Bye-bye trolls? Forums to use real names

July 11, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

NEW YORK

Activision Blizzard Inc.’s move to require people to use their real names if they want to post messages in online forums for games is the latest sign that online anonymity is falling out of favor with many companies.

The upcoming change has upset many gamers who prize anonymity and don’t necessarily want their gamer personas associated with their real identities.

Blizzard, the maker of “World of Warcraft,” said that the new rule will go into effect later this month. It will apply first to forums about the highly anticipated “StarCraft II,” out July 27; other games are to follow.

Blizzard hopes that making people use their real names will cut down on nasty behavior in the forums and create a more positive environment. Players will have the option — but not a requirement — to display the name of their main game character alongside their real name.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Blizzard is the latest company to require real identities. But he added businesses have “a lot of freedom” in doing so.

“World of Warcraft” has more than 11.5 million subscribers who pay monthly fees to play the game worldwide.

Study: US mobile Web use growing, still low

NEW YORK

When it comes to accessing the Web over mobile devices, Americans are far behind their Internet-connected counterparts in Japan, South Korea and parts of Europe.

“We are a third-world country where mobile is concerned. The rest of the world is using mobile phones underground, to pay for a parking space blocks away, to buy a Coke from a vending machine,” said Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for Digital Future at the University of Southern California.

“We in America are still having trouble getting our phones to [make calls].”

But this is slowly changing. The latest survey from the Center for the Digital Future, conducted last year, found that 25 percent of U.S. Internet users went online using their cell phones. That is up from 16 percent in 2008 and 5 percent in 2002.

“The mobile phone is the single most valuable device in people’s lives,” Cole said. “It’s becoming a device you use for virtually everything.”

On average, people who go online using their cell phones did so for about 2.5 hours a week in 2009, up from 1.7 hours a year earlier.

For most, this means getting small spurts of information, such as getting directions or checking who won a sports game, Cole said.

A separate study, from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, backs those findings. It found that 40 percent of U.S. adults used a mobile device to surf the Web, send e-mail or participate in instant messaging. Those figures from May are up from 32 percent in 2009.

And more people reported taking photos, playing games and listening to music on their mobile devices compared with a year earlier, the Pew survey found.

Associated Press