Today, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced the abandonment on the World of Warcraft forums saying that Blizzard has "decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums."

Blizzard still plans to add "new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more" with the launch of the StarCraft II forums for the retail release.

Even though the forums will remain anonymous, Blizzard's plans for Real ID have not changed in-game, as explained by Morhaime:

I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you'll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.

Blizzard does listen if enough people complain. After months of complaints about the lack of chat rooms in the StarCraft II beta, Blizzard has announced plans to add chat support shortly after the July 27 launch of the game.