Many Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games include forums where players can chat among themselves. Any relatively open forum where users can remain anonymous naturally allows people to show a less acceptable side of themselves. It is then that comments are plagued with cyber bullying, trolling, flaming, and other indecent exchanges. In an effort to limit that type of content, companies that run such sites have considered the possibility of making it obligatory to use real names while using the site.

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There is certainly a viable ethical defense for the company’s action. It is virtually impossible and definitely not profitable to have enough moderators to supervise each of the posted messages quickly enough. The company has a certain responsibility to maintain an acceptable level of respect among users. This is particularly true because they are the ones that have the most power in the setting of the forums they run. They hold enough information to make commenters known, and hopefully reduce the ailments of open forums. All of these reasons are valid and lead to the conclusion that it is justifiable for the company to obligate user to post their real names.

Their arguments seem to come from a rather rational deontological perspective where they simply cannot allow someone to hide behind a screen name as they are blatantly insulting another person. Such companies feel a duty that they must fulfill as a protector of respect.However, they are failing to consider the benefits and costs (a utilitarian approach) for all involved. As they recognize in their forums, there are many people that participate in the forums with decorum even if the name under which they post is simply a screen name. These people (as well as those who choose to bully and offend others) would have their name not only linked to their messages and characters but in fact to MMORPGs. There are many people that wish to keep private the fact that they play because of the stigma associated with such games. Furthermore, as another commenter explains, other users would have the ability to search for private information on them by having access to their real name. Finally, and probably the most common case, people would be judged and possibly mistreated by other posters because of their gender or ethnicity if their names made it apparent.