moolah and More (With Accel's Jim Breyer as Sidekick)!

Earlier this week, BoomTown motored on down to the HQ of Booyah in downtown Palo Alto, Calif., for a chat with its CEO and co-founder, Keith Lee. Also there: Jim Breyer, the Accel Partners moneybags who recently joined the board of the mobile social gaming start-up, forking over $20 million in new funding for the privilege. Here’s the BoomTown interview about this fast-growing–it’s a lot bigger than Foursquare–start-up.

The Entire D6 Interview With Activision's Bobby Kotick (3 of 3)

We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May. Here’s an interview I did with Activision Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick about the state of the gaming business. It’s a good week to focus on the gaming industry since Electronic Arts abandoned its hostile acquisition bid for Take-Two Interactive over the weekend. The move was–in part–in answer to Activision’s recent merger with Vivendi Games, which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, one the most popular multi-player games. This has made Activision one of the gaming industry’s largest companies, due to some of its well-known franchises, especially its hugely popular Guitar Hero, which debuted version IV at D6. In this third video, Kotick publicly demos “Guitar Hero IV” for the first time, with the help of special guest stars Paula Abdul of “American Idol” and skateboarding star Tony Hawk.

The Entire D6 Interview With Activision's Bobby Kotick (2 of 3)

We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May. Here’s an interview I did with Activision Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick about the state of the gaming business. It’s a good week to focus on the gaming industry since Electronic Arts abandoned its hostile acquisition bid for Take-Two Interactive over the weekend. The move was–in part–in answer to Activision’s recent merger with Vivendi Games, which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, one the most popular multi-player games. This has made Activision one of the gaming industry’s largest companies, due to some of its well-known franchises, especially its hugely popular Guitar Hero, which debuted version IV at D6.

The Entire D6 Interview With Activision's Bobby Kotick (1 of 3)

We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May. Here’s an interview I did with Activision Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick about the state of the gaming business. It’s a good week to focus on the gaming industry since Electronic Arts abandoned its hostile acquisition bid for Take-Two Interactive over the weekend. The move was–in part–in answer to Activision’s recent merger with Vivendi Games, which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, one the most popular multi-player games. This has made Activision one of the gaming industry’s largest companies, due to some of its well-known franchises, especially its hugely popular Guitar Hero, which debuted version IV at D6.