Blizzard has made a speedy u-turn on its decision to force members of the World of Warcraft forums to reveal their real names, following a hailstorm of criticism.

Earlier in the week, the games publisher announced the move, aimed at stamping out abusive behaviour.

More than 20,000 complaints on the forum later and the company has backed down.

In a forum post yesterday, Mike Morhaime Blizzard's CEO announced the climbdown.

He also said the company would continue with the "completely separate" optional in-game Real ID system already live with WoW and coming soon to Starcraft 2.

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