As predicted last month, Battle.net is introducing new paid services for Starcraft 2.

Namely, Paid Name Services. =]

Your first name change is free and subsequent name changes will be accompanied by a fee.

Here's the direct link to Blizzard's news announcement: Source

This is really just the beginning and there will certainly be more paid services and other forms of micro-transactions incoming for Blizzard's other new games too.

What's interesting though is that Blizzard stated that SC2 would never have any micro-transactions. And, a long time ago they also said the same thing ("Blizzard Says No Micro-Transactions for WoW") about World of Warcraft. (Source 1 & Source 2)

When I talked about Blizzard's directives to monetize Battle.net (how Blizzard doesn't always tell the "truth" and I predicted that SC2 would have paid services like name changing) it met with a little bit of hostility. =]

I allow anonymous comments on the blog so that people can easily make posts without having to create new accounts. However, there have been many comments (Blizzard fanboys and Blizzard themselves) that I've had to delete because of swearing, but mostly because they provide no insight, supporting documentation, or signs of intelligence (e.g. "ur wrong!!"). It could also be that "Blizzard indoctrination" that I've been writing about. Apparently, it was a "retarded theory" that Starcraft 2 would have paid services though (that's actually what the Blizzard employee posted.) =]