Blizzard Entertainment, which runs the popular online game "World of Warcraft," earlier this month announced plans to require the people playing its games to use their real names when posting comments in the company's discussion forums.

It was a brilliant idea.

A few days later the company scrapped those plans.

That was a brilliant idea, too.

Blizzard's "real ID" effort was a genuine attempt to clean up the part of their official websites where players post messages about the games they play.

In these forums, players leave public messages looking to recruit new members to their gaming groups, share strategies on how to design characters and post advice on how to solve challenges in the games. They also schedule events inside the virtual worlds that they play in and advertise in-game goods and services.

Publishing real names with these messages would reduce the potential for bad behavior and raise the quality of dialogue in the forums that, at least for "World of Warcraft," can be a vile place.

"Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven't been connected before," the company said in a statement.

Back in my days playing "World of Warcraft" a couple of years ago, I knew many players who never visited the forums because they were so depressing, mired in hateful exchanges, spiteful sniping and vicious personal attacks.

Useful discussions about strategy or character design were often derailed by "trolls" instead of adding insight or making a suggestion that might move the discussion forward.

Still, it's worth wading through all the forums' muck and mire for players eager for the best information about Blizzard's games. Players post new discoveries and accomplishments - to share and to brag - as soon as they're uncovered.

Including real names - and more accountability because of them - would encourage players to do what they should be doing from the beginning: keeping quiet if they don't have anything useful to say.

Browsing the current "World of Warcraft" website suggests forum decorum hasn't changed much since my days. None of the bile belched forth from those forums is worth reprinting - let's just say there is no shortage of players being discourteous to one other.

Many players, however, saw the new policy as an assault on their privacy. In online games like "World of Warcraft," players assume a new identity as a character in a fantasy realm, and the forums are an extension of the game.

In the massive public outcry against the plans, players - the more eloquent ones who could muster something more insightful than "this sucks" - voiced concerns over possible identity theft and the mining of personal details they don't want tied to their fantasy personas.

Although I like the idea of making players more accountable for their online comments, I can imagine plenty of legitimate privacy concerns.

For example, women playing male characters might recoil at the idea of being outed and the possible harassment that might follow. And who would want to be looked up in online white pages and get a screaming phone call from someone they just ganked in the game's battlegrounds?

Considering that each "World of Warcraft" player pays a monthly fee to play in addition to the initial purchase of the game, as customers, what they think matters.

But Blizzard deserves credit for trying.

Lots of websites struggle with moderating the comments that visitors post. If they take too heavy a hand, they risk squashing the dialogue, the community and repeat traffic. If they don't exercise some control, there is chaos.

Blizzard dared to try something bold on a grand scale, and its customers slapped them for it.

There is no shame in them backing down.